Portrait of a Lady Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle 2010 Eau de Parfum

Portrait of a lady - where to begin. One of my favorite rose base scent. It has been on my radar for quite some time, then one day, I had the surprise to find its decant as a gift of an order I made. I was jubilating, and wanted to like it even before I had actually tried it on. Let’s talk about the experience, before though, I can’t stress enough that this scent, even if published as a fragrance for women, is totally unisex. It was actually a bright winter morning, a sunny one, I dressed up with a sweater, a coat on top of it, sunglasses, sprayed this on and was soon on my way to Florence. POAL began with a fabulous… drum roll.. rose. But it’s not the same rose you’d find in OSM from Maison Francis Kurkdjian, but rather a softer, more delicate, elegant, elegant, elegant, classy one. When I say delicate by no means I refer to the performance though, because Portrait of a Lady walked with me through the whole day, leaving a noticeable, yet classy, sillage, wherever I was walking by. Everything is blended perfectly. Is the rose the protagonist? Yes. Is it the only thing I perceive? Absolutely not. Notes can be used with this scent as a tool, to try solving a puzzle. I can identify the raspberry and the patchouli (love it) and sandalwood in the base, but to me the blend is so done well that I don’t even wanna go into that, it just puts a smile on my face and gives me a positive, charismatic and confident feeling. I don’t have a signature, because I’m still early on my journey with fragrances and I’m in a period in which I’m exploring many scents, overtaking my boundaries and trying to find what my actual taste is. That said, this is really close to my idea of signature scent, namely something that is able to emphasize, reflect and complete your personality. I will always leave space for Portrait of a lady in my collection, and I suggest you trying it if you haven’t yet! :) 9.5/10