I’ve written about Brulure de Rose (day of the rose) before, or at least referenced it on several occasions, but it’s worth talking about. My perfume collection is always growing; I may have shifted my focus somewhat, by spending my money on splits (decants) and samples rather than splurging on full-bottles, but it continues to grow weekly.

Even with all this great new stuff coming in, after much deliberation—what may have been a record time spent choosing my scent for today—I chose Parfumerie Generale’s no. 13.

I first smelled BdR a little more than a year ago, when I was buying up samples of rose-based fragrances like a soccer-mom buys up Hot Pockets. I liked it immediately, but bought bottles of Serge Lutens Sa Majeste la Rose and Montale Aoud Queen Roses instead. I didn’t purchase the PG until June of this year.

Why wait so long if it’s so wonderful?

For a rose fragrance, Brulure de Rose is too sweet. It’s also too jammy, too in-your-face feminine. It doesn’t have any of the soapy-ness of the classic rose perfumes, and it doesn’t have the wonderful green notes that I like so much in L’ombre dans L’eau. It’s girly in the same way that I find Miss Charming too girly.

And yet.

It resonates somewhere in the reptilian part of my brain, because despite all it’s “too much,” and “not there,” it’s perfect. It’s beautiful, it’s comforting, it makes me… happy. I mentioned in an earlier post that I put a lot of demands on a perfume. This perfume bypasses all my demands, and goes straight to “this is awesome.”

Notes, compliments of Basenotes: Rosewood, Rose Amber, Raspberry Musk, Vanilla, Cocoa.

Image from the Latvian National Opera Ballet.