Fragrant Roses – Your Guide

Rose Spotlight

Fragrant Roses – Your Guide

Rose Spotlight

Roses are a sight to behold in their apricot, pink, yellow or ivory glory, and a delight to breathe in too should you choose a variety with a forward fragrance. Without fragrance, the world would be emptier than we might first think.

Scents are processed in the same part of the brain as where memories are safely stored. Scents are emotional and can transport you back to a moment in time. Scents can soothe and make the stresses of a day feel suddenly so insignificant.

So whether it’s a heady Myrrh scent that transports you to someplace special or a traditional tea fragrance that triggers something to make you feel happy and at home, there is a rose filled with notes ready to release. With up to 400 different aromatic components, roses carry one of the most complex scent profiles of all of nature’s blooms. With the help of our fragrance formulation expert Emma, we look at the ingredients of four rose fragrances.

Fragrance, Myrrh

Myrrh-scented roses are never really what you would quite expect. It’s hard to not hear myrrh and associate it with heavy, resinous frankincense fragrances that we associate with incense and Christmas-time. But Myrrh in roses is a totally different scent. It comes from the Latin Myrrhis odorata – the name for Sweet Cicely, which is classically light and delicate, full of air and hints of green aniseed. Green banana and fennel fronds can be detected too, along with liquorice root and a touch of star anise.

Beatrice has a beautiful fresh myrrh character combined with a warm heart of honey, nougat and hints of apricot.

Eugenie has a naturally elegant character with notes of myrrh and soft sweet hay. As the blooms mature they develop fruity notes of grapefruit, pear and apricot.

Fragrance, Old Rose

Rich, complex and incredibly beautiful, Old Rose fragrances are warm and full of depth. Whenever you smell a rose with this scent profile, you feel as though you keep smelling downwards through its many enveloping layers. Citrus peel and cucumber, dried fruits and berry jam, black pepper and carnation flowers, beeswax and patchouli, Old Rose is a profile that just keeps on going. Somehow, the scent feels ancient, as though it’s been around forever. This is the classic smell of course that made roses so desired for centuries and centuries, civilisation after civilisation. If you like this scent then try these two roses:

Millicent has a beautiful rich Old Rose fragrance with zesty lemon notes and a hint of apricot.

Capability has a beautiful rich, deep old rose fragrance with hints of lemon and ripe apricot.

Fragrance, Fruity

These roses are some of the most diverse in their fragrance profile, with each rose typically being a mixture of all sorts of fruits. Some are fresher with green Granny Smith apple and pear notes, while others are much deeper full of berries. Many Fruity fragranced roses contain a whole host of fruit notes but in differing intensities; it is not uncommon to detect mango and guava alongside nectarine, cherry, elderflower and blackcurrant leaf.

Patience has a beautiful fruity scent with notes of sparkling lemon, lychee and ripe pear. The lychee and pear notes combine to give the scent an elegant floral character reminiscent of lily of the valley.

Constance has a beautiful fruity rose character with notes of luscious apricot, rosewater and lemon. They combine to give a scent with warmth and depth which hints to an “Old Rose” ancestor.

Fragrance, Tea

Tea fragranced roses carry such an interesting scent, so-named as they smell like dried black tea leaves with other notes woven in. One of the best words to describe this fragrance family is powdery. Think delicate violet and soft orris root – an ingredient favoured in perfume making.

Effie has a gorgeous soft powdery fragrance with notes of black tea and violet. As the blooms mature the scent becomes fruity with apricot notes adding warmth.