Rose de Mai Perfumes & Fragrances

Rose de Mai smells soft, honeyed and tea-like, with a green leafiness and a quiet fruity undertone. It is the gentler, more luminous cousin of the Bulgarian Damask rose and one of the great signatures of French perfumery.

The flower is Rosa centifolia, the May rose, grown on a narrow strip of land around Grasse in southern Provence. Harvest lasts only three to four weeks in May, when petals are hand-picked at dawn and solvent-extracted on the same day to produce a fragrant concrete and then an absolute. Chanel secured its own Grasse fields in the 1980s to protect supply for N°5, and the Mul family has supplied the material for over a century.

Rose de Mai is a heart note and the soft, classical face of rose in perfume. It pairs with aldehydes and jasmine in Chanel-style florals, with iris and violet in powdery compositions, and with oud for a luxurious Middle Eastern lift.

Rose de Mai performs beautifully in spring, on warm days and in elegant daywear.