Soliflore Notes Saffron Rose (Valerie Lee Vitale) ~Perfume Review + Illuminated Rose Draw

Creating fragrance feels as intuitive for perfumer Valerie Lee Vitale as breathing, writing, dancing. A vibrant multi-sensorialist, Valerie juggles her many loves with legerdemain: working, raising her young family, sharing insights and experiences on her blog Soliflore Notes.(Valerie is also a former Editor for CaFleureBon) composing perfume and delving into the culinary arts with gusto. She has studied perfumery at F.I.T.  in order to help acquire an aromatic springboard of sorts, a technical foundation upon which to hone her artistic skills. Valerie’s perpetual curiosity is key; that insatiable characteristic fuels her passions and keeps her nose to the ground, as all we feral types are wont to do.

Leon Bakst, costume design for Nijinsky in Le spectre de la rose, 1911©

 

I received samples of her fragrances months ago and explored them with delight. They each possess their own persona; choosing one was not a simple task. Of her five perfumes, the one which sang most lovingly on my skin happened to be Soliflore Notes Saffron Rose [yes, the selfsame name of her blog]: rose illuminated. Luminous jammy roses are always welcome aromatic adjuvants to ma vie quotidiènne, and this one smells particularly luxurious and natural. Do we need yet one more rose saffron-based perfume? Indeed we do.

 Vladmir Kush©

Soliflore Notes Saffron Rose opens with a lush ruby red grapefruit note – one of the more tenacious citrus notes, as those low-molecular weight beguilers are fleeting. Its tangy sweet/tartness fairly drips juice in its wake, and paired with elegant bergamot it’s irresistible [this from one who doesn’t usually seek out grapefruit in fragrance]. Buxom Bulgarian rose nestles into a beeswax absolute effortlessly; the latter imparts a honeyed animalic undertone, fleshing out the magnificent rose as she unfurls with grandeur.

Lips As Red Like A Rose  Alayah Gadah©

Valerie’s choices are sage: one might push the gourmand aspect further via a surfeit of vanilla, where she merely adds it as a dash of seasoning, no more. Inclusion of iris notes here doesn’t create a cosmetic effect [lovely though that can be] – it counters sweetness with silver, harmonizing the mixed metal quality of warm/cool radiant ardor. Just as saffron gilds her rose with an amber halo, iris provides the opposite: Valerie’s finesse prevents them from overwhelming the composition with metallic excess. Benzoin is a welcome guest with its ethereal round resinous balsamic tones; it helps prolong our pleasure. Saffron Rose is expansive and generous, a full-blown beauty in her prime. As such, she surely would round out anyone’s collection. Notes: ruby red grapefruit, bergamot, beeswax absolute, Bulgarian rose, saffron, iris notes, vanilla, benzoin

Sample kindly provided by the perfumer! My nose is my own…

~ Ida Meister, Senior Editor

~ Art Direction, Michelyn Camen, Editor-in-Chief

Flower of Immortality by Leon Bakst

Thanks to the generosity of Valerie Lee Vitale and Soliflore Notes, we have a bottle of Soliflore Notes Saffron Rose or a sample set of all five fragrance for one registered reader (register here if you have not already done so) in the USA or her sampler set if you reside in Canada. Please leave a comment saying what appeals to you about based on Ida’s review of Soliflore Notes Rose Saffron, and which you would like win. Draw closes 5/14/2018

We announce the winners only on site and on our Facebook page, so Like ÇaFleureBon and use our Blog feed…or your dream prize will be just spilled perfume.

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14 comments

  • As an all around rose lover, i am truly interested in this fragrance. I love grapefruit also, and, since “Soliflore Notes Saffron Rose opens with a lush ruby red grapefruit note” I am even more intrigued. I live in the US and would love to win a bottle of Soliflore Notes Saffron Rose.

  • Just Add Light says:

    It’s incredibly difficult these days to find a natural smelling rose fragrance outside of the niche market. It seems that most people have traded in the actual smell for a flavouring-induced facsimile! The complexity really needs to be appreciated; and when combined with a tangy beeswax accord, benzoin and powdery vanilla, I could easily settle for eating that jam every day! But perhaps the most intriguing additions to me are the grapefruit opening and the iris in the mid. I don’t ever recall smelling red grapefruit in a rose fragrance before, so that alone makes this a win for me. Having an address in North Carolina, I would love to win a bottle!

  • NiceVULady says:

    i really love grapefruit as a citrus opener. I can’t imagine its pairing with rose, but maybe that is the secret of the allure of this particular scent. There are a number of interesting elements and their pairing in this fragrance. If I won, I’d love to win the sample set as this house has a number of interesting scents, and I’m not familiar with any of them. Thanks for the draw. I’m in the USA

  • Love this description of “saffron gilds her rose with an amber halo”. Amber halo! What a beautiful way to describe that!! The notes sound beautiful. I can NEVER get enough of rose fragrances. I’d love to win a full bottle. I live in the US.

  • Lois Bonner says:

    Saffron Rose is a perfume that is hearty and modest at the same time. It suggests all of our four seasons, especially springtime!

  • roxhas1cat says:

    Of course I need another rose to “sing lovingly on my skin”. I adore jammy rose fragrances. The supporting cast notes sound dreamy! When I began my perfume journey I originally though of rose as for older ladies, boy was I wrong. I now have 4 rose based fragrances in my collection and am always sampling for more. I checked out the website and they all sound lovely, but I’d love to win the full bottle. Thanks for the article and the draw. US.

  • Rose and beeswax……count me in please for Saffron Rose. The red grapefruit will surely provide some zing. In the US.

  • I love Jammy roses… expansive and generous,I love Ida’s writing…I live in the US.

  • Anna Egeria says:

    Beautiful review! Saffron Rose sounds like a rose fragrance I’d love to try this summer. I’m in the US and would like to win the bottle. Thank you for this draw!.

  • This perfume sounds nice for all seasons. Just being called Saffron Rose interests me. That is a good combination and I’m liking the other notes as well. Like to try this out. Thanks
    California

  • jeremyn87 says:

    I like the idea of a saffron rose scent which doesn’t have any oud. While I do love the traditional oud-rose-saffron scents, it’d be nice to try one which is a bit less conventional and lets the saffron shine. I’d be interested in the bottle of Saffron Rose.
    I’m in the US

  • Mr_Sillage says:

    If You would’ve told me, just a couple years ago, that the note of ROSE would become my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE note on fragrances, I would’ve thought you were crazy… But here we are! Growing up and thinking the water of a conforming strong male, I was imbued with the notion that roses are a sign of femininity. Oh, what a young, impressionable man I was! Little did i know that Rose is a note of power and confidence and this fragrance seems to give off those same vibes. Ida ALWAYS has this easy of writing that grabs my attention with SUCH FORCE that I can almost smell what she’s describing and that’s so so powerful when it comes to a written description of a scent. These notes sounded appealing on their own… But Ida messages then sound DEVINE! I would love to try Soliflore Notes Rose Saffron if I was lucky enough to win. I live in PA. SHEARS appreciate the opportunity. THANK YOU

  • Catanosmia says:

    I would love to smell the grapefruit in this scent…it can so easily go astray but it sounds like it works here. I’d most love to try the sampler. Her Neroli Anise is particularly intriguing! Thanks for the draw, I’m in the US.

  • VerbenaLuvvr says:

    How very generous of this perfumer to offer another giveaway! She seems quite the busy artist, and it is all these influences, life experiences, and earned knowledge that she brings to her craft. It will be exciting to experience her creations, and best wishes for much success to her. I live in the US and would very much like to try the sampler.