Chromatella by Sergio Lopez

When people think about rose they think about it as the figurative “jewel in the crown” of any fragrance it is featured in. It most often sits there full of poise and beauty, it can even come off as a bit overbearing pushing other notes out of the way. If you had asked me to define rose as a perfume note prior to 2006 that is how I would have described it. That all changed for me when I learned of this new perfume line called Le Labo founded by a couple of ex Giorgio Armani Fragrance guys; Fabrice Penot and Edouard Roschi. They introduced a line of fragrance that had a note in the title followed by a number. The titular note was contained in the fragrance but it was not necessarily the focal point as anyone who has tried Vetiver 46 can attest. Of the first set of fragrances the one that was the most interesting did in fact have the named note front and center but the other ingredients definitely were there to keep it off balance. This fragrance is Rose 31 by perfumer Daphne Bugey.

A Rose By Any Other Name-Cubist 13 by Thomas C. Fedro

If the traditional rose was a statuesque beauty Rose 31 was that beauty after she had been dragged off to a club by her friends and woke up in a strange bed the next morning. Yes this rose is doing a “walk of shame” in the light of day reeking of sweaty cumin and medicinal oud. What is particularly fascinating about Rose 31 is that she makes it home washes off the night before and in the end that statuesque rose is present again in a vetiver sheath. This kind of reverse development has always made Rose 31 one of my most favorite fragrances.

Three Roses by Elizabeth Chapman

Mme Bugey uses a heavy overdose of cumin in the opening stages. This is cumin in all of its pungent potency. If you describe cumin as unwashed sweaty skin this is your cumin. The fascinating juxtaposition with the rose does feel like the rose has been out overexerting itself and is sweating. Mme Bugey uses oud to enhance the roughness of the early going. This oud is there to impart a bit of its medicinal woody character which some describe as “band-aid-like”. Cedar provides a hard framework around all of this. This opening was like nothing else I had experienced when I came upon it in 2006. I loved that rose was being taken down a peg or two and made a little more proletarian. Every time I wear Rose 31 I admire it especially as seven years on this initial phase is as unique as the day it was released and hasn’t been successfully imitated. After a few hours when you wear Rose 31 you will undergo a surprise as that sweaty rose you started with has transformed back into a beautiful full blooming rose on a stem of green vetiver. The end of Rose 31 feels like the beginning of hundreds of rose fragrances but that it comes at the end of such an interesting beginning makes it seem somehow novel.

Rose 31 has above average longevity and average sillage.

Le Labo has gone on to make a number of great perfumes but Rose 31 still stands out as the one which is a Modern Masterpiece.

For those who want to learn more about Le Labo check out EIC Michelyn Camen’s interview with Fabrice Penot and her Friends-In-Fragrance piece with M. Penot and Strange Invisible Perfumes’ Alexandra Balahoutis.

Disclosure: This review is based on a bottle of Rose 31 I purchased.

–Mark Behnke, Managing Editor