Product Watch: Roses are a classic choice for Valentine's Day — here are 5 top picks

Rose perfumes make perfect Valentine’s gifts even when you can’t test them, writes Rachel Marie Walsh.

Keira Knightley for Coco Mademoiselle L'Eau Privee

This is not a great time for testing cosmetics of any kind and unless you repurchase your other half’s favourite (yawn), buying a fragrance for Valentine’s Day is a real gamble. Roses are a classic choice but rosy perfumes vary widely and often smell nothing like the air above a flower. 

The reason for this is threefold. Firstly, natural rose extracts used in perfumery do not smell like roses. “Rose oils are so different from the real thing that asking them to imitate the flower is like asking marmalade to imitate oranges,” says Luca Turin, co-author of Perfumes: The Guide (Perfüümista OÜ, 2018).