Roja Dove, of the Roja Dove Haute Parfumerie at Harrods, smells the latest celebrity perfume releases and finds most of them lacking:
He begins with Intimately Beckham. David’s fares well: “The woods, the resins are actually rather good: cedarwood, myrrh, it has an amber note in it. It’s a potentially nice smell. It has character,” he says. With better ingredients it would be “a very, very interesting scent”.
Read what he has to say about the rest of the fall’s celebrity fragrance line up in the Guardian. Many thanks to loolyooly of Makeupalley for the link!
More reading: Roja Dove on perfume bottles, his favorite fragrances, perfumes for Christmas presents.
4 Comments
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Wait a minute. Since when is Roja Dove a perfumer? I thought he just ran a boutique and gave consultations?
No idea if he creates also, T, but then, it isn't hard to get yourself called a perfumer in the press.
Apparently he is creating perfumes now:
http://www.gwenrhys.com/RojaDoveBiog.htm
Surprising there isn't more of a buzz about him than Luca given his importance over the years as a perfume critic and industry insider. Guess he decided to start making bespoke perfumes.
Funny, though, about the critiques after he has become a perfumer. Recent discussions amongst natural perfumers I know, some of whom like to review perfumes: we've pretty much settled on the fact that it is unseemly for artists (no matter what the art) to review others works. Comment on them a bit, but not a full-blown, and certainly not a snarky review.
This is still being talked about amongst us. It may change. Perfume criticism is so new, and there are so many new ones out there…..I mean, does Ellena critique Lutens?
Just wondering about all this…
A, I have never really thought of Dove as a perfume critic, although he does write about perfume from time to time and is often quoted as an “expert”.
And the fact that he is “creating custom perfumes” or even that he is often called a “nose” in the press doesn't mean he isn't using someone else as the actual perfumer/nose for his custom work. Not saying that is the case, but it is certainly possible. The mainstream media use the term “nose” in a very different way than I do — not to say that mine is more correct, mind you, just different.