Perfume Pen Pals: Czech & Speake Dark Rose


Dan,

Someone commented on the Lucky Scent site under Montale Musk to Musk:

"Probably smells like crap! Never tried it, never want to. Take a hike, Musk to Musk."

That makes me laugh every time I read it.

Have you tried Czech & Speake Dark Rose? I can never quite remember where it falls in the monkey-Neanderthal-man parade, along with Montale White Aoud and People of the Labyrinths A*Maze.

Katie


Katie,

I haven't smelled Dark Rose but knowing Czech & Speake, I bet it smells like a dark basement. Or maybe a dark sewing room. With the windows closed for three years. And the roses are dark because they're dead. Because no one watered them. Because they're dead, too. Everyone and everything smells dead in C&S perfumes.

Okay, I just looked up Dark Rose on Basenotes and the first line of the first review says, "Think funeral home."

I agree! Like the Musk to Musk commenter, I love having strong opinions on perfumes I haven't smelled. First, they're almost as valid as my opinions on ones I have smelled.

Plus, it reminds me of a funny scene in Whit Stillman's Metropolitan, in which Audrey is arguing with Tom about the novels of Jane Austen, and Tom finally admits to never having read them. But he says he's read much about them (enough to argue), that he prefers reading literary criticism to actual novels because then he gets not only the critic's ideas but the author's, and in a conveniently condensed manner.

In keeping with this, I've never smelled Dark Rose and I probably never will (god willing), but I say Dark Rose smells like a funeral home. An English funeral home, with musty antique furniture and carpets that still carry the stench of the previous funeral director's fat old incontinent cat. And dead flowers. And dead people. Take a hike, Dark Rose!


See, if you sound sufficiently opinionated and you throw in some specific details, you don't even need to sample the stuff.

Dan


Dan,

Every time I've taken a sniff of Dark Rose at the Scent Bar, I've spontaneously emitted a pleased and surprised "Hmm!" I do like it. You need to pop on your sample so that we can have a focus group.

Katie


Katie,

Okay, I'm currently wearing Dark Rose, and it's definitely of the same stripe as Montale's softer ouds, Red Aoud specifically. Which means it smells like the paste used in Happy Hall Nursery School in 1970. (I can't speak for what they use today.) It's actually kind of nice. As ouds go.

Dark Rose softens nicely. It's definitely not for me, but it turns somehow sweeter and powdery. I think it's my favorite Czech & Speake. Which is like saying "Touch Me" is my favorite Doors song.



Which it is, but still....

Dan


Dan,

I'm wearing Dark Rose, and I have no earthly idea what kind of Shangri-La paste you kids were snorfing back at the Happy Hall Nursery School.

Dark Rose leans in the direction of Agent Provocateur's saffron rose, without being as high-pitched as AP. I can't smell any of the advertised oud, at least not the way oud is presented in Montale, Le Labo and By Kilian. Something about the patchouli and busyness in Dark Rose puts me in mind of Clinique Aromatics.

Dark Rose is “perfumey” and a bit soapy. I'm pinning responsibility for the soapiness on the white musk. As it lingers, it starts to resemble the drydown of Creed Fleurs de Bulgare, with its powderiness.

My conclusion on this matter is that Dark Rose is a theatrical, feminine perfume with a vintage flair.

Katie


Photo: Butterworth funeral home in Seattle, 1900

19 comments:

  1. I smelt Dark Rose a long time ago, and remember it reminding me of just such a stuffy airless drawing room as Dan evokes, with the antique furniture, the musty antimacassars, and the rock hard scones left untouched on a gilt-edged Royal Albert plate...from a year last November. The curtains are burgundy velvet and if you tried to take them down to clean them they would knock you to the floor, where you would lie mummified in their copious swathes until - well, just until.

    So for my money, a "theatrical, feminine perfume with a vintage flair" is to all practical purposes "funereal" with a light positive spin.

    Regarding Dan's facility for critiquing scents unsniffed, Mr Bonkers was awarded a far from shabby B grade in his O-Level English literature, for which he prepared not by reading lit crit books - let alone the books on the syllabus themselves - but by merely WATCHING THE FILMS of the books. I kid you not. An early manifestation of his rock 'n' roll approach to life in general.
    ReplyDelete
  2. flittersniffer, I'm thrilled to hear my bogus review stands up and I suggest perfume bloggers the world over try something similar. Start with an easy line, like Czech & Speake ("musty, creaky") or Comme des Garcons ("woody, transparent, modern"), and see if readers notice. I bet they won't and, before long, perfume reviews can come solely from press releases (we know the drill, we've all written book reviews from dust jackets). Imagine the reduction in effort. Which can then be reinvested in smelling more perfumes. Which puts us right back where we started. Never mind.
    ReplyDelete
  3. I love Dan's erstwhile rant on why he hasn't smelled Dark Rose and never would. He had reason, logic and examples from movies complete with (condensed) dialogue. Not to mention Opinions! And because of which, he will never have to try it. And then Katie comes back with "try it" and in his next post he's wearing it! Katie, you hold some kinda power! Go girl!

    uh, and who is Mr. Bonkers?
    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh yeah, flittersniffer, perhaps you should clarify that Mr. Bonkers is your husband, rather than a pet name for some obscure part of...something or other...
    ReplyDelete
  5. Ewwww, I hadn't gone THERE! Thanks, Katie.

    Dan, I haven't written too many book reviews (as in none) (YET) but good to know I can do it from the dust jackets. I am going to try it with the next book I read. I have one on hold at the library I am picking up today. I enjoyed your circular logic. Keep smellin'.
    ReplyDelete
  6. ScentsofSmell, I know dust-jacket book reviews pass muster in American public schools, but I can't speak for the real world. Oh, who am I kidding? Yes I can. I do it all the time. The real world looks forward to your review.
    ReplyDelete
  7. I just want to say, Metropolitan is one of my FAVORITE MOVIES.
    ReplyDelete
  8. Sorry, yes, Mr Bonkers is my partner / spousal equivalent. I read my comment back again and at a pinch you might even think I was referring to Dan, when he is of course Mr Sane and Full Of Clever Wheezes.
    ReplyDelete
  9. You and me both, Elisa. And if I ever figure out a way to generate income from the ability to accurately recite Metropolitan scenes, I'll make us rich.

    And "Mr. Sane", flittersniffer? I think my therapist would beg to differ.
    ReplyDelete
  10. Dan, when you figure out how to generate income from reciting movie scenes, let me know. My 9 year old granddaughter is quite good at it. To the point that you know the movie as well as she. And it doesn't matter if you have already seen the movie because NOTHING will dissuade her from completing the story. And if you try and curtail the recitation, forget it! She will argue with you if you have one point wrong and correct you. But in a nice and funny way. She is a very bright and funny girl. I am not just saying that! ;-)
    ReplyDelete
  11. Thanks for the Mr. Bonkers clarification. I thought he was a cat. Although, why either a cat, or some obscure part of something or other would be receiving a grade in his O-Level English literature..... Well, I haven't figured that part of it out yet.

    And I just have to say that I am clearing my browser's cache nightly to keep my nearly college age son from reading this blog. So far, I believe that he actually reads the books that he is assigned. But there seem to be some compelling arguments here for abandoning the practice.
    ReplyDelete
  12. m61, it's funny how we can misinterpret a comment, and create a whole justification in our head for the misinterpretation. Just like how I'm now thinking this blog is unsuitable for sensitive young men, based on your remark. But perhaps you just mean that you don't want to give your son any big ideas on ways to shirk off schoolwork?
    ReplyDelete
  13. Ha! The latter. Not that he hasn't had any such ideas about schoolwork, but I would avoid the impression that any of my acquaintances would have them as well. Oh, and my son, despite his sophisticated taste in perfume and his growing interest in fine literature, would certainly just grin at the Mr. Bonkers misinterpretation.
    ReplyDelete
  14. Dan,

    I understand you comparing it to Red Aoud. I had my wife test this, for one reason only. A cheaper alternative to Rose Oud. Sadly it missed its mark. The first time my wife tried it I was ok not bad, but it went bad after that. It seem to me just a poor attempt at Red Aoud. Even saying that, it still is not a bad perfume. Just wasn't for us.
    ReplyDelete
  15. This post truly made me 'laugh out loud!' I mean, I tend to write 'lol' quite often but, you know, who ever really does? Anyway, 'take a hike musk to musk' and Dan's opinion on Dark Rose prior to actually sampling it, will be quietly amusing me for some time.
    I'm a bit of a Cuba fan though and think that perhaps it might smell less dead than the others in the line. Then again, it does have a fecal-ness about it...
    ReplyDelete
  16. Thanks for lol-in' on us. I know Dan took a whirl with C&S Cuba, but I don't know how long that lasted. He did send me a decant...I'll have to consult it to determine the potential level of funeral-home-ness.
    ReplyDelete
  17. Katie, My Cuba whirl ended more quickly than the time it took to send you that decant. And yes, rossm, Cuba's focus is on the fat old incontinent cat and not the funeral home in which it lived. (A solifeline?) Oddly, I have fond memories, of the perfume and the cat. Both were admirably obstinate.
    ReplyDelete
  18. Dark Rose is GORGEOUS. It's a masculine, exotic rose. Sure there are elements of old-fashioned, Edwardian luxury and even a dark basement, but it's a basement where they're having one hell of a dark, so-wrong-it's-right, time. Since trying the sample I've worn it every day.
    ReplyDelete
  19. Dark Mose, thank you for rehabilitating that unfortunate basement, and for redressing the balance of opinion on Dark Rose.
    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)