Lancome Tresor Midnight Rose

I feel like I haven't talked about fragrances since the beginning of the month, the holidays are normally one of the best times to go fragrance shopping however this year hasn't been living up to my expectations in that regard.  With the exception of Elizabeth and James Nirvana Black, it seems that next to nothing has been appealing to me lately.  There is one fragrance that I have now tried several times since the end of the summer and I have been waiting to see if it grows on me but I have officially come to the final conclusion that it will not be working for me at all.  Lancôme Tresor Midnight Rose falls into the category of fragrances that I really wanted to love but they didn't love me back...

I have tried a few Lancôme summer fragrances over the years however I have never owned one of their core fragrances, many of these have been best sellers over the years but I have not yet found one that has worked well for me.  I was hoping that Tresor Midnight Rose would be the winner, I get excited whenever I can find a new rose fragrance to try and this bottle would look beautiful on display in my room. 

"Charming. Mischievous. Desirable. It is time for a new love story to begin, when love is still to be conquered, full of smiles, mystery, and charm. It is the game of love. Set in Paris, the playground for a romantic game of hide and seek. A sexy, sweet blend of raspberry, rose, vanilla, and sensual musk for mischievous femininity: catch my heart if you can.", states the Sephora website. 

The notes of Tresor Midnight Rose are: Blackcurrant, Raspberry, Rose Absolute, Jasmine, Vanilla, Cedar, Musk.

The Black Currant and Raspberry notes are the first to come out on my skin and are the ones that kill the fragrance for me.  The fragrance never seems to fully develop on me, the Rose and Jasmine notes are very faint and the top notes never abate and fade.  This is one of the rare fragrances that starts with the top notes and then goes right into the base notes, the Vanilla notes develops before any of the floral notes and then the fragrance becomes a sweet mixture of the berry and the vanilla notes.  At this point, Tresor Midnight Rose becomes a cloying mixture of sweet berries and vanilla.  I found this fragrance to be more of a gourmand fragrance instead of the floral mixture that I was hoping for. 

I first tried this fragrance at the very end of the summer and I was hoping that it was just the heat that was making the perfume develop oddly on my skin.  I tried this fragrance on while I was getting ready to leave Sephora and the humidity outside brought the sweet berry notes on my skin.  I didn't like the fragrance then but I wanted to give it another try in the hopes that the heat was the issue this time.  The last two times that I used Tresor Midnight Rose, it was during cooler and dry weather and the fragrance developed in exactly the same fashion on my skin.  I came to the conclusion that this fragrance was never going to work on my skin in the fashion that I was hoping it to. 

Tresor Midnight Rose will be very appealing to someone who loves sweet gourmand fragrances.  The berry and vanilla notes in this perfume overwhelm the rose notes and turn this fragrance into one that I would have loved but I could not wear on my skin.  Berry notes and I have never gotten along and this perfume is yet another example of this issue...

photo courtesy of Sephora