By Dane
Rose Poivrée has everything I love in a perfume - flowers, spice, and skank. Combine all that with the genius of Jean-Claude Ellena, and you have an instant masterpiece.
RP starts with a burst of pepper and rich, red roses (colour of course being irrelevant, but go with it). From there, things get interesting. If you've ever smelled rose oil or rose absolute, you know that it doesn't really smell of roses...or nice for that matter. JCE did here what Serge Lutens made famous - take the less-than-appealing aspects of an ingredient and emphasize them. Rose oil can sometimes have a rotten, indolic quality, and Ellena took these negative aspects and turned them up full blast, which in turn made them shocking and beautiful. Pepper, coriander, spices (cumin perhaps?) vetiver, and civet bring out the truly bizarre and create something that was, for me, love at first sniff.
Once the shock of the spices settle in, the roses again become very prominent. Apparently 50kg of Damascus Rose petals are used for each bottle. The quality is evident and appreciated. I have to mention the civet (which I assume is synthetic, but you never know). Civet is a difficult material to work with, and can instantly turn someone off a perfume (Jicky anyone?), but used properly, can emphasize floral nuances and turn a banal, boring floral into something fascinating. Rose Poivree is the perfect example of civet done right...you know something naughty has happened with the roses, but its hard to pinpoint what. Modern genius performed with classical perfume ingredient.
I've recently smelled the "new" Rose Poivrée, and it only be described as "pretty", which is wrong. I even sent a bottle back to the retailer thinking that it had turned. Apparently things have been reworked, which is a shame. They (TDC) even changed the advertised notes to include "rose berries"...whatever those are. If you happen to come across a bottle that smells particularly dirty and unattractive, please...purchase it.
Year: 2001
Perfume: Jean-Claude Ellena
