Love Kills
Masque (2019)

This a long overdue proper sampling of Masque Milano Love Kills, the third entry of Act III and one of the house's 2019 releases that I had the privilege of first smelling last June at Perfumology. It's a fresh, green, citric rose scent with Turkish rose, geranium, patchouli, cedar, and musk. It seems to contain a healthy dose of geranium with all of its spicy, herbal, fresh, and sharp sides.

What's not to like? It's balanced, not overly sharp, with good harmony between the rose and geranium, and it's romantic, as its name suggests, while not being especially heavy or feminine, so it's versatile and year-round friendly, as it works perfectly well on this cooler winter day but would be nicely boastful in the heat of summer. An easy winner of a release from Masque Milano, which has a good variety of challenging and easy-to-love scents.

It's priced at $158 for 35ml, within the current range of Masque Milano pricing, with a 10ml travel size also available for $57, at great boutiques like Perfumology.

7 out of 10

This is the Beauty and beast in rose petals fading, crushing, until death. Love kills are common geranium and rose to compose a song ...... Very purely and beautiful.

Why is it that perfumes with the word ‘love' in their names almost invariably disappoint? Is it because the tiredness of using this catchall for human connection reflects the tiredness of the stuff being marketed? Discuss!
I had expectations of Love Kills: they were of a big, bright, bold rose with enough of a twist to it to justify its place in Masque's line up. What I got instead for over an hour was a bit of a frump, a rather sleepy rose (the usual lift provided by geranium seems not to have worked here) dressed in a dishevelled musk (ambrette). It was all a bit housecoats and padded slippers at dawn. One wishes it had lain in bed a bit longer and woken energized and whooping at the sun. Not unpleasant by any means – it's mild, sweet and rosy – but it's the kind of thing one expects to be on sale for 20 bucks.
Curious, I returned to the house's promotional material on this one. Apparently Love Kills asks the question: ‘What happens when the freshness of a rose in full bloom fades away?' Well, yes, they seem to have answered that. But should I care…?
Then after about 90 minutes it seemed to gain strength and fortification resembling ‘angry' roses in the Une Rose vein – the geranium and patchouli now sounding as power chords to the rose's bleat. While I was pleased with this new-found assertiveness, the overall composition still didn't seem to be offering something to make it stand out a bit from other deadlifting roses out there. It seems destined to remain in the bulging middle.