Vintage Rose
by Sonoma Scent Studio

Sonoma Scent Studio VINTAGE ROSE was not at all what I was expecting: something along the lines of Jean-Charles Brosseau L'OMBRE ROSE with a light dusting of, well, dust atop the rose petals. Instead, VINTAGE ROSE has a very strong burnt wood scent, what I have been describing in my SSS reviews as “beefy burnt cedar”. Not a particularly harmonious mix, IMNSO. The dark, charred wood quality dominates the rose and doesn't complement it very well even while the rose is still stronger, in the opening. I greatly prefer ROSE MUSC to VINTAGE ROSE though I'm generally more of a vintage than a musky gal. It's just that ROSE MUSC is not very musky, and VINTAGE ROSE does not mesh with my concept of VINTAGE at all. Désolée.

I should add, however, that wearing VINTAGE ROSE reminded me of a topic of great interest to me: modular perfuming, which seems to be all the rage at niche houses these days. It's simple, really. Put together a vocabulary of high-quality but simple notes, and then mix and match them in every possible permutation to produce your library of scents. That's really the only way that houses such as Keiko Mecheri, Bond no. 9, Boadicea the Victorious et al. can come up with literally dozens of perfumes in only a short period of time. This a new world, the world of twittered perfumes, not the days of lore when a perfumer could easily spend years on a single creation. Those were the days... back when perfume was perfume and nearly everything being put out today would have qualified at best as cologne or body spray. Most niche houses do not produce complex, multilayered perfumes that unfurl over time in fascinating ways, à la ARPEGE or MITSOUKO. Instead, everything is flat, as though perfumers were all taking SSRIs and just don't give a damn anymore. And perhaps they are, and perhaps they don't.

12nd July, 2011.

Vintage Rose is an amazing boozy, plummy rose that has a definite wine quality to it. The SSS website describes it as ‘dusky’ and I think this perfectly describes this fragrance, it also has as slightly smokey, spicey haze which makes the whole effect heady and rich. I liken it to drinking a nice, rich glass of shiraz by a fireplace.

This is most definitely a winter scent, with its warm sandalwood and cedar base. It clings to the skin for hours.

21st June, 2010.

Oops.. I need to revise my opinion of htis one. I"ll be honest, the opening is not very inviting, and indeed you'll feel like you're rumaging through a very dusty attic.

However, i did not wash off my sample but instead went on a 2 hour walk with it. By the time I got home I was thinking 'buy!'

It just takes awhile for the rose and plum to emerge, and when they do, this really soars. Fortunately I have Caron's n'aimez que moi, which reminds me of this one. It too has an unfavorable opening that is hard to 'get', but the end result is stunning.

But yep, this started out as a 'no' for me but ended up as an 'oh yes!!'

20th February, 2010.

Standing opposite the luxuriantly fresh Velvet Rose at the other end of the spectrum, VINTAGE ROSE feels drier and a touch musty. As it develops further, it smells not so much of roses but more like some cask-aged wine - full bodied and plummy, with hints of dusky woods and light spices. Rather reminiscent of Le Labo's best-selling Rose 31 albeit softer and rounder.

Notes:
rose, plum, amber, labdanum absolute, sandalwood, cedar, tonka bean.

16th January, 2010.

I love this one! The combination of a warm rose with a deep plum note is just intoxicating. And it lasts for ages. This is one of those 'can still smell it in the morning' scents, and I'm always happy to do so.

10th September, 2009. (Last Edited: 17th November, 2009.)