Roja Dove courtesy of Roja Dove
Roja Dove, master perfumer, best-selling author and Creative Ambassador for Great Britain is one of the most renowned names in perfumery. His eponymous luxury brand, Roja Parfums, is recognized throughout the world. Whether he is creating a one of a kind bespoke fragrance or Fragrance Foundation and other award-winning scents for the public, the perfumer's belief that "only the best will do" is evident in each and every fragrance he brings to life. Roja Dove's Lily Eau de Parfum, debuted in 2014, is an exquisite study in the many and varied facets of white flowers as they highlight bouquets of vividly colored tropical blooms.
Tilda Swinton by Tim Walker ©
White, in flowers and in fragrance, has long been associated with innocence, purity and perfection. White is not the absence of color, but technically an "achromatic color", reflecting every wavelength in the visible spectrum. White is never simple, but rather an ever-changing mirror, suggesting the tints, shadows and shades of the surrounding environment. As a "sometime" visual artist I find that the most important pigment I bring to any painting is the white (or whites) I chose to work with. The whites I select (opaque titanium or transparent zinc oxide for example) will, to a large extent, determine the intensity of the other colors I use, the opacity and even the consistency and feel of paint under the knife or brush.
Model Nastya Zhidkova by Danil Golovkin©
The choice of white defines how light enters into and is projected from the canvas. Roja Parfums Lily helps me to imagine a similar craft and creative process in perfumery, pointing out how the scent of certain white flowers might be more luminous, blend-able or grounding than others, creating sensations of stability, crystalline clarity or perhaps a bright pop, shimmer or contrast.
Wild Flower Nastya Zhidkova by Danil Golovkin©
Roja Dove Lily first reveals itself as translucent, delicate, glacier-white porcelain, a waxen Easter lily tinted with frothy lemon, shadowed with a fresh green effect of bergamot and accented with a breath of pink clove. The initial impression is suffused with the unmistakable scent of another white flower, Tahitian tiare.
Tim Walker For Vogue Japan and Frida Gustavsson for Mulberry 2012 (Tim Walker)
The tropical effect of tiare becomes evident as the scent of the white Lily evolves into a vibrant rainbow of oriental lily hybrids, colored with exotic ylang-ylang, vanilla and full-bodied jasmine; the original subtlety of the white porcelain overtaken by sensuous, tropical hues. This warm, seductive heart of the Roja Parfums Lily EDP remains in place, intimate and close to the skin, for at least five hours before it begins a gradual dry down to comforting woody notes, golden vanilla and musk. I find that the scent of tiare flower is threaded through the entire composition, from the first bloom to the last whisper of fragrance. For eight hours and more the Roja Parfums Lily Eau de Parfum contours and suffuses diaphanous white florals with the lush scent profiles of brightly colored lilies, roses and carnations, all the while painting a three-dimensional fragrance portrait that wears like a living flower.
Notes: Lemon, bergamot, muguet, Rose de Mai, Jasmin de Grasse, frangipani, ylang-ylang, carnation, clove, wood notes, vanilla and musk.
Many thanks to Europerfumes for my cherished bottle of Roja Dove Lily. My opinions are my own.
Gail Gross, Editor
Art Direction: Michelyn Camen, Editor-in-Chief
Thanks to Europerfumes, the US distributor of Roja Parfums we have one 50 ml bottle of Roja Parfums Lily available to one registered reader in the US. Be sure to register or your comment will not count. To be eligible for the draw, tell us what appeals to you about Gail's review of Roja Parfums Lily Eau de Parfum, your favorite Roja Parfum and favorite white flower. Draw closes August 3, 2017
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