Grasse Rose Absolute

Note Profile

Botanical

About

Grasse rose absolute is the solvent extract of Rosa x centifolia, the cabbage rose or Rose de Mai. It is the heaviest and sweetest of the rose extracts, deep-rosy and honeyed with a balsamic weight the plain rose note does not carry.

Scent Profile

Floral is deep-rosy rather than dewy and all five sources lead with it. Arctander calls it 'rich and sweet, deep-rosy, very tenacious'. Honeyed is the facet every source names on its own: Wikipedia's 'light notes of honey', Eden Botanicals' 'distinct yet subtle honey', Hermitage Oils' 'distinct honey and sweet rose qualities throughout', PerfumersWorld's 'faint honey'. Amber_resinous is the balsam. PerfumersWorld says 'the opening is balsamic and very oily', and Arctander's odour listing runs 'rich sweet deep rose spicy honey balsam amber woody animal'. Warm_spice sits deliberately below the 0.38 of the published Bulgarian rose absolute, because Arctander's direct comparison says centifolia's 'spicy tonalities are usually less pronounced' than damascena's. PerfumersWorld disagrees and puts clove and eugenol forward in the drydown, so this facet carries the widest spread in the vector. Mossy_chypre rests on one source: PerfumersWorld calls the mossy character 'prominent', then says the material 'loses some of its mossy nature' as it settles. Under the naming bar, green is Eden's 'distinct yet subtle green notes', fruity is the 'beautiful if faint lychee quality', dry_woody is Arctander's 'faint woody-bitter undertone', animalic and earthy are the 'animal' and 'yeast' descriptors, and smoky is 'faint phenol'.

ScentWheel

Breadthmedium

EnvelopeHeart · ~8h lasting

Family Floral, Sweet & Gourmand

Read off the wheel, not a label applied to the note.

Origin

Rosa x centifolia is a hybrid bred by Dutch growers between the 17th and 19th centuries. Wikipedia states it 'is particular to the French city of Grasse', and the flowers are harvested commercially for rose oil there. In the trade the same species is grown in Morocco, Egypt and India and the material is sold as Rose de Mai regardless of region. The absolute is extracted from the concrete, which Arctander calls 'one of the most extensively used of all the floral absolutes'.

Usage in Perfumery

A heart material in fine fragrance, used where a rose needs weight and sweetness rather than dewy freshness. PerfumersWorld notes it carries its own top, heart and base structure, so a small dose can build a whole rose accord. Added to a formula it can produce a faint lychee quality.