Continuing my exploration of Guerlain’s Les Extraits today with Rose Centifolia Extrait 1. Rose is one of those notes that I think can come with a lot of preconceived ideas — especially for a man wearing it. Sweet, feminine, powdery, perhaps a little old fashioned. This is none of those things to me. Guerlain has taken the Centifolia, or May Rose, grown in Grasse and essentially made the raw material itself the star. The roses are harvested at daybreak during a very short season and transformed into absolute within a day. In this fragrance, Guerlain uses that rose absolute in a 30% extrait concentration, surrounding it with touches of spice, honey, frankincense and patchouli. What I find so interesting is that it smells less like “rose perfume” and more like the actual flower — petals, stem, greenery and even a little earthiness underneath it. It is rich without feeling heavy. Floral without becoming overly sweet. There is a slightly spicy, woody character underneath the rose that gives it considerably more depth and, at least to me, makes it feel completely natural for a man to wear. And perhaps that is what I enjoy most about exploring fragrance. I’ve become much less interested in whether something is traditionally considered masculine or feminine and much more interested in whether it is beautifully made and whether I enjoy wearing it. Today…this one absolutely qualifies. 😎🌹 Sometimes the most interesting fragrances aren’t about adding more notes. They’re about taking one extraordinary material and letting you really experience it.

Ha! My scent of the day is: JUST ME😎...HR put out a reminder about the "fragrance free" working place the other day. Although most of those I work with and among have commented positively on my fragrance of the day in the office; me thinks someone wants to put an end to it. The HR Policy message went out to everyone albeit, it feels like a personal attack. --I've been wearing fragrance for a while now. And some new folks have come on board since that too. Can I make an HR Policy requirement that the folks who are offended, allergic, and otherwise triggered by fragrances, that they do not use the rest rooms at the workplace to poop? Sometime, when I enter, after folks have pooped and flushed, the smell is so offensive it is chokingly miserable for me. Now, who among us, in this office and buildings thereof, is the fragrance Nazi? My nose is on the search-trail for the scent NOT of the Day. 😄