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Portia
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Hi there Niche Nerds,
Todays fragrance was released as the Le Labo Chicago city exclusive. You may remember that I find the Le Labo adventure somewhat wankerish. The whole, we’ll mix it for you in store so it’s fresh shit doesn’t wash for me. Just because the ingredients haven’t been blended yet doesn’t make them any fresher, AND it takes months for the damn fragrances to settle properly after you buy them. It’s all a big fat GRRR for me.
Nevertheless when Le Labo get it right they do make some fairly spectacular frags.
One of my mates was doing a decant cleanout and I was lucky enough to buy this baby from them. There’s only about 2-3ml left in a 15ml so it has been well loved.
Baie Rose 26 by Le Labo 2010
Baie Rose 26 by Frank Voelkl
Parfumo gives these featured accords:
Rose absolute, Pink pepper, Musk, Cedar, Aldehydes, Ambrox, Clove, Pepper
Victoria from Bois de Jasmin taught me something in my reading today, “baie rose means pink pepper in French”. AHA! So not only is Le Labo doing its usual name it something and have it smell like something else trick but there is also a pun in action. Clever. Funnily, both the pepper and rose are front & centre for most of the scent.
So here we smell the interesting by-play between rose and pink pepper.
The opening is all rose and metallic sparkling aldehydes shimmering over the pink pepper. It’s a meaty, thick and dense scent that also manages to feel lightweight and airy. Haughty and powerful are the two words that keep coming to my mind while wearing Baie Rose 26, also masculine (which is weird because I try not to subscribe to frag gender unless it punches me in the face wit it).
PDI
Baie Rose 26 is cool, in both the frosty and fun refinement explanations. It has a space age feel about it and a metallic twang, the best way to present roses in my mind.
I get fleeting correlations to other roses CK Contradiction Woman, Amouage Opus X and Oriza L. Legrand Royal Fillet. Not same obviously but there are resemblances.
The musk, ambrox, wood dry down is far less exciting that the first hours of Baie Rose 26 life. It doesn’t implode into banal but it isn’t a showstopper. A comfortable, safe scent that lasts and lasts with a hint of rose.
PDI
Further reading: Bois de Jasmin and Non Blonde
Did you ever get to try this beauty?
Portia xx