Enamelled Rose

By Marla “Une Rose Vermeille” by Tauer Perfumes (2010) got stuck in my “Weird Basket” for a month or two. That’s the basket where samples go that I just can’t figure out. Do I love this? Do I hate this? What’s in this stuff, anyway? “Une Rose Vermeille”’ has top notes of citrus and lavender, heart notes of rose, aldehydes, violets, and raspberries, and an amber base. There are lots of natural, high quality ingredients in this, and lots of aldehydes, too. This one is over-the-top feminine, and so retro without actually following retro formulae. It references many things: Malle’s Lipstick Rose, Guerlain’s Nahema, women’s cosmetics of the 50s, a whole family tree of French aldehydic perfumes. It’s an “homage” to the rose, and so the many references to classic rose perfumes, the color red, and fashionable women, are all found here. With so many references, it strikes me as nearly a concept piece rather than a perfume. There’s an initial burst of citrus and lavender, then a very intense heart of jammy, fruity rose and aldehydes, then a strong amber base that surprisingly does not go gourmand. Sillage is as intense as always with Tauer Perfumes; lasting power is excellent. So do I like it? I still don’t know. At first I thought I really hated it. Then I wanted to sniff it again. Nope, too strong. So I dabbed a micro-drop on a scarf, and every time during the day that I walked by that scarf, I thought, “Yum! What is that?” After a couple months of this random experimentation, I really enjoy “Une Rose Vermeille” --at a respectable distance. It’s too intense for my skin, and it’s just too different from my usual persona to really wear it out and about, but I’m keeping a small decant, because I really do want to smell it again….