Rose Geranium

This is my favorite perfume. I also adore the bath essence so so much. The bath essence is a little more green than the perfume, but both are gorgeous, soapy, vintage, full garden scents that make me feel like reading on a blanket outdoors in the spring with bows in my hair, and for context, I’m like, a black-is-my-favorite-color, love low quality memes and strong coffee kind of gal. I cannot overstate how real and fresh and green it is. Ah. Swoon. Longevity is 5+ hours, not exactly a big sillage but if someone’s next to you, they’re going to enjoy it as well. I always feel so romantic when I wear this. 🥰 Did I mention how much I love this scent?

A very green, soapy, clean and fresh geranium fragrance. I can get the bug spray reference as the citronella comes through very strong for me but I still like it. It still seems a bit strange to me that Marilyn Monroe loved this fragrance so much. It seems quite unlike her, well her extroverted persona anyway. I understand she wore this fragrance a lot when she was married to Arthur Miller. In fact in his movie The Misfits (that he wrote about her) in a scene in the movie she is driving through the desert and says the air smells like green perfume. I'm sure that was a reference to this fragrance. The juice is green and this fragrance is very green smelling. This fragrance is very introverted, it one you wear for yourself, not others. It smells quite introspective and almost meditative. A fragrance for outdoor activities like bird watching or reading outside. It would serve 2 purposes, smelling fresh and clean while repelling bugs, as geranium and citronella are excellent bug repellents. If you love the smell of woody geranium with lots of greens and citronella give this fragrance dubbed Marilyn Monroe other perfume a try. Edit: 3/5/25 if you like this and geranium in general try Serge Luten Fille de Berlin, Masque Milano Love Kills and Avon Rare Emeralds.

I have the soap version and I've never smelled the bath essence or the perfume, but it 100% smells like a citronella candle. You can kinda get a little bit of the rose in the background, but the citronella smell is very strong and completely overpowers everything else. I completely disagree with the comment below that "if you like Chanel No 5, you'll like this". They don't smell even remotely similar. Chanel No5 is very powdery and smooth. I genuinely don't like floral perfumes, but all the flowers in Chanel No 5 are so well blended that it's very hard to pinpoint all the ones that are in there. There's also a touch of sweetness that together with the iris, helps to smooth out all the edges. Rose Geranium is the mayor of Citronella City. All day, every day. Just becayse Marilyn happened to enjoy both of these perfumes, doesn't mean you will. Proceed with the utmost caution.

I have the bath essence and I have to say I bought it for my birthday because Marilyn Monroe was believed to have liked this. I tried to let it envelop on my skin but the citronella candle smell I couldn’t stand. If you like Chanel number 5 you would probably like this one since it does have that very dated clean smell. Verdict: pass- if you love Chanel number 5 then this might be up your alley.

Fresh lemon peels +geranium. Very refreshing, not strong. Clean perfume