Delire de Roses Caron

Desirability: Full bottle and back up

Source: www.b-b-com.ru

Feminine. Dainty. Graceful.

This smells like a garden party held within walls covered with thousands upon thousands of rose blooms in every shade of pink and yellow. The sky above is crystal clear and blue with not the slightest threat of rain to mar it. The slightest of breezes keeps the party cool and lively with the uplifting green and floral scent of the blossoming hedges but not heavy enough to ruffle the table linen, upon which a delightful feast of pretty treats is laid out, the fruit in season is lychee and here it is in abundance from lychee Martinis to lychee panna cotta. Delicate rose petals and tiny fragrant buds of jasmine are scattered across the table cloths whilst at the corners of the party stand cavernous pots as tall as your hip holding lotus plants with guppies darting about under their broad leaves from which grow translucent pink, purple white and golden blooms. 

On me the exquisite fresh rose blooms and the sweet lychee fruit are the most dominant and although lychee can get a little dense and syrupy, Delire de Roses stays light and tender throughout, rather soft but long lasting. 

A beautiful antidote for Monday blues and somehow I'm reminded of my darling nemesis/niece warbling "Ring a Ring o' Roses".

Source: theillustrationist.com

Vanitas Profumum Roma

Vanitas is a vanilla-centric scent, another in the line-up of olfactory antidepressants from Profumum Roma that are decadent without one piling on the pounds.

The opening is bordering on medicinal, the myrrh being responsible for that and it's a little cold and bitter initially. The myrrh here reminds me of Annick Goutal's Myrrh Ardente, which started out similarly with a cold resinous vibe but warmed to a smooth and subtle dark sweetness on me. In Vanitas, I smell the orange blossom and woody notes but they blend so seamlessly with the vanilla and myrrh. As it starts to warm on skin the bitterness and medicine melt away and it develops into a sweet resinous vanilla. It's not complex or profound but it is obviously of good quality ingredients and has an air of sophistication, which makes it different from your usual vanilla line up found in department stores and worn by teeny boppers.

The Profumum Roma line is expensive no doubt, but they are sold in travel sprays of 20 ml for about 60 Euro versus the 190 Euro for 100 ml. Unless you choose to have just this one perfume, I don't think a 100 ml is necessary as it is a very tenacious scent although with a soft trail and a little bit goes a very very VERY long way.

This is a scent for cuddling and lazing in bed on the weekends, it's so comforting, light-hearted and filled with positive vibes. I don't find it a "sexy" vanilla like for instance Dior's Addict which is a vampy vanilla, instead I liken Vanitas to the sweet and charming Snow White of 1937. On a different note, it also makes me crave for Sabayon. 

Vanitas Vanitatum, Omnia Vanitas “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”

I did some research on the word "Vanitas"and it's as bittersweet as the myrrh and vanilla in the perfume. In Latin, it literally translates to "vanity" and is used to mean "emptiness" or "futility". Ecclesiastes 1:2;12:8 from the Old Testament, is often associated with this term and in the book he proclaims all the actions of man to be  inherently futile as the lives of both wise and foolish men end the same, in death. So as humans, we are powerless over the transience of life, but while we have life, we should enjoy every day of it, but our actions being kept in checked by following the 10 Commandments. Or simply put, do whatever you want so long as you hurt nobody or yourself in the process.

After that slightly grim note, I shall leave you with something more positive. Carpe diem!