Givenchy, Chloé, Balenciaga, Van Cleef & Arpels, Terry de Gunzburg, Miller Harris… But what's everyone got with the rose this spring? The answer is… Asia! " The perfumes featuring the rose meet a great success there "says Pauline Celier-Bony, Roger&Gallet's international marketing director. The brand launched a fresh scented water Rose Imaginaire in 2012 (100 ml, 38.70 €), which is a hit in Asia! Japanese women like Chinese women (big markets that open to perfumes) love fresh and sweet, delicate and"dewy" notes of the beautiful thorny.

Chloé launched her perfume Roses in 2013 in Asia, well before the French who will not be able to discover it until next March (Roses de Chloé, eau de toilette 75 ml, 92 €). Composed by Michel Almeirac (Robertet), who has always been in love with roses, the fragrance declines all the inflections of the rose (absolute and essential oil) from lemon to fruity (pear and lychee accents), including artichoke! " The most beautiful rose essences remind us of this. "says the perfumer. The result is a true"floral portrait" where the flower is treated as close as possible to its truth. The Turkish rose ( Rosa damascena ) just picked exhales its aqueous freshness, magnified by bergamot and a magnolia accord.

Michel Almeirac was again the one to interpret Terry de Gunzburg's dreams of roses. " My passion for roses is very simple ", confides the latter," all the products that are extracted, be it gasoline, absolute or water, are wonderful. You can use them in large quantities, the result is always delicious ". Terry wanted to"bite" into the scent of roses, capture them without choking them. She left carte blanche to the perfumer who signs two very different roses, to discover from March 1 in By Terry boutiques, department stores and perfumery : Fruit Défendu, a green and fruity rose, with honeyed and greedy accents, dominated by the absolute pink of Turkey ; Bleu Paradis, a blue rose from the Far East, velvety and sensual, with exotic accents of lychee and cedar smoked, perfectly mixed (both in eau de parfum 100 ml, 130 €).

Just as unusual, Rosabotanica by Balenciaga (eau de parfum, from 53 € the 30 ml to 105 € the 100 ml, from February) is a herbal rose with herbaceous and spicy accents (hyacinth, cardamom, pink pepper) that goes off the beaten track.

As for Givenchy's new opus, Very Irrésistible L'Eau en Rose (eau de toilette, from €51 the 30 ml to €88 the 75 ml, from March 3, 2014), it reinvents the rose by associating it with fruity notes (notably blackberry). Yves Rocher pays tribute to a subtle and transparent infusion of Rose Centifolia de Grasse, enhanced with a natural sweet apple essence, in Moment de Bonheur L'eau (50 ml, 42 €, available in April).

Rose Velours in the Extraordinary Collection by Van Cleef & Arpels (eau de parfum 75 ml, 120 €) is clearly a soliflore, composed by Antoine Maisondieu (Givaudan), that plays on the contrast between suave opulence and woody scents. " I built this perfume like an imaginary journey that reveals its increasingly complex scents. It can be discovered little by little on the skin and gets richer as the hours go by. "says the perfumer.

The niche perfumery also celebrates the queen of gardens, like Miller Harris with her Rose in Black (eau de parfum 100 ml, 125 €), which stages the dark facet of the rose, crowning it with black pepper, violet leaf and a powerful trail (ambrette seeds, patchouli, black tobacco). Or Ex Nihilo which defines its Rose Ubris (eau de parfum 50 ml, 180 €) as an"excessive May rose", set with green leaves and light fruity and spicy touches. A creation by Olivier Pescheux.

At a time when the rose of Lancôme (emblem of the house) celebrates its 40 years, we can also explain the triumph of the rose (especially in Asia) by its typically French image. "Life in Pink" sung by Edith Piaf has toured the world. Closely associated with romanticism and love, rose simply signals the return of femininity in perfumery. To meditate on this Valentine's Eve…

And as we're certainly not done with it this spring, next week we'll talk about the pink color, omnipresent in the new makeup collections…

Ariane Le Febvre