Note Pyramid
L.12.12 Rose
Mint in a rose fragrance is not an obvious decision, and it is the one that gives Lacoste L.12.12 Rose Eau de Parfum its character.
The opening pairs mandarin orange, which is sweet, round and juicy, with mint, which is cold, green and sharp. For the first few minutes the two pull hard against each other and the fragrance reads fresher than almost anything else built around a flower.
Rose is the centre of it, and the flower is handled clean rather than deep: no jam, no wine, nothing dusty about it, just the flower as it smells early in the morning. Musk sits immediately underneath it, soft and skin close, blurring the edges of the rose so that it never once becomes formal. Ane Ayo and Marie Salamagne composed it, and the restraint shown in the middle is very clearly deliberate.
The base is modern and dry. Cedarwood supplies a clean sharpness and ambroxan the mineral, faintly salty polish that gives contemporary fragrances their grip on skin and on fabric. Six materials, and the composition does not need any more than that to make its point.
Being an eau de parfum, it carries enough oil to last a working day, projecting for an hour or so and then holding close. It is aimed at women, suits spring and summer daylight particularly well, and is easy to wear at a desk without filling a room. Lacoste began as a French clothing firm in 1933, set up by the tennis champion René Lacoste with the industrialist André Gillier, and the crocodile stitched onto its polo shirts became one of the most recognised marks in clothing. Fragrance followed in 1968, by the company's own reckoning of its history.
Please note: images are a guide only. Packaging and bottle design may occasionally differ from those shown due to manufacturer updates or promotions.
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