Roja Burlington 1819 Parfum

The name is a date. The Burlington Arcade opened to the public in London in 1819, and more than two centuries later it houses Roja's global flagship boutique, which is why the house calls this an ode to the Burlington Arcade, a lifestyle art-piece sent with love from London. It launched in 2020 and has become one of the most recommended entry points to the house, largely because it does something unexpected with a very familiar opening.

That opening is British citrus at full volume: grapefruit, lime, mandarin and bitter orange over mint, bracing and slightly bitter, the sort of thing that usually signals a summer cologne and then evaporates. It does not evaporate. Underneath, Roja has built one of the densest bases in his catalogue. Ginger, cinnamon, cumin and saffron for spice. Rum and tobacco for the boozy, smoky middle. Patchouli, oakmoss, cedarwood and cashmere wood for structure. Benzoin, vanilla, labdanum, ambergris and musk to hold it together. There is essentially no floral heart. The fragrance goes straight from bright to deep, and the transition is the pleasure of wearing it.

The cumin deserves a warning. In small doses it reads as warm human skin; some wearers find it reads as skin that needs a wash. Sample before buying, because this note determines whether Burlington 1819 works on you at all.

Once you know that, it is genuinely versatile. The citrus makes it wearable on a warm Highveld afternoon and the rum and tobacco make it appropriate for a winter evening. Roja lists it as unisex and it behaves that way, the spice and citrus keeping it from settling into either camp.

Performance is excellent, as it should be at this level. Expect ten to twelve hours with strong projection through the first four and a long, warm, resinous trail after that. This is a parfum-house composition rather than a lightly built eau de toilette, and one spray goes a considerable distance. Roja Dove founded the House of ROJA in Mayfair, London, in 2011 after nearly twenty years at Guerlain, where he held the title Professeur de Parfums. The classical training shows most clearly in fragrances like this one, where a great many materials are made to behave as a single thing.