Les Parfums de Rosine Rose Kashmirie - A Wintry Rose {Perfume Review} {Smell-The-Roses-Till-Valentine's Day Challenge - Day 17}

Rose Kashmirie is the latest Les Parfums de Rosine and as its name indicates, it is inspired by an Oriental theme and the spices of India in particular. The composition is based on a discreetly spicy saffron and rose accord enhanced by green nuances and voluptuously folded into rich ambergris and vanilla. It is a warm oriental rose with fresh notes peeking through discreetly, evocative of both a rose garden in the spring, and wintry snow. The style can be characterized as that of a classical perfume with an updated feel.

The rose is the specialty of Les Parfums de Rosine; it is a flower fascinating to perfumers as it can reveal a number of facets for an aroma that is naturally composed of over 300 fragrant molecules; not all of them have been reproduced but more and more are.

Here the rose was made precious, coquettish, like the rouged cheeks of a belle marquise on her face made up with blanc de céruse. But also natural like the vision of a rose orchard. The freshness of the rose is enveloped by a cashmere-like impression as soft as a white shawl......

Rose Kashmirie is a wintry rose, both warm and fresh, speaking of the longing for spring in the dead of winter and of the comfort of spices that warm the body and soul in the coldest months of the year. Saffron (Crocus Sativus) was chosen for its mystical connotation as it blooms in the months of October and November when all the vegetation goes to sleep. It also offers the only spice yielded from a flower.

The fragrance was composed by perfumer François Robert in collaboration with artistic director Marie-Hélène Rogeon who is also the founder of the line. A quest for exotic Indian ingredients is apparent. Evocative perfume ingredients such as red strands of saffron from Cashmere, coriander, Bdellium or myrrh from India, Indian Khus or vetiver, and oil of Nagar Motha - with its smell hesitating between vetiver and oud - were added to the mix. The result is a nearly seamless composition, a bit powdery, with just the rose impression emerging a bit more in 3-D.

The scent opens on an outburst of fresh green notes that are slightly resinous with aldehydic spark. This is soon followed by a warm stage dominated by the near-milky impression of ambergris with its metallic nuances, also found in the natural aroma of the rose. A little green crunchiness peeks through. The rose is a bit peachy and was creamed with added spices to the point of suggesting an understated cream of rice. Animalistic and woody undertones add an air both of sensuality and unostentatious austerity to the blend. The overal effect is creamy and powdery - a bit sharp - but not in a dry sense, rather in a glacé sense. The scent evokes the preciousness of a boudoir as many powdery perfumes do with their cosmetic, flirtatious connotations.

The perfume smells really good; Rose Kashmirie is one of those perfumes that in fact smell even better from afar, when you are not paying attention to it, than when you are smelling it up close since its figurative aspects are downplayed in order to give way to a very well blended impression meant to magnify the skin. It is very long-lasting.

People who do not care for powdery, white amber-y perfumes will perhaps not fall for its charm, but its skin scent aspect, which is very well done, might be worth checking out. The perfume envelops the wearer in a fragrant veil that blooms like a winter field of roses, an impossible feat made possible by perfumery (the roses of Paestum were famous for blooming in late fall). One cannot underestimate the magic of perfumes after all.

Top notes include:

Red strands of saffron from Kashmiria

Essence of Bulgarian Rose

Spicy seeds of coriander 

Green peel of Sicilian bergamot

Heart notes are:

Red peonies from China

Damascene Rose absolute 

Resin from myrrh or Bdellium from India

Base notes unfold with:

Woodsy oil from Nagar Motha

Black vanilla pods

Roots of Indian vetiver or Khus

Sacred sandalwood

Benzoin tears

Ambrette seeds that smell of musk

Ambergris

The perfume is available at La Mûre Favorite, for 94 € and 72 €.

You can check the rest of the rose challenge calendar here. We will fill in the recent blanks later as we got side-tracked, but had some posts we wanted to do on those days.

Image of saffron flower: naturnet.free.fr