roses

Fragrance Friday: 6 roses for golden Autumn & rainy Autumn
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Fragrance Friday: 6 roses for golden Autumn & rainy Autumn

I love Chemist in the Bottle’s list of rose fragrances for autumn, as rose is one of my favorite fragrance notes. I have put away some of my more summery rose scents in favor of those that have a more autumnal spice to them, such as Jo Malone’s Tudor Rose and Amber and Miller Harris’ Rose En Noir. Any other suggestions for autumn fragrances, with or without rose notes?

lucasai's avatarChemist in the Bottle

October has brought golden Autumn filled with colorful leaves in shades of brown, orange, yellow and red that gradually fall from trees turning into vivid and rustling carpets on top of the park pavements. Autumn like that is pretty and can be enjoyable even at times when a chilly wind is blowing behind our backs. On the other hand there are days when the sky is completely grey and it looks as if it was about to start to fall on your heads. Days filled with gloom and rain are definitely less enjoyable but at least they give you a good reason to stay at home as you wrap yourself with a fluffy blanket with a big cup of your favorite tea or coffee in hands, watching some movies.

I bet many of you have already done that or are in the process of deciding if its the high time to…

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Swoon.

Close your eyes and imagine… You walk inside a castle and are drawn to a doorway by a lovely scent that gets stronger with each step. You enter the room. Fragrance envelops you — a complex, rose scent with hints of citrus and spice, raspberry and vanilla. A field of David Austin Wedding Roses —…

via Experience David Austin Roses With All Your Senses, at Fleuramour — DAVID AUSTIN ROSES USA

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Wedding Bouquets

A bridal bouquet is a fashion accessory that “should accent the dress,” not obscure it,” says floral designer Lorraine Cooper, AIFD, in the September issue of Flowers& magazine. The article, aptly titled “It’s All About the Dress,” includes 12 bouquets she created to complement six popular wedding gown silhouettes — all magnificently photographed by Ron…

via It’s All About the Dress — DAVID AUSTIN ROSES USA

Fragrance Friday: Les Fontaines Parfumees
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Fragrance Friday: Les Fontaines Parfumees

Welcome to the new home of soon-to-launch Louis Vuitton perfumes, plus sibling Parfums Christian Dior (Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior are both owned by LVMH): a restored seventeenth century perfumery in Grasse, France, with the enchanted name “Les Fontaines Parfumees”, or “The Perfumed Fountains.” It joins the previous purchase and restoration by Parfums Christian Dior of the Chateau de la Colle Noire, twelve miles away in Callian and former home of the legendary designer Christian Dior himself. Continue reading →

Perfume Tourism: I’m Ba-a-a-ack!
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Perfume Tourism: I’m Ba-a-a-ack!

I’ve returned from a trip to the UK that included a visit to the year-old duty free boutiques in Heathrow’s Terminals 4 and 5 dedicated to niche and high-end designer fragrances, as well as a stop at a beautiful independent perfumery in Dublin and an unexpected bargain at a VERY well-appointed fragrance department of a department store I had never heard of before. And, of course, many visits to fragrant gardens with more roses than I have seen since … well, since I visited the UK last summer.

I’ll be posting this week and in August about my finds and encounters, including some wonderful discovery sets and samples of unfamiliar or new niche fragrances, so please join me on a vicarious journey of fragrant discovery!

Storefront of perfumery Parfumarija in Dublin, Ireland.

Parfumarija in Dublin; image from http://www.parfumarija.com

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Rose-Scented Lemonade

I have a new love: Fentimans Rose Lemonade. It is pale pink, fizzy, sweet, and scented like roses. It is “botanically brewed” lemonade with the addition of rose extract, which provides a soft floral fragrance and taste. What a perfect summer drink to sip while the summer roses are in bloom!

Bottle of Fentiman's Rose Lemonade.

Image: Fentiman’s.

Update: now that I’m back home and have found a local supplier of Fentimans Rose Lemonade, I have concocted a summer cocktail based on it: Old Herbaceous’ Rose Cocktail. Enjoy!

Fragrance Friday: June and Roses
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Fragrance Friday: June and Roses

June is National Rose Month and, just in time, the New York Times has published this: In Fragrance, Rose is the New Unisex. I love roses — flowers and fragrance — almost as much as I love lilies of the valley. More, in some ways, as the flowers of roses are so varied, much more than lilies of the valley.

David Austin of England, pictured above meeting HRH Queen Elizabeth II at the Royal Chelsea flower show (where he won another gold medal at the age of 90), is a giant in the world of roses. He began his ambitious rose hybridization program decades ago, to bring back to modern roses the strong fragrances and softer shapes he knew from the roses of prior centuries. David Austin English Roses are the happy result — and they do make me happy! I can only grow a couple in my mostly shady, hot and humid Southern garden but they live up to their reputations as highly fragrant, beautiful roses. The one that does best for me is “Teasing Georgia”, a soft yellow rose I grow on a metal obelisk structure.

Yellow climbing English rose Teasing Georgia, by David Austin Roses, grown on a pillar.

“Teasing Georgia” rose; photo from David Austin Roses.

Mine isn’t quite as glamorous as this but it comes close! It has a strong tea rose fragrance.

There is one perfume house that specializes in rose-based perfumes: Les Parfums de Rosine. From the website: Continue reading →

Fragrance Friday: A Life in Scent
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Fragrance Friday: A Life in Scent

Fashion news outlets have been trumpeting the foray of a longtime fashionista and industry insider, former Vogue Creative Director Grace Coddington, into the world of self-named perfumes. Comme des Garcons will launch Grace by Grace Coddington this April. Okay, so far, so good, ho hum. Here’s what I found more interesting: this article by Vogue, in which Ms. Coddington traces her favorite scents throughout her long career in fashion, starting in the late 1950s when she was a young model in London.

Grace Coddington Vogue 1962

Grace Coddington. Vogue UK, September 1962

Ms. Coddington has always had a striking, different look: more Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood than Twiggy in my view.

Grace Coddington telegraph

Grace Coddington; photo from fashion.telegraph.co.uk

Her new perfume sounds lovely but pretty conventional: “peach blossom, white musk, and amber crystal–spiked Moroccan rose absolute”, according to Vogue. It will be interesting to see if the actual fragrance is more individual and quirky than that description, as Grace Coddington’s own style, personal and editorial, has long been both of those.

Featured photo: Steven Klein, for Vogue January 2013; editor Grace Coddington.

Expanding the Horizons of Floral Design
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Expanding the Horizons of Floral Design

From David Austin Roses USA and Florabundance — just beautiful. Click below to see the gorgeous, imaginative wedding flower arrangements.

Source: Expanding the Horizons of Floral Design

Fragrance Friday: Roses for Valentine’s Day
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Fragrance Friday: Roses for Valentine’s Day

Happy Valentine’s Day this weekend! This seems like a good opportunity to write about one of the rose-y fragrances I have discovered recently, given the association of red roses with Valentines (and the bouquet of them I was given yesterday! yes, that was early, because my husband is one of those delightful men who can’t wait to present a gift once it is in his hands).

Where to start? I think with Rose d’Amour, by Les Parfums de Rosine. Continue reading →