Rose Star

Christian Dior was never one to ignore a sign from the universe. In 1946, he tripped over a star on a Parisian pavement and took it as fate telling him to finally launch his couture house. He also spent his life nurturing roses in every garden he ever owned. Fast-forward to now, and Dior’s Perfume Creation Director Francis Kurkdjian has decided to bottle both obsessions at once, but not in the way you think. Enter: Rose Star.

The new scent from La Collection Privée is a meeting of house emblems - the Centifolia rose (Dior’s reigning queen of flowers) and the guiding star that’s sprinkled through the brand’s mythology. It’s romantic, a little cosmic, and decidedly Dior.

But don’t expect just another powdery floral. Kurkdjian has spun his rose on five points, like the star itself: a zesty lemon-peel lift, a juicy chorus of lychee, raspberry and pear, Sichuan pepper spice, a velvety muskiness, and finally a honeyed linger that makes you want to lean closer. In other words, this is a rose with facets, layers, and secrets, one that presents complexity and depth.

As Kurkdjian explains, “The rose is a classic, but the way you tell the story makes it feel new. For me, Rose Star is both soft and strong, bright and dark - a tension, like the stretch of the star’s branches. That contrast is what gives it life.”

When Dior Beauty invited us to Grasse to discover the rose behind the fragrance, the mythology became tangible. At Le Domaine de Manon - a fourth-generation family-run farm - we found ourselves with aprons tied around our waists, carefully plucking Centifolia roses one by one during their harvest in May. Each flower is picked by hand in the morning light, before the heat of the day flattens its scent, and is rushed straight to the factory by noon. It’s patient work: around 300 blooms just to fill an apron, and a daily rhythm that bends to the rose’s timing, not the picker’s. Standing in the rows of fragrant pink blossoms, it’s impossible not to feel both the fragility and power of the flower that underpins Dior’s latest creation.

It’s bold but soft, feminine and masculine, nostalgic and futuristic all at once. A perfume with destiny written into its DNA, but also one that just happens to smell very, very good.

Discover the La Collection Privée Christian Dior Rose Star, from £175 at dior.com