Frédéric Malle has painted the discovery sets red? Or were they already red and I didn't notice? One for women (Carnal Flower, Eau de Magnolia, En Passant, Iris Poudre, Portrait of a Lady and Une Rose) and one for men (Bigarade Concentrée, French Lover, Géranium pour Monsieur, Monsieur, Musc Ravageur and Vétiver Extraordinaire); each set is six x 1.2 ml, €25 at Malle in the EU.
Enough to make me care about Valentine's Day: the Frédéric Malle Roses Coffret, with 7 ml bottles of Lipstick Rose, Portrait of a Lady, Promise, Rose & Cuir and Une Rose ($175 at Bloomingdales). And why not throw in one of the newly (and betterly) repackaged perfume guns in Rosa Rugosa (€140 for 450 ml at Frédéric Malle in the EU)?
I’ve never met perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena, but from what I’ve seen, heard and read (interviews, his own books) I like him. I enjoy (and own) many of his perfumes and, like Georgia O’Keeffe, Ellena shows that wrinkles do not tarnish sex appeal or good looks. Best of all, Ellena comes across as unpretentious, sensible, fun.
Enter stage left: Mr. Serious (aka Frédéric Malle).
In Frédéric Malle’s video of the making of Rose & Cuir,* Malle talks of Ellena’s “periods” as a perfumer…
Rose & Cuir’s origin story begins in a verdant garden planted more than 70 years ago by Edmond Roudnitska, the perfumer behind such midcentury masterpieces as Diorella and Diorissimo, outside his Côte d’Azur studio. It was there that Roudnitska first smelled the vivid crimson Etoile de Hollande rose that inspired him to create Rose de Rochas for couturier Marcel Rochas in 1949, and there that, in 2018, Roudnitska’s son Michel happened to wave that long-discontinued eau under the discerning nostrils of [Frédéric] Malle and [Jean-Claude] Ellena.
— Read more at Jean-Claude Ellena Is the Picasso of Perfume at Town & Country.
Frédéric Malle and perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena talk about Rose & Cuir.