Perfume Review: La Sirenuse Paestum Rose

The long-suffering Mr. Colombina will tell you that I am fickle. I go through periods of craving and adoring something only to get bored if not disgusted with it soon after. It especially applies to food and, sadly, to perfume. I fall in love with a note or a type of scent and I want to wear nothing else and then I get tired of it, usually forever. (That is why I must have a very large perfume collection, so I never get a chance to wear the same scent over and over again…And that is my story and I am sticking to it.) Almost a year ago I was in my Rose Period. Oh, how I adored roses. How I wanted to try and own all rose scents ever created, the truer to the fragrance a real flower the better. The Rose Period lasted a couple of months and ever since I have been bored by roses. I am a weirdo who finds scents like Mille et Une Roses and Fleur de The Rose Bulgarie pretty but dull. To excite my jaded self a rose scent has to be much more than just a rose. And to conclude this long preface and finally get to the point, Paestum Rose is an example of how a rose perfume should be done to be loved by me. It is 30% Rose and 70% Other Stuff, and Other Stuff is what makes it so wonderful. Paestum Rose is the second scent (the first being Eau d’Italie) created for Le Sirenuse, a beautiful hotel in Positano, Italy. It was inspired by the roses and temples of Paestum and is described as a blend of rose, incense and aromatic resins. It is, quite honestly, rather stunning. It starts with a sweet, dark-red accord of rose, incense and pepper; after that the fragrance acquires an interesting, appealing duality of slightly boozy, fruity and floral notes warmed by sweet, sweet myrrh and of dry, spicy, woody accord of frankincense, cedarwood and wenge. The indolent sweetness and the bracing spiciness compete for prominence but neither side overpowers the other. In the end, the dry woodiness does get the control of the scent, but only just. The drunk rose and her equally debauched companions, fruits and myrrh, are apparent even in the drydown, as a bright, ornamented backdrop and a contrast to the austere, sober woodiness. Paestum Rose is the kind of scent that inevitably puts me in a mood to wax poetic. I won’t be quoting Baudelaire, however. Whenever I think of Paestum Rose, the words from Sting’s beautiful Desert Rose come to my mind and the music starts playing in my head. Click here to listen to it too and to watch the video: I dream of rain I dream of gardens in the desert sand I wake in pain I dream of love as time runs through my hand I dream of fire Those dreams are tied to a horse that will never tire And in the flames Her shadows play in the shape of a man's desire This desert rose Each of her veils, a secret promise This desert flower No sweet perfume ever tortured me more than this And as she turns This way she moves in the logic of all my dreams This fire burns I realize that nothing's as it seems I dream of rain I dream of gardens in the desert sand I wake in pain I dream of love as time runs through my hand I dream of rain I lift my gaze to empty skies above I close my eyes This rare perfume is the sweet intoxication of her love I dream of rain I dream of gardens in the desert sand I wake in pain I dream of love as time runs through my hand Sweet desert rose Each of her veils, a secret promise This desert flower No sweet perfume ever tortured me more than this Sweet desert rose This memory of Eden haunts us all This desert flower This rare perfume, is the sweet intoxication of the fall Paestum Rose is available at Aedes, $120.00 for 3.4oz. Tomorrow please tune in, to read Kelley’s review of Andy Tauer Orris! The first image is from Aedes, the second from allposters.com.