My garden is crazy with roses these days. They splash pink and mauve near the street and waft fruity, peppery fragrance to my neighbors’ porches. I’m greedy with them, and four vases of Madame Isaac Pereire, La Reine Victoria, and Jude the Obscure in varying stages of decrepitude crowd the dining room table (I love their perfume best just as they start to shrivel), and another few vases are crammed on the mantle.
But other than on the stem, the scent of roses doesn’t move me. Sure, I love the occasional spritz of Guerlain Nahéma when I’m feeling over the top, and a dose of Parfum d’Empire Eau Suave is marvelously fresh on a warm day, but otherwise rose can feel institutional and even dowdy. But now, when my garden is flush with roses, it seems right to revisit two often overlooked rose-centered fragrances: Lancôme Miracle and Estée Lauder Intuition.
Of the two fragrances, Lancôme Miracle is the most rosy, although it’s a rose loaded with black pepper and tinged with vetiver and musk. Miracle, developed by perfumer Alberto Morillas with Harry Fremont, launched in 2000. Its notes include lychee, freesia, magnolia, ginger, pepper, musk, amber and jasmine.
Miracle is a fresh, black pepper-laden rose that smells just like what is broadcast through the lobby at a fancy hotel near my office. It’s a touch fruity, but not enough to make your mouth water. It’s green, but not tart or edgy. It’s spicy, but not enough to be pushy. It’s clean, but you wouldn’t mistake it for detergent — at least not for grocery store detergent.
It’s difficult to whip up any strong emotion about Miracle, including dislike. I wouldn’t mind a gallon-sized bottle of Miracle to use when I wash lingerie, and I’d recommend it with confidence on Mother’s Day, no matter who Mom is. Miracle is a sure bet, but unlikely to kindle passion.
Estée Lauder Intuition also launched in 2000, and was also an Alberto Morillas creation. Its notes include bergamot, Mandarin orange, grapefruit, fresh green garden notes, Rose Double Delight, gardenia petals, freesia, Chinese rhododendron, amber, warm-skin accord and precious woods.
Intuition is a more sultry take on rose, with a heavier hit of musk, amber, and powder. Intuition kicks off with grapefruit-heavy citrus, but rose-powder-amber are evident from the start. A streak of stemmy green runs through the composition, keeping Intuition’s powdery heart from veering into Kotex territory.
As the perfume ages on skin, a sweet musk emerges, and the powder dies down. This sweet musk — not a clean nor hippie nor skanky musk, but a sweet woody musk — lasts for hours. Intuition comes off as wanting to be sexy but not wanting to offend. The result is comfortable and benign, sort of like an over-powdered auntie with a withered décolletage and lots of good stories.
Neither Miracle nor Intuition rocks my world enough to inspire me to buy a bottle, and the minis I have will probably go sour before I can use them. But both fragrances are pleasant and easy. Given some of the aggressively musky-woody fragrances launched at the mall over the past few years (I sampled Dolce & Gabbana The One Desire a few days ago and felt like someone had jammed an ice pick up my nose) I’m feeling nostalgic for the pretty even if slightly industrial mass-market releases of the early 2000s.
Lancôme Miracle and Estée Lauder Intuition are both widely available at department stores in fragrance and body products. Miracle Eau de Parfum is $65 for 50 ml and $85 for 100 ml. Intuition Eau de Parfum is $60 for 50 ml and $80 for 100 ml.
Note: top image is La Reine Victoria [cropped] by Rhian vK at flickr; some rights reserved.
I much prefer my roses on the stem as well. Part of it is many rose perfumes don’t still well with me. But then there is just something about watching a bud open over the course of a week, or more, into this glorious blossom. I can dip my nose in whenever I choose but don’t have to smell it all day long. Yup, on the stem!
That said, I do need to check out Miracle. I’ve missed that one!
Roses smell so wonderful that I’m not sure why I shy away from wearing them as perfume so often. Maybe it’s their prevalence in all kinds of scented cleaners and fresheners that makes me think less of them as “perfume.” It’s hard to say.
Miracle may not live up to its name, but it’s a good, basic, non-offensive peppery rose and worth a sniff.
Hey, do you know a good (cheap) non-Pacifica rose? I have and frequently wear Pacifica’s, but with summer coming and the humidity being what I know it’ll be, I could certainly use a fresher/greener/lighter version of a rose perfume.
I like Parfum d’Empire Eau Suave for just what you’re talking about, and while it isn’t as expensive as some niche fragrances, I wouldn’t call it cheap. I wonder if L’Occitane or Crabtree & Evelyn have a good, light rose?
I’m wearing Noble Rose of Afghanistan today. It smells natural, light, and a little spicy. I think that it does well in the heat.
“Noble Rose”–great name.
I know Crabtree & Evelyn has a Rosewater perfume, and I’m pretty sure L’Occitane does have a rose. There is also Lush Imogen Rose, which you can get in a 9ml for about $15. TokyoMilk makes a scent called Gin & Rosewater that might be worth a try too. TokyoMilk’s perfume line is also pretty inexpensive at $30 for 30ml.
Thanks for the recommendations! The Gin & Rosewater sounds especially intriguing.
Ah, thanks Sweetgrass, I’d forgotten all about the TokyoMilk. I have a sample somewhere, I think…
Roger & Gallet used to have a really nice rose cologne. L’Occitanne rose 4 reines is worth a sniff, too.
I used to love the Roget & Gallet carnation soaps. Never tried the rose, though.
I found a 4oz. bottle of Tea Rose by The Perfumer’s Workshop awhile back at T.J. Maxx for $10. I don’t think it gets much cheaper than that.
That’s a terrific deal!
Can I come visit and go to your TJ Maxx? Mine seems stuck in Elizabeth Taylor’s abandoned midwestern warehouse…and it’s going to be 90 degrees at 8 in the morning any day now…
I pretty much don’t go to the Lancome counter after Tresor Midnight Rose, which is an overdose of raspberry in a bad way. Not impressed with the line at all, Le Vie is another cavity ick I can do without. Miracle, is a fresh, something to wear when you don’t really want something to wear scent to me.
That’s a great description of Miracle.
But don’t write off the Lancome counter altogether! If you can find a counter big enough, they might have Climat and a few other old beauties. (I wish Cuir de Lancome weren’t discontinued.)
I have never sniffed Climat! I will have to one of these days. Haven’t sniffed Cuir either but not really a huge leather fan, at least as a main player in a scent. Thanks for your reviews, I like yours:)
Thank you! Climat is a classic old green scent–light and fusty but nice.
To my nose Miracle and OJ Champaca are incredibly similar.
I wish I thought the same! I adore Champaca, and it’s so danged hard to get. I’ll have to approach my Miracle mini with a more open mind and see if I can ease out any Champaca.
I actually found them to be extremely similar, too! champaca seems slightly less green, a bit softer, and less “sharp”, but yes–very, very similar to my nose as well. I knew it reminded me of something as soon as I sprayed it, and now I know what it was!
I am going straight to my decant of Champaca to try it again! I’d love having a less expensive, easier-to-get alternative.
We have native roses (I’m in California) in our front yard. They smell wonderful — like carnation perfume. My friend grows Jude the Obscure –nice rose.
The native roses sound wonderful. I tend to like old fashioned roses rather than the often scentless hybrid tea roses, too.
Ahh, Miracle! This came out my sophomore year of high school and I went through at least 2 bottles in high school. Miracle may, in fact, have been my prom perfume. I still have a bit of Miracle So Magic! that I wear once or twice a year when I want something nice, clean, and inoffensive.
I’m not sure I’d want to wear anything that reminded me of my prom! (Which leads me to wonder what perfume I might have been wearing? Can’t remember, strangely.)
Lol, I didn’t go to prom but one scent I can’t remember was what I wore for my wedding day, not even sure if I spritzed some on-I think so? Lol, but ahh, blame it on the jitters.
Maybe a good perfume would have calmed the jitters!
At least you had one. I went to prom direct from work, so I was wearing Eau de Baskin-Robbins.
I hope there was some Jamoca-Almond Fudge mixed in there!
Angela, I am in shock! Never took any of these to be a rose fragrance. I loved the first edition of Miracle because it was heavy on the ginger and I love ginger. Now it’s more flowery, more rosy, in fact it’s like someone used up 1/2 bottle of the original Miracle and topped it up with Estee Lauder Pleasures. Do you know any good ginger fragrance?
Intuition, now that’s something I’ve worn, all 100 ml of it. It was a present from an old-fashioned guy and it glowed ambery, dusty orange like a pomander. I agree about the auntie note but still, better than Karl Lagerfeld’s Sun, Moon, Stars the same old-fashioned guy presented me when intuition finished. Sun Moon Stars went straight to a friend’s mother-in-law who enjoyed every drop 🙂
They may not be masterpieces but they are recognizable. Which is more than I can say about the new releases of today…
That’s one of the things that struck me so distinctly about both these releases–trends sure have changed, and not–in my mind–for the better. I will be SO GLAD when the sweet musky thing goes AWAY. Ick.
Le Labo Iris 39 has a good ginger note going…
Thanks Angela for the ginger suggestion, will investigate!
Regarding the ick, I hate to be moaning like an old lady about the fragrances of “my time” but that’s exactly what I did when even the wonderful Dolce & Gabbana Femme (red velvety box) was replaced with a sweet sticky syrupy … nothing. Just do not get this trend. If it weren’t for the lovely imaginative flacons, you couldn’t tell them apart!
We are on the exact same page, sister.
I thought Miracle smelled different last time I sniffed it. Maybe it was different from the Miracle years ago but can’t remember.
I wouldn’t be surprised at all.
I really like Origins’ Ginger!
Oh, good one!
Although I like a few rose soliflores, I have never smelled one that really captured the actual quality of a fresh rose. Of all the scents in nature I think the perfume of a rose (especially a dark red one – don’t know the actual species) is the most beautiful. Truthfully, it is far more beautiful than anything else I have ever smelled. And that comes from someone who is not a big fan of florals!
Roses are best smelled in a garden, I think, while you’re lounging with a book on a sunny afternoon. Heaven.
I am always searching for the smell of a rose on the bush. Kugler’s has a rose that smells like it has the dew on it, but a rather synthetic mid-note. Although Lutens Fils De Berlin has been described as a sexy rose, I think it also has that “fresh rose vibe.” I recently bought AG’s Rose Absolue because the top notes also have that dew-on-a-tea rose feel, but the dry down is a rather deeper rose.
Rose Etoile of Holland by Mono Di Orio is a also a very good rose solifore, but it smells like a perfumer’s idea of “rose” rather than an actual flower. It is also pricier than the other options.
There’s something nice about a perfume that smells like roses with thorns! Rose fragrances can be so subtle. Someday it would be nice to do a blind sniffing, side-by-side, of a handful of them.
I think perfumes like D.K. Gold and Un Lys do a very good job of capturing the smell of a real live lily; but no perfume I have smelled has done a comparable job of capturing the smell of a rose.
Some are closer than others – Parfum Sacre is clearly dried rose petals, for instance while Sa Majeste comes much closer to the ‘spirit’ of a live rose.
I think once you add earth in, or ‘thorns’ in, it becomes easier. An earthy scent can be done with patchouli, and it seems that a slight metallic edge gives people the idea of thorns.
But simply the actual multi-dimensional scent impression that one gets when one sniffs a deep red rose – I haven’t found anything that comes close!
The texture of a rose plays so much into it, I think–the velvety petals and shape of the flower.
I like my rose fragrances dark and spicy, so neither of these sounds right for me. And ita with your comment about the current woody/musky trend. Icepick, wood spike, whatever. This stuff is sinus-piercing. That and blinding white musk. These base notes are ubiquitous, even in the niche houses.
I wish they would just quit! Honestly.
Member Magnifique? Not sure if that lasted long..but have been wanting to revisit it to sniff the notes cause I can’t remember what smelled like.
It didn’t come out all that long ago, but I barely remember smelling it now. I think it’s still on the shelves.
Oh no! Hotel lobby (‘foyer’ where I live) and withered decolletage! Now I’m imagining the decolletage lady sitting in the hotel telling her stories. Do you remember the American woman at the beginning of Daphne du Maurier’s *Rebecca*? Mrs van Hopper, or something … I’m trying to imagine a perfume for her. Something old fashioned, with a Lauder-esqe ability to broadcast itself across the street and make people want to duck for cover. Youth Dew, perhaps, except that I LIKE Youth Dew.
I will try Miracle though, as I’m interested in peppery rose. Le Labo’s stupidly priced Baie Rose 26 is the pepperiest (sp?) I know – but very dry and stemmy too.
I remember that lady! She’s an iconic character–the American of a certain age who thinks she knows best and thinks she is best society. I was thinking of a friendlier aunt, though: one who had a wild past but is now happily settled with her stories and toned-down perfume.
Yes indeed, I get you. I like your lady. (Emeraude might be another perfume in her wardrobe maybe?)
Mrs van Hopper’s behavior sent the poor un-named girl in du Maurier’s story straight into a near-disastrous marriage. Ack.
That was such a good movie–and book! So moody.
Near disasterous? (The book is less ambiguous than the movie.)
The first Mrs. DeWinter (Rebecca) would have gotten herself a time machine to buy Ormonde Jayne WOman, However, once she had traveled to contemporary London, she would have realized life is so much easier when you are not expected to marry a man “of a certain class” and can love whom you please.. Rebecca would have just stayed here in the present.
I can see Rebecca wearing Carnal Flower very nicely, though, don’t you? (Of course, Mrs. Danvers would have had to wear a few dabs, too.)
That woman would have worn Joy, not because of a love for florals, but because it was the most expensive perfume in the world at that time, and advertised itself as such. She would have loved that the air around her said, ” I am richer than you and so I can decide what you breathe.”
I can totally see that. She would have worn Joy and announced it. (Although I do like the idea of her in Youth Dew.)
Have you tried that Berlin by Lutens? I haven’t gotten to it but am interested in sniffing that peppered rose..even though, not many Lutens scents have stricken my fancy yet.
I have tried it and liked it–as much as I like rose soliflores, at least. I’m a fan of lots of the Serge Lutenses, though.
Speaking about The One Desire (By D&G) WHAT IN THE HELL IS IT With these fragrances Nowadays using whatever this Synthetic Thin Yet SHARP, SHRILL, STINKY Musk note that Buzzes through ones Head and Nostrils like a Chainsaw Through the Texas Massacre??? I can’t even begin to say how many new fragrances have given me THROBBING Headaches from that Urinous Musk that pervades… Most Horrifically In The recent Versace Eros… (OH GOD, How i didn’t WANT to agree with Kevin here about this scent, but JEEZ LOUISE! THIS IS JUST PAINFUL JUICE!) It, In the First, Does not smell MUSKY at all… just Ammoniated, Second, It’s SO SHRILL and SPIKY that it instantly causes one’s head to reel like Jimmy Stewart In “Vertigo” Do these Perfumers think this is actual Haute Perfumery? and with the PLETHORA Of Real Live Deer and Oxen out there that they could extract Musk from… I cannot even begin to think what is the reasoning behind using this Chemically, Nasty and Obnoxious Synthetic Note! URGHHH!!!!!
I hate that musk note, too! It’s awful, and your comparison to Jimmy Stewart in Vertigo is spot on. (I always identified with poor Midge, alas. Always a Midge, never a Kim Novak.)
But I’m sure there are lots of decent synthetic musks–I know there are! Heck, I’d take Coty Wild Musk over any of them.
Absolutely Agree… I am sure there are Dozens of other Synthetic Musks that don’t Cause the desire to Vomit because one’s head feels like it’s Spinning A La Linda Blair Circa 1974!
When we start requiring priests to cast out the musk, we’ll know things have really gone too far…
Totally cracked up *
I’m in the minority here but I actually liked The One Desire…at least on tester strip. The true test would be wearing it…perhaps it will turn all Florabotanica on me and I have to scrub it off!
I liked fine on a tester strip, too. If you do try it on skin, my advice is to keep it to a small portion of skin. The stuff wears like iron.
But that said, do let me know what you think! Maybe it smells terrific on you.
Oh yes, yes, yes! You have hit the nail on the head (or the icepick up the nose)! That synthetic musk is so terribly “urinous”, and nobody ever listens to me when I say that. I also say that this particular musk smells like kidneys, so I guess that’s form of urinous. It’s particularly noticeable to me in acutal laundry musks which the manufacturers dose their fabric conditioners and detergents with, and which make my shopping trips hellish because I can smell them on everybody’s clothes. And yet nobody else seems to mind, and I keep wondering if my sense of smell is skewed. But I am not alone, thank goodness!
Apologies for bad grammar and typing – got so excited that I was carried away!
I love the passion!
You probably have more synthetic musk receptors in your nostrils than most people- sort of a reverse of people like me who can’t smell Ambroxyn.
Thanks, Dilana – I shall tell my husband that I am a “super sniffer”!
The clean musks are iffy to me in their own way, but the musks I’m talking about are a little different. Musk can be so great–or horrendous!
Yep.
‘ and with the PLETHORA Of Real Live Deer and Oxen out there that they could extract Musk from.’
???????????
Oh my goodness … in my excitement didn’t see this. No, I can’t approve of this. There are good synthetics out there, it’s just that manufacturers are using cheap versions.
Where I live here, In Michigan… We have such Over population of Deer that it is perfectly legal and state sanctioned to Hunt Deer to help control over population… I Know That Animal lovers have made anything involving killing any pretty little living thing, but it is a clear necessity, and since so many are hunted to prevent overpopulation they could use those that are killed to extract musk from. Oxen are plentiful as well and are slaughtered for hides and meat too… so why not replace these TERRIFYING Synths with the real thing…????
You know, once again you have hit the nail on the head. I can’t abide animal cruelty and yet I am hypocritical enough to eat meat, and I guess that if animals are going to be culled or killed for meat, the least one can do is honour their lives by using everything they have to offer. I always think of the movie “Last of the Mohicans” in which they give thanks for the life of the deer they have killed for meat and skins, and that’s what we should do.
We have the same population issues here, and a large group of hunters who when they hunt deer, they donate the meat to the local homeless shelters. So I do understand where you’re coming from with the deer, and the impetus to put the entire animal at risk. The problem is that it opens up the moral/ethical loophole that leads to wasteful hunting where only specific parts of the animal are taken (bear gall) and poaching of other musk-bearing species (beavers). So better (it’s thought, anyway) to use synthetics or certified vintage musk preparations than to re-open the whole can of worms.
Unfortunately, in the case of most modern, mainstream, musk-wielding frags.
*sigh* At risk, really? That bit should have been “put the entire animal to use.” I blame multitasking.
Anything that bypasses factory farming is a good thing. Personally i think culling is a good idea for controlling the burgeoning human population which is the greatest threat to the ecosystem.
And, just to get this straight: synthetic musks used in perfume are TERRIFYING but a blase attitude to killing (possibly for cosmetic reasons) is totally ok?
No And Yes. I am not going to pretend to act like I am an Animal Activist in ANY Manner… I am Most ASSUREDLY NOT. Nor though do I Support CRUELTY. there is a Difference. Killing Animals to Control Population or even for Meat… is as ancient as the Human Race is. I do not endorse someone beating animals or slaughtering just for the hell of it. No, THAT Is Cruelty, But for things Like Leather and Meat… if the animal is being Slaughtered anyway, why not Honor it and use everything that can be used?
I don’t know whether I would count as an ‘activist’ or not. I don’t have a position on many existing issues. I try not to eat meat because a) many studies show meat to be unhealthy – especially in the quantities most people eat it and b) the condition in which animals are bred, fed and killed, in today’s factories is truly abominable. Schopenhauer once said that this was hell – animals the suffering souls and we, the demons.
It is only possible to eat ordinary factory ‘produced’ meat if one determinedly puts the relevant facts out of ones mind…
Yes, humans have always eaten meat but hundreds of years ago they were less efficient at breeding and slaughtering. Animals had a life in between being born and being killed; they saw the sun, they mated, they fed on real food. Now some never see the sun, they are born in painful conditions, fed artificial chemicals and hormones which increase their suffering, and then are killed.
This is not a matter of debate. Its just the way it is.
I decided to wear my original (purchased in 2002) Miracle. It does not smell of roses to me at all. I get the peppery notes, but other than that it smells green.
Interesting! I wonder if future reformulations really pushed up the rose? To me, rose is front and center beyond the pepper, and ginger isn’t very prominent.
I have been wearing La fille de Berlin for the past two weeks (managed to get a couple of samples, and I’m a light sprayer). I love it: I feel enveloped in a warm, sweet cocoon. I *am* a lush, dark-red rose. I think – if we ever get a summer here in London – that bees are going to want to get pollen from me. LOL!
I envision a velvety red rose walking past Big Ben (I have to rely on my movie knowledge of London) with fuzzy black and gold bees following her. I love it!
LOL! I don’t walk past Big Ben very often, but the last time I did – late at night, after going to the National Theatre – I saw a fox running towards Parliament Square. He had probably been to a late session in the House of Commons (which is full of wolves, foxes and assorted savage beasts).
A fox! It makes a person wonder at just how quickly nature would take over a city if people left it.
(And yes, I imagine a few weasels were among the crew!)
It ain’t cheap, but I still turn to SL Sa Majeste La Rose whenever I want a fresh simple garden rose. I was taught by the SA to use shake it, unscrew the spritzer, and just wipe the slender plastic tube attached lightly on my skin. That’s what keeps it smelling real instead smothering which is how I experience most other roses.
I also use it to punch up the rose in things like Ikebana Rose, which I always thought favored the rhubarb note too strongly. I even use it with Brin de Reglisse, which, probably because the rose is by nature sweet, brings out the licorice a little more from under the lavender – and also makes BdeR last longer than 5 minutes.
I’ve never heard that tip with the SL atomizer! I’d be afraid of subjecting the perfume to air, but I suppose that air simply touches the surface–and you could always decant some into a smaller atomizer. Interesting!
Yes, and you would collect minute fragments of skin too. Not such a good idea. I’m surprised an SL SA would recommend this.
Real roses!
For years my greatest pleasure in visiting flower fairs (are they called that way?) has been unleashing my nose on the array of rose varieties and smell and marvel and smell again.
I never treated myself with a plant because I have no garden (just two small balconies) and didn’t want to see my rose suffer in a pot, but this year I couldn’t resist and bought a wonderfully scented rose, called Gertrude Jeckyll – I was assured by the seller that it is a very robust variety, so I hope it won’t suffer too much in a pot.
I discovered afterwards that indeed my Gertrude is prized for its scent.
I’ve been filling my house with the beautiful flowers since my purchase: what a treat!!! I’m in love with my little plant.
p.s.
I used to hate hate hate rose perfumes, especially rose soliflores and rose+patch fumes.
But I think I’m in love now with FK lumière noire. Go figure!
I also occasionally like JHAG Lady Vengeance…
How wonderful to have your own rose bush! It’s almost like cooking–there’s something extra special about a cake you’ve baked yourself and a rose you’ve nurtured yourself.
Wish I could smell it! Perhaps I need to start attending these markets:)