Bulgarian Rose and Coffee Beans

[doomsday_disco]

Voluptuous Bulgarian rose unfurls like crimson silk, met by the dark, resinous warmth of freshly cracked coffee beans.

[Geminirubyshoes]

This is very much for the rose lovers! I put a tiny dab on my arm (elbow nook) and now my entire sleeve smells like bulgarian rose and roasted coffee beans. Like if you put a fresh rose into a bag of coffee beans, sealed it up for awhile and then opened the bag, that’s what it’s like. 

[Assimbya]

This goes on mostly coffee beans to start, close to photorealistic and smoky, with a chocolate-y warm depth. The rose shows up first as a floral sharpness underneath the coffee, and deepens for me over the course of wear, gradually unfolding in vividness.

 

I've been trying to identify which of the lab's other rose blends this note reminds me, since Bulgarian rose specifically doesn't tend to show up all that often in listed notes - it's in Two, Five, & Seven, but along with so many other roses that it can be hard to pick out! This Bulgarian rose notes feels related to the lab's tea rose, but deeper, lusher, and more adult, if not as deep as the Peacock Queen rose - I'd say that it's pink rather than red.

 

This is a duet which does what it says it's going to do, and if you want rose and coffee beans then you should go for it! I was intrigued by the idea of the combination (I'm not a coffee drinker but do enjoy the smell of coffee beans), but the experience of actually smelling like coffee is not one I think I'm going to want very often. Our decant will stay with us, but I won't need more of it.

[doomsday_disco]

When I tried this just on the front of my wrist one day, the coffee disappeared pretty quickly on me, and I was left with just the rose.

 

When I gave this a full-day slather (slathering it on wrists, down my forearm, in the crooks of my elbows, and on my neck), I could smell the coffee beans with the rose throughout the day, although the rose note definitely was the dominant note after the wet phase and got stronger over time. It has great throw, too, and I could smell both notes in the throw.

 

Originally, I was going to pass on this, but then I decided I had to try it since Bulgarian rose is usually my favorite rose note, and I thought, what if this smells like a bouquet of roses in a coffee shop? It doesn't really give me that vibe, since the rose is stronger than the coffee, but it is still really nice. I'm going to have to slather it on again to decide if the decant will suffice, or if I need a bottle -- I think it would be a great Yule to wear in January when you're getting antsy for the Lupercalia update.

Edited Friday at 09:34 PM by doomsday_disco

[leptonpyr]

This goes on all rich, dark, velvety coffee beans, extremely photorealistic. It reminds me more of espresso, actually, because it is just *so* rich and velvety. Yum! I was worried the coffee smell would be too intense for me (do I really want to smell like an espresso?), but fortunately about the moment it touched my skin, a surprisingly bright, citric rose started to fold itself in. The combination is just gorgeous! Before too long (maybe half an hour), the rose starts to dominate on me, and the coffee beans start doing more work backing the rose, adding a really lovely layer of dark, rich warmth, rather than standing out on their own, which I was very happy about as a lover of rose and someone who isn't particularly interested in gourmands. As the hours went on, the coffee faded more and more, but never entirely, although by the end of the wear it was so subtle I wouldn't have been able to pick it out if I hadn't known it was there. The last stage of rose for me was this absolutely gorgeous lush-powdery note that had the same lush-powdery texture as orris butter! (Except of course it smells like rose instead of orris.) The rose never went soapy on me at all, much to my delight, so I suppose Bulgarian rose will be another note for me to look out for! I genuinely wasn't sure if this blend was going to be as pretty as I'd hoped it would be; I knew there was a chance I'd find the coffee overpowering or off-putting, but it truly surpassed my expectations. Not 100% sure whether I'll be reaching for this quite often enough to warrant a bottle, but I am a bit tempted. Luckily I have a few months to think it over! I predict this will see some serious wear in February, it feels absolutely perfect for Valentine's Day. 

 

Had some throw at first but receded much closer within the first hour or two, pretty short longevity before it mostly faded (4-5hrs, probably more like 4). 

Edited 17 hours ago by leptonpyr