The person who wears Rosendo Mateu 4 benefits from vanilla’s sweetness in this perfume, because the truth is that they don’t care to be liked. They’re fine smelling like medicine from the oud, spicy leathery saffron, or like a spiced vanilla. If you come too close that’s because you need to and you’ll suffer the consequences… Rosendo Mateu #4 is the scent that rewards the wearer if they can wait out the bitter opening and let their skin warm up to the saffron and vanilla in the base. On me, it doesn’t take long and my nose goes straight to the vanilla. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Rosendo Mateu, the perfumer of this fragrance, was a perfume executive for many years before he started his own eponymous line of scents, and as I smell No. 4 from his first line, I have to wonder if this would ever make it to another brand’s line because this scent is so interesting and different than most of what you’d smell at a department store. The main notes are written on the bottle, and the perfume is heavy on the saffron which reads like a spicy leathery cinnamon but also has the propensity to smell like band-aids. But if your brain can tune that out, combined with the vanilla, the effect is almost edible. The oud that keeps things in check – here, it’s green and wooden, like biting into bitter seed when you’re not expecting to. The bitterness smells like it belongs to a more masculine perfume, and keeps the vanilla and saffron from being too sweet. Still, this is a spicy warm perfume that envelopes the wearer and anyone who happens to be within arm’s length. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
I’ll admit that I got more than one compliment when I wore this, although I can never be sure if it’s just that people compliment anything they can smell. A jolt to the senses is always nice and so is a compliment. I missed the Rosendo Mateu booth at Esxence, but these are perfumes to be savoured slowly anyway. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
