Floral Street Neon Rose bottle by Samantha Scriven.

“Yes, we’re a start-up, but we’re also doing everything differently. That includes making recyclability and sustainability the core of our brand, a first in fragrance. I’m also against the use of using sexuality to sell scents. It’s so degrading and old fashioned, so we’re changing the conversation around that too.” – Michelle Feeney, Floral Street founder in 2017

Floral Street Store Covent Garden courtesy of the brand©

Covent Garden is famous for its market and has been since 1654. Today, the area buzzes with independent shops, craft and food stalls, street entertainers and if you’re lucky, a busking opera singer from the nearby opera house. It is on this historical market place that Eliza Doolittle set up stall, and many years later in 2017 beauty industry Maestra Michelle Feeney, did the same with Floral Street. The concept behind Floral Street is simple: floral fragrances with a twist, bunches not bouquets. They certainly keep their promises as you’ll know if you experience the strange beauty of Ylang Ylang Espresso or the agreeably piquant Black Lotus. Floral Street Neon Rose stands out with its own je ne sais quoi, and it’s all down to perfumer Jerome Epinette.

Floral Street founder Michelle Feeney (from the Floral Street website)

 The commonly accepted perfume pyramid is deliberately blurred here: each fragrance is expressed in a curve. The idea is that three layers of scent all bloom at once, without waiting their turn. This structure mirrors the lack of formality that Floral Street embodies: no jargon, refillable bottles and affordable user-friendly discovery sets. The house is laser focused on sustainability and I could tell when my bottle of Neon Rose arrived safely in a perfume shaped egg box style carton. The fragrance itself lives up to its name and stands out like a Neon sign at midnight. It is typical of Floral Street with its little touch of something different. Take a perfect rose and inhale the aroma of that satin petalled olfactory feast. The scent of a good rose has the credentials to stand alone, but wait until you smell what happens when Jerome Epinette gets in the lab.

 Ballerina rose via unsplash and apped by Michelyn

Normally, you might not put apple blossom and Sichuan pepper together, but somehow, they frame the rose petals with a juxtaposition of piquancy and joie de vivre. A little angelica adds greenery and a touch of the botanical, keeping the pink floral cloud grounded as if they were balloon ribbons. So strong stands the rose that even jasmine and juniper only get chorus roles.  A smudge of peach, a stroke of cassis and you enter any room smelling as if you are decorated by an exuberant garland of invisible flowers. In spite of the delicacy of the rose notes, (and I picture it as baby pink) this has the hidden muscles and stamina of a prima ballerina. The eau de parfum strength comes from a 20% concentration of oils, as does its longevity. I admire how the popular tendency to add a flood of gourmand notes in the base has been deftly sidestepped. Sometimes I just want to smell like the garden and the garden alone.

Neon Rose may feel light enough to float away, but it will swear loyalty to you and linger lovingly. It’s an original way of carrying a bunch, not a bouquet, of roses around with you all day long.

Disclosure: Thank you to Floral Street for my review bottle. Opinions are my own.

Notes: apple blossom, Sichuan pepper, cassis, bergamot, rose, Egyptian jasmine, cyclamen, juniper, angelica, peach, cedar, amber.

Samantha Scriven, Senior Contributor who is also the, co-author of The Perfume Companion (pub Sept 2021) and writes the blog www.iscentyouaday.com

You can follow us @cafleurebon @floralstreet_ @iscentyouaday on Instagram.

Floral Street Neon Rose by Samantha Scriven

Thanks to the generosity of Floral Street, we have a 50ml bottle of Neon Rose eau de parfum for one registered reader in the  EU, UK or USA. You must register here or your comment will not count. To be eligible, please leave a comment saying what you enjoyed most about Samantha’s review Floral Street Neon Rose and where you live. Draw closes 6/15/2021

Editor’s Note: Floral Street was a Fragrance Foundation Finalist 2021 in the Indie Category for Arizona Bloom

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