Wild Roses by Mandy Aftel for Aftelier Perfumes 2012

Hello Niche Nerds,

I have written about Wild Roses by Aftelier Perfumes before at AustralianPerfumeJunkies but since then I have spent more time with this amazing rose fragrance and thought it deserved its own post. The tweens will be all about rose I think, 2010 to 2012 giving us a wonderful introduction with loads of oudh/rose mixtures like Dior’s Oud Ispahan, many Montales & by Killians, Juliette Has A Gnu’s Midnight Oud, Armani Privé Rose d’Arabie, Rose Nacree du Desert by Guerlain, Mohur by Neela Vermeire creations and the Amouages. Roses alone include Guerlain’s Aqua Allegoria Rosa Blanca, Early Roses by Tea Cabanel, Bed of Roses by Jar, Rose de Rose by Rance 1794, Ballets Rouges by Olympic Orchids and Delire de Roses by Caron and that is not even the tip of the rose iceberg.

Wild Roses by Aftelier Perfumes 2012

Photo Stolen PerfumePharmer

Floral: to capture in perfume the experience of walking around my garden and smelling each rose, as their perfumes blended in my nose.
Top: rose CO2, heliotropin, bergamot, geraniol, m-methyl anthranilate, damascenone.
Heart: apricot, Turkish rose absolute, pimento berry, p-ethyl alcohol, rose petals attar.
Base: tarragon absolute, vanilla absolute, indole, aged patchouli.

I love the opening in Wild roses, when dabbed I found it rich, treacle-ish and warming; dark like deep red rose petals left to dry and extremely alcoholic and boozy. Imagine rose water and brandy but not mixed; next to each other on a freshly waxed wooden bureau. Sizzling rose water sherbet so thick you can become lost. My mind is offering me no perfume correlation to this magnificent rose. Spicy, boozy, fresh, dark, sweet, narcotic and magical: Mandy Aftel says this is to have become drunk on the scent of all roses. Yes, it certainly gives that feeling, floating on a sea of rose petals, buoyant, drifting, drowsing in the intoxication of scent.

Spritzing opens fuller, broader, less boozy and more candy sweet rose and a soft crackle of leaf and stem. Musty, dark roses still entrancing. This is what magic should smell like. Honestly, I have no idea what most of the mentioned notes and accords mean but if it means rose water pastries and darkness, earth and sweet corruption then they’ve hit the nail on the head. Extraordinary. The opening is so huge you are startled by the soft and elegant fragrance that ensues. Mandy Aftel has managed to bring the spice, tea, sugar, caramel, bitter lemon and tangy sweet citrus rind scents that are a cross section of the roses diverse moods and facets. at once controlled and offering recklessness, a wanton, boozy, overblown woman of a fragrance. An empress, fecund and warm and welcoming you with open arms.

Roses forums.steves-digicamsPhoto Stolen StevesDigicam

My skin lets me have 4-5 hours of Wild Roses before it disappears, sweetly spicy towards the end. I think it would be a fabulous scent even for non frag phobic workplaces, Wild Roses becomes soft and feels very selfish after an hour. Wearing it for my pleasure not anyone else’s. Only people in your very near orbit will know you smell incredible, very close.

Further reading PerfumePharmer and SmellyThoughts
Wold Roses is available from AftelierPerfumes, where they have a sensational Sample Program

IndianRose flickrhivemindPhoto Stolen flickrhivemind

Have you tried Wild Roses yet? Have you jumped on the Rose bandwagon? which have you tried and how successful were they?

If you enjoyed this come on over to AustralianPerfumeJunkies and say howdy, we’d love to see you there too.
See you next week,
Portia xx

Kylie Minogue and Nich Cave

I admit that I have self plagiarised and cannibalised my own work to bring you this review.

  • Mandy Aftel says:

    Dear, dear Portia, you have outdone yourself with this fabulous review – I am so charmed by your vivacious, expressive writing! Thank you so much for your deep understanding of my work. You are a real treasure, and with such an exuberant following – I always love reading all the comments!
    xo Mandy

  • Ramona says:

    One of these days I am going to have to suck it up and learn to love rose based scents. I have avoided them because I have never met one I liked or could even tolerate. But a new resolution for this year is to explore notes I “think” I dont like in order to broaden my perfume experience.

    This is directly related to a post from a couple of days ago where I asked why anyone would want to “learn” to like a perfume or particular note that they are not particularly keen on. Some very nice, not to mention patient, commenters educated me and I realized I really need to explore my preconceived notions of certain scents/notes. Thank you, nice people, for responding to my plea for education! And Thank You, Portia, because you ALMOST have me convinced I MAY like this one =)

    So I am going to start right now and order a sample of this rose scent and hope I can control my reaction. It’s time to take the bull by the horns and get my hands dirty! Wish me Luck!

    • Heather Wood says:

      Have a good time! I know how you feel, since I started this journey saying that I would never go near a vanilla perfume, and now I’m wearing all the 7 Billion Hearts and Mona di Orio I can afford. Exploring a scent that I was sure I hated led to the realization that the scent was a lot bigger than my idea of it. I hope that you find the rose scent that challenges your current notion. Keep us posted.

    • Oh Ramona!!
      Thank You sweetie!! Try it but don’t control anything. Just spritz and go about your cleaning or shopping, it will waft around you and maybe you’ll hate it but it’s just perfume.
      If you love it, great. If you hate it. GREAT! Doesn’t matter.
      Please have a great time trying it though, and as Heather Wood says,
      Come back and tell us, PLEASE!
      Portia xx

  • RuthF says:

    Wonderful review Portia, another I need to try!

  • tammy says:

    Le sigh. You and Musette are gonna land me in divorce court with all these fantastic reviews. First all the mummy stuff, now my beloved roses.

    • Heya Tammy,
      Today I was doing a sniff with a new frag buddy and we went to a designer main line store and then a world niche and then a department store. THERE IS TOO MUCH TO SMELL EVERYTHING!!! My head exploded. You have to make yourself stop sometimes and live vicariously through our reviews.

      Or not…..
      Portia xx

  • Musette says:

    My love of roses is legendary – at least in my own mind! 😀 I like mine all over the place – but the smoky/leathery ones hold a special niche in my heart. Rosine’s Secrets du Rose, with its leathery undertone, is exquisite, as is their Rose d’Ete, which occupies the light green ‘other’ end of the scale. Off the charts is Tribute Attar layered over (no. I mean UNDER. If you put Tribute on top of anything it crushes it) UNDER…Bulgarian Rose Otto. Or Homage. Perfect pairing.

    You have made this a definite must-try, though. And I want to try that Olympic one, too!

    And by the way? That empress sounds very much like you!

    xoxoxoA

    • Oh yes, the Empress IS a pre-emptive replica copied from the vibrations of what I would become and inserted into the tarot so that when I appeared everyone would understand that I am earth mother fragrance. He he He. Can’t wait to go sniffing with you late April!!
      Portia x

  • 50_Roses says:

    I love roses; in fact, my screen name refers to what I have in my garden, i.e., 50+ rose bushes. I also love rose perfumes, at least in theory. Many attempts at rose either turn sour on my skin, or are so overly sweetened that they become cloying. Others are so muddled up with added notes that I have trouble finding the rose at all. I simply cannot experience Parfum Sacre as a rose scent, to me it is a spice scent. Nahema smells like an attempt–a failed attempt, if you ask me–to synthesize a rose scent without using any rose (which, as I understand, is in fact the case). My favorite rose frag of all, and the one that never seems to veer off course and turn too anything–too sweet, too sour, too synthetic, too thick, too thin, or too lost in the mix–is the nearly-impossible-to-buy-in-the-U.S. Shiseido White Rose. It is, IMHO opinion, pretty much perfect. Second place goes to AG Rose Absolue. I have also enjoyed Yosh Sottile, which, in oil form, lasts 12+ hours even on my perfume-eating skin. SSS Velvet Rose is very nice, and a bargain at the price. I have not yet tried Rose Volupte. For a rose chypre, I like Teo Cabanel Oha. I absolutely intend to try Wild Roses, and will probably order a sample soon when I snag my FB of Secret Garden that I have been lemming for a year.

  • I really love roses, in all forms. And I’d agree you can get intoxicated from sniffing! Those moments are the best kind of moment 😉 I haven’t had the pleasure of sampling this particular Aftelier, though I’m sure it’s just as divine as the others!

  • eldarwen22 says:

    I haven’t tried Wild Roses yet. I’m a little picky about rose perfumes. Creed’s Fleurs de Bulgarie was a nightmare on my skin, Chanel no. 19 in EDP is the 1st to knock me off my socks. Wild Roses sounds a lot like Amouage Lyric for women (my huge bottle finally came yesterday). I might have to try Wild Roses when my bank account recovers a little bit from the holidays.

  • Lainie says:

    My favorite quote these days, from Wolf Hall (by Hilary Mantel): “He moves in a perfumed cloud made of the essence of roses: as if he owns all the roses, owns all the summer nights.”

  • Heather Wood says:

    I’ve always loved the rose attars and ottos and have a collection of them that includes most of the major production areas, but I’ve never used them as perfume; they are for scenting rooms and ecstatic sniffing from the bottle. So far my favorite rose perfume is the dark and mildly eccentric Noir de Noir by Tom Ford. Some days I enjoy Lady Vengeance, a rose scent with plenty of thorns by Juliette Has a Gun (by the way, I was enchanted by the typo that made this house come out as Juliette Has a Gnu in your post. What an image! Never mess with a girl who has a gnu.) Just recently I’ve come across Rose Volupte from Sonoma Scent Studio, which smells much like the pure Bulgarian otto but more wearable. You’d like this one, Portia! I’d bet on it, so try it if you haven’t already, and let us know.

    • Hey Heather Wood,
      I have a set of SSS here ready to try. They have sat here unloved for an age and I keep not trying them. When I get back from Holidays DEFINITELY.
      Juliette Has A Gnu is the way I first read it and it has become instinctual to read it that way, I write it without thinking, except when I get caught and then I think I’m funny. Right now I am smiling at my idiocy, but happily.
      Noir de Noir. OH MY, yes please!!
      Portisa xx

  • FearsMice says:

    Oh, Portia! Why do you have to make everything you review sound so good? I’m not even supposed to Iike rose scents…
    And between you and Musette, you’re making me lemm after samples from every indie perfumer out there! So much for my resolution to stop the sample-buying madness in 2013…