Caron Or Et Noir

I'm deep into my current 'gothy-rose' phase, fueled no doubt by a dream back in October of a room full of roses in a French monastery scriptorium. (No, I'm not kidding! My dreams are sometimes akin to Hollywood scripts, often bad ones.)

I recently had the opportunity to sample Or et Noir Parfum, created by Michael Morsetti in 1949 for Caron. The listed notes are Bulgarian rose, centifolia rose, geranium, Anatolian rose, lilac, carnation, oakmoss, amber. This is a full blown, deep red, warm rose scent from top to bottom, suffused with the spicy hint of geranium and underpinned by the slightly dirty oakmoss and sandalwood (not listed, but I know darn well it's there). Many reviews of this perfume mention a winey accord in the top, but for me it's basically an explosion of red rose, drying down to warm, faintly green, dirty/dusty wood.

While Or et Noir doesn't exactly live up to my Hollywood-esque Wet Dream of gothic roses in a scriptorium, it is a beautiful, true, sumptuous scent that any rose lover would love having in her collection.