Reviews of Rose 31 (2006)
by Le Labo

I've had my Le Labo Rose 31 experience, and I'm here to say, guys, this is a manly rose fragrance--in a unique way. This is an animalic rose on the raunchy side. It has a funky musk base with a nice, smooth rose heart. It smells like a man wearing rose fragrance. In that way, it reminds me of a mild version of Muscs Kublai Kahn with roses. The only reason I give it a neutral rating is because it smells LIKE a man as much as FOR a man. Although I would enjoy smelling it on a man, I would not wear it (nor MKK) myself. If I were a man, I would give it a thumbs up. To be sure, it is not fecal like Rasa Extreme; rather, it is spicy like sweat and naughty like musk.
This is a well-balanced scent. The cumin does not bowl you over, as it did in Alexander McQueen Kingdom, and the rose is prominantly featured from beginning to end whereas, in Kingdom, it crept out of the sandalwood as a chypre rose in the final stages. Rose 31, it is fresh and real.
However, I repeat, it is animalic. Compared to Lorenzo Villoresi Musk, which is another rose and musk fragrance for men, the LV is clean, even soapy. The Le Labo smells lived-in, like a man in rose fragrance, straight from the bottle.

starts out, to my nose, like a Rose Poivree or Voleur de Roses lite: peppery, cumin-y, and the "green" rose smell that is like a rose soap almost. I'd say like TDC or L'AP with the volume turned down.
After a spell, hmmm, about 30 minutes, it becomes rosy white-musky with a cumin note in the background, as though it were talking audibly in another room.
The stuff is nice, don't get me wrong. Will I fork out the TOP dollar for it again... I don't think so. Rose scents are, when done well, sublime. There seems to be this trend afoot whereby rose needs to be made spicy, or cumin'd, and quite frankly I'm over it. Get a new line folks.
In my opinion, Montale have done rose to absolute perfection in all of their myriad Aoud collections; that, coupled with Domenico Caraceni and Czech & Speake No. 88, will be the benchmarks of classical rose perfumery.
I'll give it a sideways thumb because, well, been there done that.