Opera

III-III Love Kills Masque 2019

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7.5 / 10 64 Ratings

III-III Love Kills is a perfume by Masque for women and men and was released in 2019. The scent is floral-spicy. It is still in production.

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Main accords

Floral

Spicy

Fresh

Green

Earthy

Fragrance Notes

Turkish rose

Ambrarome

Egyptian geranium

Rose oxide

Turkish rose absolute

Ambrette seed absolute

Animalic musk

Indonesian patchouli

Cedar

Perfumer

Caroline Dumur

Ratings

Scent

7.564 Ratings

Longevity

8.055 Ratings

Sillage

7.653 Ratings

Bottle

8.049 Ratings

Value for money

6.621 Ratings

Submitted by Ravenous, last update on 15.04.2024.

Interesting Facts

The fragrance is part of the "Opera" collection.

Reviews

3 in-depth fragrance descriptions

10/01/2023

8
Bottle 7
Sillage 9
Longevity 9.5
Scent

Parma
27 Reviews

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Parma

Top Review 17

Portrait for now

I like 'Love Kills' a lot. It is a subtly physical rose-patchouli scent with great similarity to Malle's 'Portrait of a Lady'. Slightly leaner and more situated in the now than Paris Rose, which always seems slightly old-fashioned to me. The Milanese beauty mainly dispenses with incense and the usually very classic carnation and is more restrained despite also having enormous longevity. However, not quiet.

Scent progression:

It opens with a fruity-acidic rose, medium-dark, full-bodied and slightly sweet. Lightened by a citrusy draught, which gives the fragrance a delicate freshness until the end. It is underpinned by a soft, gentle animalicness that I would most readily describe as "skin in the evening". A restrained, warm physicality that makes the rose so interesting and attractive to me. Probably brought on by a combination of animalic musk in a creamy texture, slightly coarse-grained powdery ambrette seed and the subliminally synthetic, velvety-bodied ambergris. A restrained dose of patchouli contributes a spicy-earthy tone (not a cellar-musty one), reinforcing the aromatics and adding verticality. Deep in the drydown, the protagonist develops a beautiful soap-like feel that I've rarely smelled better in its almost silky nature - combined with the soft-spicy physicality. This creates the aura of an aromatic, elegant rose. Well-groomed and at the same time slightly insinuating.

All this seems a bit more light-hearted and less serious compared to the Malle fragrance. Also opulently laid out, but more composed. Closer. Warmer. In addition, excellently tuned. Pleasing, without sacrificing a concise character.

Durability and Sillage:

Just as the fragrance character is somewhat less expansive than the Malle fragrance, the radiation and sillage are also reduced. One is discreetly perceived and in the room remains a slight hint of the fragrance. I myself perceive him easily throughout the day, without having to make an effort to do so.

Conclusion:

'Love Kills' is in my eyes a successful on all levels, more suitable for everyday life and slightly more modern version of the very similar 'Portrait of a Lady'.

Note on ingredients:

Ambrarome is a fully synthetic aroma substance that was developed as early as 1926 by the French company Synarome as an ambergris substitute. Its olfactory picture is described as "warm and enveloping ambery note with smoky nuances {and an} intense leathery and animalic heart {with} salty and mineral notes". However, I do not perceive smoky, leathery, salty and mineral facets in this fragrance. One notices its potentially scent-defining, urgent power, which is, however, prevented here by prudent use. However, I can imagine that this note could annoy one or the other in the long run something.

Classification of the name:

III - III Love Kills is part of Masque Milano's Opera line. The Roman numerals in front of the actual name indicate the respective acts and scenes of the in-house, four-act fragrance opera, which colorfully picks up themes of life (experiences, places, moods, feelings, reflections, relationships, dreams). In this act, love - symbolized by the rose - plays the leading role. The blossoming and death of this elemental force is portrayed in a tragic love story. Inspired by Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet".

As with many brands, this is nice accessory and possibly necessary to stand out from competitors and to appeal to a certain clientele, but for me rather uninteresting. I like him at least no more or less because of this thematic embedding and also do not recognize the reference (for me, for example, it is - if you get involved in this interpretation - a consolidated, mature love in the drydown and no ending with death, as they would like to know the brand narrative understood).

more info:

In 2020, 'Love Kills' was nominated for an Art & Olfaction Award in the 'Independent' category.

05/13/2021

6
Pricing 8
Bottle 8
Sillage 9
Longevity 7
Scent

Pinkdawn
67 Reviews

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Pinkdawn

Top Review 15

Love strikes like cold steel

The curtain's going up. Enter Rose. It's a grand entrance. The rose is immediately present, almost kitschy sweet and heavy like in some oriental perfumes. I'm a fan of rose scents. But this is too intense for me. If you take a closer sniff and let the scent develop after this overdose of ripe rose, it soon comes across as surprisingly fresh and green, almost citrusy - and makes you sit up and take notice. At least to me. Because I like this modern kind of rose. But no sooner do I begin to rejoice in the unexpected freshness than a dark cloud rolls in in the form of an equally unexpected metallic pungency. Where did it suddenly come from? I have no idea. But it's there. Possibly the geranium breaking into the rose idyll.

Even if no geranium appears in the fragrance pyramid at Parfumo, most other sources mention it. For me, it is in any case clearly noticeable.
Geranium and rose meet each other yes more often in perfumes. On the one hand, to stretch the expensive rose oil, on the other hand, to make the fragrance more durable. Nothing against the delicate white flower, but I am not a fan of its floral sweetness. I may be unfair, but in geranium I always see the cheap "substitute rose" of low quality, which spoils any rose fragrance for me.
Here, it's a little different. I recognize the concept. Love Kills is a parable of the transience of love. You could also say the life of a rose as an allegory to the short-lived nature of romantic relationships.

Okay, you don't have to put something in everything. I'm also bothered by the rigorous apodicticism of such metaphors. After all, not all love stories end up as drama or are shorter than a rose life. Do they? But this one is about the finality of love relationships - be it through the daily grind that kills rapturous feelings, betrayal, disappointment, jealousy, stranded hopes, or whatever - and the melancholy inherent in it by its very nature.

For me, the message is clear: In the beginning, there is the still green rose with its promising freshness. Then it blossoms into a beautiful, velvety bloom and develops such a heavy, dark-sweet fragrance that it is almost too intense to enjoy as pleasant. But while one wonders if so much rose is allowed in a fragrance or on a person, geranium conquers the scene. Its citrusy spiciness makes the unisex fragrance wearable for men, but also brings this almost painful metallic sharpness into play, as if a sword were cutting the wonderful rose in two.

So the geranium is a deliberately used player here, intended to show olfactorically how the innocent, heavenly love affair is beginning to crack. And the early tragedy remains. At this point, the fragrance develops a certain cleanliness and neatness that cannot be interpreted quite clearly in the play of this allegory. I would say: the passion is now out of the relationship. One still remains together, but under different conditions.

The association with Freddie Mercury's 1984 song "Love Kills" suggests itself. It's not one of his best, even if it is his first solo track. But there's this line of lyrics, "Love strikes like cold steel, scars you from the start. Love kills."
So Freddie doesn't seem to have had too good an experience with love either.

I wonder if Caroline Dumur, who created this fragrance, was thinking of Freddie and his song when she mixed up "Love Kills"? I don't know. It doesn't matter, either. The message - coincidentally or not - is the same.

Even though this fragrance didn't exactly take my heart by storm right now, you have to give it credit. Here one wanted to create no pleasing floral round dance. The fragrance tells a - extremely dramatic - story and is an interesting, varied composition with exciting scent progression, which remains in the memory. But it plays very much to the fore. You have to like it, share its mood. Then it fits. It won't conform to you or "underline your personality" as perfumes are so fond of being expected to do. It's far too strong itself for that. An "all or nothing" thing. No compromise, no tolerance, no harmony. It's more about power and dominance. If you are willing to accept that strength, you will find yourself in the fragrance. For me, it's too intense and ultimately too superficial in its message. Program music, that's what you call it in musical compositions. Moreover, I am not prepared to have the destructive course of the fragrance, from the rosebud to the toxic relationship, forced upon me. May the story be true - I don't want to be constantly reminded of the power of love to kill.

If you can stand the dark rose-patchouly mixture, you will be rewarded with a literary-like fragrance, which shows a varied course, has a remarkably strong sillage and durability and is very extreme. Not for the superficial, not for wallflowers, office workers or status people. Rather something for existentialists, courageous, curious and depressed.

The strange name "III-III Love Kills", which somehow reminds me distantly of X Æ A-XII Musk,
by the way, is supposed to mean something like III. elevator, III. scene, I read somewhere, which underlines the dramatic character of this perfume.

(With thanks to NatRocks)

12/23/2020

7
Pricing 7
Bottle 7
Sillage 7
Longevity 7
Scent

Landshark321
517 Reviews

Landshark321

Fresh, balanced rose/geranium pairing

This a long overdue proper sampling of Masque Milano Love Kills, the third entry of Act III and one of the house’s 2019 releases that I had the privilege of first smelling last June at Perfumology. It’s a fresh, green, citric rose scent with Turkish rose, geranium, patchouli, cedar, and musk. It seems to contain a healthy dose of geranium with all of its spicy, herbal, fresh, and sharp sides.

What’s not to like? It’s balanced, not overly sharp, with good harmony between the rose and geranium, and it’s romantic, as its name suggests, while not being especially heavy or feminine, so it’s versatile and year-round friendly, as it works perfectly well on this cooler winter day but would be nicely boastful in the heat of summer. An easy winner of a release from Masque Milano, which has a good variety of challenging and easy-to-love scents.

It’s priced at $158 for 35ml, within the current range of Masque Milano pricing, with a 10ml travel size also available for $57, at great boutiques like Perfumology.

7 out of 10