Dawn Spencer Hurwitz has launched two new fragrances in the Parfums de Beaux Arts collection:
Dirty Rose (shown above left) ~ "A rose like no other: dirty ROSE. It is the image of a single rose that has been a bit manhandled; bruised and dragged through the mud which gives it its rugged beauty. Although dirty ROSE is a rose based perfume the note does not dominate; it is interwoven throughout the fragrance, continuing to grow as it dries down." With notes of bergamot, rose geranium, mastic, pimento, pink pepper, rosewood, buddahwood, centifolia rose, rose otto, labdanum, olibanum, orris, patchouli, sandalwood, cedar, ambergris, vetiver, cassis, guiacwood, leather, myrrh, agarwood, styrax, tobacco and treemoss.
Cyan (shown above right) ~ "Inspired by this ultra-modern blue color with a slightly greenish tint, our Cyan scent is as light as air; an eau fraiche scent that wisps in like the freshness of Spring with sparkling notes of Linden Blosom, Chamomile, Mint, Yuzu, and Wood Violet." Additional notes include bergamot, cucumber, jonquil, orris, ambergris, sandalwood, seaweed and silver fir.
Dirty Rose? Hmmm — sounds intriguing. The base sounds like a nice quasi chypre. Labdanum, myrrh, and vetiver will always get my attention! And the linden in the Cyan sounds really pretty too! I’ve never tried any of the DSH line, but now maybe I must!
It does sound wonderful — I usually like a dirty rose fragrance.
I really like Dawn’s stuff. She does Roses-with-a-Twist very well — my favorite being Rose Vert, a very green floral that smells like a bouquet. It’s not a voluptuous rose scent like SSS Velvet Rose – it’s light but lasts hours on me. I’m saving up for that one. Beach Roses was nice, as well. Not sure Dirty Rose is for me, though; might be too masculine for my tastes, which skew toward the Very Girly.
Another couple of favorites of mine from that line: the Silk Road (citrus, tea, rose, spices, tobacco, leather, according to my perceptions – not all those notes are listed) and Oeillets Rouges (my favorite carnation scent ever).
Rose Vert sounds nice — I’ll have to try that!
I’m with Ann; I’ve never tried any DSH, and Dirty Rose sounds great. Every time I look at her site I think everything looks so great, and then I get overwhelmed because there’s so much there and I don’t even know where to start picking samples.
Same here – I never knew where to start which I why I kind of avoided it. Same thing for me with the Ava Luxe and Biehl PK…All of them sound either really good or I can’t decide, so I am in limbo. Though I did try a few AL and Biehl with limited success…
I’m lucky, Ann, in that I discovered Ava Luxe at the beginning of my perfume obsession and used her as an opportunity to educate myself (she also sold very inexpensive samples at the time). Since she has so many scents based around single notes, I ordered many of those, along with some of her other creations.
I started with the classic French houses (Guerlain, Chanel, Goutal, Dior…) and then migrated to Miller Harris and SSS….made it easy as they have reasonably limited lines. I blame myself for most likely picking the wrong fragrances from AV and BPK, but I wasn’t impressed enough to continue spending more on samples. I am sure if I was fortunate enough to be at a boutique that carried either, I would find a few that I really like and would be FB worthy!
Joe, it’s hard — it’s a really huge line. Lots of helpful reviews at MakeupAlley, that helps.
I’ve finally corrected my “lack” in this area and just ordered a sampler pack and a couple small items. Here we go…
Good luck!
Let me know what you think – I am tempted but I just got that massive Montale sample collection.
(mad because I am spending the evening with an allergic person and can’t immediately try something!!!)
Oh, I’m envious! I was hoping mine would show up today. Once you get a chance to try them, I’ll be curious what you think of them.
Let go of your hesitation and dive in to DSH!
I know the site is overwhelming at first, but she has made up some sampler packs for the faint of heart.
After you get going, you will wonder why you waited so long.
I like Robe De Zibeline, Hinoki, Le Chevalier D’Automne, Au Lait, Fire Opal, Mahjoun, Sienna, Cimabue–the list goes on!
Yes, someone mentioned this line the other day, and I added it to The List. Oh, the ever-growing List…Not enough time in the day, not enough days in the year to try everything…
Thanks for the list!
The Dirty Rose sounds fantastic. I love dirtied, patchoulied (Is that even a word?), dark rose fragrances. It always seems like such a fun contradiction.
I love dark roses too.
Num, num. Love me some ‘manhandled, bruised, dragged through the mud, rugged, dirty’ rose. I mean, what’s not to like?!
Nothing!
Well, add my name to the list of those who have never sampled DSH, but who would like to! She’s been on my list for a while and the other day Carol at What a Fragrance Fanatic Thinks blogged about her Cardamom and Kyphi, which sounded glorious.
Speaking of “dirty roses” – I’m wearing Voleur de Roses today. I’ve yet to find the rose, but I love it anyway! BTW, can a French speaker tell me, shouldn’t it be Voleur DES Roses since “roses” is plural?
HA! Rappleyea, you’ve finally articulated what I have wondered about for a long time and often bothers me. I’m only moderately proficient in French, yet I think phrases such as “jardin de fleurs” and “jardin DES fleurs” show up with almost equal frequency. I don’t understand the nuances of the difference, if any.
Also, I love VdR, but I’ve yet to find the “rose” as well.
C&K is really nice. Don’t know French so can’t help on the other.
IF I’m remembering my French correctly, the feminine article is la, the masculine is le and the plural is les. De is more or less the preposition ‘of’ (i.e. Thief OF the Roses). Used with the articles it would become de la for the feminine, du for the masculine (instead of de le) and des for the plural (instead of de les).
Maybe I’ll wander over to Grain de Musc and ask Carmencanada.
I shudder to think how long it’s been since I studied French… but can confirm your summary. The one thought I had is that in French, as in English, you might say “garden of flowers” in some (probably most) contexts, and “garden of THE flowers” in others… so jardin de fleurs or jardin des fleurs, respectively.
But do they drop the article, in your example the ‘les’ or is it always understood whether or not you would translate it as such?
I always feel vaguely guilty about overlooking this line (as well as AL and SSS), but it really is difficult when you have to go to the perfume house’s own Web site, and DSH’s site isn’t the user-friendliest. She took reader questions on Perfume Posse a few months ago, and there were lots of suggestions for improving the Web site (including user reviews and better categories) and offering more sample packs, so hopefully she’ll make it easier to navigate soon.
Agree, it could be better laid out, and also think the division into 2 lines (Beaux Arts & Essence Oils) makes it harder.
I have tested a lot of DSHs lately, with very mixed results. A number of them – possibly because of their high usage of naturals – have a strange opening that I have come to call the “DSH house skank note”. It isn’t based around civet, but it is dirty and muddy, a bit mouldy even. Sometimes it lifts in a bit and the fragrance blooms, sometimes it doesn’t. The ratio in my trials so far has been about 50/50. So the dirty rose scent above looks a prime contender to have DSH skank throughout and I shall avoid. The Cyan looks clean and interesting though.
My favourites (real, real loves) – and I have Memechose to thank for directing me towards two of them – are Cimabue, Tamarind Paprika and Jitterbug. Arome d’Egypte, Umber, Cafe Noir, Mahjoun and Blonde Suede (or some such) were ghastly beyond my worst imaginings. I am sure I even detected civet in Cafe Noir, which is not customary at any Starbucks I’ve been to.
But overall, I would say the gems are well worth getting down, dirty and partly disappointed for !
Oh, I like Mahjoun! But have not tried most of the others you mention, other than Cimabue which is wonderful.
I actually have tested every DSH perfume on 8 different skin types..
mahjoun, cimbaue and essenza dell ibisco are great for me milky skin. let me know your favorite other fumes and i can make recommendation. I curated flittersniffers!!! and she loved ALL my picks esp tamarind paprika.
Dawn has a huge line so i am happy to help.
robin, i like dirty rose too, but on me its not dirty enough
toog reen for me, give me nahema 
but for most people its one of her best scents. it started out created for men, but everyone loves and is buying it.. I had the pleasure of naming cyan, very beautiful, soft almost a japanese aesthetic. te vert is great for tea lovers.her color series if you like sweet go for the Quindonione Violet, amazing. .
Hello, all on NST! Thank you Robin for posting about my new dirtyROSE and Cyan perfumes! And, since the collections are so extensive, I would be happy to answer any questions you might have about what to try first, etc. just email me at dsh@dshperfumes.com.
ps: Thank you to everyone who has commented on these scents! It makes any artist feel great when there are lots of comments