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Au Thé Rouge is the latest addition to the Bvlgari’s family of tea scents. With notes of pink pepper, red tea, figs, and walnut, the fragrance was supposed to evoke Rooibos tea (Red Bush Tea) native to South America. Rooibos has a sweet-woody-fruity-nutty taste, and, as Robin noted, unfortunately Au Thé Rouge does not really succeed in replicating it. The intention to make it smell like Rooibos is certainly evident, but to me it smells more like a rather strong, slightly smoky black tea lightly flavored with fruits and berries and –even lighter- with roses.
Having said that, I really like Au Thé Rouge. The tea note here is the way I like it, it is, as I already mentioned, smoky and has an interesting bracing undertone to it, probably due to the pink pepper note. During the middle stage I actually do smell walnuts, or what I think are walnuts, a bitter-nutty note that adds a certain raw depth to the composition. In earlier drydown the fig is quite evident, with the slightly coconutty accord that this note always has to my nose. If Au Thé Rouge were a color, it would be black with a red shine to it, indeed like a cup of fragrant, full-bodied tea. The fragrance is subtle yet rich, and even though it is Eau de Cologne, it has quite good staying power on my skin. To me Au Thé Rouge is one of those scents that, though not exactly extraordinary and amazing, are extremely wearable and enjoyable.
Right now Au Thé Rouge is available exclusively at Saks, $57.00 for 1,7oz or $82.00 for 3,4oz.
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Trying to come up with thematic posts for pre-Christmas week, I realized that I don’t have many olfactory Christmas associations. Having been born and raised in the Soviet Union, that is perhaps quite understandable. When I was growing up, Christmas was not celebrated there. New Year however was a huge deal, with all the paraphernalia my Western readers would typically associate with Christmas: the tree, decorations, Santa Claus (Ded Moroz or Grandfather Frost), presents, big (very big) holiday dinner…
When I was a child, it was our family tradition to always have lots of mandarins in the house during winter holidays; I believe the same would be true for most people in Russia and former republics. I don’t know how that started, but the fact remains that for me the smell of mandarins is forever a festive smell of happy childhood days of winter. It is not surprising then that Vaniglia, Bourbon & Mandarino di Sicilia by Antica Farmacista, a pretty straightforward and extremely enjoyable vanilla and mandarin blend, is associated for me with New Year celebrations. There is isn't much to describe here, the scent is exactly what the title promises it would be, vanilla and mandarin and not much else. I like the way mandarin note is able to stand up for itself and not disappear for quite some time, unlike so many other Something & Vanilla blends out there. The delicious vanilla note here makes me nostalgic for my mum’s incredible pastries, cakes, and tarts. Whenever I smell Vaniglia, Bourbon & Mandarino, I have to fight back tears; it makes me long to be a child again, to rip the bright wrapping paper off the presents and to greedily consume mandarins and cakes and candies and not have a single concern in the whole wide world.
You can buy this Italian-made scent of Soviet New Years Eves at Nordstrom, where a lovely set including Vaniglia, Bourbon & Mandarino di Sicilia and Vanilla Home Ambiance perfume retails for $60.00.
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