A Glistening Patina of Deep Amber Honey on Dark Garnet Red Roses
Guerlain ROSE BARBARE is a beautiful composition of dark garnet red roses glistening with the thinnest patina of deep amber honey. This is a very refined display of the rose note, far from the "I only promised you a rose garden" frags. Simply exquisite. The development is not very complex, but ROSE BARBARE opens so appealingly that I'm happy for it to stay that way--as long as possible, in fact!
I do not consider this a chypre but a lightly oriental floral with a slightly gourmand edge. I could eat these rose petals! The honey note is luscious and the dark red velvety roses are a welcome change from the pink ones so often featured in perfume. Although ROSE BARBARE opens fairly warm, the drydown becomes warmer still.
I am very impressed with this creation: a welcome piece of unexpected evidence that the twenty-first-century house of Guerlain is not (as I was beginning to fear) constitutionally incapable of producing great perfume.
Definitely full bottle or decant-worthy. I would love to wear ROSE BARBARE again.
Florblanca 13 years ago