Rose & White Musk Absolu (2018)
by Jo Malone London

I guess every perfume company has to have a saffron rose now, and this is Jo Malone's. The topnotes are the familiar rose/saffron/patchouli mix you'd expect, fading after about an hour to a mix of burnt pine and a cheap aquatic "woody amber" base. Sniffed up close, this base is mostly pine and a bit herbal, pleasantly burnt and reminiscent of Guerlain's Oud Essential, but the smell from a distance is all "woody amber", so to folks around me I basically smell like a teenager drenched in Axe body spray.

I can't fathom why anyone would want to pay a premium for this when Jo Malone's own excellent Red Roses is sitting right next to it, palpably better and half the price...