Frederic Malle Rose Tonnerre (previously Une Rose)

Yes, I know: first of all, when did the name change? I see anything from 2021 to 2023, and I’m not going to make an effort to figure out which is correct. I have seen a bit of noise that the name was changed when one ingredient was banned by the EU. Again, I’m not going to pursue this – if you’ve done a deeper dive, please let us know the down and dirty.

Anyway, in my humble opinion, Malle and his troup do/did great things with roses. And the fragrances are all over the map, from the ‘your mother’s purse with spilled makeup’ of Lipstick Rose to the much more refined Portrait of a Lady.

And then there’s Une Rose (yeah, yeah, now Rose Tonnerre) which is a whole different kettle of fish.

I owned this briefly two decades ago – it was released in 2003 and I bought it soon after unsniffed based on the notes list – and last week as I was falling asleep I thought of it for the first time in a long time. I guess this is a perfumista thing: something pops into your head for no specific reason.

Une Rose/RT was quite divisive when it came out for one note and I’ll get to that in a minute.

First, I will just say I really hope it hasn’t changed much from back when even though I can’t wear it and second, I hope it doesn’t get messed with now that the brand has been sold.

This isn’t one of those bells and whistles Malles, like Carnal Flower. If it loves you, you wear it, but I’ve not heard/read of that many people who were/are fulsome. It’s too idiosyncratic.

The nose for this was Edouard Flechier (who also did Lys Méditerranée for Malle) and the notes list includes rose, honey, wine lees, coriander, juniper, pink pepper, raspberry, more rose (Turkish), geranium, truffle, violet, saffron, orris, musk, patchouli, vetiver, castoreum, moss, cedar, sandalwood and vanilla.

Now, unless you hate saffron, doesn’t that sound just wow? Well, that’s what I thought when I bought it and I am well happy with saffron. That wasn’t my problem with it and why it went goodbye (to someone who wasn’t a perfumista and loved it dearly – and it smelled great on her).

When this first popped up on the blogs etc people mentioned this weird mushroomy aspect that made it a no go for some.

I recall when I unboxed this and first sprayed it on. I had had it sent to my workplace. I ‘lived’ in one of those glassed in cubicles with another person. It was around Christmas time and I was one of the only people in the office (and my cube mate was definitely away) who hadn’t taken that week off. So, box got opened and stuff got sprayed.

Oh, boy, was that a pungent beautiful rose initially. Heady, lush, musky. I remember thinking, boy, is this good.

But then it fell off a cliff.

Mushroom.

As the fragrance warmed up I was in serious loamy, slightly rank, slightly scratchy truffle territory. And that was that. I couldn’t get past that smell. I love mushrooms to eat (in fact, the morning I wrote this I had sauteed mushrooms on toast for breakfast). But clearly the fragrance did not sit right on me.

I remember saying ‘I can’t wear this. Do you wanna have a go?’ Which is how it got rehoused. I really resented having to divest it. Sure, Malle was cheaper then, but it was the bottle – I just adored the Malle bottles.

So, was this ever one of yours – or something you even smelled? Have I completely put you off trying it?

Pics: Pexels, Wiki Parfums