 |
Rochas Man Eau de Toilette
by lillamarta
Launched: 1999
Group: Woody Spicy
INTRODUCTION
Over the years I have collected miniature fragrances from practically all major fragrance or designer houses including some from Rochas, a French haute couture house that released about 40 fragrances since its foundation in 1925.
THE PACKAGING
Well, ... maybe it's just me but the frosted cone-shaped upside-down bottle kind of jumps out at me being something Freud would have classified as a phallic object - a representation of power, well the power of attraction in this case! Let's face it, not many traditional houses would put out a man's fragrance in a metallic pink box or the cheeky plastic case my miniature comes in. Actually, I quite like the playful and fun design which just like the scent doesn't take itself too seriously.
THE FRAGRANCE
Top notes: bergamot, lavender
Man opens up with a huge waft of vanilla, the type of sweet, linear, 1990's type of baking vanilla found abundantly in fragrances of the era. It immediately blends in with lavender that helps cut through the sugar and give the beginning some freshness. The accord is like a richer, sweeter and creamier version of the opening of Belle en Rykiel for Women that somehow still works without being tooth-achingly sugary and cloying.
Heart notes: jasmine, cedarwood, lily-of-the-valley, raspberry, cappuccino
Some minutes later a darker, woody-like note joins in that at first feels like sweet cedarwood that again offers some contrast against the thick cloud of suave cupcake aroma floating about. Later on, an aromatic note kicks in that I recognise as the mocha note from my Belle en Rykiel fragrance offset by the fresh, sweet scent of lavender. There are no other floral notes I detect here as the most dominant for me is the sweet cedar wrapped up in that ever present vanillic whipped cream effect that interweaves fragrance right until the end.
Base notes: amber, patchouli, sandalwood, vanilla
After about 6 - 8 hours most of the explicit sweetness of the vanilla is already gone and the fragrance enters its least sweet phase as a soft, clean and musky type of smell similar to its big brother Pour Un Homme de Caron at the end. The result is a comforting, fuzzy blanket of light vanilla supported by some dusty woods to balance out the sweetness. The base is also the most masculine part for me only detectable very close to the skin in the final 2 - 3 hours.
CONCLUSION
Rochas Man is a fairly linear sweet, vanilla and creamy cappuccino scent where the main emphasis lies on its exaggerated smoothness and creaminess. Right after spraying it's sweet vanilla ice-cream and is pretty much what you'll get in the first 5 - 6 hours plus some creamy cappuccino and a dash of lavender.That in itself isn't a bad thing if you're looking for stability rather than complexity and layers which Rochas Man obviously doesn't possess. Its projection is intimate and its sillage is sweet, clean and rather unisex if I could get away with wearing it for a couple of days at work and no one raised an eyebrow.
Whilst not hugely original - two blueprints of vanilla - lavender - Un Homme de Caron and Le Male - come into mind - it manages to seduce with its charming and playful simplicity. Man is a well put together, young and playful gourmand that's quite sweet but never goes over the top. A simple, easy-to-wear, versatile oriental vanilla scent that doesn't come with the heavy price tag like its more sophisticated and complex brothers such as Le Male or A*Men. I recommend it for any man regardless of age that like young-at-heart, sweet, vanilla-based gourmand fragrances with an aromatic twist.
PRICE AND AVAILABILITY
Available at some department stores or online on eBay or Amazon for around £22.45 / 50ml and £35.66 / 100ml Eau de Toilette. The lower concentration aftershave can be bought for £12.50 / 75ml from online retailers such as cheapsmells.co.uk
©powered by lillybee also posted on ciao.co.uk
Read the complete review |
 |
Rochas Madame Eau de Toilette
by luxuryliner
Madame Rochas is a real grande dame of perfume which has, like many classic scents, gone through two editions: the original 1960 formulation came first, commissioned by Helène Rochas (the actual Madame Rochas!) and created by Guy Robert. There was also the second 1989 edition, which is widely available now and the one I am reviewing ... here. The new edition was created by perfumers Jean-Louis Sieuzac (creator of YSL's Opium in 1977) and Jacques Fraysse, and it's technically classified as a floral-aldehyde scent.
PACKAGING
Unlike some modern bottles and boxes which look as if they've been designed in five minutes as an afterthought, there's really a lot of history behind the packaging of Madame Rochas. The box is nice enough, plain white with "Madame Rochas" in red writing, but it's the bottle that's has all the history to it - designed by Pierre Dinand, it was based on an 18th century Cristalleries de Baccarat crystal bottle in Helène Rochas's collection. It's columnar, fluted and tapers to a smaller base, topped with a gold cap concealing a spray, while the label is thin, white and goes around the top of the bottle. Overall it's not a flashy or showy kind of bottle - in fact, it's deliberately archaic and understated. It's not really sexy at all (it doesn't look as if the kind of perfume you'd get in it would be young or feisty) but it does have a certain class and charm of its own.
THE PERFUME ITSELF
Madame Rochas opens with strong aldehydes and a definite kick of citrus, but it's oily bergamot rather than zingy lemon. It's got a lot in common with the opening of Chanel No 5, if only because of the aldehydes giving the whole thing an almost soapy edge which quickly takes the edge off the citrus and turns it into a much softer freshness altogether. The top notes are quite a clean smell overall, not heady or rich but very "well-scrubbed" and elegant in a streamlined kind of way. Perhaps because of the aldehydes, the whole thing is cool and very clear.
Things start to change after about half an hour when the middle notes begin to appear. The citrus gives way to a much headier combination of very pronounced rose and jasmine - Madame Rochas turns very floral all of a sudden, losing the initial freshness and gaining a bit more depth. The jasmine isn't heavy or oriental, nor is the rose overly sweet or cloying; in fact, the effect is a little powdery. After a while, some lighter floral notes start to show through the heavier rose/jasmine base, something like lily-of-the-valley or perhaps freesia which lightens and brightens it a bit. Apparently, there's tuberose in the mix too, which I find difficult to pick out, as to my nose there isn't anything artificial-smelling or rubbery about the middle notes (the smells I tend to get with tuberose) - just a clean, flowery accord.
The base notes start coming out after a good 4 or 5 hours, making this a very long-lasting offering, especially in the EDP formulation. Madame Rochas loses a little of its cleanness at this stage, developing a lovely sweet warmth from tonka beans and a kick of dry, resinous cedar. There's sandalwood in the mix somewhere, which to my mind always smells a little bit, well, unclean, but coming after so many clean scents it just adds a little depth rather than making the perfume as oriental or musky as it can sometimes do. The base notes linger for about an hour and a half before becoming almost undetectable and vanishing away altogether.
OVERALL
There's a lot to like about Madame Rochas. It's classy and clean, a well-groomed kind of perfume with a huge amount of history behind it. It certainly doesn't smell cheap or run-of-the-mill pink vanilla sweetness; it's complex and develops well with definite stages which hold your interest. Its downsides are certainly that it's not the most inventive scent out there; it does what it does well, but perhaps can't compete with some more modern perfumes just on intrigue value.
So really, I can appreciate how beautiful Madame Rochas is, but it's too old for me. It's got a lot of similar notes to Chanel No 5 and also to Lanvin's Arpege, but I'd put it in the same category as the latter rather than the former - it's comforting, classy and elegant, but perhaps also a little staid and old-fashioned with it. I can see why people associate it with older women or perhaps a comforting older relative, which is definitely no bad thing. For me, however, it doesn't have enough zing, pizazz or intrigue factor to make me want to wear it.
PRICE AND AVAILABILITY
I've seen this everywhere, but actually your best bet is to try discount shops like TJ Hughes, or smaller chemists. It's usually about £11 for 30ml EDT and £40 for 100ml EDP, so not a bank-breaking scent.
Read the complete review |
 |
Rochas Alchimie Eau de Parfum
by lillamarta
Launched: 1998 - discontinued
Group: Floral Oriental
~ INTRODUCTION ~
In a quest to refine my nose and learn about perfumery I have collected a number of miniatures from the most important perfume houses including fragrances released throughout the '90s. Perfume compositions can dramatically change in the ... course of a decade that can be due to the changing standards in natural or synthetic raw material production or simply changing fashions. I was interested to find a common denominator with other personal favourites from the era, more specifically Lalique and Salvador Dali offerings.
~ THE PERFUME HOUSE ~
Fashion house Rochas has been around since 1931 when Mr Marcel Rochas opened his clothing boutique in Paris that designed dresses for the likes of Marlène Dietrich and Mae West. The first commercialised per-fume made by the house was Femme, a epitomic fragrance still sold today though now reformulated along-side with a number of other classic Rochas editions.
~ THE PACKAGING ~
Bottle-wise, Alchimie is an odd little number. Its notoriously pumpkin-coloured and shaped glass and tall neck that is finished off with a needle-like stopper is something that reminds me of fairytales, genre Cinder-ella's pumpkin-coach. This cannot be a coincidence. The outer carton is a more serious golden box with red letters which goes more with the alchemist connotations coming from the title.
~ THE FRAGRANCE ~
Top notes: blackcurrant, plum, mandarin orange, cassia, lilac, peach, cucumber, hyacinth, pear, graprefruit, bergamot
Just by looking at the number of notes to begin with, I cannot imagine something smooth or uniform here. Indeed, on first application on the skin, I'm hit with an incredibly busy, sweet-sharp and a little bit bitter com-position that reminds me of the sticky-sweet, sharp and alcoholic smell of hairspray.
A few minutes later a synthetic peach note develops, making it smell like peach-hairspray. Wait some more and a bittersweet, greeny lilac joins in. Yes, you guessed it right: lilac-peach hairspray. And it didn't go away for half an hour. Whuh.
Heart notes: black locust, coconut, wisteria, jasmine, heliotrope, lily-of-the-valley, rose
Sadly, the underwhelming hairspray feel continues into the heart, though it is largely overpowered by sweet, floral notes of mainly lily-of-the-valley and jasmine. About an hour after application, the 'hair-spray' note doesn't pass into the sillage, it stays close to the skin so it isn't disturbing any more though it does give a slight plasticky feel to the florals.
Soon enough, a fairly strong and cottony vanilla note develops, similar to Tocade or for a better comparison, Kenzo Flower. This is the jasmine-rose paired with vanilla and musk that invariably create an odd, out-of-place feel for me. There's something very powdery and yet watery in feel, imagine wet flower-scented tal-cum powder and you'll get what I mean.
Base notes: sandalwood, tonka bean, amber, musk, vanilla, liquorice, caramel
After about 5 - 6 hours, the fragrance finally round itself out. Alchimie becomes uncharacteristically subdued and smooth in and it distinctly resemblance Dalissime which I like a lot. At this point, Alchimie is in fact an even better version of Dalissime's drydown, as it's smoother and creamier with added oriental sweetness, whereas Dalissime is a lean-based fruity floral of the clean musk type rather than a straight vanilla one.
There are a lot of nuances I'm unable to pick out from the mixture, though there's a distinct presence of peach and sandalwood to my nose. Too bad this lovely composition could only be detected close to the skin and had no surround trail whatsoever.
~ CONCLUSION ~
I've double tested Alchimie to make sure my sample was right and indeed, it was. The problem I sometimes get with overly busy scents is that they tend to end up on me as a jumbled, jarred mixture that's been thrown together using too many elements and is all over the place. Or it's my nose's sensitivity and the fact that I'm able to discern more nuances / notes in fragrances than the average wearer.
Alchimie is a typical floral oriental of the end of the nineties / early noughties. Just like them, it starts out fruity and slightly green, turns into an almost sickly-sweet floral then finishes on a bed of vanilla. So far, so good. What spoiled it for me was the sheer number of (unnecessary) notes that only added to the confusion and was utterly pointless.
The mere 6 hours of staying power for an Eau de Parfum is a letdown too. Alchemie intrigues then disappoints, just like the fairytale coach, that at the stroke of midnight, turns into a pumpkin, or the alchemist's potion that had turned into something not quite intended.
~ PRICE AND AVAILABILITY ~
Alchemie 5ml miniatures can be found on ebay ranging between £1 and £5 + postage. Full-size bottles have become extremely rare and expensive to consider unless you're a serious collector of discontinued full-size perfumes.
Thanks for reading.
©powered by lillybee also posted on dooyoo.co.uk
Read the complete review |
