So. This Happened: a Rose Trocadero Giveaway

So..Posse. Mashup Musings Time!   Two years ago, when my marital status changed, I made the decision to stay here at the back of beyond because it’s cheapAF, relatively stress-free and allows me to travel a lot more, Covid notwithstanding… anyhoo… I have been trying to be a bit more spontaneous in travel, with mixed results.  This past Thursday?  Eh.  I think if you look up ‘disaster’ in the OED you might see my Thursday.

I’d decided to drive down to St Louis to see the extreeeemly talented bassist Christian McBride and his crew who were doing a tribute to my beloved bassist Ray Brown at Jazz St Louis, one of my favorite venues.  St Louis is a quick, easy trip from my neck of the woods, so I figured ‘rent a car, get a ho-tel room, boo-ya!’ done.  Right?

Welp!  Nature had something to say about that.  I went to Hertz, where the lovely lady gave me a silver Chevy Spark, which is about the size of one of my larger totes.  Maybe.    Roomy inside, it was clean, full of gas and windshield solvent… clippety-clop on down to the Arch.  Everything was going GREAT until I dropped down into 155 (the feeder into I-55).  About 30 miles down the road it turned into a near-total whiteout, in the teeth of the oncoming storm.  Those of us in the right lane dropped down from 70mph to a sensible 25mph, flashers on, 4-5 car lengths between us…others with Not a Lick of Sense blasted through on the left…… you can see the detritus of those vehicles, still.  It’s always fascinating to see how physics wreaks havoc on 18wheelers.  How can you end up jacknifed completely backwards, up a hill…… anyhoo… LOTS of those.  Miles and miles and miles of those.  ‘why didn’t you just get off the highway, Musette?‘ you might ask…. well, this is one of those highways that traverses acres of farmland.  What if you get stuck on a country road, where vampires are probably just waiting to rip you out of your little crackerjack rental and suck you dry.  Because it could happen.  Vampires are not affected by blizzards, or so I’ve been told.

so why am I boring the toenails off you with that tale?  Well, I dunno if you remember the time I got stuck on a deserted highway pass in the midst of a tornado and Mitsouko got me through???  This time it was Rose Trocadero by Le Jardin Retrouve.  Courtesy of Portia’s post on their fig perfume (I thought I’d read about the Rose but I must’ve imagined, since I cannot find it anywhere!) it was in the sample set I ordered – I spritzed it on prior to this journey.

lejardinretrouve.com ›

So let’s talk about What Happened.  Do y’all remember Tea Rose by Perfumer’s Workshop, which was my  introduction to a heavy,creamy rose perfume, back in the Jurassic Era (aka the early 70s).  It was a stunning surprise, all the oily fabulousness of a heavily scented rose.  Gorgeous.  Except that every other woman (and probably a few men) marinated in it!   Now.  Imagine that scent … in a ‘roid rage!  That’s Rose Trocadero

You think that’s a bad thing?  Think again.  Something about this iteration both celebrates and blasts through the oiliness of the rose (I used to distill rose oil so I know whereof I speak) – it’s rose atop rose but the top notes include blackcurrant, which gives it a bit of sweet-sour acidity; the middle is sliced through with geranium, one of my favorites notes (gives a medicinal, green vibe) – and a hit of clove, which reminds me of Coty l’Origan.   Base notes are musk and honey but lemmetellya, the rose stomps all over that noise.  This is that Godzilla on the subway rose.  And AGAIN, that is NOT a bad thing.  This is an unapologetic rose, a diva rose, Maria Callas.  You’d better be ready for this gal because she will eat your lunch.

She even beat that blizzard.

I was freaked by the whiteout, slickAF roads, semis skidding sideways off the road (right in front of our eyes!), cars, vans… and me in this teeny, invisible car, praying to the Road Gods… while the Rose Gods, in the form of Rose Trocadero, kept me focused and sane.  She kept saying ‘hey!  pull yourself together – you are NOT crashing while I’m in this stupid little car, so get a GRIP!’.  So I did.

So.  The giveaway:  I ordered a sample set – I thought I was getting Cuir de Russie along with Rose T but got something else entirely (BOO!) – but the other two are lovely and well worth sampling.  But it’s definitely Rose T I want to share – if you love Rose, you must try it.  If you hate Rose (or have never tried Rose), I urge you to try it, just to see what an unabashed ROSE smells like.

Y’all know the drill:  leave a comment – let me know if you love or hate Rose- I’ll have Rudy aim a ballistic at randodot and pick a winner

Oh… btw:  that jazz session? After checking into the empty, terrifying Overlook Hotel I braved the ice-slicked streets to get to the venue.  Canceled.  LOL!  I couldn’t even get all that mad about it – ’twas just the weirdest, freakiest Thursday.  Lordt.  Spontenaity is… well…

…but I’m glad Rose Trocadero was with me on that freaky, scary day!