When it comes to rose perfumes, I have my favourites – vintage Nahema, Portrait of a Lady, and Galop d’Hermès – to which other roses can never seem to hold a candle; they are always too jammy, too flouncy, too insipid, too girlish. Yes, there are a plethora of pretty roses out there to be picked from the shelves of parfumeries and department store fragrance counters, but few have that je ne sais quoi that makes them truly special. Rose 1845 Eau de Parfum is one of those rare few.
Composed by master perfumer Christopher Laudamiel for the supremely luxurious, refreshingly uncomplicated Rose 1845 haircare brand of NYC-based Australian ballet dancer-cum-hair stylist Lazarus Douvos, Rose 1845 Eau de Parfum stands out in the crowded field of roses for a number of reasons; the exceptional quality of its carefully sourced materials, the complex artistry of its composition (a hallmark of Laudamiel’s work), and the entirely unique way it unfurls on the skin over the course of its wear – but more on this later.
By way of an official notes list, the Lazarus Douvos website offers:
Rose de Mai, Rose Otto, Tasmanian boronia, Tasmanian myrtle, cedarwood, tonka, Benzoin Siam, amber wood
Spicier and darker than the brand’s own notes list might suggest, in my experience Rose 1845 wears closer to this:
Rose de Mai, Rose Otto, bergamot, geranium. Tasmanian myrtle. Tasmanian Boronia leaves, immortelle, benzoin, cinnamon, cedar, tonka, patchouli
To wear Rose 1845 is to experience firsthand the evocative nature of olfaction. In this, Douvos and Laudamiel have rendered the blooming of a rosebush, but not in the sense of tender buds unfurling to reveal velvety rose heads. Rather, Laudamiel has thrown the blossoming vision into rewind so that Rose 1845 opens in full bloom, then reverses through the rosebush’s natural life cycle from rose head to woody root and everything between. The experience is an enjoyably curious one, afforded only by Laudamiel’s evident mastery of compositional structure.
Rose 1845 opens with a profusion of delicate Rose de Mai and dark, heady Damask rose essences – their overt velvety plushness giving the impression of almost-past-their-prime rose heads. Soon thereafter, the arrival of bergamot and green, sweetly nuanced geranium wind back the clock on said roses, returning them to their delicate, yet bloomed buds. Then, further backwards in time, the camphorous herbality of Tasmanian myrtle and Boronia leaves (both of which impart a strangely Australiana familiarity to the perfume) and toasted immortelle render an image of the thorny mottled-green rosebush as it becomes increasingly woody towards the base with cinnamon and cedar. Later in the dry down, coumarin-rich tonka mingles with the now caramelised profile of the immortelle and loamy darkness of patchouli to paint an image of the bush’s earthen roots.
Rose 1845 is intoxicatingly melancholic in feel, equally sultry, and uniquely beautiful in a style I have never before come across in a rose perfume. An Eau De Parfum only by name – with a 24% oil concentration it is technically an Extrait de Parfum, and it wears like one – Rose 1845 happens to be a BIG perfume in all senses of the word; it is as complex in its structure as it is enormous in its sillage and projection, though at all times as refined as the brand for which it was created. Extraordinary.
Rose 1845 isn’t (yet) widely available, but for lovers of robust roses and/or dark orientals, this is one I cannot recommend enough that you seek out.
Year of Release: 2020
Creative Direction: Lazarus Douvos
Perfumer: Christophe Laudamiel
Alternatives: Serge Lutens L’innommable
Available: www.rose1845bylazarus.com from US$290, 100ml