Renowned perfumer, Roja Dove shares with us his favourite fragrances for the day of love
Roja Dove’s picks are more like a poem that says, “My Love, I Love You, I Will Love You Forever”
Amore Mio
A very smooth and creamy oriental with lots of flowers, perfect choice for a romantic Valentine.
Ti Amo
An interpretation of the former but it is deeper and richer, creamier and more sensual as the cacao note comes to the fore – It is as smooth as hearing someone say, “I love you”, in the most romantic way.
Un Amore Eterno
It has a lot of ginger and is swathed in huge volumes of orris… it quite literally radiates passion for those who wish to bring out their romantic side.
“When it comes to falling in love or setting the right mood for Valentine’s Day, fragrance is the most important seductive accomplice to add to your arsenal. It is the catalyst for romantic alchemy. When you first see someone you are attracted to, you instantly feel that magical frisson of excitement. As you get closer, you breathe in a little of their perfume and their olfactory tattoo is imprinted on your psyche. This is because we don’t smell with our nose, but with the most primitive part of the brain – the sense of smell being the most primitive of all the senses. When you smell a desirable fragrance on someone, the hormone balance in your body is stimulated and you subconsciously become attracted to them.
Whilst lingerie sits on the skin, scent becomes a part of it. A fragrance is a woman’s most intimate accessory and seduces by whispering a promise, a maybe – it never tries. For maximum impact this Valentine’s Day, always put scent in the dip of your collar bone, directly below your ear, so that when the one you love whispers sweet nothings in your ear, he is directly over the (fragrant) hot spot.
To enhance sensations of pleasure, big, heady white flowers like jasmine, magnolia, gardenia and tuberose are essential. They all contain a molecule which we — as human animals, produce naturally. The molecule is called indole and is produced wherever there is pubic hair. For seduction, the proven aphrodisiac Vanilla is key. It enhances sensations of pleasure across the entire central nervous system and the tiniest hint of it can speak volumes.
I have no doubt that when you lose your heart to somebody this Valentine’s Day, it is impossible not to fall in love with their fragrance. It is a little bit of the soul that we reveal to others. There is a wonderful old proverb which captures this perfectly which says, ‘with one breath of her perfume I forfeit my kingdom, with a second, I forfeit my soul”.
-Roja Dove
