Hello Lovely Fumie Friends,

While in Paris in February Michael and I stumbled across the Les Parfums de Rosine store in the Palais Royal shopping strips after doing a shop in Serge Lutens while upstairs they were having a launch party. I was very sad that we weren’t invited up to have a drink and a sniff.

Don’t forget our AMBER GIVEAWAY<<  JUMP

Rose Kashmirie by Les Parfums de Rosine 2007

Marie-Helene Rogeon + Francois Robert

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Saffron, coriander, bergamot, rose
Heart: Myrhh, rose, peony
Base: Vetiver, sandalwood, amber, benzoin, vanille, grass, cypriol oil (nagarmotha)

So I first dabbed my sample of Rose Kashmirie and what I got was a lovely sparkling, very slightly spicy, fresh rose scent. One of those roses that you buy in a bunch that has the merest whiff of fragrance so fragile and tenuous but amped up 1000 times. Very pretty but nothing groundbreaking or really interesting at all, there are at least 100 rose frags doing the same thing for 1/4 the price, meh.

Then, searching through my samples I came across the 2ml vial and decided to decant it into a spritz atomiser. WOW! The difference is beyond compare, they are two entirely different entities in the open. Now that luscious green herbal coriander and slightly plastic saffron add depth and breadth to the rose. Now I’m smelling a garden rose that has bloomed to a plate size, full of the wonderful sweet, spicy, boozy, green magic that is a rose. A riot of rose, loads of the roses with a lovely citrus twang that sets my heart aflutter and my eyes wanting to roll back in my head.

Photo Stolen Flickr

There is a watery, cool breath through the rose that rises through a wind of cool incense born from some temple, this is Srinagar on a houseboat in the cool of morning. I think it’s lovely peony come to waft through the rose, a dewy cool peony plucked fresh in the morning dark. Still Rose Kashmirie is all cool and no warmth well into its heart. At this point the rose becomes slightly generic (that’s the wrong word but I can’t find a better fit), still beautiful but now like a bath product rather than fine fragrance, maybe a lavish body wash or a soap. Yes, we are definitely traveling soapy territory, but it is lovely, exquisite soap. The finest.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

Later Rose Kashmirie warms through as the rose becomes more vanilla/amber hued and the incense becomes a lovely smoky crackle. The dried grasses add a tobacco-ish feel and my nose picks out some lovely honey tones too. Is my nose playing tricks or is there an animal lurking beneath all the prettiness? A big hairy animal on heat. WOW! Breathing right down my rose scented neck. Though all of these extras add on still the shining star is rose, rose in its many facets and phases, bud, bloom, petals and leaves. Here they are in one of the worlds loveliest places, war torn, strife filled Kasmir. This is the Kashmirie Rose.

Next morning there is a nearly scent left that hints of roses, powder and healthy compost. Soft but very, very pretty.

Further reading: Chickenfreak’s Obsessions and Scent for Thought
First In Fragrance has €88/50ml and samples
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $4/ml

Interestingly, the other reviews I read either dismissed or didn’t find Rose Kashmirie worked for them.
Damn it, I like it and am seriously thinking FBW. Have you tried it? What did you think?
Portia x