Dolce & Gabbana Rose The One, a flanker to the company’s 2006 release The One, definitely can’t be faulted for its promotion and packaging. It has a print advertising campaign and an accompanying television commercial created by the photographer-director Jean-Baptiste Mondino; the commercial also features a soundtrack by Ennio Morricone. The fragrance’s muse, Scarlett Johansson, is shown looking delicately radiant in these ads, every inch a human meringue: her platinum hair tinted a soft strawberry blonde, her creamy skin set off by a rose-colored mesh gown (Dolce & Gabbana, of course), her lush figure reclining on a bed with a pink tufted-satin headboard. Rose The One’s bottle and the fragrance’s “juice” itself are also shaded pink, in case you missed the point. With visuals this tactile and boudoir-oriented, you might expect a powdery gourmand rose fragrance along the lines of Parfumerie Generale’s Brûlure de Rose.

Unfortunately, reality intrudes with the experience of the actual Eau de Parfum inside that blush-colored bottle and its layers of well-crafted marketing…

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