Eau Sanguine : Dom Rosa
Les Liquides Imaginaires (2013)

Pleasant enough , but not even close to a wow factor for me...the beginning is definitely pear...i also get that weird grapefruit like in Lampblack/Sulfur...a fresh smelling gentle rose...a finish that is woody with a touch of incense...on me , virtualy no projection or longevity...major pass for me...

Fresh pink rose with fruity notes is what I smell in the opening. Some woods are bringing down to the ground the fruity floral and that's about it, as I'm not able to smell anything after ~2 hours.

Dom Rosa succeeds in the creation of a rose champagne toned warm woods fragrance. The champagne opening is a cleansing freshness while the rose, pear and pomelo light tones bubble up through the rose incense wood base. Frankincense warms the multi toned fresh cut woods to complete a long lasting aroma that is convincing as you inhale from inside of a well aged recently emptied wine barrel. Dom Rosa has a blended character that is cheery but somber at the same time and encourages a "lift your glass" attitude that deepens and improves as the night goes on. This is a nice warm incense rose that is not overly complicated but has solid wooded character traits that I enjoy. Well done!

If someone asked me for a perfume that personified the difference between niche and designer these days, I might point them in the direction of Dom Rosa. This is a perfume that would never have made it past the first round of focus groups in the designer market – it's weird, not sweet at all, and a little rough in execution.

But it presents an interesting idea and will appeal to a very small slice of consumers who will have no problem in shelling out €160 for a bottle of perfume. And that's all this perfume really needs to do anyway – pivot (like a politician) to that small group of people. Niche is the long tail of perfume economics. All you need is a small number of people willing to invest big bucks in a risky but brave perfume “idea” and the concept pays off.

Ok, so how does the perfume itself smell? Shocking, at first (which is part of the point). A phenomenally bitter, green rose dipped in battery acid and joined to a sulfurous grapefruit/pomelo accord, shot up your nose on a explosion of soapy aldehydes. Yes, the topnotes really do evoke the sensation of tipping a glass of champagne down your neck. It's exciting and striking, if not conventionally pleasing to the nose. The metallic and acidulated elements add a sense of unease.

Bubbling under, well, the bubbly, is a contrasting accord of dark, tarry notes – a sticky, dirty clove in particular, but also frankincense in its unlit, waxy, and somewhat coldly animalic form. Smoky but sour gaiac wood and cedar bring up the rear. It's nothing too new or original, but when the sour, fizzing topnotes meet the sticky, clove-y notes underneath, there is a real clash between light and dark, citrusy (fresh) and resinous (sticky, unfresh, dark). The clash is what makes the perfume dissonant, and therefore interesting.

Like so many long tail niche perfumes, Dom Rosa works better as an abstract idea than a personal perfume, but there will be a small and fervent group of admirers who disagree violently with me. Those are the people buying perfume like this, and to be honest, for oddball-nutjob-weirdo niche perfumes like this to exist, someone has to. So hats off to them. Those are the same people who made Tubereuse Criminelle, M/Mink, and Maai possible.

I first tried this scent in the Beverly Hills branch of Barney's New York, and was told that it was inspired by the scent of Dom Perignon Rosé champagne. This turned out to be a perfectly apt description; somehow, to my sheer delight the perfumer has somehow captured the effervescence of champagne (how can a scent be fizzy? It's magic!), coupled with what I perceive to be a fruity midsection and a woody coda.

Unlike other reviewers here I don't find this scent to be particularly long lasting, nor does it project much from my skin, but it is a lovely scent to wear on a warm day and is guaranteed to lift one's mood. The packaging is very good too; the Liquides Imaginaires website is a bit strange with a slightly kinky gothic feel to it, and this is reflected somewhat in the packaging, although it's far more classy than the website hints at. The bottle comes in a sturdy wooden box which pulls open with a satin tab to reveal a canvas bag resting in a drawer inside. The bag has a drawstring neck; gently prise it open to reveal the elegant bottle and rose-hued liquid within.

I've tried the other two fragrances in this line. All three are based on a theme of wine; the other two left me cold but this one is a winner. It's hard to find but worth seeking out.

A freakish combination of celery salts and rose over soapy aldehydes. There's a slight make-up feel to it, and after ten minutes or so it really steps down on the grape pedal. Dom Rosa lasts a frustratingly long time, and the later stages are textbook semi-sweet florals cut with a radishy, rhubarb-ish isobutyl quinoline effect, but you certainly get your money's worth from them.

I give this credit for experimentation; the bizarre salty-rose effect works far better than it should. The scent, though, lacks a certain sophistication as it comes off a bit gaudy and shouty like a meh-Montale fragrance or something. The aldehydes up top remind me of Frapin's Nevermore but I find this to be more tasteful (the Frapin is fine, but it's kind of psycho). The boozy vibe is present without being too drunk-tank literal, and so my overall reading is that Dom Rosa is solidly articulated but lacks the polish needed to elevate it beyond the what is ultimately a bit of a cheap smelling line.

quite a classy scent, one of the very best among the new recent releases i have smelled. the champagne accord is to me the main note for the entire time. really interesting to try detecting everything else every time i wear it. as of now i notice mostly pear at opening, rose at middle, and very subtle woods at dry down. very well blended, i actually consider the scent warm and pleasant to wear. slightly medicinal and barely metallic to my nose. ( to me a cold and very metallic scent is f.e. cedre sandaraque by pg, one i actually like too, nothing feels like that here)

Dom Rosa opens with quite a complex texture, a greenish, bitter vein, a lot of alcohol, a pungent, glassy, heavy aldehydated transparency with salty notes, an ultra-sour citrus/green feel. There is a bold green/grassy accord, so bitter it's almost discomforting but also fascinating, of a cold, unfriendly, abandoned garden, the mood it quite dark and nocturnal, and futuristic also – this quite reminds me of some Humiecki & Graef scents, with that same unpleasant "metallic" feel (a bit pretentious too in my opinion). The rose note lies in the very heart of all this, floating in this opalescent frosty "nowhere", and it's interesting the way is placed there, like a "victim" on a surgery table. A stout eugenol note gives the scent a remarkable medicinal vibe, which quite fits the mood. The evolution goes then on a "softer" path, it all slowly melts in a sweeter, more delicate, slightly milky and opaque scent, losing a bit of that "pungent metallic" personality. Nice drydown comprising cold rose notes, slightly boozy and metallic, yet not that much as the opening. I enjoy the irony about the "champagne" and the "rose", meaning the irony of suggesting a sort of sparkling, glamour ambiance, while this is quite totally the opposite, a freezing cold, poisonous dissection laboratory. Although I would not wear this as I personally don't like it that much, I appreciate the work, the intelligence, the distinctive approach and the nice result in keeping this at the same time wearable but "abstract" and intriguing.

7/10

Dam Rosa is properly a "liquid imaginary", hardly due to be labelled, a sort of fluidy rose with a black cherry type of vein, the sparkling (almost sultry) touch of champagne and a liquid olibanum undertone. The rose is aqueous and incensey, there are some citrus (may be spicy orange) in the mix and the woody dry down I suppose is veined by a wonderful ambergris which restrains the fruity/ floral fluid and provides an appreciable virile aftertaste. I have to say that the rose, yet detectable, is almost accessorial to a fruity pomelo spicy exotic vibe while the woody dry down is more distinguished and virile. Exotic and sultry it could be a more than decent solution for the feaster and sultry souther summer nights on the seaside.