Roja Dove - Haute Luxe

Today I sniffed through the offerings at a Roja Dove counter, a day ahead of his arrival. I'll return tomorrow to meet the man Guerlain called its Professeur de Parfum and get his signature on his book, The Essence of Perfume. At least I think I will. Dove is said to be able to identify 800 notes on a single sniff. Some say he's the world's greatest nose. Is he? I note his classics collections do contain perfumes I fell desperately in love with--many during past sniff fests when I was studying a specific genre:

• Chanel No. 19 EDT
• Coty L'Origan edt
• Guerlain L'Heure Bleue EDT
• Guerlain Mitsouko EDP
• Gres Cabochard EDT
• Karl Lagerfeld Chloe EDT (vintage)
• Narciso Rodriguez for Her EDT
• Paco Rabanne Calandre EDP
• Van Cleef & Arpels First EDP
• Yves Saint Laurent Opium EDT

But I wasn't actually bowled over by most scents as I sniffed through the line (except Diaghilev, a masterpiece, but to me it's so male I can't wear it.) One other exception, and it's a fragrance not really available, which is why it isn't in the database.--Haute Luxe. I smelled it and had to hold back tears, it was just that beautiful. It's Dove's personal fragrance. He made it for himself, not intending to share it and he didn't for years. There was exactly one bottle of it in the store, to be had for a mere $3,500. It's a chypre and I should have written down the notes they let me peek at in a brochure. I remember the top is bergamot, the heart is jasmine, rose and ylang ylang I think. It was the base that's magical, a resinous woody beauty thrumming with, if I remember right, ambergris, patchouli, cedar, labdanum, oakmoss , orris and more, though not necessarily in that order of strength. If I go back tomorrow, I'll write them down. It vaguely reminded me of Serge Lutens' Muscs Koublaï Khän. I have a sample of it around here somewhere and Haute Luxe on a paper. Comparing…Haute Luxe has more spice, maybe it’s cinnamon. Muscs Koublaï Khän has more saddle—leather up the gazoo from the start. Both are gloriously animalic. I can smell Haute Luxe’s flowers. Don’t especially love the cinnamon if that’s what the spice is. Maybe it’s allspice. It’s a more complex perfume. I suppose a man could smell better than this, but not much. They share several notes. Both are achievements in my opinion — one in musk and the other in, well, ultra expensive luxe. It actually has 24k gold flecks in it.



The Roja Dove female fragrance that I liked the most was Inuendo (in the UK; it's called Creation I in the USA). Don't have a sample to sniff and describe. With tax, it's 500 Benjamins like most Rojas. He may or may not be the greatest nose in the world, but he's a terrific marketer.

Sounds very exciting for you. I too wish to smell these fragrances and visit Harrod's perfumes, many of which are not available where I am. However, there is the dreamer in us that samples such wares and then there is the rationalist: even if I happen to fall in love with a Roja (and that is unlikely from the few I have smelled), there is no way I would ever buy something of his because of price. Fragrances make life wonderful but for 3,500 I could take a luxurious week-long European river cruise with my husband. I could buy 20 new bottles of niche perfume. Unless one is a millionaire, there is a definite line to be drawn. What are you willing to give up to own that fragrance?

Not $3,500! I was being sarcastic. I'm not considering Inuendo, either, [like I said, 500 Benjamins is a bit much.] I own perfumes lovelier IMO than most of Roja Dove's, except Haute Luxe. Diaghilev is also wonderful. My conclusion is that Roja Dove is a good perfumer who occasionally rises to excellence, but he's always a genius marketer. Nothing wrong with that. What I envy is his nose, if he can really reliably detect 800 notes.

Hah! Well I feel much better about $500 but I still would not buy it. Well, maybe if I had a six figure salary and already made all my yearly contributions. His perfume book is wonderful too.

By the way, though the salesclerk called this Haute Luxe, it's actually called Roja on the website and on the bottle.

For some reason, yesterday I revisited Roja Dove's website, just to light another imaginary candle at the altar of Roja (Haute Luxe), which heretofore I could only worship from afar, not having slightly upwards of $3,500 I was ready to part with for the 100 ml flacon. As I sighed, what to my wondering eyes should appear? A 7.5 ml Discovery Atomiser!? Was that there before?? Be still my beating heart and overjoyed nose! How much? Combien? Combien? Not a mere ₤190 plus shipping? Beautiful day! Why, that's just the cost of a ... a modest dishwasher, it's just a dishwasher! I have one. I wash my dishes in it. Totally reasonable. Such were the scraps of thought that accompanied the wild, joyful scramble to get the thing in the cart, to enter my info and check out before Roja Dove changed his mind, or the website went down, or God decided to banish Haute Luxe from the earth...or any other calamity that would separate me from the sudden accessibility of my longed-for love and greatest (so far) perfume passion. It's on the way. Ah, bliss!

I marvel at life's generosity that somewhere, somehow, a nymph or fairy or passing angel (or kind perfumer) occasionally takes notice of the nonessential yearnings of our hearts. When Roja arrives I shall, of course, report.

It arrived! However, I can't test it because at the moment I'm drenched in Shalimar, which by itself may be a sign because when I took the cap off and put the Haute Luxe sprayer to my nose, the heavenly scent I remember muscled its way through the Shalimar and took possession of my happy nose. I do think it really may be the best perfume I've ever smelled---better than Shalimar, Bal à Versailles, Amouage Gold, Opium, better than my adored Carons and newly-adored Guerlains, even Monegal's heady white florals in Kiss My Name may not be able to touch Haute Luxe (aka Roja). When I'm not Shalimar doused I'll begin the investigation. Meanwhile, happy day!

I am so blown over in my first wearing of Roja (Haute Luxe) that I had to get reality on my reaction in a trial against some of the most gorgeous scents I own. Can Roja stand its own against:

Amouage Gold - Beautiful, but my dear there are moments when you almost smell like...um...urine in comparison.
Bal à Versailles - Yes, I once loved you and you alone, but things have changed
Clive Christian No. 1 for women - Very nice, but sit down darling and let the grownups talk
Kiss My Name - Cheats by pouring a bucket of indoles all over me from its heady white florals
Opium - A champion enters the ring and the fans shout, but Roja scores a knockout with its fragrantly luxurious woody-spiciness
Shalimar (extrait) - Well, alright. Clear everyone else from the room. It comes down to a fight between these two. Must wait for the drydown ...OMG! Can it be true? If I had to wear one and only one perfume the rest of my life, could it be Shalimar, not Roja? They battle on, trading jabs, knocking each other off their feet then getting up again. Every now and then Kiss My Name enters and dumps another bucket of indoles on me--a real distraction. Can one always wear intoxicating white florals? No indeed. Shalimar just knocked Roja to the ground again and is whipping him with its bergamot, civet and leather! He's having a hard time getting up, but does! Is it a draw? Roja's creamy, spicy, woody, oriental-chypreish loveliness rises and scores a final point of sophistication. Even after all these beauties, my eyes close as I sniff Roja.

Does Roja win? Yes and no. Yes, in that I think its composition is the most elegant and beautiful of them all. No, in that I also adore the others, especially--and newly--Shalimar!

I very much enjoyed reading your experience with these perfumes.

I think I would like to visit the perfume extravaganza of Roja Dove at Harrods and further know that it is a jolly good job I am unable to do so what with having fallen on straitened times and the tendency of Mr. Credit Card to lead me into a false sense of security.

I tried Shalimar in my local department store a few years ago and am sorry to say that I could barely smell anything such was the fog of scent in the air (Christmas Rush - a crowded perfume counter in a department store is likely the worst place to try out a good qaulity perfume - Truth or Dare smelt somewat tame!)

When I have cleared the decks I will add shalimar back onto my list of perfumes to buy samples of.

Glad you enjoyed it, DorothyGrace. As for debt, I recommend Micawber's approach (aka David Copperfield), "something will turn up." His optimism aligns perfectly with modern "new age" (actually old, old age) thinking that "thoughts create things." It also aligns with my experience. I studied the various renditions of Shalimar and can recommend the EdT and the extrait. To my nose, the latter is the one that's completely glorious.

I think this is a candidate for ~Most Expensive Perfume~ isn't it? That is, most expensive ^in production^ one, as opposed to finite-batch ones such as Thameen's ~Palace Oud~. And also, most expensive ^perfume^!! Yes! ^PERFUME^!! Has anyone noticed that in lists of most expensive perfumes they will ^just not quit^ listing those that are dispensed in diamond-encrusted bottles, & suchlike. "Excuse me, I asked for the most expensive ^perfume^, not ^package comprising a bunch of diamonds & gold + a bit of perfume^!". Can those who compile such lists just not get that logic through their skulls!?

But I ^think^ this might possibly be the most expensive in-production perfume per-se, {even taking due account of the fact that it is pure perfume oil rather than EDP.} ... by the demiurges - just checked at Harrods - it ^is^ £2500 for the EDP afterall!

And one might reply to my argument above that this one has gold flakes in it. But firstly, gold flakes can be ^extremely^ thin, and there is a shower-gel by Moulton Brown with gold flakes in it that is ^not particularly^ expensive; but the essential point of them in this 'fume is, so I read somewhere, the irony that the gold is actually ^less^ costly (per unit weight) than any of the true perfumery ingredients in it!

Or isn't there one called 'Royal imperial Majesty' ir something like that, by Clive Christian ... but is that an °in-production° one? No! no! wait wait! Here we go again: "... a necklace of diamonds finishes the presentation." (it just mentions °in passing° on the CC website)!

At the end of the day I think it ^is^ probably this one.

Hi, QuercusAlbus. The price for Roja (aka Haute Luxe) is certainly high. However, it's so glorious I will pay it should my purse one day lose it's mind or gain a lot of weight.

Others I hope to fork up lots for with any luck are any of the JAR fragrances and Jean-Paul Guerlain's My Exclusive Collection if they smell in person like they seem to on their test blotters.