Red Queen
4160 Tuesdays (2019)

"Your Majesty must excuse her," the Red Queen said to Alice, taking one of the White Queen's hands in her own, and gently stroking it: "she means well, but she can't help saying foolish things, as a general rule."

Red Queen had me giggling with delight. It's such a tipsy-dipsy rose that it almost isn't a rose at all – which makes sense as it was initially created as a rose perfume for someone who doesn't care for them. Well, Red Queen solves that problem in a potty, inspired fashion, quite in the spirit of its Lewis Carroll namesake. Here is a rose stuffed into sour red wine dregs, bombarded with bramble foliage and smoked out with the most severe, austere incense note one can imagine – and it turns out deliriously joyous. It's the teasing and contorting of well-known, loved and familiar ingredients that I find so compelling about Red Queen (although this approach may also gain detractors, who just can't take it). I can imagine Sarah McCartney chuckling fiendishly, red horns aglow, as this one finally took shape. Genius. The later stages have a nodding acquaintance with Ropion's Promise.

4160 Tuesdays Red Queen is exclusive to Perfumology in the US and is a follow-up to last year's White Queen. Whereas White Queen is a nutty, resinous, floral experience, Red Queen is, as I've described it a handful of times, like bright rosy champagne, with some common notes to White Queen like raspberry and resins but Red Queen is decidedly brighter, rosier, and fresher, adding blackcurrant and heavier use of Turkish rose absolute, along with bits of geranium and musk.

On the one hand, it's bright, fresh, and fruity; on the other, it has some other character with incense, pepper, and patchouli. The whole experience leans toward the fresh, fruity, and rosy, though, so it's really an apt wear in many situations. In some ways, Red Queen is the summer to White Queen's winter, though both are really very versatile with respect to season and occasion.

It performs well, too, as with most of Sarah's creations, albeit not quite as strongly as White Queen or some others in the collection, but as one of only a couple of 4160 Tuesdays perfumes that I own and would describe as more warm-weather-friendly, it makes sense that it's not going to be as boastful as, say, Over the Chocolate Shop. Still, I'm very content with the way it projects for the first couple of hours and lasts thereafter.

Red Queen is available at Perfumology at $120 for 50ml, very standard pricing, and I know I'll need a backup bottle as I've already put a significant dent in mine several months into owning it. I'd highly recommend fashioning a sample if you've not yet tried it.

8 out of 10