Une Tonne de Roses Eau

So called because it takes 3.5 tons of rose petals to make just one kilo of rose essence, Une Tonne de Roses has a natural delicacy that belies its hefty name. It opens with a fresh, soft pink rose glistening with the wet sparkle of fruit ? green apple or an Asian pear, perhaps. There is also, briefly, a hint of something winey and truffled playing around the edges of the rose, but it never commits to darkness. This is an innocent little rosebud of a rose, just about to burst into being. We start out in Spring, with a dewy rose, but we end up in Fall, with a clean, earthy patchouli. Although more a watercolor than the gouache of Almairac's earlier masterpiece, Voleur de Roses, Une Tonne de Roses completes a similar journey, fading from the pale pink blush of the rose to the golden brown leaf mulch of patchouli. Finishing in a clean, crystalline musk, Une Tonne de Roses strikes us as a Japanese screen version of the ever-popular rose and patchouli combination ? delicate, crisp, and achingly pretty.