September 16, 2016

RHS Bronnley Rose Hand Lotion Budget Beauty Pick Review

L'Esperessence Body products, Budget Beauty Pick Anti depressant, Elevate Stress, Heart, Layering, Powdery Rose, Relaxing, Rose, Rose Scented Body Products, Stress 1 Comment

Esperessence Pink Rose

RHS Bronnley Rose Hand Lotion is a light hand lotion with the scent of natural rose. Bronnley England made a line of rose scented body products several years ago, in cooperation with the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). The hand lotion is one of the rose line. This line also has a shower gel, body lotion, soap in a beautiful tin and dusting body powder. The hand lotion bottle has a light powdery natural rose scent.

I have bought and used two bottles of this lotions already. It is very suitable to use as a body lotion as it comes with a handy pump. You will not find it to be very nourishing as it is made as a hand lotion. My drier skin absorbs the lotion very quickly, leaving a light pink rose scent on my skin. It is perfect to layer with perfumes as many perfumes have rose as a heart note.*

One 250 ml plastic bottle costs around 15 euro on ebay including shipping to the Netherlands. I have used several rose scented body lotions, like Jurlique and Crabtree & Evelyn but this Bronnley rose hand lotion is my favorite and it is more affordable.

What does natural rose do to you? The scent of rose is thought to work as an anti depressant and aphrodisiac. It is also said to be relaxing, elevate stress and help with mood swings. (source: J. Peace Rhind Fragrance and Wellbeing)

What is your favorite body lotion? Do you use rose scented body products?

Origin of bottle: my own bought on eBay.co.uk

*Source: article by Portia Australian Perfume Junkies

More information on the Bronnley England and Royal Horticultural Society website. If you like gardening the RHS website and their tweets will be a great source of joy and information for you. They are for me especially their tweets show amazing gardens.

August 11, 2016

Iunx Eau Frappee What real roses should smell like

L'Esperessence Iunx Costes, Olivia Giacobetti, Rose 2 Comments

Iunx Eau Frappee
Iunx Eau Frappe was made by perfumer Olivia Giacobetti. She is one of my favorite perfumers and made wonderful perfumes like L’Artisan Parfumeur Dzing!, D’Orsay Tilleul, Frederic Malle En Passant, L’Artisan Parfumeur L´Ete En Douce. I have scented a lot of her perfumes but not a rose perfume. En Passant, a beautiful lilac fragrance was reviewed by me before.

While being in Paris some time ago I went to the Iunx shop next to the Costes Hotel. The Iunx shop sells home fragrances and perfumes solely made by Olivia Giacobetti. These are very exclusive as they are only sold here. It was owned before by Shiseido and closed for some time but is open now, fortunately.

Iunx Eau Frappee

The shop is quite small and uncomfortable, very minimalistic. All fragrances can be scented through a kind of diffusers. It is a very pleasant way to scent fragrances. Shopping in this shop is made quite interesting. Photographs of these tubes can be seen on the website of the Non Blonde. In all the excitement I forgot to make photographs while visiting. After hearing a fellow perfumista, Ron Slomowicz was visiting Paris I asked him to make some photographs. He was not allowed to make photographs inside the store but he did make some wonderful photographs from the florist next door.

After reading about the fragrance L´Ether on several websites I tested this several times in the shop on skin and on a blotter as well. But I felt a bit like the story of the emperor not wearing any clothes. I did not scent anything, a very strange experience in a perfume shop. Fortunately I found another amazing scent, No 6 Eau Frappee.

Iunx Eau Frappee

Eau Frappee instanty gave me the feeling of what a beautiful bouquet of roses should smell like. Very fresh, slightly citrus, soft and slightly powdery. Its notes of combava (kaffir lime ), sweet lemon and citron are meant to mimic the scent of soft rose. Eau Frappee is sold as an eau de toilette in a large 150 ml very large and not very practicle spray bottle for 135 euro. My bottle was a gift from my boyfriend. The package is beautiful as you can see on the photograph.

I can imagine some will not find Eau Frappee a very interesting scent. It is not layered, does not change its scent after some time. But to me it is the interpretation of Olivia Giacobetti of the scent of a rose, soft light citrus fresh almost transparent. It would make an excellent room spray in a rose flower shop, as the flower shop next to the Costes Hotel on the photographs which Ron Slomowicz made. Roses in a bouquet in the Netherlands do not scent any more, but if they would, I would like them to scent like Eau Frappee.

Rose shop photographs were specially made by Ron Slomowicz. Thank you very much !

Photographs from the Iunx shop:http://www.thenonblonde.com/2011/09/iunx-perfumes-postcards-from-paris.html

More information on Iunx: http://boisdejasmin.com/2005/06/iunx_10_edts_sp.html

*Previously published: Octobre 26th, 2012

Re edited August 12, 2016

September 3, 2015

Parfum d’Empire Eau Suave

L'Esperessence Parfum d'Empire Honey, Josephine de Beauharnais, Malmaison, Rose 2 Comments

Garden flowers by Elizabeth Murray

When I first smelled Eau Suave I wasn´t as thrilled as I was with Yuzu Fou, another perfume by Parfum d´Empire. Yuzu Fou was like nothing I had tried before, an instant boost of citrus energy. But after using Eau Suave a few times I began to get more fond of it.

Eau Suave was created in homage to the rose collection of Chateau of la Malmaison from the Empress Josephine de Beauharnais, first wife of Napoleon de Bonaparte. The Empress grew many kinds of roses in Malmaison and was very passionate about them. Especially three kinds of roses were kept in mind by the perfumer Marc Antoine Corticciato while making Eau Suave, the Rose Josephine, the Rose de Venus and the Rose Pourpre.

Eau Suave means smooth water. Smooth, honeyed and even double it certainly is. It may appear a straight rose perfume but it isn´t. There are more layers to it. Different aspects of roses maybe like the Empress Josephine herself. She had a wonderful garden and loved roses, all very lovely in itself but passionate and sensual as well. Josephine had a passionate affair with Napoleon. They wrote love letters from which many of Napoleon´s letters still exist.
Some mention spicy notes in Eau Suave. A hint to the birthplace in Martinique of Josephine of Beauharnais ?

I am still double about this rose scent. It may not stand out as a rose perfume if you have a lot of them. But after a while, it might be a perfume to grow very fond of. As a garden which develops in time and you grow fond of during the years. So who knows, just give it some time. *

Suave reminded me of a beautiful song by Luis Miguel called Suave. It accompanies the perfume quite well. Listen and enjoy !

Thanks Elizabeth Murray for letting me use your beautiful picture.

First published: March 2012, reedited September 3, 2015

*During the 3 years after I wrote this review I have grown quite fond of Eau Suave and posses a bottle now. What I really like is its honeyed quality much more than its focus on rose.

Do you own fragrances you have grown fond of in the last years, which did not impress you at first ? If so, tell us which ones !