Cadentia Parfums / Jean d’Aigle Rose Eau de Cologne Extra



A couple of weeks ago, I was on the London Underground heading home after a long day. It was around 8 in the evening, and I boarded a car at the end of the train that looked to be completely empty. As I stepped inside, a glorious thing: the entire carriage was fragrant with roses. It was like some kind of olfactory hallucination.


The London tube is notoriously hot and dirty, and not in a good way: particulate pollution on parts of the Underground is up to 30 times higher than roadside levels in the city. It’s also crowded. So to waft aboard a Bakerloo Line ghost ship and be caressed by a rapture of invisible rose petals was my version of a Choose Your Own Adventure dream sequence.


I made my way down the empty aisle with a big musical theatre smile on my face (you know what I mean: that expression of lobotomized euphoria), until I came to what I can only assume was the source of the rose smell. He was a very large man, Arab in countenance, serenely and deeply asleep.

Fighting the impulse to creep closer for an exploratory sniff, I settled myself a few seats away, enjoying the fellow’s rosy emanations as if he were a jumbo solid gel air freshener. I was desperate to know his perfume secrets, but he never awoke before we got to my stop.

The first thing I did when I got home was spritz a bit of Jo Malone Red Roses, my favorite, straight-ahead, roses-with-stems scent. But that wasn’t it: too rich and sweet, with an evident musk that the train hallucination didn’t possess.

Then I sprayed some Trader Joe’s Rose Water Facial Toner to see if that hit the spot, but the aroma was entirely too transparent. All I knew was that I now had a craving for the joyously sheer smell of a blizzard of rose petals. Thanks, slumbering tube guy!


Well, today I’ve quelled my craving, thanks to stumbling upon an indie eau de cologne line from Provence called Cadentia Parfums. According to the UK website, Cadentia has been going since 1945, founded by a chap named Jean who originally hailed from the Swiss town of Aigle. And it’s Jean d’Aigle Rose Eau de Cologne Extra that is now giving me a lobotomized musical theatre smile.

Jean d’Aigle Rose is a fresh, crisp, see-thru rose straight from the garden, uncomplicated by powder, flim-flam, or indeed any other tricks of the parfumer's trade. The eau de cologne strength means that it fades out after about an hour of wear, although on fabric and clothes, it stays true through the next day. My hefty 250 ml bottle of delicate pink liquid set me back a modest £12 (about $16 US), and I’m tantalized to see that it’s available in a Land of the Giants size-up to 500ml and 1000ml. That’s a whole liter of rose cologne, fume fans! How decadent.

Powering up for a Land of the Giants vat of cologne.

Right now I’m trying to work out how many different ways I can rosify my life with this stuff. Throw some in a bath, dab it on handtowels, sprinkle it on bedsheets, slap it on the skin. I didn’t realize until I got the bottle home that it doesn’t come with a screw-on atomizer attachment, so the splash-only application is limiting my excesses somewhat. It looks like the Cadentia website offers a 10ml refill atomizer, so I suppose I’ll track down one of those.

And then I'll be able to cast my floral spell on the Bakerloo Line, just like my mentor, Snoozy Dude.


Manga image: Yuuka Kazami from Touhou Project

18 comments:

  1. Love your story Ms Katie! I hope you track down that man's exotic perfume - I have all the faith in the world that you will.

    I remember having a similar experience myself a couple of years ago. Lemme tell ya (I'm an Aussie so we talk like that doncha know). I had a grocery delivery man come to my house with my groceries and as he unpacked my things on the table my kitchen was filled with the most intoxicating aroma. I realised he was wearing male cologne. As I saw him out the trail of scent he left behind was heavenly.

    The next time I went shopping and I made a point of looking for that cologne. I made my way to the Myers perfume counter and I sniffed and sniffed (and 'coffee d') many and sniffed some more samples and then suddenly! Bing! there it was! It was Fahrenheit! I wanted some! I had no legitimate excuse to buy it for anyone because there was no eligible male around for me at the time. But, I didn't let a little problem like that get in the way and I bought some anyway, just so I could take it home and smell it.

    Once I'd gotten over the pleasure of 'the hunt' I decided to be serious (it was a very expensive cologne) so I reluctantly gave it to my daughter to give to her boyfriend. He loved it so much he is now the father of my grand daughter!

    You will track that smell down, I know you will.

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    1. I love that perfume sniffer-dog track down tale, Em! And what a result: a grand-daughter. Gotta tell you, I didn't see that coming. (A neither did your son-in-law, I bet!)

      I shall be inspired by you in my future fume searches.

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  2. Arabic you say hmmmmm, try rose oil from Arabic shops I think there is one Arabian Oud shop in Oxford st. I love Taief rose oil which is extracted from roses that grow in Saudiarabia But each Arabic perfume brand has their own blend of rose oil that are extracted from roses that grow in different places in the middle east. Hessa

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    1. Hi Hessa! Yes I'm familiar with that Oxford Street oud store, but can't remember if it's still there. It used to be the only place you could get oud perfumes in London, and now they turn up all over the place, including Dior, Penhaligon's and Frederic Malle.

      But what was notable for me about the rose this man was wearing was that it sang out very pure and sheer, just rose, no oud.

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    2. But they do sell pure oils with out oud, my mother is a big fan of pure rose oil, I love white musc oil both of which are oudless.

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  3. Sounds like a delicious scent! I do hope you track it down one day and share it with us all. In the meantime I'm off to buy a huge bottle of rose cologne.

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  4. Many years ago whilst wandering somewhere exotic in the South of France a waft of deliciousness passed me by, I never had the courage then to ask what the lady was wearing and it haunted me for some time, I would have accidently bumped into him, apologised and with my sweetest smile exclaimed how delicious he smelled and asked him for the name, I can no longer bear the trauma of not knowing. Carole.x

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    1. Carole, I'm usually good with asking strangers what they're wearing (after I compliment them), but his being sound asleep was the barrier. It just felt too confrontational to wake him up, have him go through the disorientation of trying to figure out where he was and who I was, and then establish that I wanted to chat about his perfume. Too many social hurdles at once, even for one as outgoing as I!

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    2. Yes Katie I can understand that, he may not have been a happy bunny, perhaps loud coughing next time lol

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  5. Dear Katie, here is a trick that might work for you: make a little sample of this fragrance that has an automizer on and tadaaa, you can spray it wherever you want. Hope that will work. Good luck

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    1. I tadaaa'd myself up with an atomizer bottle from Cadentia, so now I'm all sorted, and spritzing rose recklessly.

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  6. I wish you were still on YouTube lol I know it was a lifetime ago but I still miss you
    So happy I can still visit you here

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    1. I'm happy you're visiting me here! I know I keep saying it, but I am planning to get back to doing perfume vids.

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  7. Hey Katie & Friends,

    Thought you guys may wanna check out Barney's going out of business sale. Yes, THAT Barney's. They currently have perfumes at 10% off. Not a lot, but hey it counts for something! They have an impressive "niche" and high tier (Frederic Malle, Serge Lutens, Byredo, Goldfield & Banks, Heeley, Diptyque, just to name a few). Go check it out. Totally worth splurging on yourself for the holidays!

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  8. Good tip. But I'm so sad to see Barney's go. It was such a luxury playground, even if you didn't end up buying anything. You just felt fancy being part of the ooh-la-la.

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  9. LOL, lobotomized musical theatre smile, that's just how I looked and felt after seeing Mama Mia in New York. Thanks for your awesome review. <3

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