Regular readers of my Sunday Magazine column know my favorite spirit is gin. Much as my perfume habit accelerated after I discovered niche something similar happened with gin. It was when I tried Hendrick’s Gin. That is what is called a botanical gin, given the sobriquet “Old Tom”. Prior to that day I had been exposed to dry gin. After that I discovered a whole new world of gin replete with botanical ingredients distilled into it. There is a Venn Diagram overlap here with perfume as these gins are much more fragrant. Hendrick’s adds cucumber and rose to it. By Kilian Roses on Ice is the perfume version.
Kilian Hennessy
Roses on Ice is the partner to Angel’s Share as the debut releases in The Liquors collection. Founder and creative director Kilian Hennessy collaborates with perfumer Frank Voelkl on this. The brief is exactly what it seems, a gin on the rocks fragrance. Except it appears they were thinking about Hendrick’s and not the typical dry gin.
Frank Voelkl
That impression is immediately apparent as cucumber and juniper berry are what I first notice. The watery vegetal quality of the cucumber finds an austere platform in the acerbic juniper berry. To complete the Hendrick’s accord a dewy rose is infused into things. Mr. Voelkl finds just the right balance between the three ingredients. He then takes a dry sandalwood given some life through a few musks. As it all came together, I often thought I was drinking from an exotic wood tumbler.
Roses on Ice has 12-14 hour longevity and average sillage.
It is a little early to be thinking of spring rose perfumes. I wanted to make sure to write about this now before I get deluged with the coming spring rose tsunami. Roses on Ice is the kind of fragrance I am talking about when I ask for an alternative to boring debutante rose styles. Mr. Voelkl uses that same rose but by floating it in gin it gives it a more adult spin. If you’re thinking about your spring perfume you should try Roses on Ice or as I call it Eau de Hendrick’s.
Disclosure: This review is based on a sample supplied by By Kilian.
–Mark Behnke
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