ROSE WEEK 2018 – A Fruity Rose
It’s Rose Week on EauMG! This is the annual celebration of rose-centric perfumes! This week I’m reviewing 5 fragrances that display a different aspect of rose perfumes.
Spoiler Alert: I’m covering two fruity roses this week. However, they are so different that I don’t feel bad for covering two fruity-roses during Rose Week. If anything, it shows how much diversity there is a rose, even within roses in the same genre!
Amouroud is a line of perfumes featuring, you guessed it, oud. I reviewed a few of them in 2017 and I really like them. There’s a “beach goth floral“, honey and an interesting leather…oud is in the perfumes but not really the lead singer (more like a backup dancer). With Amouroud Midnight Rose, I expected one of those “dark” rose-ouds (which I do like) even though I know Amouroud well enough to know they aren’t exceptionally oud-y perfumes. Instead Midnight Rose is…
I hate to say that Midnight Rose is a fruity-rose because that suggests that it’s light, feminine and carefree. It is a fruity rose but it’s not some cutesy rose. Midnight Rose opens with roses and lychee juice, but it’s also a spicy, amber rose. This opening is like lychee macarons and rosewater. There’s a pink grapefruit and some greens. What surprises me about the opening isn’t that it’s a lychee/rose (this is a popular combo in rose soliflores), it’s how long the lychee lasts on my skin. I love a lychee note but in other perfumes, this note fades within a few short minutes. In Midnight Rose, it lasts for a good hour or more. I also adore the sulfuric, tangy pomelo peel. The heart is a chewy rose with a hint of apricot jam that eventually turns into lush, velvet-y rose petals. It’s a lush rose. Midnight Rose dries down to a slightly powdery but spicy amber with dried rose petals. Oud is a note listed but it’s not the typical rose-oud. In fact, I don’t really notice any oud. I just pick up on something that is like “rose amber dust” instead of something that screams “OUD!”. It’s more amber-y.
This perfume isn’t as “dark” as the name Midnight Rose would imply. I think of it more like a rose at dusk, some sort of velvety magenta-hued rose (instead of some deep burgundy rose). I appreciate this. It’s nice to have a rose that is in the middle of the spectrum.
Notes listed include litchi, pomelo, mate, lily, rose, iris, amber, labdanum and oud. Launched in 2016. PERFUMER – Patricia Choux
Give Midnight Rose a try if you like fruity, velvety roses or want a fruity-rose with depth. Or if you like perfumes like Caron Délire de Roses, Stella McCartney Stella, Juliette Has a Gun Miss Charming, Guerlain Aqua Allegoria Bouquet Numero 2 and/or Parfums de Rosine Vive la Mariée.
Projection is average. Longevity is above average.
The 3.4 oz bottle retails for $200 at Osswald. Samples are also available for purchase.
Victoria’s Final EauPINION – A fruity-rose with depth. If you’re having a Goldilocks moment with a rose and think “hmmm, this one is too small, but this one is too big”, then you may find “just right” with Midnight Rose.
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*Disclaimer – Sample provided by the brand. I am not financially compensated for my reviews. My opinions are my own. Product pic from Parfumo. Nina Foch pic from fanpix.net