With Rose Trombone, L'Orchestre Parfum plays the rose in major harmony
At the end of 2017, in the early days of the brand, founder Pierre Guguen unveiled a series of five fragrances. These included Rose Trombone, by Anne-Sophie Behaghel (Studio Flair), a floral, aldehydic score straight out of a Harlem jazz club. Here, we take a closer look at the Queen of Flowers in perfumery.
Anne-Sophie Behaghel describes Rose Trombone as a ‘sensual, clean, gourmand fragrance [...] An irresistible and addictive aldehydic floral trompe-l'oeil’. To recreate the idea of a scorching trombone solo and the brassy power of jazz, the perfumer plays with rose oxide and aldehydes to carve out a rose with metallic accents.
Carried by these two synthesised notes, the fragrance reveals itself to be opulent from the very first notes, with the sensation of fullness that is often associated with the voices of female jazz singers. A touch of pear softens the metallic effect, announcing a gourmand facet, which is extended in the background by vanilla. With texture and volume, the rose opens out fully in the heart, before marrying a woody base, tinged with sandalwood and ambroxan, to propel the trail. Rum absolute, blended with grapefruit and pineapple for a cocktail effect, affirms the power of the fragrance, with a nod to the festive atmosphere of a jazz club.
At the heart of this fragrance is the queen of flowers, a staple of fine perfumery. It's a flower we all know, with around 700 ornamental varieties. Yet perfumers use only two: the Centifolia rose and the Damascena rose. The first, round, green and honeyed, is an icon of Grasse. The Damascus rose, more fruity and spicy, originated in Persia but is now grown in Morocco, Turkey and Bulgaria.
The Centifolia rose, also known as the Rose de Mai because it is harvested in fine weather, is famous the world over thanks to Chanel's N°5. A jewel in the crown of the Grasse region, nearly 2,000 tonnes were produced in the first half of the 20th century. This prosperous business declined with the emergence of more affordable synthetic molecules and ingredients imported from abroad. Buyers sometimes went so far as to ‘cut’ natural ingredients to save money. Many struggling farmers abandoned their land in the 1990s, when it was invaded by the property boom. Some ten years later, rose growing has been given a new lease of life, thanks to the determination of Carole Biancalana, founder of the Association des Fleurs d'Exception du Pays de Grasse.
You only have to approach the fields of Grasse at dawn to smell the green, round, honeyed scent of the Centifolia rose. Harvesting begins early in the morning and ends before midday, to avoid the heat altering the scent of the flowers. A regional tradition, harvesting is done by hand, using a firm, delicate hand movement to avoid damaging the petals. From early May to early June, hessian sacks full of flowers are transported to the factories each day for solvent extraction. The flowers are poured into vats filled with hexane, ethanol or supercritical CO2, to obtain concrete. A waxy, fragrant paste, washed in a hydroalcoholic solution, then filtered to obtain Centifolia rose absolute. Around 750 kilos of rose petals have to be harvested to obtain one kilo of absolute, which costs almost 10,000 euros.
As the Grasse rose is rare and expensive, the Damascena rose is often preferred today. Although it has its origins in the Crusades, it is now grown in Morocco, Turkey and Bulgaria. It can be extracted using volatile solvents, or distilled, which relies on the ability of water vapor to absorb a plant's active fragrance, to obtain an essential oil of Damask rose with a spicy, lemony, fruity fragrance with hints of lychee. The Damask rose essential oil is more expensive than the Damask rose essential oil, as 3 to 5 tonnes of rose petals have to be distilled to produce one kilo of essential oil, whereas the same quantity of flowers yields 6 times more absolute.
With its varied nuances - its organic composition contains almost 300 molecules - the rose offers a vast playground for perfumers. By turns fresh or carnal, it is constantly renewing itself. Depending on the materials it comes into contact with, the rose reveals different facets. Mixed with aldehydes, it becomes clean and powdery, like Rose Trombone. With its nuances of lychee and raspberry, it marries easily with fruity notes. It lends itself perfectly to woody or chypre accords, in a darker, more bewitching register. Closely related to geranium, it also blends well with green and herbaceous tones, in a naturalist style. Finally, when blended with iris and violet, it can be used to create lipstick effects with a deliciously retro charm.
A flower with a thousand faces that never ceases to surprise. For Rose Trombone, Anne-Sophie Behaghel chose an alcoholic Rose Damascena sourced from Behave. This is a rose with many facets, its ‘clean’, powdery facets interacting with a modern, woody and sensual dimension.
Article written by Sophie Normand for L'Orchestre Parfium