A Dozen Roses Amber Queen

Founded by two successful beauty executives, A Dozen Roses creates unique scents by underscoring the emotions evoked by roses.  Merging art with perfumery, and basing each scent around 100% rose absolute has created a niche house worth writing about.  Sandy Cataldo and Lynn Emmolo have indeed succeeded at developing a superb line for fragrance connoisseurs.

To my relief, these scents do not resemble my great-grandmother's rosey perfumes.  Rather, they are original, modern, and sophisticated.  There are other lines based upon rose.  For certain it is a flower worth studying for its varieties, beauty and personality.  What brings freshness and vivacity to this line is the artwork on each bottle, devoted to the rose that is showcased by each fragrance.

I had the pleasure of testing all of these beauties (except for the newest release, more about that in another post!) at Bergdorf Goodman in May.  The one that I purchased on the spot, literally at first sniff, holds the front and center spot in my perfume cabinet: Amber Queen.

Described as "a dream come true", Amber Queen resembles the beautiful golden amber rose upon which is based, with clementine and apricot as glorious top notes.  I detect those for sure, but there is such a solid base upon which they rest, thankfully I am not reminded of my clementine shower gel.  This is richly draped fruit, grounded by ginger and that mysterious rose absolute blend, unique to the house and true to the amber rose.  The heart evolves into soft, enveloping and smooth rose, close to the skin but if sprayed with abandon leaves a decent trail.  I bury my nose into my wrist when wearing Amber Queen and perhaps that is the reason I had to have it.  It feels extremely personal - like my little secret to enjoy.  The base notes are listed as amber and myrrh but I do not experience it as a blast of either, but rather a delicate hint of both.  Smooth, rich and profound describe this fragrance.  I reach for it often, more when I prefer a close-to-my-skin scent; yet I am surprised at the number of compliments I receive when adorned with Amber Queen.  Its deep beauty is not lost on others.

A Dozen Roses scents can be found at Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus.  Each 3.4 oz. beautifully decorated bottle retails for $110.  The first to comment on this post will receive a generous decant from my bottle!