Black Rose
The most incredible and unexpected birthday present I received yesterday was Black Rose by Goya, from Katherine. Kat thought I would understand and appreciate it's strange beauty more than she or anyone else she knows could, so I am truly lucky!
It was given to her by Miss Erica Westmacott of Walington, Oxfordshire, when Kat was staying with her at Tallows Cottage. Erica lived a long and independant life, and celebrated her 101st birthday in 1991.
While some perfumes are famous for their bottles, this one should be famous not only for its wonderful black rose scent, but also for the box where the little bottle nestles: a little matchbox with a dark rose. Only 1/3 of the perfume is still there (about 1ml at the most I think). And it’s smells heavenly of dark burgundy rose, almost black petaled, almost dry yet fragrant than ever. The scent is quite old, and becomes faint after an hour or so, so I cannot give you very accurate impressions of the base. Overall, it is similar to Nuit de Noel, only with the rose being the theme, and less the dry Saxon moss. The base is slightly mossy, perhaps with civet and amber, only that it is not sweet. But the top to middle notes are divine and rosy, like tucking your nose in a cushion of dark petals.
I could not find any information about Black Rose, just bits and pieces, one eBay auction for an identical bottle. I was not able to find any information about the notes or even the year of release. If you know anything about Black Rose, please share your knowledge with me! The curiousity will kill the cat but also will spill most of the precious perfume from the bottle onto my thirsty skin, and I do not have enough of it to fully recover its secrets…
p.s. I will be adding a photograph of this perfume and it's packaging tomorrow…
Labels: Black Rose, Goya, Perfume Review, Rose, Vintage Perfume
posted by Ayala Moriel @ 1:24:00 AM
3 Comments:
That's odd... usually a black rose is a way to say goodbye, or that I'm sad that you are leaving/gone. I would love to smell the rose, it must smell wonderful!
Hi Ayala, I was able to get a partial bottle of this recently. Unfortunately a more recent edition without the gorgeous packaging, tho. I am not very good at describing perfumes, but I own quite a few rose fragrances and Black Rose has a very distinctive rose smell... certainly not the usual rose soliflore. Anyway, a week after discovering Black Rose I happened to come across a tester for one of the new Parfums de Rosine: 'Secrets de Rose' and was astounded that it smelled (to me) incredibly similar to Black Rose. I looked up the notes and Secrets lists 'black rose'!! I was wondering if you've smelled 'Secrets de Rose' and would agree that there's a similarity to Goya's classic.
Cheers
Christine (missveronica9 on Basenotes)
Anon, this is a sad aspect I did not know when assessing this rose perfume originally.
Christine, I have not smelled Secrets de Rose. It would be interesting to check it out now.
Also, revisiting Black Rose more than 12 years after writing it, I'm noting other things: the musky backdrop accompanying the Chypre aspects, almost like black velvet behind the rose; but also it is backlit with some fruity notes that make it a bit more cheerful. It's simultaneously juicy and milky, in the best peach-apricot way possible.
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