Dirty Rose (Dawn Spencer Hurwitz)

by Andrew

Though independent perfumer Dawn Spencer Hurwitz has a longstanding cult following, she has only recently received well-deserved critical notice after positive reviews in Chandler Burr’s “Scent Notes” column for the New York Times. By her own admission, Hurwitz’s recent limited edition Dirty Rose is not a rose dominated fragrance. This begs the question “Why the name?” since this is much more of an incense and tobacco flavored leather than any kind of floral composition.

“Rose” or not, Dirty Rose is complex, clever, and compelling – especially for a scent claiming to employ only natural ingredients. The opening is an intensely smoky, phenolic campfire accord that’s close in style to Andy Tauer’s Lonestar Memories and Durbano’s Black Tourmaline, but perhaps more immediately pleasing than either. With a more obvious floral component, it avoids the barbecue sauce foodiness of the former, and with a bit less bitter incense up top it is less likely than the latter to set my eyes watering.

Incense and woods are plenty present as the heart unfolds, with some sweet animalic resins, most obviously labdanum and styrax. The bitter, medicinal qualities of myrrh and oudh temper the resin blend’s sweetness further contradicting any gourmand cues which might have arisen. The rose weaves itself surreptitiously through all of this to bind the composition without ever lording over it. A very realistic pipe tobacco note steps forward as Dirty Rose wears on, and while the tobacco is clearly delineated, it holds itself close to both the rose and the resins right through the drydown.

Said drydown is a dense, sweet, smoky oriental fantasy of labdanum, incense, and leather that makes no concessions to the now-fashionable aesthetics of minimalism. I love it. At parfum concentration Dirty Rose is enduring on the skin potent at every stage - a little will go a long way. While I would hardly recommend it as a rose soliflore, it will appeal to anybody, male or female, with a taste for smoky leathers or animalic orientals.

House: Dawn Spencer Hurwitz Parfum des Beaux Arts
Nose: Dawn Spencer Hurwitz
Year: 2010
Notes: bergamot, Egyptian rose geranium, mastic, pimento berry, pink peppercorn, rosewood, Buddahwood, centifolia rose absolute, gallica rose absolute, labdanum, olibanum, orris, patchouli, sandalwood, Virginia cedar, ambergris, Brazilian vetiver, cassis bud, guiac wood, Hiba cedar wood, leather, myrrh gum, oudh, styrax, tobacco absolute, tree moss.