New rose perfumes to win your heart

By Deborah Fulsang

Roses seduce. They are traditional, and in that they are comforting and a no-brainer choice when one is overwhelmed with today’s dizzying array of fragrance-shopping options.

Roses are also symbolically feminine, so they get a vote by most who love a floral perfume.

Then there’s the pink thing. Yes, sorry, but few can resist the magnetic draw of the blush.

And the fact that roses come with thorns, and all the mythology surrounding that beauty-and-danger concept, makes the rose forever appealing. We love, we suffer…We are hooked.

So roses are safe, beautiful, timeless, magnetic, dangerous.

No wonder they’re forever “in.”

To make them new, perfumers have boosted the impact and relevance of the rose with compelling partners. It should be noted that this rose trend started at least a couple of years ago—we remember, for instance, Marni and its warm, rose-meets-wood wonderful-almost-masculine character as one of the important launches of 2013.

This season, we have many rose spritzes deserving mention: Here, two that have won us over this season.

Valentina Pink by Valentino, for example, pairs the iconic bloom with bright fruit (strawberries and blackberries), sweet praline and warm cashmeran wood and ambrox. It’s a flirty and fruity rose scent that promises to entice a young perfume lover to the Valentino fold, who will of course also be smitten with the fantastic Valentina Pink bottle—a matte fuchsia flacon unfolding beautifully like petals from an actual centifolia.

There is also Rose de Grasse in Aerin Lauder’s Premier Collection of scents. This rose perfume combines three luxurious rose essences (Rose Centifolia, Rose Absolute and Rose Otto Bulgarian) but layers their notes with a watery accord and sultry musk notes (ambrette seeds along with violet wood, ambrox and musk). It’s an elegant rose eau that is quintessential rosy but also sheer and warm and modern.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR FAVOURITE ROSE PERFUME!
We’d love to hear. Let us know on Twitter @TheWhaleTheRose or Facebook! We’ll be sure to add them to our Perfume-o-pedia too.

Valentino Valentina Pink Limited Edition EDP, $125 (80 ml), www.thebay.com

Aerin Rose de Grasse EDP, $205 (50 ml), www.esteelauder.ca; at select Sephora locations.

Read more at Vogue; its choice of six rose-scented launches should influence your shopping list too!