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Frederic Malle Une Rose
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A Conversation on Arabie

A More Affordable Olfactionary

Amouage Dia (pour femme)

Amouage Epic Woman

Amouage Gold

Amouage Jubilation 25

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Amouage Tribute

Amouage Ubar

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Ava Luxe Café Noir

Best of 2009

Bond No. 9 Brooklyn

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Capote, Truman & Evening in Paris

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Estee Lauder Private Collection Jasmine White Moss

Favorite Fall Fragrances

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Frederic Malle Angeliques Sous La Pluie

Frederic Malle Bigarade Concentrée

Frederic Malle Carnal Flower

Frederic Malle Geranium Pour Monsieur

Frederic Malle Le Parfum de Therese

Frederic Malle Lipstick Rose

Frederic Malle Une Fleur de Cassie

Frederic Malle Une Rose

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How I Store Decants

In Memory (w/mention of Lanvin Arpege)

Jean Desprez Bal a Versailles

Jean Patou 1000

Juliet by Juliet Stewart

Kenzo Jungle l’Elephant

L'Artisan Parfumeur Nuit de Tubereuse

L'Artisan Parfumeur Orchidee Blanche

L’Artisan Parfumeur Passage d’Enfer

L’Artisan Parfumeur Tea for Two

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Le Labo Patchouli 24

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Maitre Parfumeur et Gantier Eau des Iles

Message In A Bottle 

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My Perfumes Have Theme Songs

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T is for Taxes

Tauer Perfumes: Incense Extrême, Incense Rosé, Lonestar Memories, & Reverie au Jardin

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The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

The Intimacy of Scent

Thoughts of a Perfume Collector

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Vero Profumo Kiki, Onda, and Rubj

Viktor & Rolfe Flowerbomb

What I’m Lovin’ Now

Yves Saint Laurent Nu

AN ECLIPSE OF BEAUTY OVER DARKNESS

 

Frederic Malle Editions de Parfums UNE ROSE

 

Imagine beauty so pointed that, from the moment you first behold it, you begin to fear for its doom.  Beauty so exquisite, the crueler fates of the world will surely conspire to destroy it, because such an act is like stealing the sun from the sky. And as its beholder, you are caught in the crosshairs between rapt awe and a vague but nagging fear—and so, experience a tenderness that is poignant in the truest, dictionary-sense of the word: keenly distressing to the feelings; affecting or moving the emotions.

 

Imagine a concentration of sun-drenched, honeyed nectar balanced on one tantalizingly slender stem: the one flower that has all the bees in the garden buzzing over it, and every passerby wanting to pluck it for his own, to place in a vase upon his shelf. If you can hold in your mind just such an image of singular, silky beauty—so lithe and poised for living, yet shadowed by these darker forces—then you have an idea of what it is like to experience Une Rose by Frederic Malle Editions de Parfums.

 

A Turkish rose scent accentuated with notes of geranium and “dregs of wine,” Une Rose is, to me, even more roselike than roses: it is rose in its most exalted state, hypnotically enchanting. Perfumer Edouard Fléchier married the aforementioned notes with “a truffle accord laced with woody and animal notes” which is intended, according to the Frederic Malle website, to provide a carnal element to the fragrance; to evoke “the intoxicating, earthy aroma of a garden rose pulled from the ground with its roots.”  My nose, I’m afraid, doesn’t parse out the notes in such a literal way:  I can’t say that I detect the peatiness of earth, or the meatiness of mushrooms that others smell in this scent. But what I do smell is a lingering darkness, and juxtaposed with the honeyed, fruitiness of the rose, it brings a sense of melancholy to the perfume—a foreshadow of death that only serves to intensify the vividness of the bloom. Une Rose is a reminder that beauty, in any form, shape and size—whether as big as an ocean or as small as a rosebud—eclipses death. It is the thing that lives on.

 

 

Une Rose can be purchased from the Frederic Malle website or from Barneys.com, where a 50 ml. bottle is $175.

Image is of the late actress Sharon Tate (January 24, 1943 – August 9, 1969); photographer unknown.


Posted by Suzanne Keller, 1/29/2009.