Rose
Personal Favourite
One of Micheline Arcier’s personal favourite essential oils was rose. She spoke of carrying a small bottle of Bulgarian Rose with her on her travels, spritzing the atmosphere wherever she went. It might also be why she chose a single rose as the original symbol of the brand.
Rose is perhaps one the most recognised essential oils, yet our understanding of it is often assumed due to its familiarity, without realising that there is so much more to discover. From species to extraction methods, rose essential oil is wonderfully complex.
Historical Innovation
The Damask Rose, Rosa Damascena, the Queen of Flowers, known for its deep, rich, honeyed and sometimes citrusy or spicy notes. The origins of the Damask Rose go back to ancient Persia where enclosed gardens were developed to cultivate the rose for its rich fragrance.
Rose essential oil was produced through steam distillation, requiring vast quantities of freshly harvested petals to produce even a small amount of oil. As a by-product, this method also produces Rose Water, used for cleansing and toning skin. This method of extraction is the traditional way rose oil has been produced over centuries of practise that begun with Persian rose cultivation, and was eventually commercialised by the Ottoman Empire. Later, Bulgarian rose valleys bloomed and perfected the craft, which brings us to Madame Arcier’s go-to essential oil and floral water.
The Cabbage Rose, Rosa Centifolia, also known as the Provence Rose, is a hybrid that was developed in the Netherlands between the 16th and 17th centuries. Dutch breeders sought develop a hundred-petaled rose, primarily combining Rosa Moschata (Musk Rose), Rosa Gallica (French Rose), and Rosa Damascena. This rose was later cultivated in France, in Grasse and Provence, became a leading influence in early French perfumery and was later taken to Morocco’s Dades Valley, where French perfumers built a distillery in the 1940s. Rosa Centifolia, translated as ‘The Hundred-Petalled Rose” – or “Many-Petalled” (I’m not sure that anyone actually counted the petals!) and its scent leans more towards fruity, sweet floral accents in a softer, rounder character than Rosa Damascena.
Another method of extraction was also developed, solvent extraction with the finished product named an Absolute. Through this method no heat is used to remove the oil from the petals, which allows for a scent closer to the fresh flower itself than the Otto extraction method. This gives Rose Absolute a deeper and richer scent as an essential oil, and a bolder colour in a deep reddish brown, whereas Rose Otto is typically a finer consistency and pale to rich yellow colouring, as well as lighter notes on the nose.
Rosa Alba, the White Rose, is another hybrid rose of unknown specific parentage. This was cultivated in Ancient Rome for floral ornamental and medicinal purposes. It was later revived in France with more colour variations and used in perfumery, having also travelled to England initially via botanist monks and becoming the symbol of the House of York. The essential oil has a thicker consistency and has lighter notes of waxy green with a base of spice blended with a soft floral tone.
Through centuries of cultivation, breeding and innovation, the rose travelled from East to West, becoming both a symbol and a source of inspiration. Variations in species, growing conditions and extraction methods have created a remarkable diversity of scent, revealing that what first appears to be a familiar flower is, in reality, has a long and ever-evolving story to tell.
Transported to Another Time
Last year whilst reviewing archive clinic formulations I produced some small sample batches of Madame Arcier’s original perfume formulations, Arabimou and Feuille de Rose. Long-time clients of Micheline Arcier Aromatherapie are already familiar with Arabimou, less so with Feuille de Rose. They’re both rose parfums, both equally with Rosa Centifolia Absolute and then blended with a selection of other essential oils to bring together two very different but equally nostalgic sensory experiences.
My imagination takes me to Paris in the 1940s when a young Micheline had finished her beauty therapy course and was working in the Jean d’Athene beauty salon. Having qualified in 1943 and entering the industry in post war, a time where beauty was under innovation due to rationing and availability and perfumery, scents, were sacred and used as an emotional anchor for many. Still in her twenties when she married and moved to England, Micheline added to her skillset with a makeup qualification from a Jean d’Athene course and opened her own beauty salon for the first time in 1958 in Croydon.
A Pios woman that grew up in the South of France around herbaceous remedies, oils, nature and then was trained and disciplined in beauty in Paris in the 1940s, brings her knowledge to the UK and continues to practise, to learn and develop her skills… opens her first salon at the age of 35 and a year later visits a beauty seminar that changes her whole life… Yes, in 1959 Micheline Arcier met Marguerite Maury for the first time and spent the next 3 years learning her craft of Aromatherapy. A full circle moment, natural plant remedies produced in her grandmother’s kitchen as a child, educated in a nunnery and in a time where life was precious and uncertain. Natural remedies, French beauty therapy, perfume… all coming together in this wonderful new art form of aromatherapy.
It is perhaps unsurprising given her experience that rose remained a staple favourite of Micheline’s during her time, and as such it remained present in many formulations.
While perfumers were encaptivated by the natural beauty and complexity of the rose, aromatherapy was beginning to explore the emotional benefits that the essential oil held. Rose became associated with comfort, reassurance and emotional balance, qualities that aligned naturally with Micheline's belief that every individual should be treated as a whole person rather than a collection of symptoms.
All this history and development is captured within all of Micheline’s blends, but the perfumes have a personality of their own. An aromatherapist’s perfume is just different. I’ve tried the Floris White Rose and A Rose For… editions, with a powdered floral green lift of the white rose and the classic spring floral lift of rose, with additional lift provided by the larger portion of alcohol, reminding me quite succinctly of a time when I may have been standing in a pharmacy spraying all the perfume testers as a child waiting for my mother to finish whatever she was doing.
When I first tried Arabimou, the liquid itself a notably brownish-red when freshly made and at 70% pure essential oil blend, it only has a gentle lift of alcohol. The journey begins with geranium, but it is not overpowering and moves on quite quickly to the powdery ylang-ylang moving into the rose and rounded with jasmin. I’m taken on a journey of borrowed memories, the ones that have been shared with me by clients who still fondly recall their regular appointments in Knightsbridge, of a woman who I’ve never personally met but I’ve become close to her journey through archives and descriptions of a tall handsome French woman with wonderfully green eyes, magic hands and clearly a nose for fine functional fragrance.
After that experience I was very keen to try Feuille de Rose, looking at the list of oils involved my nose was twitching and I found myself on a mission to resolve the itch. I was not disappointed. This one, whilst containing four of the same oils as Arabimou and rose absolute being the centre of both blends, Feuille de Rose has a tangier spice to it. Deep and sharp, vetiver and linaloe wood leading an enriched woodland of grounded florals lifted with spicy bay and sprinkled with black pepper like magic fairy dust. Bearing some similarities to Enchantement, I find this one to be very quintessentially Arcier – even though I believe Arabimou appears to be the more well known!
Aromatherapy
Just as a familiar perfume could become an emotional anchor during uncertain times, rose has developed a reputation within aromatherapy for supporting emotional wellbeing during periods of grief, stress, change or vulnerability, whilst always remaining personal to the user. In aromatherapy skincare rose has been used for delicate, mature, dry skin and to restore radiance. In her skincare range, Micheline Arcier created a simple base of the finest oils and wax with delicate essential oil blends created specifically for the face. Most of the range contains rose Centifolia and Damascena is included in the Beaute range, which I must say was another experience in itself when I made the facial cream for the first time! A little pot of gold, absolutely radiating in vibrant rose aromas.
Having found the Rose formulation in the archives I was quite keen to try it out. Again, another list of oils that when put together form a whole new experience, an interpretation of rose as a concept beyond a single flower. Leading with patchouli, this rose blend opens with a grounded, earthy feel with light florals illuminating the rose from within, whilst orange and coriander seed form a halo around it. If I would consider Enchantement or Feuille de Rose as floating through a mystical woodland in the twilight, Rose brings me closer to the ground with the flowers and looking up at the sun twinkling through the branches above.
Enduring Versatility
The Rose, from early cultivation to commercialisation and innovation, has journeyed through time to remain instantly recognisable. The rose itself has been used in symbolism in various forms, from romance to royalty, and there are even rose flavoured foods and beverages of various forms. Even this year a new breed of rose has been announced, specifically produced for the 100th anniversary of Luzi, a Swiss family-owned perfumery, showing not only that the rose endures, but it also evolves.
That’s a lot to think about when spraying a hydrating mist of rose water in the morning! And I do consider Micheline’s thoughts as she prepared formulations for clients, and herself... and always carrying a little bottle of damask rose around with her
Further Reading
Menopause, Aromatherapy & The Individual
Scent Layering & Aromatherapy: The Art of the Individual
Aromatherapy, by Micheline Arcier
