Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle
Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle
362 votes
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Grapefruit's bitter pith collides with violet's oddly green, metallic character, creating an almost mouth-puckering astringency. There's raspberry lurking underneath, but it's tart rather than sweet, like unsugared preserve, whilst the first whisper of iris brings that cool, makeup-bag powderiness that defines what follows.
Rose emerges properly now, full-bodied and slightly creamy, as if the lipstick has warmed against skin. Iris and violet create layers of powder—not dusty, but smooth and compressed, like pigment pressed into a metal pan—whilst raspberry softens into a jammy sweetness that stains everything with its red-fruit haze.
Vanilla melds with white musk to create something almost skin-like, intimate and soft-focused. The powdery character persists but becomes creamier, cosier, like the scent lingering on cashmere after you've removed your coat, with only the faintest trace of rose petals crushed into powder compact velvet.
Lipstick Rose captures that precise moment when you lean too close to someone wearing powdered makeup and expensive lipstick—intimate, slightly transgressive, unmistakably sophisticated. Schwieger has orchestrated violet and iris to create that waxy, almost metallic coolness of cosmetic pigment, while rose absolute provides the fleshy, slightly indolic warmth beneath. The raspberry here isn't the syrupy note you'd find in a flanker; it's tart and jammy, adding an acidic bite that cuts through the powdery haze like berry-stained lips pressed against skin. Grapefruit's citric edge sharpens the opening, preventing the composition from collapsing into pure sweetness, whilst vanilla and white musk in the base create that soft-focus effect you get when looking through vintage powder compacts—milky, diffused, slightly nostalgic. This is emphatically not a naturalistic rose; it's rose reconstructed through the prism of mid-century glamour, all bullet-shaped tubes and silk compacts.
The genius lies in how Schwieger balances creamy with powdery, sweet with slightly bitter. It smells expensive without shouting, feminine without excluding, retro without feeling dated. This is for those who understand that true elegance often carries a slight imperfection—a smudge of lipstick on a coffee cup, a dusting of powder on dark wool. It works best in close quarters: gallery openings, late dinners, anywhere you want your scent to be discovered rather than announced.
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3.5/5 (77)