Some readers of the blog “Now Smell This” expressed surprise that my husband is a much-appreciated enabler of my perfume hobby. He really is, in the kindest way, including that he found the entrance to Aquaflor for me on a small Florentine side street when I had given up and thought it was closed!

Aquaflor Firenze is another magnificent apothecary/perfumery in Florence, Italy. It sells house-made fragrances, body and face creams, herbal bath products and other fragranced goodies, shaving products, soaps, and accessories; it is very close to the church of Santa Croce, located in the ground floor of the Palazzo Serristori Corsini Antinori.

Courtyard of Palazzo Antinori, Florence

My husband is the hero of this tale, because I had found the courtyard of the palazzo, which had a French door into the store, but it was roped off and I couldn’t see any staff, so I disappointedly told him that the store seemed to be closed. He wandered further up the street, in the opposite direction of how we would normally return to our bed and breakfast, and called back to me that he had found the entrance and the store was indeed open! This is heroic, because he has bad knees and flat feet, and he had already reached the limit of his ability to walk on paved and cobbled streets, which one does all day in Florence. He was rewarded when we entered the store and behold! there were comfortable leather armchairs and couches, clearly intended for footsore companions. So wise of the store owners! I would not have stayed as long and maybe would not have made the purchases I did if he had not been able to sit and rest his feet.

Aquaflor Firenze boutique

Aquaflor sells most of its products in the actual store only, but it does now have a beautiful website where one can buy its fragrances, including a number of home fragrance diffusers. Perfumer Sileno Cheloni states on the website that they were reluctant to have a website, since they envision Aquaflor as primarily a destination and a sensory experience (which you can read about in more detail here), but they have the website so that aficionados can, for example, re-order a fragrance they already have and love.

All the fragrances are created by perfumers Sileno Cheloni and Nicola Bianchi. Fragrantica lists 40 fragrances, the earliest from 2015. After much testing and pondering, I chose one of their sets of a 100 ml bottle and a 30 ml bottle. You decide which ones you want, and the set costs less than if one bought the two separately. I chose the large size of Rosae and the small size of Tzigana. Today, I’ll write about Rosae.

Rosae is an unconventional rose fragrance. The only notes listed for it are rose and mint. It has a high concentration of fragrance, although it is not described as an “extrait”; based on its longevity on my skin, though, I would estimate its concentration as above 20%. It lasts at least 24 hours on my skin and only departed after I had taken a long shower. Its sillage is deceiving; I didn’t think it was more than moderate, i.e. detectable only within a couple of feet of me, but one day when I wore it to work, a colleague walked into my office and immediately exclaimed how good it smelled although she was several feet away from me. I have adjusted my spray pattern accordingly! And that will make my bottle last longer, which is a good thing because I really love Rosae.

Fragrantica categorizes it as “rose, green, aromatic, and fresh spicy,” and that seems right. At first spray, you get a powerful but fresh rose, very reminiscent of the beautiful attar of Taif roses my husband brought me back some time ago from Dubai, which tells me Rosae contains a high concentration of rose oil, specifically extract of Rosa damascena, or the Damask Rose. (Taif roses are a variety of the species Rosa damascena).

Rosa damascena; image from www.sciencedirect.com.

One small spray at the base of my throat, and Rosae wafts strongly up to my nose. There is a liveliness to its scent, which I attribute to the mint. A combination of rose and mint is much more complex than one might think from that short list of notes. Roses themselves contain well over 100 different organic compounds, whose volatility, emitted from the flowers or from rose extract, creates the fragrance we smell. This is why different roses can smell quite different from each other, while still completely recognizable as “rose”; some are more fruity, with notes like apple or peach, others are very lemony, some are more green, etc. “Mint” can refer to a large family of herbal plants, formally known as “Lamiaceae”, which includes not only spearmint and peppermint, but also many other garden herbs, such as basil, oregano, sage, rosemary, thyme, marjoram, and lavender. Like roses, members of the mint plant family contain many organic compounds, which makes them highly aromatic. The liveliness and complexity of Rosae suggest to me that some of those herbs and their relatives are also present, playing supporting roles. I definitely pick up a whiff of sweet basil and fresh thyme, and possibly also lavender and Clary sage.

Rosae feels linear to me, and in the case of such a beautiful, natural fragrance, I appreciate that. Complexity abounds in this scent without the intrusion of many other substances. Given my colleague’s delighted reaction to it from several feet away, hours after I had applied Rosae in the morning, I have no complaints about its development! But if you are seeking a rose-based fragrance that will become something quite different over time, this is not it.

Aquaflor Firenze is well worth a visit if you ever get to Florence. On my visit, the staff were helpful and knowledgeable, and very willing to suggest fragrances to try. The store itself is very beautiful, and you won’t want to miss the frescoes in the Basilica di Santa Croce nearby. Just keep looking for the store’s entrance if at first you don’t find it! It is on the Borgo Santa Croce, and the actual door is down the street from the main entrance into the Palazzo Antinori. It has many wonderful items for sale besides its beautiful fragrances, too.

How do you feel about linear fragrances? Do you have a favorite rose-centric fragrance?

Aquaflor Firenze