Frederic Malle 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.

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