This weekend the Rose Festival is wrapping up here in Portland, but the Rose Gardens will be in full bloom for another couple of weeks. In honor of what might be my last summer in Portland for a few years, I’m reviewing a few of my favorite roses.
As I’m oft to say, I love the CB I Hate Perfume series. Christopher Brosius is a genius of modern perfumery. I am working my way, slowly but surely, through as much of the line as I can get my grubby little sampling hands on. Today, I tried out CB’s Tea Rose.
Tea roses are a specific kind of rose first cultivated in the early 1800s. The Teas are repeat-flowering roses, named for their fragrance being reminiscent of Chinese black tea. CB describes his Tea Rose scent as follows:
I composed this classic scent with real Tea (Indian Black) and real Moroccan Rose Absolute (Rosa Damascena). What could be more simple or elegant?The amazing thing about this, like all the other CB creations, is how realistic a rose it is. On initial application, the sweetness of the rose is prominent, strong. After about fifteen minutes, I settles into a nice even balance between a strong tea note and the sweet fresh smell of a newly bloomed rose. The tea note is pretty strong on this after about an hour in, but the rose is still there, sweetening the scent and making it feel real and alive. The scent transports me back to days spent whiling away very hot days alternating between running through sprinkers barefoot while the roses bordering the yard bloomed full and fresh and splaying out, exhausted, waiting for the heat to pass by swinging gently on old wooden porch swings and drinking gallons of sweet cold tea. A wonderful scent for a summer in Rose City or anywhere warm and sweet.
Many people are under the impression they hate rose perfume. Chances are good they've never had the chance to smell perfume made with REAL roses. I confess I sometimes play a rather sneaky trick on my clients who tell me they hate rose perfume. I dip a blotter into a bottle and say. OK tell me what you think of this flower. Wonderful! they say when they've sniffed. Really beautiful! What flower is it??
Rose. Pure Authentic Real Live Absolute Rose I tell them with a bit of a grin as I watch the look of astonishment bloom on their faces. Talk about a reality check. While synthetic floral scents have come a very long way indeed since the plastic versions of the 50's, there is still nothing that can quite match the deep resounding glorious smell of the real thing.
It also reminds me a lovely song that led to me destroying at least one page of my own high school year book. (Note to the nostalgics out there, pressing a live rose into a book? The oil is going to eat through a few pages.) My grandparents, who played 45s of hits from the 1920s to 1960s endlessly for my childhood amusement, did not have the Bobby Vinton original, "Roses are Red (My Love)", but in that great 1950s pop tradition, they did have the "answer" song, "Long as the Rose is Red" by Florraine Darlin, which I catch myself singing whenever I smell this lovely scent.
Inside my high school book,
I placed the sweetest rose.
It's right next to your name,
and heaven knows
long as the rose is red
my skies are blue.
You'll be my one true love.
I'll go on loving you.
- Long as the Rose is Red," Florraine Darlin
Want more reviews?
~ See this review from Perfume Smellin' Things.
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