Roja Elixir Pour Homme Parfum

[NEEDS VERIFICATION] This listing name could not be matched to any product in Roja Parfums' own catalogue, and it should be checked against the supplier's label before this page is published. Roja Dove trained the long way round. He talked his way into Guerlain in 1981, stayed nearly two decades, became the first non-family Global Ambassador the house ever appointed and acquired the title Professeur de Parfums. His Harrods Haute Parfumerie dates to 2004 and the Mayfair house came in 2011, where the stated approach is fragrance built like jewellery from the costliest naturals he can source. Elixir belongs to that house's mid-period, a parfum released in 2018 that Roja describes as an ethereal fragrance with a mystical lasting power - a spell of ingredients rather than a formula.

Worth knowing before you buy: a search of the house's own store returns Elixir Pour Femme in parfum and in eau de parfum, and nothing else carrying the Elixir name. No masculine Elixir appears anywhere in Roja's published range, so a bottle labelled Pour Homme cannot be matched to a Roja product and the label should be checked against the house listing before anyone commits to it. It wears well on anyone, which is the usual outcome with Roja's work.

The scent itself opens on bergamot and moves quickly into a dense floral heart - lily of the valley, geranium, Rose de Mai, Grasse jasmine, ylang-ylang, heliotrope and violet, with raspberry and peach giving it a jammy lift. The base is the part that reads unisex: violet leaves, cinnamon, cedarwood, cashmere wood, sandalwood, orris, ambrette, vanilla and musk. Powdery, woody, faintly fruity, with the iris giving it a cool spine.

It is an evening fragrance and a cold-weather one; on a Highveld winter night it holds beautifully, and in summer heat the florals can crowd. Roja's house style is on full display here, which is to say a great many materials arranged so that no single one takes the lead.

Parfum concentration from Roja means real output. Expect ten hours or more, with strong projection through the first three and a long, powdery drydown. One or two sprays is a full dose. Because the naming here does not match Roja's published range, check the bottle and the box against the house's own listing before committing.