Rose d'Homme Les Parfums de Rosine 2005

I was surprised to sight an unusually large number of men at the helm of strollers around Boston over this past summer. I'm not sure whether the trend has to do with the recent laws allowing gay marriage or whether there are simply more house husbands in the general population these days. Another possibility is that more men are unemployed and so they now have time to take their tots out for a stroll. In any case, for those gents who have a diaper bag slung across their bodies as they attempt to juggle the many responsibilities of those who care for small children, Les Parfums de Rosine has composed a perfume just for you: ROSE D'HOMME.

I have smelled diaper facsimile lightly in perfumes before. Many perfumes are evocative of baby powder, perhaps most famously Kenzo FLOWER and some of its flankers. But no perfume smells to my nose more like fresh diapers (before use) than ROSE D'HOMME. It's an odd wet-clean-sweet powdery scent with which this perfume opens, and it hangs on for quite a bit before finally becoming less loud and possibly wearable as a touch of leather and vetiver emerge. I'm not sure. I cannot think of many guys who would really want to smell like diapers for an hour, even if they have assumed the duties of nanny to their own or other people's children.

This is a MUST TRY before you buy, in spite of the inviting name. Do not think that this is going to be like L'Artisan Parfumeur VOLEUR DE ROSES. It is nothing of the kind!

I don't find the rose until fairly far into this perfume. Rose d'Homme is a dusty sort of scent that moves from a lavender citrus through a white floral to a comfortably non-descript powdery woodiness via a snippy aldehydic feel. It's like a survey of the non-rose notes that you might find accompanying a rose, but there’s no rose. Not yet. Then out of god knows where, at the end of the ride it coalesces into a musky dried rose. Neat trick and worth the wait since all the sites along the way are so enjoyable. What had read as dusty at the start seems quietly powdery by the time the rose forms. In the end, R d'H gives the impression of a smiling, quietly ironic dandy.

This starts very similar to some other fumes with leather I've tried - a sharp slightly woody, masculine scent, that is also intensely powdery. It feels a bit jagged at this point.

A mild rosy sweetness quickly pops up, accompanied by something like a tangy, citric note. By the time jasmine joins the party, the rough edges are nicely rounded off, and it's now a little sweeter, but I still think it's not too sweet for a man.

Somewhere along the line, rose pulls a disappearing act and never shows up again. Was this intentional? Perhaps. After this stage, the fume has a slightly smoky, powdery bitter thing going on, with a vague floral and citrus background.

It wraps up with a light earthy resinous aroma on a mildly flowery background, that doesn't seem to be able to decide if it wants to be warm or cold. Leather is a lot more prominent here, and I think that this is the most masculine stage of this fume.

To me, Rose d'Homme isn't the scent of a big burly woodsman; this is for that metropolitan man who is trustworthy and wants to be masculine but also approachable. I really like it. I would want to cuddle someone wearing this because it's such an agreeable scent.

Sillage was pretty alright throughout, with good longevity. On me, it lasted around 5 hours before slowly becoming more muted.

"Heaven... I'm in heaven,
And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak..."

Be still my beating heart, this is a certain rose that I've been looking for. This is a Cary Grant rose, an MGM rose, a rose that has gone Technicolor. The lavender harmonizes, the vanilla sensualizes, and the leather eroticizes just ever so slightly, just a bit; this gentleman's rose has manners, but other things are in mind. It may be a bit too old-fashioned for younger noses who are still trying to figure out why Moschino's Boy Toy, with its join-the-dots rose note and thinly-veiled homoerotic imagery, is exactly all about. Rose? That's for old ladies, right!? (drivel, utter drivel). But Boy Toy to them is dipping toes into forbidden territory. Rose d'Homme is an invitation into the secret bath house, gents. It's the sugar daddy to Habit Rouge, rosier and muskier; a come hither stare to HR's stiff upper lip.

Rose d'Homme is looking for trouble, the right kind of trouble, discreetly. It's the boutonnière, the bowtie, and the cumberbund. It's the wanton glance, the secret handshake, a time before hanky codes, where one could only rely on magazines behind counters, when there was just the Mattachine Society. Of course, men of all persuasions and women can appreciate this magnificent creation just as well. However, be warned: you will feel not only genteel and well-dressed, but close to the skin, you will also be ripe for seduction.

I love men.
And I love roses.
And men who give me roses.
These men only smelled of roses until they handed over their bouquet, and then of more or less masculine essences.
I could not have imagined a rose perfume for a man, or on a man - and now I shamefully admit to being a bit of a prude - before I got to know the scents from Amouage, where a nearly black rose is paired with oud and incense, clearly assigned to the men's league.
But how could a masculine rose exist without all this dark embellishment?

A possible answer is provided by "Les Parfums de Rosine," whose creations for women and men always revolve around a central rose theme in the most diverse variations, with "Rose d'Homme."
It was the first fragrance from this brand that I got to know - it made me a Rosine fan without much ado.

"Rose d'Homme" starts off completely unpretentiously with bitter, dry-citrusy accords that feel extremely refreshing and invigorating, momentarily reminding me of a very good cologne.
However, this impression lasts only a brief moment, then I am surrounded by a light green, radiant aura, at the center of which a rosebud slowly opens, still young and dewy, releasing its scent through a delicate veil.
It is still early morning in a Provencal garden, fresh and cool yet already announcing the heat of the day.
The sun rises higher, and with it, the scent of freshly mown hay blends into my olfactory picture - that must be the vetiver giving this slightly herbal undertone, without being distinctly identifiable.
Hour by hour passes, "Rose d'Homme" becomes softer and gentler, making me think of almost white, buttery soft suede, while gaining depth through a very restrained patchouli that is not at all grave-like.
This base is beautifully elegant and at the same time relaxed, still clinging to citrus-green notes, qualifying the fragrance as the perfect summer candidate - certainly not just for men, as every woman who loves roses should have experienced "Rose d'Homme" at least once under her nose.