Romance

Ralph Lauren builds Romance in three tiers: pink pepper, mandarin and violet leaves in the top; Damask rose, jasmine, tagetes and geranium in the heart; woods, patchouli, oakmoss and musks in the base. The rose and jasmine bouquet forms its center.

Pink pepper, mandarin and violet leaves in the top

The house speaks of sparkling top notes, mandarin essence and pink pepper, and entrusts the first impression to violet leaves, which it calls powdery, sensual and warm.

Rose, jasmine, tagetes and geranium in the heart

The heart brings together Damask rose essence, jasmine absolute and tagetes essence, also known as marigold, with geranium. The house sees in it a romantic floral bouquet, the promise of timeless femininity.

Woods, patchouli, oakmoss and musks in the base

In the base, velvety woods, oakmoss and enveloping musks are meant, for the house, to leave a comforting sensuality; patchouli, named in its American description, anchors this floral in the woody register.

The notes of 1998

At launch, Romance paired a Sun Goddess rose, ginger, chamomile, lychee, tagetes, yellow freesia and neroli with lotus flower, white violet and night-blooming daylily, over patchouli, oakmoss, exotic woods and sheer musk.

The notes published today keep neither lychee, nor ginger, nor lotus: mandarin, pink pepper, jasmine and geranium come in, and violet leaves replace the white violet.

What the label declares

The label declares nineteen ingredients: alcohol, fragrance, water, two agents that denature the alcohol, t-butyl alcohol and denatonium benzoate, and fourteen scent compounds subject to declaration, including geraniol and citronellol, two natural constituents of rose and geranium essences.