Rosa Alba 1842

This smells sooo beautiful. I love rose scents and have many but there is something special about this one. It's not stuffy, and it's not all a pure rose, it's quit clean smelling. Smells like what all lovely young girls should smell like, very lady like. The drydown has a vintage feel to it like Zephyrae13 stated. It's very light and sheer, this might possibly be my new favorite rose scent. It's in such a lovely bottle, the downside is that it doesn't last at all.

Penhaligons Coveted Duchess Rose is a (much pricier) almost exact dupe. CDR is a bit smoother and ever so slightly more sophisticated. A lovely, zippy fresh rose with enough musk for maturity.

This was my signature scent for a few years until it was discontinued. I've been looking for another fresh rose fragrance to love as much but haven't quite found it yet.

I saw the pincushion bottle on Pinterest and knew I had to have it. The actual perfume was secondary, but I read reviews – all of which were glowing. The reviewers talked about its “rose scent with an edge,” and since I like florals and chypre florals I figured I might like it. I must warn that I measure all rose scents against my favorite rose scent, Yves St. Laurent’s Paris, so at first I was slightly disappointed in the slight “cologne bite” of this rose. “I won’t like this,” I thought, but since I’d bought it for the bottle it was no big deal. Well, it’s almost a week later and I’m spraying it on every day. Somehow I’ve grown to really, really like this perfume. Sometimes the rose predominates, other times the wisteria comes through (although to me it’s more of a hint of gardenia). I would not call this a feminine-girly scent at all – it is truly a “rose with an edge” or “rose with attitude.”

I miss this so much. The packaging and dewy rose petal scent were just perfection.