Diptyque Eau Rose (2012) {Perfume Review & Musings}
Diptyque are inaugurating a new collection of floral fragrances, Les Eaux Florales. Eau Rose is their homage to the queen of flowers and the first entry in what looks like a revivalist soliflore library. Soliflores are supposed to be old-fashioned but then, from time to time, they reappear in earnest. In Les Eaux Florales, the genre was admittedly selected to showcase the quest for finer raw materials. Leaving behind the spices and pomanders which made the reputation of the house, if Eau Rose is any indication, we are headed towards garden varieties of floral waters. This rose is almost lustral...
Eau Rose is a very fresh rose underpinned by violet and blackcurrant as well as naïve white musks, like the pleasure of burying your nose into the folds of a freshly laundered shirt. Even if you don't do that, you can well imagine that for some people, it can be a kick. Then a more complex picture unfolds of greenery, sappy stems, and dewy morning petals. At the same time, fruity accents bring depth to the rose we're smelling. It smells of a yellow rose with hints of ripe green olives - to my nose - complete with fruity, tart, creamy and clean-laundry nuances. The effect is that of a realistic rose evolving from spring-y, pink and green, to a more summery, sweeter (honey), heavier one with liquorishy accents. The lactonic dimension of this scent of rose takes over after a while as the vanilla creams it all. It's now tart, green, fresh and with a certain Chantilly quality.
This is a fragrance for people who like botanical prints for their charm and accuracy. The composition tries to capture varying facets of a natural, composite rose. It is as rosy as can be. If you like Laura Ashley or Liberty prints, these are other analogies for the kind of fresh, naïve charm the fragrance offers.
If you are a garden lover and a rose lover, you probably will enjoy this clear scent. It is a simplicity recaptured, doubly thanks to the art of composition. It is the simplicity of the pleasure of smelling a rose and the simplicity of a clear concept without too many adornments weighing it down. Even the Perfumer's Workshop Tea Rose -- a really simple rose scent price-wise -- is a much lusher and richer, multilayered rendition of a soliflore rose fragrance. Here, with Diptyque, there is the minimalist twist which is the enduring legacy of niche-perfumery aesthetics. There is also the more recent research and going-back to the technique of infusion in perfumery for which Prada have been at the vanguard, now seeping into the antiquarian, wood-pannelled atmosphere of Diptyque as if it had never left the premises but just laid forgotten on the perfume counter in the frayed leather-bound tome filled with Renaissance recipes. The recipe requires an infusion of Rosa Centifolia and Rosa Damascena. It does not require the addition of white musks and a somewhat banal cedar wood. They wanted to keep it simple and unadorned, and it is, going in the direction of too clean.
