Launched in 2016 as part of Penhaligon’s Portraits Collection, the Coveted Duchess Rose, like the other fragrances in the series is centred on a character in a fictional Victorian aristocratic household. Each character has their own story, making the collection a family of fragrances - literally.

The stories are great fun and the fragrances are all FBW, and I know I’ll end up buying all of them, but right now, I’m stuck on The Coveted Duchess Rose.

Here’s her scented story:
“A fresh, sweet Rose — ready for the picking. Ever since her recent marriage (anything but a bed of roses) our demure Duchess is urgently desirous of desire. Her bosom is aching for release from the corsets of Victorian life, she dreams of nothing but Paradise Regained, again and again.
When one’s husband is at the theatre every evening, one does become terribly bored…”

It opens with a sweet, juicy mandarin. It’s beautiful fresh start that calls forward a fragrant rose note. On me, it’s tinged with an herbal greenness that makes it a bit tart and moves me each time I smell it. Then it starts to open up, and the rose starts getting fuller, darker and jammy until it becomes unashamedly seductive. Musky wood rises up from the base adding spicy, sweet and animalic nuances and a sheer woodiness. The base doesn’t hold the fragrance down, it doesn’t anchor it, instead it lifts it. Oh my! There is no other rose fragrance like this one!

The drydown is a seductive, woody rose that best suits women and while it seems familiar in some ways, it’s like no other rose scent I know.

Oh, this Duchess, she’s a beauty all right! A scent to covet and a story I want to smell on my skin for a very long time.

Notes: mandarin, rose, musky wood.