Few other perfume brands can make roses smell as wonderful as Lancome can. As they have a rose in their logo, maybe they make it a statement.
The exceptional rose scents from Lancome are not only found in the very high-end range of the house (Maison Lancome), but also in the classic perfume lines like “La vie est belle” and “Tresor”. There are perfect rose scents from other companies (like: “Bouquet de la Reine” EdP from Floris and “Le Perfume Royale” from Elie Saab, to name two of them), but if one is not an expert and still wants to have a failproof rose perfume, I would opt for Lancome’s new classics.
Rose can smell very one-dimensional, somehow too straight forward in simplicity and I guess a lot of people love this, but I prefer the playful, colourful, sweeter rose. To be honest, it might be a pimped rose, covered in chocolate or honey. Lancome and some other brands can make roses smell like paradise.
I remember finding the luxury line Maison Lancome online and checking the first scents out around 2016. I kind of never had really thought about Lancome as a perfume creator, in spite of the famous perfumes they made (I owned a small “Tresor” bottle when I was in my teens), but more as make up company. So, I was pleasantly surprised to read about their luxury niche line.
Descriptions of Rose Praline, Rose Miel, Liquer de Rose sent my head spinning in dreams of fields of roses in the glowing sun of a southern country! The promise of a perfect blending of notes to one all engulfing olfactory firework for the senses fascinated me.
Those 4 fulfil this promise in my opinion to a very high degree. I smelled more scents from the Maison Lancome line, some I also bought, some I didn’t like at all, but those 4 are the masterpieces for me. Not for the shy, though. People will smell you and comment.
They are grown scents. One must be able to wear them with class. One should have a strong personality.
The first to join me was “Oud Bouquet”.
“Oud Bouquet” was followed by “Oud Ambroisie”, “Roses Berberanza” and “Parfait de Roses”.
Those 4 belong together.
“Oud Ambroise” belongs to “Roses Berberanza” and “Oud Bouquet” belongs to “Parfait de Roses”.
All 4 feel like golden liquor for the nose. Imagine to be able to drink it, they’d be different strengths of my favourite rum, AH Riise, Non-Plus Ultra, Sauternes Cask. Or as I call it, the apricot rum. Rich, golden flavour that makes your feel warm and sensual.
“Oud Ambroisie”is an all engulfing warm, tropical forest drenched in rose liquor. The rose liquor is spiced up with pink pepper. The warm, wonderful rose liquor gets stronger with time and dominates the scent. It honestly is ambrosia for the nose.
The colour of this scent, when I smell it, is a deep red pink.
Lancome doesn’t really fully disclose the various aromas in the scent, but they engraved some information on the bottle. It is an assemblage of woods (oud and cedar) with patchouli and then a honey rose.
I smell this wonderful warm woody, only light oud fragrance with millions of soft rose petals, very sweet, it doesn’t smell the way honey tastes, but rounder. I smell the taste of wine gums, rose liqueur wine gums. The best of all of them, nothing in there is cheap. Lancome does not write of rose liquor on the bottle, but for me it is there, deeper, stronger, sweeter than in any other perfume of the line.
Somehow the pure summary of what’s in the scent does not give it justice.
The assemblage works wonderful.
“Oud Bouquet” has a warm base of majestic oud wood with a balsamic quality, like covered with rose crème brulee.
The colour of this scent is a rich dark orange brown, there is some chocolate in this. The scent is more woody, not so sweet as its sister. It’s a bit more serious, but a very womanly smell. All of them are scents only made for women.
In “Oud Bouquet” there is more rose than descriptions tell us. There an accord of three woods mixed with rose praline. In my nose the ouds are stronger than the rose praline. The colour of the scent is a glowing orange brown.
“Oud Bouquet” I got in the shop directly back then, and I carried it home like a treasure. In the beginning it was my favourite of the four Lancomes and I am glad it sits still here on the shelf.
“Roses Berberanza” of the 4 is the one where I did not change my mind about. It’s the most absolute rose scent for me, overwhelming in its abundance and clarity.
Engraved in the bottle we learn it is rose damascena absolu and rose damascene essence, mixed with spices and pistachio.
I smell a fruity quality to the rose in some way. Whatever the brand did to make the absolu and the essence it greatly enhanced normal rose damascene smell. The assemblage is perfect, the fusion of the aromas gives you a glowing orange red colour for the scent in my head.
Again, as with “Oud Ambroisie”, I smell liquor. Rum maybe?
“Roses Berberanza” is a wonderful scent, when I am sad, I roll in it. It clears my mind of all bad notions and fills it with beauty and joy instead.
“Parfait de Roses” presents itself as a rosy petit-four with sugary icing from the best patisserie in town. The scent colour is a clear pink.
The scent starts very sweet, with a sugar and indeed an aldehyde note makes itself felt. It’s the only scent where rose liqueur is named on the bottle. It is there, yes, but strangely I smell it stronger in some of the others.
“Parfait de Roses” is a great aldehyde rose. A changed rose, but very much a rose. A bit artificial maybe, but sometimes that is necessary.
Reading my glowing description, I noted how very much I like those 4 scents. Of course, I always knew I like them, but the description came out very positive, more so than I thought when starting to type. I do not use them so often. Might be that for a normal day at work they are a bit strong. The backdrop of a palace or a castle is somehow missing in my daily life. But it is very nice having them here, to be able to feel like a queen when I need it. Actually, I might use one of them tomorrow when working from home to start the week in the right mood.