WHAT IS A ROSE?
As a universal symbol, the rose means so many things to so many different people. The flower itself, holds all the powers of nature within its petals. A beauty to the eyes and a wonder to smell.
Almost every day, we encounter the notion of the rose: in décor, haute couture, bonbons, the variations are endless… The true rose, however, remains elusive.
How many times have we smelled a real rose? One that can steal people’s hearts and captivate their minds?
Henry Jacques’ journey has been filled with roses. Each with its own personality and secrets. For decades, roses have been a constant in our atelier, and perfume lovers have longed for our rose creations.
Last spring was a turning point: we met a rose like no other, one we did not know existed. As with all great artistic encounters, it felt like destiny, and from it a burst of inspiration and creativity was born... Thrilled by new concepts, always on a quest to innovate, HJ has developed a new collection made from its first very own rose harvest, grown on the land of its new Atelier in the South of France.
Its name, Collection de l’Atelier, echoes the painter’s atelier where dreams take shape. This collection might be HJ's purest form of creativity, bottled.
The HJ Rose de Mai absolute extracted from the 2023 harvest is unprecedented, very elegant, soft, and as natural and pure as it comes.
It was like discovering a new colour. A new genesis that plunged HJ into an ocean of possibilities. So bright it drove HJ to multiple compositions, like a painter would have created many shapes, forms, and eventually, pieces of art.
After much consideration, this magnificent absolute gave rise to three creations, a limited-edition trio born of Henry Jacques’ savoir-faire and innovation, presented alongside each other in a hand-crafted chest. Collection de L’Atelier, limited to just 500 pieces, will never be recreated.
The first perfume is pure and celebrates the colour - HJ Rose de Mai absolute - in all its glory. As Yves Klein celebrated his blue. The second and the third are bolder, fruits of journeys of trial and error, association, superpositions, cuttings – two fragrances comparable to the work of Matisse in his late years, when he sculpted colours and contrasts with collages, playing with forms and ‘counter-forms’, always between figuration and abstraction.
Like numbered lithographies, the new limited edition fragrances are an inspired interpretation of a lifetime of creativity and a glimpse into the captivating world of HJ.
To preserve the beauty of the first harvest, and to leave space for future creations from new harvests, the perfumes from Collection de L’Atelier will never be reissued. They will be enjoyed, shared, collected, preserved – and one day, completely disappear. But their memory will remain.
The 2023 HJ Rose de Mai absolute has honey notes, which melt to a green herbaceous character. A spicier aspect appears later, giving an unexpected surge of intrigue. It is brought to life through three fragrances, the first an ode to its purity, the others a more playful – and pioneering – interpretation.
ROSE SOLEIL is delicate, warm, and spicy.
Sophisticated and complex, the HJ Rose de Mai absolute plays with notes of clove, sandalwood, patchouli and ylang-ylang. This fragrance is youth in amused wrinkles, recklessness in wisdom, sparkling joy in an unconscious smile. The kind of smile only one who has lived their life to the fullest can make, leading us to lose track of time, enlightening our daily lives.
ROSE TRÈS ROSE is complete, evocative, distinctive.
Refined, pure, statutory. By its uprightness the HJ Rose de Mai absolute is comforting, giving a sense of completion and fulfilment. It is the reassuring hometown, the familiar earth, the centre of gravity we are born from and always come back to. Rose Très Rose is somehow like home.
ROSE AZUR is charismatic and unexpected.
Enveloped within dry woody notes and zests, the HJ Rose de Mai absolute appears at its will. Just as the soft heart of a strong personality, Rose Azur must be won over. Intriguing and fascinating, impalpable, divine, celestial, almost liminal, the fragrance merges different terroirs for a rich and complex identity to which we cannot help but be attached.
The scents are presented in Les Essences form, the variation of perfume at Henry Jacques’ heart, as a tribute to its legacy – in the line’s most generous size, 30ml.
1x30ml ROSE TRÈS ROSE
1x30ml ROSE SOLEIL
1x30ml ROSE AZUR
Retail price AED 36,640
An additional 10 exclusive chests filled with Collection de l’Atelier in 15ml and 30ml Les Essences flacons will be released later in 2024, one for each of the 10 Henry Jacques boutiques.
If nature allows, each year’s harvest will give birth to a new limited collection. Like this year, it will be a trio – composed of a fragrance considered the purest, to express the rose of the year’s personality to the fullest, and two others guided by the inspiration of the moment.
Who knows what 2024 will bring?
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