Rose Red

[oceandessa]

The perfected winter rose, dew covered and freshly cut.

Rose Red is the perfume love of my life. So much so that I have multiple bottles from 2003 and 2004. I love how green this scent is - the roseness is in the backround, kind of like a blush that eventually takes over long after the scent dries down.

It's also a bit of a chameleon - sometimes, when I am in certain parts of my cycle, the rose comes out stronger than the green, and the scent emerges as a bitter rosy scent, which is also very nice.

This is also my favorite room scent ever (hence multiple bottles ). It pairs divinely with hellfire in the burner.

[Caitfish]

Absolutely incredible. It isn't simply "rose". It's the smell of the leaves, the rose, the stem, the dew! It's incredibly natural, so accurate, and really STRONG! This perfume lasts, and though the watery elements retreat, this is simply the most accurate reproduction of the smell of a fresh rose I think anyone could ever hope to create. I'm a silly, silly girl for only buying a bottle.

 

[violetblue]

I used to wear rose perfume for years, but it was nothing like this one. Agreed, stupid to have only ordered one bottle. This is the most authentic rose I have ever smelled - I don't think I'll ever be able to enjoy any other rose scent like this ever again! As everyone has said, it's rose with it's greenery, just cut and glittering with dew. Gorgeous!

[leslie260]

Just perfect! This smells exactly like those small, imperfect roses that are loaded with rich, rose scent. Unbelievably good!

 

My only complaint...my skin sucks it up so quickly. After about a hour I can't smell a blessed thing.

[silverangel]

This is the perfect wet rose in the bottle. Sadly, on my skin it turns into freshly dug dirt. No, seriously. How the rose went so dirty on me I have no idea! I've never had that reaction before with a rose scent. makes me very very very very sad! It smells so gorgeous before it hits my skin!

[LaLisa]

Very wet and green, with a full rich rose, not too sweet.

 

I don;t care for most rose scents, though I adore the actual flowers and grow a variety of them, because they are just toooooo cloying and stinky sweet/old lady or chemical smelling.

 

HOWEVER, Rose Red has more than just rose to balance out the flower's lush fragrance--it is the essence of holiday red roses, a wreth of greens studded with red roses. I detected some apple and spice as well, but my friend maria who also has some said it was pear, and after i went back and sniffed it--bingo--pear--a spicy ripe pear nestled in the greens roses.

 

Delightful.

[Northernminx]

The theory at the office today is that Beth went out to a rose garden, plucked one last frozen bloom off, and liquified it in a blender to obtain this scent. The description does not lie and for all my stunned adoration, I can't figure out how she did it, but did oh she certainly did.

 

Gorgeous, lush, dew covered fresh off the bush shining beautiful rose. There is nothing dry or dusty or powdery about this flower, it truely is the scent of a fresh cut perfect rose, stem and all. It brings to mind a past visit to a rose garden in Switzerland where all the roses were nourished with melted glacier water. This is the bottled scent of that garden, green and lush and beautifully chilly.

 

A keeper? Are you kidding me I'd bathe in this if I could. Perfection. I don't think another rose scent will ever live up to this one again.

[magikfanfic]

In the bottle: This is red and green at the same time. This is exactly what I recall smelling when I sniff a rose growing in a garden and feel its soft petals against my face. It's truely amazing how they can replicate that scent so perfectly, but there it is. A rose garden contained in a bottle, always fresh and perfect.

 

Wet: Very green to start with, a very earthy growing, cut stems and broad leaves kind of scent. But the gentle wahft of the rose petals themseleves start to gradually come out into the open. This is the last rose of the winter growing through the snow and it's scent has been transformed into something crisp and pure and red.

 

Dry down: Still very much like stems and roses together. It's very nice and natural, but the green smell seems to be more prominent than the rose part, which is my fav. No, there's my rose. They just like to take turns and mingle. This is a very nice blend and different from the other rose blends in that it is more true to nature and there's been less blending done. The smell even ripes on your skin the way the rose does as the petals unfurl in the sunlight.

 

Dry: My beautiful roses blooming on my skin. So soft and fresh and naturla. Red and green together with a touch of sweet that underlies the rose and the touch of earth in the stems. This is magical and very nice. A very real scent. I usually like my scents a touch sweeter so I'm not sure how much wea i'll get out of this, but i'm very glad that I bought it.

[SilverGarland]

The scent of a single rose and frost. It smells a little bit intense when wet, but once it's dried down and meld into your skin, it'll smell so pretty. It's like, this beautiful rose with a hint of mint. A very very high-quality rose scent

Edited December 24, 2004 by SilverGarland

[Jonquil]

Unlike any other rose perfume I've loved. Before this, my favorite was Yves San Laurent Paris. Paris is shooting for a very different effect-- pure rose blossoms, drowning in the petals and nothing but.

 

Rose Red is the whole rose, green leaves included. It goes on fresh. I asked my husband to sniff it, and he said "Very complex." On my skin, alas, it's fugitive -- no more than a couple of hours. I really, really wish I'd bought two bottles. Add this one to the year-round list, please!

 

ADDED Feb. 17:

 

My officemate walked into my office, sniffed, and said "Are there fresh roses here somewhere?" I had to work to convince him that no, it was my perfume; the illusion is that convincing.

 

Oh, please, please make this scent a regular.

[Fyre_in_Winter]

Rose Red is spectacular, plain and simple. In fact, it smells almost exactly like the Chrysler Imperial roses I used to grow. Not only is it a dew-covered rose, but it is very cool. Appropriate for a winter rose.

 

However, as I have discovered by trying on this and other rose blends/blends with roses (Othello, Venice, Wanda) rose goes "zingy" on me. If it could sing, it would shatter glass. Olfactorily speaking, it crawls up inside your nose and attaches itself with hooks. Alas, Rose Red does the same. Luckily I have found her a good home.

[Nadirah]

This is ROSE. This is the most perfect rose scent I have ever tried. If you go out into the garden early in the morning. Smell the brightest newest red rose you can find and this is what Rose Red smells like. She stays true on my skin, it reminds me of waking up early and picking roses!!! I'm kicking myself for not trying this last year and hugging myself for getting a bottle in 2004!

Thank you BETH!!!

[babykitty]

Wow. This is an incredible scent. I am amazed by it's staying power--how true it stays on me.

 

It's just like sticking my nose in a big ol' cabbage rose on a summer morning. It is very strong to me, pretty lemony, kind of boozy. It's almost sharp while wet.

 

I love it when it dries. It wafts on me. I can just picture the scent just wafting off me like a pink velvet fog.

[TheDarkMother]

I can remember a time when I wasn't so excited about trying a rose scent. I guess the commercialized version of the smell of a Rose never came close to the real thing. Beth sure has spoiled me.

 

In the Bottle: This is a true rose scent, a thick red rose. The darkest of reds, near black in color, with a brilliant yellow center, and thousands of petals. The second that you near it, and the petals open, you can hear a chorus of angelic voices and....oops. Sorry about that. It seems that I was thinking about the Dark Tower series again. My bad. *snicker*

 

On Me: There's something else in here besides rose! Its a little chilly and a little sweeter, though it could just be a lavender rose in with the red rose. The differences in the scents of the roses can make a very interesting contrast.

 

Wow, this is really strong, much stronger than I would have thought. I don't really have to put it anywhere else except on my wrists for me to smell like roses. I mean, I already smell like I've bathed in it, and I only put three drops on my wrist.

 

But I'm not complaining! This is Red Roses against pale white skin, totally personifying the sister to Snow White. Complete beauty. I'm in love!!

[riddel]

Rose Red 2004

 

In the bottle: The perfect rose scent.

 

On my skin: The perfect rose scent. Seriously. It's rich, thick, velvety; dew-covered, indeed. There's even a bit of sweetness, an element I can't quite put my finger on. Whatever that element is, it gives Rose Red a slight Persephone vibe, though the oil as a whole does not smell like Persephone. This lasts a wicked long time, much like Snow White, and towards the end of its long, long wear something a bit... warm... started to peek its way out. Something that "feels" like rosewood smells, if that makes sense.

 

Final thoughts: My favorite of the Yule LEs, me thinks. It's the rose scent I've been waiting for, being the rose freak that I am. I absolutely cannot accept the fact that this is a limited edition oil: I'm in complete and utter denial. I just can't say it enough, it's the perfect rose scent. Like Snow White, an absolute work of art. I'll cherish my bottle, handling it with kid gloves, using it sparingly. I might even look into obtaining another bottle in the upcoming months, just in case...

Edited January 4, 2005 by riddel

[ChupaChup]

Rose Red is another one I was lucky enough to get in a swap with aessedai . I really can't say much more than what has already been said in previous reviews of this beautiful scent. I just want to know how Beth puts that chill on the rose, I have no idea what it is, it certainly isn't mint. Wow. Absolute perfection!

Edited January 1, 2005 by ChupaChup

[ipb]

i love rose red, it's the smell of a JUST cut rose, i was and am absolutely amazed that elizabeth captured that smell

i got it for my mom and my apartment smelled so pretty for awhile because there had been some on the plastic or on the box

i'm sooo sad i didn't get to buy some

but my mom is thrilled beyond belief, it's the rose scent she's always been looking for

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

almost a year later, my original review works for 04 as well as 03, though now i've got two bottles of my own *glee* for what it's worth, the rose red 04 is greener wet than the 03. the 04's got a bit of a chilly dampness to it that the 03 didn't have.

[summer]

Rose Red is one of those blends that makes me absolutely MARVEL at Beth's skill. How she managed to put a perfect, freshly-cut, cold, dewy red rose complete with it's crisp stems and leaves in a bottle is beyond me.

 

This really is the most authentic, crisp rose scent I've ever smelled. It's even rosier than a rose. It's almost . . . sharp it's so crisp. Herbal. Cold. The very essence of a rose; the best a rose can be. The Platonic ideal of a rose, if you will.

 

I really think that even people who think they don't like roses will love this. It's so pure and clean and real -- one of nature's finest creations captured and made perfect in an oil.

 

BRAVO Beth, and thank you!

[Astarte]

I think this years Red Rose has a much deeper "wet" scent, it feels more grounded and cold too. After the scent settles down however we're back to the glorious wet dew rose scent which keeps it nicely from that powdery scent status.

 

On a side note my parents house had some rose bushes in the front garden under the front windows of the house so in the spring summer seasons I used to smell the scent of rose (as they were white roses, quite faintly) leaving the house most days. I've always been moderately fond of them.

 

Beth is a genius with roses, I didnt think I would ever love roses in blends as much as I love some of the labs rose scents.

[danuv]

There really isn't too much that I can add about this exquisite scent that hasn't already been said. It's like climbing into a tub of damp rose petals. Yup. The first time I wore it I leaned across my daughter to buckle her into her car seat, "Mommy, you smell boooooootiful!" she said with a breathless little gasp. I need no more reason than that to fall in love with Rose Red.

[Diana]

In the bottle, wet, dry, it all smelled like long stemmed red roses with a bit of foliage.

 

Very intense, deep rose smell. This lasted a long time and did not change at all on my skin. This is not a soft & powdery rose. This is full-on in your face rose action.

 

I like it, but probably not for everyday.

[rhubarbbear]

rose red is beautiful. so rosey. i get more pink than red from it, but i'm not complaining! i love this scent. i used to wear rose scents and i stopped a number of years ago, but rose red has brought me back...i feel the love...i love that i can smell the whole rose, not just the essence of the petals!

[ivyandpeony]

I never had the opportunity to try Rose Red 2003, but by the time I had discovered BPAL she was a legend. So I knew the moment I saw the Yule update that I would order a bottle, and it wasn't long before nagging thoughts led me back to order another "just in case..." And I'm so glad I did. This is my favorite of all Beth's rose blends that I have tried. The scent is almost eerily real in the bottle and I am so grateful that my skin refrains from screwing it up. Rose Red never seems to take on that powdery note that sometimes ambles along, trying to convince the world that I'm actually a 78 year old grandmother. Rose Red has even elbowed Havisham to the side as my favorite BPAL floral... for the moment. This is a beautiful, natural, intense rose that you can almost touch and taste if you close your eyes. I'm so thrilled that Beth chose to bring this back for 2004 so I could have the opportunity to try it!

[malati]

When I sniffed the bottle there appeared to be the faintest hint of mint at the edge of the rose which I couldn't detect on application.

 

The scent barely changed as it was drying although the green-ness did fade away. This really is a beautiful natural scent, I know I've worked with rose bushes where the blooms had this exact fragrance. It really is like a deep red rose with the wetness of dew and the green of the leaves.

 

I'm so glad I made a last minute order of this, if I had known how good it was I would have got 2 bottles.

[shriekingviolet]

Initial Impression:

Smells like roses pulled straight from the cooler at a florist's shop

 

After Wearing It:

I have to start off by saying that this truly is the most perfectly accurate rose scent I've ever encountered. If I closed my eyes and sniffed my wrist I might have trouble believing that I didn't have a chilled bouquet of roses right in front of me. You can smell the petals, the stems, leaves, the water they rest in, everything! And it never went powdery as rose oils sometimes do on me. Completely genius in the way it was captured and yet I totally hated every second of it. I hate rose scents. I don't know why, but I do. They don't really smell poisonous, but I have this aversion to the way they smell. Which is a shame because I like actual roses and think they're visually stunning and am thrilled to receive them, but you won't ever catch me sticking my nose into a bouquet of them. So having a scent that just so completely capture the smell of real roses wafting up from my wrist was a bit repelling and I had a hard time keeping myself from washing it off. The green notes in it didn't help much as green scents are definitely not my thing either.

 

The scent has faded now and I'm immensely grateful. I can still smell it if I sniff my wrists, but it's softened so much the smell is almost pleasant. Lovely rose blend in its realism, but certainly not for me.

 

Final Thoughts:

Despite my feelings toward the actual scent, I'm glad I did have a chance to experience this one. Because it truly is a masterpiece in its presentation and would be a joy if I didn't have such a dislike for rose oils.