Róisín Dubh
A Damask rose shadowed by paper, ink-dark patchouli and smoke, named for an Irish song.
Róisín Dubh means little black rose in Irish. The name comes from a subversive 16th-century song that Irish writers have kept returning to as an emblem, and the perfume treats the rose as that song's dark, literary figure.
Damask rose sits at the heart in two forms, as oil and as flower water. Cloon Keen sets a dry paper accord and patchouli with an ink-stained edge around it, so the flower reads less like a bouquet and more like a page.
The opening pairs rum and black pepper with osmanthus. Underneath, Balkan tobacco absolute, Indonesian patchouli, Virginia cedarwood, olibanum and cistus build a smoky, resinous base that keeps the rose shadowed rather than bright.
