Zemfira

I love roses. I love them bright and I love them dark, airy and heavy, red and green, sweet and sour, powdery and crystal clear, fresh and dried ones. I love all of them! Zemfira is a beautiful somehow light and bright (but with good performance) Rose Oud which you can wear easily year around. Fresh natural smelling roses are stars with mild oud in the background. Unlike the first collections, this 4th collection is floriental and has no animal ingredients except ambergris in it. Other parfums in this collection are Sir Winston and Symphonie de Néroli. This is a well-made rose perfume with citrus and honey shades in the base. It’s not sweet anyway or in any kind of way “jammy” like some people like to say which I think is an expression for very sweet and mellow rose mostly with Vanilla. I can’t describe well enough that intoxicating feeling which I get from this from the evocative opening until the dry down but it’s unique. I think it’s somewhat tart undertone which is one of the charasteristics of Vietnamese Oud. I have many rose perfumes and have tried a lot of them, this is one of a kind. If you like powerful and extremely persistent rose perfumes with a very light honey-oriental sillage, I think you will love this one. This is very easy level entry to Ouds but it’s noticeable though. 🌹Top notes: Bergamot and Pink pepper 🌹Middle notes: Rose de Mai, Hybrid Tea rose and Atlas cedar 🌹Base notes: Bengal sandalwood and Vietnamese Oud Thank you for reading, I hope my review was helpful. I would appreciate a lot if you want to follow me on IG and/or YouTube (English subtitles): @ninamariahperfumes It gives me a lot of motivation to write more. 🤗

I have a sample of this perfume. It is a perfume extract that lasts all day on the skin and leaves as a scented trail on the skin for the next day. With a very high intendity, so it is advisable to carefully measure the amount of perfume we put on. As a first consideration of this perfume, I think it is a perfume for people who know well the niche perfumes and the aroma of natural oud wood, to appreciate it correctly. The union of the rose with the oud wood is an aroma that we know, here we are presented in a refreshing outing with the bergamot, with spicy touches. The rose is fine and delicate from the rose of mai, and as it progresses over time, the aroma becomes even sweet, a sweet, pleasant, succulent and sensual oud wood. It is a mature, interesting, sensual perfume ... very well worked in the different woods and aromas that accompany it. It is a type of perfume that of course will be enjoyed by lovers of wood and oud wood, but in my case I see it as impressive as a male perfume, it is an elegant exotic sensual perfect for men. Precisely because it is a perfume with a marked aroma of oud wood, not a recreated oud, the authentic oud ... it is precisely that which can make you love this perfume or hate it, if you hate it it will not be because it is a bad perfume, rather because your nose does not appreciate or enjoy this special wood.

As always with a Bortnikoff, I'm immediately taken by the sheer quality and beauty of the ingredients. The initial blast gives me shimmering, dry bergamot with, of course, HUGE rose (Serge Lutens style, jammy and playful) and HUGE pink pepper, but also a strange, addicting woody undertone, not the oud, I think it's actually cedar. This is a cedar I don't normally encounter. As I'm trying to pin down what the wood is, the sandalwood starts to show up. This is where you really know you have something special. It smells like sticking your nose up close to a lump of raw sandalwood (which I have done recently at the Chanel exhibition in Paris). It's creamy, rich, ancient-seeming, and almost, but not quite, gourmandy. The oud is there all the while, but this isn't an oud perfume, it's a sandalwood marvel. I've just bought La Fille Tour de Fer, and there is a link here, with the natural smelling rose and pink pepper, but this one is the grand dame of the genre, while the lutens is a very respectable affordable rose perfume.

A fresh and clean rose fragrance with an elegant oud twist. This is a simple yet sophisticated oud/rose scent that truly shines in springtime. It opens fresh with citrus and pink pepper, and from the very first moment to the dry-down, the composition is defined by a very high-quality rose. After some time, the freshness is softened by a gentle sweetness and depth from the oud, with sandalwood also playing an important and well-balanced role. As always with Bortnikoff fragrances, the high quality of the raw materials is immediately noticeable — everything feels natural, luxurious, and beautifully composed. A perfect oud/rose fragrance for the confident man as spring arrives.

I have the Attar version of this. Open with a blast of bergamot peel, fresh tea rose petal, and woody note, they stay linear through the dry down. Bergamot is the predominant note on this one, safe to call it a Bergamot bomb here. The Oud is extremely light and almost undetectable, zero barnyard or medicinal here. Out of all 7 Attar releases, this is my least favorite, smell almost like the Guerlain Homme L'Eau Boisée freshy on steroid.

This looks like the usual Rose/Oud/Sandalwood composition, and it might be true for most people, but when quality stands out, with natural ingredients playing with your skin chemistry, you will find that what you smell is not banal at all. It lingers on your skin for hours, wont project much (who cares?), stays with you quite linear (sandalwood takes front seat in the drydown).. elegant and solid!

Amazing rose and sandalwood fragrance. A bit powdery/soapy. The oud is in the background and gives a woody, slightly sweaty support. This is what Frederic Malle The Night wishes it was.

Strong rise beginning evolving into a very pleasant rose oud with the rose taking a somewhat backseat. Unisex and versatile. Quality....elegantly done!

Oh my.. rose... the rose in this is sooo natural and fresh....

when I first spray this, the rose is instantly apparent, quite strong, and blended with a citrusy hue which at first is slightly off putting, and doesn’t reel me in. After about 5 minutes the scent begins its evolution, and the first stage takes the citrus away, leaving a soft sandalwood mixed with a powdery rose. I am suddenly reminded of Rose Malaki by Chopard, which in fairness is a great rose scent with an arabic tune. Allowing another 10 or so minutes lets the final evolution to take shape. The rose is still the mainstay of the scent, however, sandalwood is pushed back just a little and suddenly a deep thick agar oud becomes the solid base for this fragrance. The Oud is similar to Ensar attars, which is understandable, both Dimitry and Ensar are of similar ilk. The rose sits quietly after a while, leaving the oud to be the focus point. This actually makes it better for me, and much more wearable. So the beginning can be off putting, but if you can bear with it, and allow it to evolve, you will be presented with a decent oud fragrance with a rose hint.

Spicy rosewater-ish rose supported by a strong powdery patchouli (not listed, but so omnipresent) and a cedar note. The base will unveil a nice and well behaved (too well behaved?) oud note. I hate to say that, but this one feels a bit grandma-ish. Projection is moderate, at best. Good, but underwhelming, and modest performance is not compensating for its unsurprising scent profile. Doesn't meet - for sure - the expectations in terms of creativity and complexity set by the price tag, and would not recommend anyone to spend big Bortnikoff dollars for that one. That said, if budget is not an issue, it may please who is looking for a good rose water-like fragrance. Colder days, women 40+

A lovely but somewhat redundant Rose Oud offering from Bortnikoff centered around a beautiful natural Rose de Mai. The perfume has a very brief opening of bergamot and pink pepper pepper before heading to the heart of the exquisite Rose De Mai and slight cedar. The perfume settles on a bed of almost odorless Vietnamese Oud and sandalwood. The perfume is not hugely different from many of the Rose Ouds on the market but the quality of the natural ingredients makes it worthwhile. Also is missing any animalic elements which gives the perfume an additional spiritual appeal. Slight feminine leaning with moderate to strong projection and excellent longevity. Enjoy!

This is pretty. It smells like a well done natural version of perfumers workshop tea rose.

A nice opening with the more citrus aspects alongside the rose making it quite a taif rose type fragrance. The midlle to opening stages I found a bit cloying though because the rose was basically all I could smell for hours and it turns more green rose than it did in the opening. Not bad but not full bottle worthy for me.

It’s okay. Another rose oud albeit of higher quality than normal, and with a citric, peppery dint. It’s interesting and nicely composed. Hard to bash any of these and there’s no reason too. Most from the house are at least good in their own way, and an acquired taste. Here’s no exception. Not for me.

the risk you run when you speedblast is one hand always leads while the other follows, and that is what happens in zemfira. the leading hand in this case is rose and the trailing hand is everything else. the rose leads and bergamot follows, along with anything else. the rose smells amazing but it is too dominant, in fact, at times I only detect rose. the rose is possibly rose otto, and even to my untrained nose it is dialled up too far and drowns anything else out. when you're shelling out 350 bones for something like this if everything ain't perfect, shorty ain't playing. at other times, sandalwood and oud come out (much later) but this is mostly the rose show and rose doesn't have any prominent supporting cast for this show. in a sentence, delicious rose with citrus, sandalwood and bits of oud later on.

a smooth, delicious rose backed with sharp citrus. creamy sandalwood provides the background with a bit of sharp, dank oud making brief appearances hither and/or tither. it's a beautiful scent, and don't get me wrong, i don't mind it, but it ain't exactly earth-shatteringly revolutionary or something so unbelievably out-of-left field. a lot of the line has been disappointing, to tell you the truth. quite a lot of average, 'done' scents that smell quite similar to one another. remixes or versions of one another. some powerhouse scents, don't get me wrong, but mostly nothing all that special...

I like this. I did get a little citrus and rose when I first sprayed it on. It was a bit astringent when it started. (Probably the pepper.) Though the citrus faded, and I got roses. Sometimes fresh, sometimes salty, sometimes incense-y. All glorious. Later on I got some woody rose and a little incense. This quieted down, but stayed around for a long long time. If you like roses, this one is for you

Zemfira is first and foremost, a rose fragrance. Rose through and through. Brightness from the bergamot and pink pepper giving it a bit of an aromatic twist. Cedar is also a huge part of this fragrance after rose. Not bad and it seems to have a real rose quality. Much much more tamed than what Bortinkoff usually releases 7/10

Beautiful, green, clean rose with a creamy sandalwood and equally clean oud backing it up. Don't get me wrong - this is all about he rose, stem and all. No soil or dirtiness here though. Absolutely gorgeous!