Rose scents are a tough sell for some men, and that’s a tragedy, because in my mind there’s nothing more romantic and evocative of masculine softness than a spiced rose with a woody base. Perfumer Mathilde Laurent has hit that mark almost perfectly with Cartier Declaration d’un Soir, a spicy woody rose scent marketed for men but easily wearable by almost anyone in the right circumstances.
Laurent had some tough shoes to fill when she took possession of the Cartier Declaration line from Jean-Claude Ellena, one of my favourite noses and one of the most interesting and influential perfumers in the game. Both the original Cartier Declaration and the spirited flanker Cartier Declaration Essence are modern classics, blending a magnificent and adventurous spice profile with citrus and tea notes. They’re challenging scents (the original especially), but completely unique and have gone on to inspire many copycats inspired by the slightly-animalic spices of the originals.
But neither the original Declaration nor Declaration Essence could be called romantic. They’re classy fragrances, sure, leaning more on the formal end of things than the casual, but they’re more suitable for professional occasions or family affairs than they are for a first date or an anniversary dinner. Mathilde Laurent rose to the challenge implied here: she took some of that original Declaration spice profile and added a romantic twist that just works.
At the very top of this fragrance, the rose is already there, green and ever so slightly powdery, lending a mature but playful vibe to the scent without denying younger wearers access. Caraway, cardamom and pepper pop up here, too, molding the rose away from absolute feminine territory, giving it a spicy boldness that makes it wearable by anyone. It’s an impressive accord, and appropriately for a scent inspired by Jean-Claude Ellena’s original, it’s quite transparent. It’s difficult to pull out just what spice notes are doing the heavy lifting to support the rose, and so the accord is left to tell its own story.
The brightness of the spice profile remains for the life of the fragrance, but when the heart notes appear everything is darkened a little bit by the entrance of nutmeg. By now, the rose is thoroughly engulfed by the spices, and while we never lose sight of it, it’s become a more equitable player in things rather than the absolute star of the show. This becomes all the more true when the sandalwood base rises. Everything is blended superbly, here, and nothing stands out as being rough around the edges.
And it works. It’s romantic, sensual, evocative of emotion and passion. It helps, too, that longevity and projection/sillage here are very good. They aren’t going to smoke anyone out of the room, certainly, but this scent is going to get noticed with 2-3 sprays, especially in cooler weather situations. I think Declaration d’un Soir is probably a bit too light for the deepest depths of winter, but it will work incredibly well for autumn and early winter. Note, though, that it’s certainly too powerful and spicy to work well in warmer weather, which means its versatility is a bit limited.
Not that it matters for the scent itself, but I think all of the Declaration line bottles look a bit like a goofy Star Wars droid, and Cartier Declaration d’un Soir is no exception. The more defined lines improve the situation a bit from the original scent’s bottles, but the bottle is still… strange.
In the end, if you’re on the fence about rose scents and want to be convinced, you owe it to yourself to grab a decant or a sample and give this a shot. In the right circumstance, it’s one of the loveliest scents you’ll have come across, and – I promise – it won’t injure your manhood one bit.
