ALEXANDER MCQUEEN KINGDOM: Alexander McQueen enjoys somewhat of a “punk” reputation in the fashion world, though just how “punk” one can be while employed as one of the top name-brand designers for the second largest luxury conglomerate in the world (PPR) is debatable: “Gah! I’m a punk with a baaaaaad attitude! A bad boy designer who breaks all the rules! Please buy my latest handbag, and thank you.”
McQueen’s fragrance, Kingdom, comes across in much the same way — faking at controversy while actually playing by all the rules. The juice is front-loaded with cumin in order to give off a powerful salt and musk odor when first applied, almost literally jumping up and down, waving its arms in the air and yelling, “See? I’m sooooo different!” Not twenty minutes later, however, and it’s another creature entirely — curled up on the sofa like a Hallmark card, all warm, purring and rose-colored fluffy.
Punk is obviously dead.
I could sit here all day and attempt to figure out how Kingdom morphs so quickly from such a sour opening into your average amber & incense rose without suffering a lethal case of whiplash, but I’ll just admit it’s beyond my pay grade and move on.
HERMES ROSE IKEBANA: for the married woman who wants a rose fragrance that’s discrete, unobtrusive, soft, absolutely void of erotic connotations and with a high-grade luxury brand name stamped on the bottle.
Much like the perfect butler, Rose Ikebana is charming, subtle and near invisible in the accomplishment of its task — existing to serve and promote you and your needs, rather than the other way around. It unfortunately veers too far into the realm of scented hand soap as time ticks away, though this doesn’t necessarily detract from its intention to make you smell elegant, fresh and lovely for a good three hours, just long enough for cocktails in the drawing room before dinner is served.
Rose Ikebana is a creation of Hermes master perfumer Jean Claude Ellena, and as such, is so minimalist that reapplication throughout the day/evening is a necessity.
LE LABO ROSE 31: this is more like a stack of dry rosewood than a rose perfume, and as it ages, it stakes its claim in the salty, musky territory that Alexander McQueen’s Kingdom vacated almost immediately upon moving in.
The rose is a bit player in this production, despite its name in lights on the marquee. Cedar, cumin, clove and oudh wood are quite noticeable participants, and there’s a dry, dusty path (nutmeg?) that cuts right through to the finish. A very masculine floral, and it appears to have more in common with Middle Eastern attars than with your usual Western style rose fragrance.
Which brings us to:
MONTALE ATTAR: Montale Attar is close in spirit to Le Labo Rose 31, just minus the dry cedar and dusty nutmeg. They both exhibit a spicy character that incorporates the scent of roses without featuring the scent of roses, and the salty odor of cumin appears to play a key role in Attar much as it did in Rose 31. Mysore sandalwood also provides a smooth backdrop, combining to lend a musky, masculine tone to the proceedings.
Montale Attar is alleged to pay homage to the perfume of maharajas with its masculine, woodsy take on the rose flower, and it does us all the good favor of avoiding the amber pitfall that threatens Le Labo Rose 31 at the drydown (though it’s mercifully staved off by tooth and nail), and whose overdone presence deals a fatal blow to Alexander McQueen’s Kingdom.
While Montale Attar is not a fragrance I would purchase for myself (Tann Rokka Aki, Montale Greyland and Comme des Garcons Luxe Patchouli are fragrances I would purchase for myself), I certainly wouldn’t object to encountering it on others.
***Note: due to what appear to be higher than average concentrations of natural essences in Hermes Rose Ikebana, Le Labo Rose 31 and Montale Attar, these three fragrances have a shorter skin life than your average mainstream perfume — though the heavier woodsy essences in Rose 31 and Attar provide for a longer drydown than Rose Ikebana. Just an FYI.
UPDATE:
As per the comments below, Alexander McQueen’s Kingdom is a loud, pointlessly odd Gilbert Gottfried in a bottle:
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The trajectory of Rose 31 seems to be from from spicy to rosy to sour; at first, this just happened on my ex-bf–now it happens on me, too. Sad, because I really like the idea of this fragrance. Montale Attar is big and lovely, but I prefer this effect in an oil and not a traditional edp.
I think you already know how I feel about Kingdom, seeing as I only get the drydown 1 time out of 5. Plus, I’ve done plenty of cooking with cumin; to me, Kingdom’s opening just tries to wear the panties in the house.
Rose Ikebana, on the other hand, dries down…but to something just about the same as the start…both of which are a bizarrely thin, slightly metallic, hands-off kind of scent. Only once (that’s right, I’ll try something quite a few times, even in the face of clear evidence to the negatory) have I gotten a glimpse of a rose that has some depth…ethereal, slightly citrus maybe. Apparently the weather apparently has to be just right. What makes the crapshoot even worse is that just when I *do* get a payoff on the Ikebana, it’s gone. Not worth the exclusive price on my skin.
Temper, temper. Those two temperamental missies need tempering.
Christopher — I agree on the Rose 31, though I don’t so much mind its trajectory into salty (sour) muskiness at the end, as by that time the volume level is turned way down and it reads more like a skin-musk than anything else. The beginning and middle are quite nice, though. It was a lot more woodsy than I had expected, for a scent that’s called Rose 31, and I’m a big fan of woodsy scents.
And while Montale Attar is nice enough, the true Middle Eastern attars that it’s based on are actually better — I’ve only had the opportunity to check out a few of them so far, but they have a fuller, richer body, and this is probably because they’re oils rather than edp’s, as you had mentioned.
SS — yes, the Rose Ikebana was frustrating. It has the potential to be a truly lovely fragrance, but it’s way too thin. I realize that Ellena is a minimalist, but I think that minimalism paired with cost-cutting by Hermes resulted in a perfume that’s a shadow of its true self.
The less said about McQueen’s Kingdom, the better. Not much impressed with it on this end, especially for its strident, in your face opening that’s loud and odd just for the sake of being loud and odd — like Gilbert Gottfried in a bottle.
Hah!! LOL…you’ve given me a Gilbert Gottfried “earworm,” which will annoy me all night, but you are so right….
Oh, you are so welcome . . . !