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Cheerly – :
Is it my imagination or is there a ton of lily in the first hour? Plus an austerely clean yet earthy patchouli and fresh, sweet rose. This is an unforgettable perfume that will haunt a lover.
MrCerJ – :
It is boozy and I smell chocolate somehow. A pretty good patch rose, not too dominant on the rose. For me, gourmand.
Dumreitumepar – :
I love rose scents as a man. Most of them are too sweet for my taste but this one is gorgeous!
It is a little boozy I have to say but It is so poetic.
I sense rose and patchouli mostly. It’s both gender wearable for real!
This is an all season night scent to me but I like wearing it in winter.
CAreqnB – :
My ultimate rainy day scent. It’s a thunderstorm in a bottle and I am here for it. Mostly earthy but clean patchouli on me. My only gripe is that the sillage is so faint. I soak myself in it and can smell it all day on my clothes and hair, but I hate that it requires a soaking. I’m halfway through my second bottle, have a backup at the ready, and will probably repurchase until the end of time.
techn0 – :
To me this opened as all leather. So much leather with a hint of rose. Like a crushed rose found in a leather purse. Later the patchouli asserted itself with the scent of crushed wilted rose. Dark. Sexy. Dangerous on any gender. Sadly I can’t do patchouli, but this would be an amazing night time fragrance for the right person.
ZIGA – :
I have a very old bottle of Voleur de Roses, in the more rounded bottle with gold cap. When I spray it on I’m immediately reminded of summer fruits jam, the plum note is that sticky and sweet. It’s gone within moments and I’m transported to a rose garden, thick red petals heavy with bloom. It’s almost like they darken before your eyes though, the patchouli comes on like an eclipse and blots out all else. It’s an earthy patchouli, but not in a hippie kind of way. I’m reminded of graveyard dirt. Later still that sweetness returns, darker and more refined with a herbal slant to the patchouli that clings to the skin. I would agree with another reviewer in swearing to tobacco or spice. Far more complexity than I imagined there would be, but then again I’m always impressed with this house.
vxk847Diobtetty – :
I had a decant of this, now it’s finished so i write few words. Really beautiful scent, rose is deep dark red from the garden bush. Nearly heavy rose, some eatrhness too you can find. Recommend to a connaisseur, no blind buys.
k0s777 – :
This review is based on me wearing Voleur de Roses for the past 2 weeks, i agree the patchouli is predominant, i also rarely catch a whiff that reminds me of roses when i wear it, its almost one dimensional i wish it developed into something more intriguing at some point of the day. The plum is noticeable to me towards the dry down phase, as i’ve had other plum perfumes i can recognise its presence.
I feel like its missing depth and i plan on layering it with my rose lotions or just any soliflore i might have. A woody note could flatter this too. Hopefully it will become more intriguing.
As to lasting power i am not impressed. 2-3 hrs tops,after that i don’t even catch a whiff of it.
Mingonedeni – :
I think many people don’t seem to understand that the name of the fragrance means ”Thief of Roses”. To think that people put this in their list of favorite rose based scents…well this is not a rose based fragrance.
This is straight up earthy patchouli.
The rose is only slightly present in the background, more to complement the patchouli. The supposed plum note I don’t get.
The overall feel is light in nature, meaning that it’s not very thick or dense, but it creates this nice scent bubble.
One of my favorite patchouli scents. Projection is moderate to weak but on me the longevity is fairly good (up to 6-7 hours).
I’m not sure how the fragrance differs from its old formulation to the new one (in the black bottle) but all in all a great release from L’Artisan.
8/10
yelena.gubarenkova – :
Yep, gorgeous smell poor longevity. Get Noir De Noir for winter, and Atelier Cologne’s Rose Anonyme for the rest of the year, you’ll be very glad.
Здоровей видали – :
I can image this perfume on the type of woman like Salma Hayek.
I close my eyes..
She has a red rose-chain on her head and hot tanned skin , dark-brown hairs and skittish laugh..
It´s deeply sexi parfum. If i may recommend.. this blend is excellent for rendezvous.
ingu6 – :
Heartbreaking longevity, but otherwise a gorgeous scent. Thankfully, Tom Ford’s Noir de Noir is next level good, and lasts all day. Sample this if you must, but save your pennies for Noir de Noir.
heitilybrible – :
Well-made, gorgeous, artistically creative representation of patchouli, plums, and uno rose in the mud, in this particular order for me. Totally justifies the name of the company “L’Artisan Parfumeur”. Definitely unisex. Well…now… my bottle is slightly less than half full and I didn’t touch it for more than few years. The thing is, I have overeaten patchouli with this one. To the point that I don’t want smell patchouli ever again. Also, I am not a novice to unisex fragrances, but this one is way too masculine for my taste. It begins as masculine and it ends masculine, period, it never softens on my skin. Nevertheless, it’s an interesting, kind of Medieval/Gothic Queen/King in the enchanted castle with stony walls and fern grows on it, dark side of life, earthy type of scent… I did like it. But it’s like with an ice cream of particular flavour you have overindulged yourself in your childhood, so… you are avoiding it ever since.
IrinkaJL – :
This is what I peg as a Halloween Night October Fall fragrance but it has multiple purpose. Voleur (Thief) of hearts is an indie niche weird and wonderful strange scent that is unisex masculine earthy aromatic and very much on a league of it’s own. The bottle is classy and deceptive. I was expecting something richer more complex. Then I realized it has only three notes of patchouli rose and plum. So for me this is not as big for my fragrance tastes but it will do.
Opens with a fleeting red rose and plum scent. Now others might detect these notes in spades but I don’t. I realize fragrance has the power to change itself on every different wearer so while others can smell the rose and plum fruit note on me it’s so miniscule that it’s barely there. I don’t get a red rose. I get what briefly smells like rosebush, a very harsh chemical rosebush scent. That’s over in less than a minute or so and it’s clearly mingling with a plum juice. The plum smells like someone spilled juice on you. But this too disappears quickly.
The scent then develops into it’s true dominant note which is the patchouli. This is an aromatic weed green scent which is also layered with musk. The scent is consequently quite unisex and perhaps even masculine too masculine for the female who might want to wear this and is not used to the earthy patchouli and musk. This patchouli bomb is reminiscent of cannabis. I would not be surprised if this has cannabis in it. But it’s not as bad nor as photorealistic as actual marijuana which is a scent I don’t care for in fragrance though from time to time I occasionally smoke weed. This is pleasant and very hazy smoky like an oversized patchouli bush. Lots of bush in this fragrance. Others are right in their imaginative descriptions of a garden after the rain with a lot of bushes – rose bushes and patchouli bushes.
The scent feels nocturnal, dark, mysterious, and earthy with tincture of soil. Smells of dirt. It has dirt notes in it. As others have also pointed out this scent transports you into a cave. Smells like a bat cave or like being underground in a subterranean environment. This is very unique and has little in common with most of today’s mainstream colognes and perfumes you buy at Macy’s. As such this is perfectly suited for Halloween or for an artsy gallery opening if you want to be the one person in the place that has an alluring but unusual aroma around you. Voleur is a well done scent that has something for everyone. It’s also perhaps the most beloved independent unisex scent ever.
Aminozim – :
I got this as a blind buy but I got a bit scared after reading people’s problems with longevity/sillage. No regrets here! It’s by no means a room filler, but on my skin it lasts around 4-7 hours, and longer if I’m not moving about as much. I do have the older bottle (and formulation, I’m assuming) with the red label, not the bottle pictured above.
It opens with a big blast of patchouli and sweet rose with a cool plum rounding it out. It’s a pretty linear scent, maintaining a pretty equal play of that patchouli and rose. The patchouli can get a bit dank but that’s what I like about it–it’s not a bright and feminine rose, nor is it the dark and tempting rose/oud (though it has a similar woody/earthy + floral quality). Someone said this reminded them of roses in a garden after the rain–I’d say that’s true, only maybe it’s been a few hours after the shower, and these roses have been sitting on a forest floor.
It’s definitely unisex. Out of all the rose fragrances in the world, this one’s definitely on the more masculine side, but it’s perfectly unisex.
carpinteyrolto – :
It is pouring outside and I thought it was very fitting to wear Voleur. Why? I don’t know, this is such a romantic juice that it compliments the weather beautifully.
Simply put, Voleur is patchouli taken to another level. It is essentially a patchouli fest, it is damp, it is earthy, it smells like patchouli. I like it for that alone. But the combo of rose and plum gives it such a radiance that makes this a very uplifting perfume, IMO. I think you could make the argument that this is also kind of gothic, and I would not disagree. But essentially I think that this juice is romantic with hope. I think it was very audacious when it first came out, because it is NOT a gourmand (thank the heavens for that) and to my knowledge plum was not a note in heavy use at that time. It just gave a sweetish, green accent to the patchouli that remains so distinctive until today.
In short, wear it at your discretion to enhance the mood you are in, or wish to attain. But wear it.
Smell great my friends.
sher501 – :
Blind buy, and this one is the jam. This is my jam. Rose jam! The rose thief dropped a few on his way out the door, and he was totally wearing some patchouli oil from the head shop he just robbed. I can totally smell the rose, and it’s a wet, weird and misty one in a brambly garden, like at Edward Scissorhands house! Edward Scissohands would TOTALLY WEAR THIS. Omg. The patchouli is hippie like and satisfying. Not much else to smell here but the illusion of dirt, like wet garden dirt, not grave dirt like other people are saying. I don’t find this “that” insane to wear. I mean, I would wear this anywhere, sure, like everything else, if you spray it like an insane person I can see this being suffocating, but one spry and it’s heaven. Ugh. So good.
ezan4ik – :
I get tart plum, a wisp of rose and then patchouli…perceived in that order.
That little bit of tartness in it is really enjoyable.
I get that impression of red wine that others have mentioned.
Also one of smelling a tart, wet rose in a garden that’s just been rained in. The patchouli gives the sense of wet ground underneath a rose bush wafting up to your nose.
It’s somewhere between a light and heavy feel. I wouldn’t call it light, but it’s not overbearing or musty the way some patchouli fragrances can be.
It does have a bit of a brooding character. I think it’s still versatile and easy to wear despite that aspect, but perhaps I’m biased because I really like it.
I’m sure others will disagree about its versatility, but personally I feel like I could wear this any time.
jyosvfdsoft – :
Okay, here it is: my very first Fragrantica review — my first foray into fragrance nerd-dom (!!!)
I tried this for the first time alongside L’Artisan’s Drôle de Rose, but Voleur stood out way more to me at first blush. Out of the three listed notes of rose, patchouli, and plum, in my opinion the latter two form the bulk of the fragrance.
Voleur opens with a big, juicy, squishy burst of overripe stone fruits, slightly tempered by a full, rich rose. Picture a rose slightly past its prime, just barely crinkling around the edges, but not yet having lost its suppleness.
Nothing about Voleur de Roses gives the impression or profile of a typical “fruitchouli”; it initially made an enormous impression on me, with its lush burst of dark rose and dark fruit.
I would’ve liked to have smelled this as an EDP, but only EDT is available (that I know of), making the drydown fairly rapid, and leaving me with a rank patchouli lingering at my pulse points. The patchouli used here is not a sweet one. In my opinion, it’s a fairly dense, deep, moldering sort of patchouli that adds to the fecundity of the fragrance as a whole. However, stripped of the top notes, I was somewhat unhappy having such a humus-like earthiness hover on me once the rose and plum had evaporated. I can definitely understand the other reviewers’ references to a dark, unruly, fertile and fetid garden. Something about this fragrance alludes to death and putrefaction.
By the time it had fully dried down, I understood the name “Voleur de Roses”. In this case, I think the plum and patch are the “voleurs” — they’ve stolen the spotlight from the rose, forcing it into a supporting role.
Overall, I think I can say that I simultaneously agree with all the positive AND negative reviews of this fragrance. It is beautiful, attention-grabbing, and unique, but it does have its drawbacks. It has an intensity that demands something of the wearer — a certain kind of sensuality.
★★★
Exteraber – :
This is the best marriage of earthy patchouli and ephemeral tea rose that I’ve come across so far.
To me this is a very sensuous, slightly erotic fragrance – it’s Mellors meeting Lady Chatterly in the rose garden after it’s just rained . . . It’s yin and yang . . . It’s dark and light and yes it’s masculine and feminine and can easily be worn by both.
Hurdtrjkiu – :
Got my sample. What I can tell you is this is 90% patchouili. The rose and plum are not discernable for me. They just soften the ruff edges of the Patch.
It is very much like L’Artisan Patchoili Patch fragrance.
I do like this more than Patchouli Patch, it is less feminine.
Allthough this is a smooth patch it is gender neutral. It is the second best Patch fragrance I have tried, after Dior exclusive patch Imperial.
Rating: 8/10
God bless. John 3:16
FriendAlex – :
I read a few reviews that said this smelled just like marijuana. Well, I have smelled marijuana a few times and this smells nothing like it. Whoever wrote those reviews must have been high. This is a soft summer rose buried under a bed of patchouli leaves. So it does have that dirt in the garden scent. It’s L’Artisan, so it’s nicely blended and wearable. But at the same time I feel like rose patchouli has been done better elsewhere so it’s not full bottle worthy for me. I do like the image of a rose bush being violently whipped about by a sudden rainstorm.
QAcroftRof – :
Voleur de Roses is a pretty good indie niche fragrance
Dark, green, earthy, spicy, wet, smelly, weed….
This perfume’s not going to please the crowds not a celebrity perfume in any way but she has a pride and self-worth all her own
This smells like patchouli oil on me.
I couldn’t detect any floral note of rose unless it’s rose oil which matches up with patchouli oil with the patchouli being the strongest accord.
I couldn’t smell any plum but plums have no scent anyways. This is not even a fruit-chouli. It’s a big patchouli power scent like Jeanne Arthes Patchouli Sumatra or Body Shop Patchouli Oil.
This frag is green, earthy, spicy, balsamic, Oriental, unisex, and also something of a nostalgia scent.
When you inhale it – and it’s such an aromatic herb that you must inhale to deeply to appreciate it –
If you close your eyes and smell it the scent will take you somewhere you’ve been before in your long ago past.
It reminds me of when I was little and would go under the house to get my cat who would hide down there.
It’s a subterranean scent with it’s pure earth and soil.
Totally a soil smell. Smells like others have pointed out – a cave, wet earth, or Dracula’s earth box/Transylvanian soil.
Totally a Halloween frag but it can be worn as a night time cologne if you’re a Goth, an artist, or neo hippie Bohemian type.
A unisex scent for those of us who like patchouli.
My boyfriend and I both wear this scent.
atomic250 – :
Rose and patchouli are the main accords of the fragrance. The rose is neither sweet nor romantic and girly in here.In combination with the intense and earthy patchouli, this scent reminds of a garden full of roses after a rainstorm.I can almost feel the smell of fresh,wet soil in here. Ideal for wet,dump,cool,rainy fall days.The longevity is outstanding. I can easily smell it on my skin even after shower!
goodslowprice – :
this is not what I was expecting….I do not get any rose from this. Upon first sniff, it reminded me of my granddaddy’s old cheap Bruton Powdered Snuff!! I almost scrubbed it off but waited for the dry down. It is very earthy, dirty patch. I agree there is a resemblance to Bottega Veneta, however this one seems more unisex and not quite as sophisticated. It isn’t so bad , I rather like it, but I don’t think it would be a crowd pleaser….I think of this as “Hippie Chic” or Boho Chic for sure!
sultan4ik – :
Strange. At first I smell something like dark, earthy honey. Then it’s like jam. Almost like a dense, herbal apricot jam, but without the sweetness. I don’t smell roses. It smells dark and ripe to me. It feels too mature for me.
gesha555000 – :
After 5 hours of wearing this I realized “wait, it smells so familiar”. Right, it smelled very similar to Bottega Veneta perfume. I am not sure whether I was surprised when I found out that the nose of the both scents is Michel Almairac.
Voleur de Roses – Mystery – 0,5*Patchoulli + leather + 3*synthetic + 5*commerce = Bottega Veneta
Clawd – :
The Thief of Roses
Voleur is a hard one for me. I tested this fragrance by buying a vial sample to decide whether or not it was for me. There are a lot of favorable reviews for this scent and I’ve even seen the YouTube videos with both men and women raving about it. This is supposed to be a mysterious romantic Gothic dark earth scent, a patchouli obviously, but not an Oriental patchouli. It smells very realistic to actual patchouli and therefore smells of weed. I don’t get any connection to a “rose garden after the rain” or wet earth scent. This smells like the earth under a house, dirty, disgusting, dark, you don’t know what’s down there kind of scent. It smells like you’ve rolled around in dirt. This is an anti perfume perfume. It’s not a stench or foul odor. It’s just a marijuana plant weed smell. It smells herbal, it smells like dirt, and it smells like a medicinal shop that sells marijuana. I don’t like the smell of marijuana. Most people who smoke marijuana probably don’t care for the smell either because they shower and scrub it off after having smoked it so that the smell can’t stick to their clothes or so that they won’t offend anyone with the bad smell outside of the place they used it. This is not gross but it’s too herbal and too much of a weed for me. I wish I could have smelled a rose but there was no rose. The plum note is also non-existent. This is good if
1: you smoke marijuana and find this scent to be reminiscent of marijuana and think it’s cool to spray this on just for fun
2: You like green herbal earthy aromatic scents in perfume without it having anything to do with marijuana
3: You’re a Goth and love how this smells of a dark cave or soil on a grave/graveyard smell
This is totally unisex so both guys and girls can wear it but to me it smells more like a guy’s cologne with a big patchouli note. This is not quite patchouli oil (which smells better) but it does really have a ton of patchouli – of the masculine sort. I’m sorry but this is not for me. It’s just not a perfume but a recreated weed scent the weed in a garden, not the flowers in a garden. I’m a flower lover and so for me this is like the Anti Christ of perfume. This is not as bad as Secretions Magnifiques (review to come later) but it’s not exactly a pretty perfume either. Not gonna wear this ever.
akkardionn – :
i received this fragrance today (blind buy). even though i was pretty sure what to expect from it, this scent surprised me like “WOW”.
i’ve just finished reading the reviews and it seems that this juice has 1000 faces.
what kind of vibe it delivers, depends on what i’m thinking about at the moment
people say it…
– smells like dirt & rose – yes, i totally get that
– smells like red wine – jep!
– is just plum – for sure. reminds me of my grandmother’s home made (very thick sour-sweet) plum-jam
– is the signature scent of dracula – jeah!
…
and it’s VERY strong. i think i can pull this off, but i must start with only 1 spray on the chest.
gypeChage – :
Always i am impressed by the formulas making rose softer , lighter with a touch of masculinity , when i see the notes i am not able to imagine such a pleasant potion , it is with three ingredient but creative enough and unique enough to tell you yes i am here , it is “savoureux”, elegant and soft .
elmatador – :
The things I have learnt since I joined Fragrantica are many and variable and i still do. I always found patchouli sour, I never liked fruit that wasn’t peach or bergamot, I never liked Rose. Though I still don’t like fruit salads I must say that I have come to appreciate the tarty, piquant depth of plum. Voleur de Roses is a unique and beautiful blend of patch, Rose and plum, masterly blended and composed. It does start like damp earth, wet soil and within 30 minutes it unfolds into the most intoxicating, semi jammy, tarty Rose! At this point patch takes a back step and gracefully allows the Rose and plum to form a unity and exude a spicy, smoky, sensuous aroma,deep, smooth and utterly intoxicating. From then on it continues in the same vibe but never gets too sweet, or acidic, the success is in the beautiful balance and collaboration of the notes. Longevity is great and sillage. I see this scent working well on any season. This is quite unisex to me, thanks to the patchouli note which works always in the background. I can’t see a bottle going far(well, not with me, anyway…).
Instab – :
Ugh this is absolute perfection. It reminds me of noir de noir on my skin (tom ford) which is my signature fragrance. I feel like this is Noir de Noir’s younger, softer sister that still has intensity about her but it’s yet to fully develop.
The rose and patchouli here is blended masterfully. It’s neither cold nor overly “warm” (HIPPY) but rather realistic, seductive and enticing. The plum works extraordinarily well in adding in a softness that balances out this majestic concoction- some say plum doesn’t have a scent and therefore cannot be detected. Have any of you ever smelled overripe, nearly rotting plum? It has a sweet, pungent odor – the one captured in this frag.
On some this smells like moldy rotting earth and fruit. Skin chemistry plays a huge role in this scent. On me this frag unfolds and develops in a beautiful manner. It starts off with a similar blast that noir de noir does – pure oily rose followed by a heady yet fresh patchouli note that is not overpowering. It settles into a wet rose (like it just rained during a hot, humid day and all the flowers are unfolding giving off aroma) with crushed patchouli leaves, perhaps a slight tobacco note as well – very ashy but NOT unpleasant.
This would be a perfect night-time scent and I can see it rising like steam off someone in the middle of winter, as this is more of a fall/winter frag. It is intense, sillage is quite huge for an EDT and longevity fairly long for me. All patchoulis tend to stick around for a long period of time. Eventually everything gets saturated with that signature patchouli scent (or stench depending on your preference).
A love song… a dark romance…. a bleeding rose, tears dripping from the petals onto the fresh soil underneath.
If you hate patchouli steer clear of this one even though it is VERY sample worthy just to catch a whiff of the beautiful, realistic rose. Price online (ebay) is incredible for a niche frag of this quality. Get it under $100!
SpancePence – :
Voleur des Roses is the unapologetic lover you spent the last month with, he wholeheartedly gave you the time of your life, he escorted you through the infinity of the universe making you realise that you will never be the same again but as all great things come to the inevitable end, he left this very morning and the only testimony of his presence in your life is that heartbreaking sense of having everything in one moment and then everything in pieces.. Just like those rose bushes in your garden after that raging storm.
CE – :
Damn this is good! I don’t know how I overlooked this for so long, but I just got my bottle.
I’m at such a loss for words how beautiful this smells, I’ll have to collect my thoughts and finish the review later.
Wow.
ItellaNadia – :
I envy those who can smell a story from this perfume – a rose garden during a thunderstorm with rotten falling leaves and soil. Or how the patchouli makes it a dirty rose. On me, it is a sheer, refine and aloof patchouli rose perfume with light touch of plum. It does has an ozone charge clean scent. Nevertheless, it is an instant love. Average longevity and moderate sillage.
These polarized reviews show how vary our olfactory receptions or our body chemistries reacting to scents can be. This of course makes perfumery such an intriguing topic.
Scouser2892 – :
Hmmm. I’m a sucker for a rose/patchouli/plum fest but I really can’t seem to detect any rose in this! Perhaps it was stolen, hence the name?! I blind bought this today as it was on offer at a local store for only £30. Initial blast was old man in hospital/clean bandages/TCP/creosote/medicine/alcohol and absolutely no rose whatsoever. But weirdly, the combination I’ve just described wasn’t entirely unpleasant, just quite astringent and strong. Now, an hour later, it hasn’t really developed into anything else, it’s just less powerful. I’m disappointed that there isn’t any rose as I was hoping it would be a jammy, sweet fragrance with an underlying bite of patchouli. I don’t agree that it’s similar to Fille de Berlin; that is a grandmother’s rose which warms up into something more racy and citrusy; this is an entirely different fragrance altogether. I am female and wear masculine/unisex fragrances a lot, they are my go to, I’m not a girly girl when it comes to fragrance. This really is, in my opinion, an astringent/smoky incense which I think doesn’t work with my chemistry sadly. I have a full bottle if anyone would like it?!
zordinismiz – :
I’ve been completely seduced by this enchanting red rose surrounded by rich soil. It feeds my soul. Perhaps because of the deep happiness I experienced as a child digging in rich garden soil near roses.
michaelloolok – :
I am surprised of how accurate some of the reviews for Voleur de Roses are. The opening definitely reminds me of thunderstorm in a lush garden; I immediately had this image of very dark clouds thundering above a rose garden in spring or summer. Incredible!
The scent conveys as well the feeling one experiences when facing the ominous incoming storm, that very fresh ozone charged by a gust of wind: menacing, yet you can’t look away.
Then I get this strong wet tobacco smell, pungent and aggressive, followed by the scent of slightly rotting fruits; plums or mirabelles indeed, that had fallen from trees and started to decay, their fragrance released in a petrychor blast.
When it starts to settle, wet rose bush fuming. These pink roses are silently crying, and you can smell the tears from their broken stems and leaves. However, the patchouli gets stronger as it dries down, with the roses still in the picture, softening the whole ensemble.
On clothes, the result wasn’t as interesting: smoky patchouli that gets dirtier and dirtier,almost “tea like” in a terribly linear fashion.
Overall, Voleur de Roses is a very natural green floral, uncompromising and with lots of character. A bold and unique fragrance with good enough sillage to get its point accross. I like scents that behave with complexity, but manage to convey emotions in a very direct way. A fragrance that is visual, and who has a soul. Voleur de Roses is like that for me. “Liking it” or not is not even the point, I enjoy personnality, and that is enough to seduce me.
Tantalizing.
Boric – :
Voleur de Roses (“Rose Thief” or perhaps “Stolen Rose” in French) was created by Michel Almairac and launched in 1993 by L’Artisan Parfumeur. As far as what my simple nose can detect, and the notes online, the pyramid is pretty unpretentious: it’s just rose, plum, and patchouli. And to be terribly honest, I can’t even detect plum anyway. You know why? Plums are like broccoli and carrots. They are essentially odorless. If you don’t believe me, smell one the next time you eat it. The next time you read a reviewer who “detects a plum note,” instantly stop reading. They’re blowing smoke up your ass. But moving on…
The more I wear this, I think this scent is all about the various ways that patchouli can wear on the skin, and Voleur de Roses tells you about several of them. When you catch a whiff of your own skin, this gives you (or at least me) a fresh, grassy patchouli. When you smell it up close, right where you applied it, the patchouli is dirty and earthy. The rose modulates every transition in how you smell the patchouli, itself sometimes being barely present when smelled from a bit of a distance, but being more important the dirty and closer you get to the application point.
This is meant to echo the smell of a rose garden during a rainstorm (in fact, if I’m not totally out of my mine, I almost detect the faintest of ozone accords), and that is admirably done: a moist, fungal, yeasty patchouli mixed with the ever-changing, though constantly dark, velvety rose. I enjoy rose, and I enjoy patchouli, but in Voleur de Roses they’re both vying for top billing, which results in a jumbled, confused fragrance. I think one of the things I like about rose is the sweet, waxy, brightness, and the patchouli muddles that all up.
At the end of the day, this just doesn’t work on my skin. Then again, I’m not a big fan of it directly out of the bottle, either. I like something that ages a bit more predictably on my skin; or maybe this is just my skin telling me this scent isn’t for me in the first place. I still think the most successful rose/patchouli fragrance I’ve ever smelled (and I’ve only smelled maybe half a dozen) is Bull’s Blood by Imaginary Authors. And if you look up Bull’s Blood on Fragrantica, it doesn’t seem to be a big audience pleaser, either.
At the end of the day, I can’t honestly vouch for or against this, seeing as how it seems to be so skin chemistry-dependent on how it plays out on the body. If the thought of rolling around in a Javanese patchouli patch during a thunderstorm sounds enticing (and you have to admit, that does sound a little fun), it might be up your olfactory alley. I don’t hate it; it’s just nothing that I would ever wear.
Nattasha – :
This is the first L’Artisan fragrance I have ever smelled, and I must say – I’m in love. I can’t wait to try the rest of this house.
Voleur De Roses is beautiful. It’s sexy, it’s rosy (but this is not your Grandmother’s rose) and it’s alcoholic/heady – I’m guessing I get that from the plum? It’s demure, divine, and a little standoffish. It’s also very unisex (on my skin, anyway).
I first got a sample of this among other rose scents (another favourite was Jo Malone’s Velvet Rose & Oud) and to be honest, I didn’t like