From Korean beauty brand Mamonde, Rose Water Gel Cream: "Mamonde Rose Water Gel Cream is a refreshing, watery gel cream infused with 68.7% Damask Rose Water. Envelop skin in refreshing rose-infused hydration. Their water gel-cream contains 68.7% Damask Rose Water to bathe skin in intense, lasting moisture. The roses for our formula are hand-picked at their peak in the morning dew for the most soothing, hydrating benefit. Leaves complexion soft, fresh and dewy." $26 for 80 ml at Ulta.
From Portland Syrups, Rose Cordial ("Fragrant, whole dried rose blossoms and petals are slow-brewed in stages with dried rose hips, to capture the flower’s essence at several stages of its expression. It is sweet and tart with a subdued but complex floral character, and is extremely versatile. Wonderfully refreshing on it’s [sic] own, or add clear liquors for an especially delightful cocktail.") and Rose City Tonic Syrup ("Portland's own House Spirits approached us to create a tonic that paired with their award-winning Aviation gin. This authentically-brewed whole-ingredient tonic, made with genuine cinchona bark, features a delicate floral layer that supports but does not compete with Aviation's spice roster. Cinchona, the bittering bark from which tonics get their quinine, delivers a complex, gently astringent tonic “bite.” This makes the driest gin and tonic you'll find — simply stir it with a bit of sparkling water prior to building your drink."). $14 each for 473 ml.
Myrrhe Églantine is one of the five new Hermessence fragrances from Hermès. They’re the first additions to the series from house perfumer Christine Nagel, and before you go complaining about the five, don’t forget that the Hermessences debuted under Jean-Claude Ellena — way back in 2004, a kabillion perfumes ago! — with four: Ambre Narguile, Poivre Samarcande, Rose Ikebana, Vetiver Tonka. And, happily for me, I’m only going to worry about three of the new ones, since two are expensive perfume oils I’ll probably never manage to get my hands on. As for Agar Ebène, Cèdre Sambac and Myrrhe Églantine, I bought those unsniffed right away, in the (swap-bait) 15 ml travel sizes. I’m starting with Myrrhe Églantine, largely because I was curious what Nagel would do with it, given that there’s already a rose in the series.
Hermès is a luxury house, and they do luxury press jaunts to match,1 but they’re not known for providing the sort of persnickety details that perfumistas adore, like say, a list of notes…
Just in case you haven’t noticed, the phrases “conscious consumerism” and “sustainable luxury” have been appearing with increasing frequency over the past year or two. And now we have Sana Jardin, “the world’s first socially-conscious, luxury fragrance house. . . . created primarily as a vehicle for social change to power social impact through the economic empowerment of women through The Beyond Sustainability™ Movement.”
If you’d like to do some reading about Sana Jardin’s back story and business model, you can find plenty of information on the company website. I’ll limit myself to brief reviews of three Sana Jardin fragrances (from a collection of seven, all developed by perfumer Carlos Benaïm) that I’ve been trying over the past week or so, and you can decide for yourself what socially conscious fragrance might be and how far you’re willing to go for it…
Les Parfums de Rosine is a perfume line that generally “works” for me. It’s like an olfactory version of a favorite musical artist: I may not love everything they release, but I find most of their creations likable and wearable, so I give every new one a try. Rosine recently launched Rose Nue, described as a “skin perfume” combining rose with “a green and powdery accord.” Rose Nue was developed by perfumer Delphine Lebeau and its notes include tangerine, aldehydes, rose leaves, rose, heliotrope, vanilla, sandalwood, ambroxan, suede and musk.
Rose Nue was reportedly inspired by the Cuisse de Nymphe Emue rose; Cuisse de Nymphe Emue (“thigh of an aroused nymph”) is also, apparently, the name for a certain shade of blush pink…