Rose TRO Attar
Amouage

This is a pure, unadulterated rose delight, made for those who genuinely love rose soliflores. There may be hints of other notes here, but nothing that interferes with the utter, beautiful, undiluted rosiness of this thing. This is soft, creamy, gorgeous stuff and if I loved rose I would be all over this. A true rose lover's dream. FOR ROSE FANATICS ONLY.

awesome...a rose lovers dream...rose in all it's splendor and glory...unbelievable powerhouse projection...not much to say...could ramble on for several paragraphs about all the nuances and delights of this fragrance, but suffice to say, this is all about rose...the only other flavor is a citrusy amber mist hanging in the distance to give this a little balance so as not to be just an overpowering rose scent...if you love rose, I would recommend making an effort to at least sample this baby at some point of your fragrance journeys...

This is an Eye-Roller. I hazard to guess that this is simply, a Luxury Rose Absolute, pumped lightly with a White Musk on a backdrop of Citronella.

With Rose, I tend to be drawn to it's layers of sensuality by the use of the sting of acid to counterpoint the rich sugars.

As a young child I reached for a Beautiful Red Rose and my little hand was nicked by the thorn.

Still, I drew the Rose to my snout and breath-ed the pleasure.

Later, washing my hands, the sting, had my pleasure center touching that Rose.

To this day, the sharp sting of her nails on my back (side)has me see Roses.

After the Sting it falls into a Cushiony dream.

I would suggest this is a Masculine scent.

Rose TRO is the first Amouage attar I've tried whose beauty actually fills me with genuine rapture, rather than admiration (Tribute), qualified respect (Homage) or downright apathy (Asrar and Salamah attars). I suppose that's because it's a lush, bold, creamy rose, which is the very type I love and go weak at the knees for, making it perhaps inevitable I would have such a Pavlovian response to it. Rose TRO means “Turkish Rose Otto”, and refers specifically to the Rosa Damascena species of rose that is steam-distilled as opposed to chemically extracted (rose absolute and CO2 extract). The attar itself is clear, which made me suspect that the fragrance wouldn't be rich or deep. I was wrong. Despite the clarity of the drop I applied to my skin, the aroma that burst onto my skin could be described as deep red and gold streaks in a purple sky. In fact, I was taken aback at how carnal the opening minutes of the fragrance felt on my skin – it felt so thick, heady, and almost drowned in heavy beeswax that it recalled, for a moment, certain aspects of Lutens' animalic rose chypre, Rose de Nuit. But past the first half an hour, the attar dropped all its seductive growl and became a soft, purring kitten of a thing.

Now, either the rose oil used in this is so multifaceted that it is capable of throwing out a startling range of rosy ‘tones' or this attar relies on more than just Turkish Rose Otto for its effect (if so, it's unlisted), but the rose presented in Rose TRO is more complex than I ever imagined a rose could ever be. At the start, there is a whisper of something citric, but as the rose unfolds, I pick up hints of cream soda, milk chocolate, sugared cream, butter cookies, and rahat (loukhoum). It is all very soft and truffly, but at the same time, the aroma is strong and rich. I have a weakness for creamy, dessert-like roses, although my taste runs less towards loukhum-style fragrances than it does to simple wonders such as Roucel's Tocade. I also like the vanilla-rose-saffron combination in Safran Troublant, and the vanilla-rose-aoud combination in Montale's White Aoud. Rose TRO is a very creamy rose in this general style.

But it is a more natural, true, and deep rose fragrance than any of these I have just mentioned. I found it stunning. I am aware that in the Middle East, most people might wear pure rose attars layered with other fragrances. Personally, I find this to be mind-blowingly good on its own, although I do intend to layer my one remaining drop in my sample with some of Abdul Samad al Qurashi's famous white body musk, to see if I can't get it to last a bit longer. Longevity is actually pretty alright on this, higher than average for a pure distilled rose otto (which normally disappears within the hour due to its volatile nature), which makes me further suspect that this can't be a pure rose otto without any other ingredients or at least a fixative or two. At $199 for 15mls, I guess this is not the most expensive attar in Amouage's stable, but still quite beyond my budget. Still, I intend to enjoy my last drop while I can!