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08/31/2019
Yatagan
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Yatagan
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A legacy: our family fragrance
The headline is perhaps misleading, because the fragrance is by no means a favourite of our family, but actually almost the opposite - and that was the case: I've always had a strong penchant for classics and that's why many years ago I gave my mother this fragrance, which comes from the distant and gloomy year 1933 and must not be confused with the newer, completely different Fleur de Rocaille (without plural "s" behind the flower) from 1993. In fact, my mother didn't like the fragrance very much, which I learned much later, and it was soon found in my grandmother's collection, which I'm pretty sure wasn't used too often, at least I don't remember her wearing it (she preferred Scherrer No. 2 at the time). When my grandmother died, her scents (and I find that appropriate and touchingly beautiful) migrated to the collections of her daughter and daughter-in-law (Scherrer No. 2 and Penhalgon's English Fern inherited my aunt, the other scents my mother). Somehow Fleurs de Rocaille found herself there and my mother confessed during a visit that the scent was too soapy for her. Since she had no use for him, I took him with me. At home he stood like Cinderella for a while beside the other scents of my wife, who didn't really appreciate him either. Since I have been testing a lot of aldehyde based scents, soapy scents and chypre scents in the last weeks, Fleurs de Rocaille fit well into all schemes and I pulled him out. I noticed that I had rated him well at the time (8.0). Cinderella is a pretty girl, even if she comes from another time. Apparently, as a male offspring in our family, I am the only one who appreciates this ladies (?) fragrance and also likes to wear it as a man. After a longer test I now rate the fragrance even higher and am happy about wonderful aldehyde blossoms with clear soapy accents. Although aldehydes are not even mentioned in the fragrance pyramid, they have already been noticed by other testers* and are unmistakably present from the head to the heart note. In this phase, Fleurs de Rocaile obviously bears a strong resemblance to Chanel No. 5. Here, too, a chypre texture is recognizable, as the fragrance contains bergamot, rose, jasmine and musk; however, for the typical chypre triad, both fragrances lack a strong dose of oakmoss (presumably contained, but much more sparingly than the phenotypic chypre). A special attraction of the chypre fragrances, however, is their changeable structure - and oak moss can be replaced by patchouli, vetiver, sandalwood (Chanel No. 5) and musk. This is also the case here and so there is obviously a relationship with the Chypres. In contrast to Chanel No. 5, the aldehydes in the "stone flowers" do not shimmer like the lights in a clear starry night, but lie behind a cloud cover. That's just as nice, by the way.
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