Sonoma Scent Studio has blown me away with their phenomenally high quality and gorgeous fragrances. Over the past 12-18 months, I’ve swooned over Tabac Aurea, Winter Woods, Voile de Violette, Wood Violet, Champagne de Bois, Femme Jolie, Fireside, Ambre Noir and even the pretty little skin scent called Opal. As a kid, back in the late 80’s, I wore Perfumer’s Workshop Tea Rose like it was going out of style. You could count on the fact that my first car (powder blue Ford Escort named Nelly) would nearly knock you over with the remnants of Tea Rose when you jumped in the passengers seat. But this was the last time I really wore a rosey fragrance. As much as I love roses, to grow them and to smell them, I never wear a rose fragrance for a full day. I’ll put a spray or a dab on my back of my hand – just to sniff – but never to really wear it. In the past 5 years, I’ve purchased all sorts of rose fragrances; FM Une Rose, DSH American Beauty, Lancome Mille et une Roses, Guerlain Rose Barbare, AG Ce Soir ou Jamais, SL Rose de Nuit, Le Labo Rose 31, Diptyque L’Ombre dans L’Eau and so on. I love to sniff these rose perfumes but somehow I never want to wear them. I don’t know what exactly happened between me and rose scents, maybe it was a bad experience, a bad memory linked with rose scented perfume, or maybe I’ve grown to think of rose scents as somewhat prissy, straight-laced and conservative (Laura Bush looks like she’d smell rosey). I honestly can’t figure out what happened – why I never truly wear a rose fragrance – I only like to sniff them.
Enter Sonoma Scent Studio Vintage Rose. Suddenly I can wear rose. I yearn to wear this. Vintage Rose is stylistically similar with Guerlain Rose Barbare and Le Labo Rose 31 – yet I couldn’t wear those and I want to wear Vintage Rose. And a lot of it. Vintage Rose is fairly potent and has some good sillage and yet I want to bathe in it – I don’t care if those around me gasp for a little fresh air – crack the car window, I want this stuff swirling and trailing all around me. I can’t explain this phenomenon – aside from the fact that when I sniffed Vintage Rose for the first time – I had an immediate emotional reaction, I felt I’d been separated from a rose relationship for a long time – and suddenly this was it – The One.
Vintage Rose is deep red roses, piles and piles of plush, crimson and wine colored petals. These roses are so velvety soft and plush I want to lay in a bed covered with them all day. Vintage Rose starts off rather vividly with red roses but it quickly introduces that Sonoma Scent Studio “fingerprint,” if you will, of dry woods. I’ve come to think of this SSS woodsy fingerprint as smelling like my current surroundings in the high desert, the mountains of the southwest. These are dry, crisp and smokey, not cigarette smoke but slightly charred woods and a pinch of incense. I smell pinon logs burning on the fireplace. I smell the dry desert air. Cedar, sandalwood and juniper shrubs. Then along comes the most luscious and plump fruit preserves. I immediately thought of my grandmother and her canned fruit preserves. Do you remember those clear glass Ball canning jars? Imagine those brimming with fresh from the garden preserves; strawberry, black currant, plum and blueberry. Vintage Rose is all of this and more.
Today I wore Femme Jolie body silk and sprayed myself liberally with Vintage Rose. It was as if I had an epiphany, a reunion, and I felt happy and peaceful. I might even wear it again tomorrow. It’s been 2 straight days with no other dalliances, not even a back of the hand sniff of something else. This is weird.
Notes: Rose, plum, cedar, sandalwood, amber, labdanum absolute, tonka bean, and vetiver.
Purchasing information: Sonoma Scent Studio website
Above image borrowed from Aedes de Venustas website. When I smell Vintage Rose this image came to mind.
14 comments:
Abigail, I'd be very interested in your reactions to my favourite rose scents, (not just favourite "rose" scents actually, but favourite scents, period) Paestum Rose and Voleur des Roses.
Paestum Rose is dry, smoky and wonderfully resinous. Not only is it truly unisex, but it is as far from "prissy" as you can get!
Voleur des Roses is a beautiful dirty rose -- nothing sweet or sugary, not a rose on a pedestal (which is how I would describe SL's Sa Majesté la Rose), just deep, gorgeous and earthily rose.
I love FM's line of perfumes, and admire Une Rose, although sometimes it just has too much split red wine in it for me...
monika
Pretty pic up there - a nice contrast to the nasty icy weather here.
I tried Vintage Rose last winter and couldn't wear it; there's something in there that made me nauseous. Too sweet, or too... something, I dunno. Reminded me of the Estee Lauders, none of which I can wear because no matter how lovely they are up top (even that vintage Knowing parfum), after a couple of hours, I'm gagging and dashing for the sink.
Which is a bummer, because I'm such a sucker for roses. Lyric W, Ta'if, Lumiere Noire pf, Citizen Queen, Diva, L'arte di Gucci, Cabaret, Parfum Sacre, PdR Rose d'Ete, Paris... love 'em all. Husband has a fondness for Velvet Rose, too. (My patchouli sensitivity makes that one a little difficult for me, but for him I'll make the occasional exception.)
But okay already. I'll try it again. :) My nose does keep changing, and maybe I was wrong before.
I have a sample of Vintage Rose I need to try again. I haven't found a scent by Laurie that I didn't like though. Right now, Femme Jolie is rocking my world - I bought a huge bottle and body silk. ♥ Tabac Aurea, Fireside Intense, Ambre Noir, Encens Tranquille, Lieu de Reves and Champagne de Bois are also favorites.
Someday, I'd like to own a bottle of each.
Hi Abigale!
Welcome to the club!
a:)
Oops! Sorry for the misspelling...
love that she spelled it abigale!
this fragrance rocked my world, as well. and, like you, i had an immediate visceral and emotional response to it. it just seems so 'perfect' in its own way- like an eloquent and succinct description of something inside me I don't have words for.
on my skin, andy tauer's rose chypree and this one smell similar to each other...with a similar feel, too.
Hello, my name is Tania, and I'm a Vintage Rose addict! ;-)
Have been since the first sample, ages ago. I have a bottle, but I'm sure I'm going to need more at some point. And that's rare, I never use any of my scents up.
I'm with you - I like actual roses, but rose perfumes don't do it for me. It's not that they're prissy or old-fashioned or anything like that, for me. It's that they make me feel a little ill! But not VR. Maybe it's the plum note, I don't know. But it works for me, and I adore it.
Other rose perfumes I can wear are Tauer's Rose Chypre and Amouage Lyric for Women. You could try those, too, see if they work for you.
My sister, child of the 60s loved "Skinny Dip." Me, a child of the 70s, "Love's Baby Soft." Someone could make a fortune reformulating these old scents for us sentimental folks. To me, Love's Baby Soft was very one of those manic dreams of getting a guy's attention you've had a crush on, having a popular year in school, finding the perfect outfit to wow people--all those hopeful tomorrow feelings.
My holiday gift to people whose blogs I follow is to tell them what I love about their blogs.
Im just crazy about yours. You provide an invaluable service and, as someone who is a published writer, I really appreciate the ability to make scent something so palpable just through written word. It's an amazing talent. I just love hearing about scents and imaging how they'd work for me. Sometimes, I go out and find the scent just to smell it and your descriptions are totally flawlessly accurate. Keep it up!
I always love the palpable enthusiasm and the artfulness of the writing on this blog!
Monika,
Actually I like Voleur de Rose quite a lot. The big problem for me is one of longevity. Most L'Artisans don't last longer than an hour on me and this makes me crazy. I do love the smell of Voleur de Rose, however, and it's among my favorite L'Artisans. Interestingly, when I took an aromatherapy course as a teenager the scent I created was mostly a mixture of rose and patchouli essential oils...
Mals86,
You reminded me of one I forgot: Lyric. Although Lyric doesn't have much rose on me - the rose fades fast - but I do love this. And SSS Velvet Rose, too, but this is a bit too straight forward rose for me. Aside from that, Velvet Rose is a gorgeous thing.
Dea,
that is a funny misspelling ain't it?! xoxox A Big Gale(force wind)
Tania,
You cracked me up with your alcoholics, I mean, rose-alcoholic comparison. :-)
Autumnforest & Liz,
Ohmygoodness I blush. thank you both so much!
OK Abigail, (note corrected spelling this time...) Though I must say that the influence of your writings may be likened to a galeforce wind...
I simply adore VintR, and also think it's the plum note in combination with the rose. It's absolutely delicious! As previously mentioned in your Femme Jolie post, the scent reminds me of a good vintage port, sipped in front of a fireplace with a nice warm blanket and a favorite book.
So glad you tried and love it!
Hi Abigail. I am so glad you found your rose again! (I was a devoted Tea Rose gal back in the day too!) I love almost all the SSS line, and agree completely that Laurie's fragrances are superbly done, unique and very beautiful! My fav rose of hers that I want to dump over my head and swoon around in is the glorious Rose Musc - that rich rose paired up with the dry gorgeous labdanum does me in every time I put it on. It is top of my HG roses, and I have a lot of rose perfumes I love to wear! Rose Musc knocked Nahema right out of it's coveted HG spot, and that is that. And I love Tabac Aurea, Femme Jolie, Velvet Rose (I wore for my wedding), Voile de Violette, and Lieu de Reves too!! If someone asked me my favorite houses, I'd say Chanel, Guerlain and Sonoma Scent Studio. Laurie is wonderful! I also agree that Vintage Rose is an excellent choice for those who also like Lyric for Women but can't really wear it or afford it. Vintage Rose is a beautifully done incense rose fragrance.
Fine fine fine... gave Vintage Rose another test drive this morning. Managed not to scrub it off, but I am *not* diggin' this. I don't think it's the plum - actually I don't smell a lot of plum, which is a note I like in TF BO Voile de Fleur, Natori, Mauboussin, Rumba, and the part of Feminite du Bois that I can smell (the middle drifts away on me, which Laurie thinks may be due to the Iso E Super). What I do smell a lot of is an ingredient she called "earthy supporting material for patchouli" when we were tweaking Tabac Aurea for me. I love it in TA, but it seems wrong here.
I'm getting a headache, so I'll be scrubbing forthwith. This is so sad. Laurie's stuff is gorgeous; it's a shame to not be able to wear all of it.
I love the *idea* of Sonoma Scents, but the two I tried so far haven't really come alive for me. (Wood Violet & Winter Woods, for the record) They're competent, they smell nice, and yet... no zing. And so it goes: too many houses, let alone scents, and so the others from this house have been filed in the back of my mind. Maybe I'll get around to them, sometime.
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