Parfums 06130: Lierre Rose
For a second there, I thought I would subtitle this review “When Natural Just Isn’t Enough.” (Well, I guess I just did.) Lierre Rose (the name means “Ivy-Rose”) was created in 2007 by Jacques Chabert, uncle of Nicolas Chabert the founder of Grasse-based Parfums 06130. Chabert worked with Jacques Polge on the EDP update of Chanel Cristalle and with Jean-Paul Guerlain on Samsara (1989). His Lierre Rose for 06130 is a pretty enough rose, which in no exaggeration reminds me of the smell of a newish bathroom in a Cote d’Azur luxury high-rise. It succeeds in making high-quality natural materials smell mundane, even cheap. This is disconcerting for a brand that seemingly prides itself on remaining outside the beck and call of the vast mass-market middle ground; for that same middle ground is what enabled Chabert to make a name for himself in the first place.
Lierre Rose starts out with something interesting: a slightly camphorous cardamom note playing counterpoint to an intoxicating tuberose-rose-violet triad. But all too quickly it gets muddled, where one or more of the elements should stand out. I wish it would have been the greener, earthier aspect of the Grasse violet absolute, but instead it’s just a sort of creamy floral fuzzfest dusted with jasmine. Where there could have been boldness, sultriness even, there’s scented-candle insufferableness. Lierre Rose had my hopes up, but ultimately she just turned out to be a pretty girl who wouldn’t leave the bathroom.
$145 for a peck on the cheek? She should have been chypre.
4 Comments:
Haven't smelled this (or any 06130 for that matter), but you do pinpoint an alarming trend (or is it a trend): lots of niche-ish offering should just as well be scented candles. Nice, but they can stay in the bathroom...
Can't think of an example right now: si tôt sniffed, si tôt oubliés!
Vetivresse,
This conjures up frightful imagery! I'm desperately hoping you mean the toiletries in the bathroom (or the scent they leave behind) and not the toilet in the bathroom (or the scent one may leave behind:-)
Either way, it's sounding like a lot of niche offerings, as Carmencanada said. And that's really a shame. There is room for both segments and while it's fantabulous when massmarket occasionally has a breakout fragrance it's really disheartening to see niche go the other way!
Musette - Toilette, not toilet.
It felt like a pastel meh to me- alas.
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