Roos & Roos Malamata, photo by Nicoleta
Roos & Roos is a French niche perfumery brand founded in 2014 by Chantal Roos, a legendary figure in the world of perfumery, and her daughter Alexandra Roos, a talented musician and composer. The genesis of Roos & Roos was marked by Chantal’s career in the fragrance industry, where she was an integral part of the creation of iconic scents for renowned brands like YSL, Jean Paul Gaultier, and Issey Miyake. Alexandra’s artistic background in music and songwriting infused the brand with a lyrical and emotive quality, where fragrances are composed much like musical pieces, with notes, harmonies, and rhythms that resonate on a deeply personal level.
Chantal and Alexandra Roos, image via the official website
Roos & Roos is a testament to the beautiful union between fragrance and storytelling and stands out for its commitment to craftsmanship and the fine art of perfume making. Each fragrance in their portfolio is carefully crafted in France, adhering to the traditions of high perfumery, yet with an artful contemporary twist that makes their creations distinctly modern and avant-garde.
Collage of the Simples with official brand images
The “The Simples”, the most recent collection of the brand, aims to bring back to life the long-forgotten “gardens of simples”, or the medicinal gardens that were found around the monasteries and kept by gardener-monks in the Middle Ages, where various aromatic plans were cultivated, for their therapeutic purposes. For Roos & Roos, three perfumers “gathered” four aromatic plants and planted them in a garden of earthly delights: absinth, eucalyptus, angelica, and nettle.
The well-being and natural elements are evident from first glance, with the eco-design of the bottles, with light glass weight, a wooden cap that is fully compostable, and the packaging made out of recycled paper. Inside, a world opens to a magical garden where you can unwind, and listen to the breath of the spring winds, making the foliage rustle, with fragrant specks rising up in the sun, carrying the fragrant and healing message. Beautiful bucolic scents, to listen to, note by note:
Bel Absinthe, made by Fabrice Pellegrin, is a vegetal tribute to the green fairy, with comforting notes of chamomile and creamy sandalwood, enhanced by white musks. Vegetal, uplifting, aromatic.
Globulus, composed by Nicolas Bonneville is a delicious minty take on the beloved eucalyptus, with spicy cardamom and aquatic freshness. Lively, dewy, minty-fresh.
Angelica Florae, also created by Nicolas Bonneville is an homage to “the herb of the angels”, a halo of green freshness, with pink and black pepper and a wet patchouli base. Vivaceous, green, iridescent.
Susan Jeffers illustration for The Wild Swans
One of my favorite stories, back in my early childhood, was “The Wild Swans” by Hans Christian Andersen. In the story, the princess named Elisa has eleven brothers who are turned into swans by their wicked stepmother. The only way to break the spell and restore her brothers to human form is for Elisa to knit eleven coats from the painful stingers of nettles, which she must gather from graveyards at night. She must do this in complete silence, without ever explaining her actions, in order to break the curse and save them. The nettle stings and blisters her skin, but she keeps gathering them, spinning and knitting until de 11 coats are done, running out of time just as she finishes the sleeve on the last one. She brings the coats to her brothers, in a rush, and they all transform back into their human form, except for the youngest, who is left with a wing instead of an arm.
This was more than just a tale, as for my very serious five-year-old me, it was an example of how love, bravery, and sacrifice can mingle in the most beautiful but painful ways. I would often find myself wondering if I could ever have the resilience that Elisa showed in her quest, and tiptoeing to the edge of our garden, where the nettles grew wild and untamed, I tried to grasp the prickly stems, imagining that if I could do it, my brothers would too be saved from an invisible evil (but oh, so present in the magical thinking of a kid) and I would finally become a princess.
My grandma used to kiss my blister-filled hands and wipe away my tears, thinking they were caused just by the sting, not also remorse, assuring me the nettle’s bite was healthy, although unpleasant. As a lover of plants and ancient healing remedies, for she would let herself be stung on her legs, as an aid to rheumatism, she would dry the Urtica dioica out (urzica in Romanian) and make nettle tea, for her arthritis, for my aunt’s diabetes, and sometimes, in late spring, when my allergies would flair up, she would also give me a cup, mixed in with chamomile.
Dominique Ropion, photo via the website
Alexandra recalls the genesis of Malamata: “It’s March 2020, I am quite sure we’ll go bankrupt, being confined and with all the retail business closed. I am in Normandy, surrounded by nettles, and I decide to create a brand around the nettle. I do cold process soaps… and I call Dominique Ropion, who is bored as hell, and ask him if he could create a nettle scent. He says “Of course!” as always, being so kind and passionate. We have a lot of fun, I bring him fresh and dried nettles, and to make a long story short, no bankruptcy, and a Fragrance Foundation France award 3 years later for Best Niche Perfume”.
Malamata combines the freshness and greenness of nettle with the warmth of patchouli and hay, perfectly balanced into a memorable composition. In the top notes, we have the scenery painted in bright green with yellow borders: peppermint freshness, galbanum, metallic green violet leaves. The heart blooms into a white mist, with spring roses, the clean lily of the valley, and the purifying herbaceous touch of sage. In the dry down, it slowly yellows and warms up into deeper hues of sunset orange with hay, patchouli, and musk accords.
Roos & Roos Malamata, photo by Nicoleta
Roos & Roos Malamata is a bottled emotion that took me back to my childhood memories. The edge of the garden, my grandma’s embrace, the nettle shampoo, the smell of the plants let out to dry from my granda’s own “herbal medicine garden”. And above all, the memory of the never-ending blue of the March skies, in my childhood town, and the feeling that not much has changed since then in my priorities. Still wondering if I’m a princess, still fighting to protect the ones I love, and still in love with fairytales. Same as it ever was, and same as it will ever be.
Top notes: Galbanum, Peppermint, Violet Leaf, and Mastic or Lentisque; Middle notes: Lily-of-the-Valley, Wormwood, Sage and Rose; Base notes: Hay, Musk, Patchouli and Ambergris
Nicoleta Tomsa, Senior Editor
Disclosure: A bottle of Roos & Roos Malamata was kindly offered by the brand, opinions are my own.
Roos & Roos Malamata official image
Thanks to the generosity of Roos & Roos we have a 100ml bottle of Malamata for one registered reader in the EU or USA. You must register or your entry will not count. To be eligible, please leave a comment saying what sparks your interest based on Nicoleta’s review and where you live. Draw closes 3/26/204
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