A Flower on Fire

• A rose that wants to be a carnation, set ablaze by an exotic spice explosion. Red petals turned black by frankincense. Our third release is a fierce, fiery, feral flower.

The Muse: A Rose that wants to be a carnation

• Though it bears the French name for carnation, the Bengale illet is actually a variety of China rose, Rosa Indica caryophyllea, bred by the floral painter and botanist Pierre Joseph Redout (1759-1840). When we found it while leafing through Redouts 1824 book of botanical prints Les Roses, we were seduced by the shape-shifting blossom. It is the ambivalent name and appearance of the Bengale illet rather than its scent that inspires the third AEDES DE VENUSTAS offering.
• When it hijacked the carnations name, the rose was playing with fire. Carnation is a flamboyant retro charmer that borrows facets from rose and ylang-ylang. But it has a volatile personality. Add explosive exotic spices to it powdery scent and youll start a chain reaction. A bright, peppery bergamot sends off the first sparks. An incense stick sets the scent ablaze. Driven into the heart of illet Bengale, it binds the citrusy top notes to the sweet resinous base, acting as the flowers stem. Or is it the gunpowder-coated metal rod of a Bengal fire?
• Black pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, clove, saffron, and an unusual lash of citrusy, herbaceous, gingery turmeric Spicy fireworks turn the red blossom black. Once theyve subsided into a slow burn, it emerges to blow a glamorous, strawberry-flavored lipstick kiss. Serrated petals like tiny teeth : being from Bengal, this reincarnated rose is also a tiger, clawing its way into the amber base with animal white pepper. It is then that, tamed by sweet balsams vanilla, tolu, benzoin and labdanum , illet Bengale curls up with a languid purr.

*Details provided byAedes De Venustas