Roja Risqué Parfum

Risqué is the quietest fragrance in this group and the most classical. Released in 2012 by Roja Parfums, the house Roja Dove had established in Mayfair the year before, it is a green floral chypre, a category effectively legislated out of existence when restrictions on oakmoss tightened through the 2000s. Dove built one anyway, at parfum concentration, using oakmoss and civet as though the intervening decades had not happened.

The opening is citrus and sharp: bergamot, lemon and litsea cubeba, a lemongrass-like material that gives the top a herbal, faintly soapy brightness. Chamomile follows almost immediately and it is the unusual choice here, dry and hay-like and slightly bitter, setting the tone for everything after it. The heart is a proper Grasse bouquet of hyacinth, jasmine, rose and ylang-ylang, but green rather than lush, and hyacinth in particular keeps it cool and stemmy rather than sweet.

Then the chypre floor arrives. Oakmoss, patchouli, vetiver, labdanum, cedar and a civet note that is unmistakably animalic without being crude. It smells like the great green florals of the 1970s, the family Chanel's Cristalle belongs to, with the moss turned back up to where it used to be.

It is worn best in mild weather, and it is one of the few Rojas that makes complete sense in daylight. Autumn on the Highveld, or a Cape spring, suits it exactly. Heavy heat flattens the green top and pushes the civet forward, which is not this fragrance at its best.

Two caveats worth stating plainly. Risqué does not appear in the house's online range today, so bottles come through specialists and it pays to check packaging and batch codes. And although it is the most restrained Roja here, it is still a parfum. Eight to twelve hours is normal, and the mossy base lingers on clothing for days. One spray is enough to be noticed across a table all evening.