Essence Rare

This is one of the prettiest perfumes in my collection. And I use the adjective "pretty" to its fullest intensity and specificity: Essence Rare isn't glamorous, lush, elegant; nor is it reserved, understated, or boring. It is so beautifully formulated, all the notes blending together, hardly distinguishable from one another. It's such an even-handed treatment of the ingredients that the result is—paradoxically—stunningly simple, and admirably pretty. The lily-of-the-valley is there, but it isn't too sweet or indolic. And there's the iris, bringing some floral powder but not at all starchy or leathery, as it can sometimes be. And then the rose, a flower I feel quite ambivalent about: this is one of the most delicate, sublime rose notes I've ever encountered. Taken together, the result is a sublime creamy-powdery-floral perfume, a mellow springtime halo, both cool and with subtle heat, tranquil and inviting. Definitely pure Ellena. My only qualm is that it's a bit too weak: it fades to a skin scent in a couple of hours, then lingers in that form for a few more. The sandalwood and jasmine come through more a bit later. The bottle looks very unique on my shelf.

This is a lady's perfume. A grown up, adult lady. Iris is the predominate note, quickly followed in 1-2 seconds by lily of the valley. As it dries, it does interesting things which I have yet to sit with and analyze. Sweet (but not in the current style of candied toothaches), delicate, beautiful things. It is translucent, like a good fairy's wings, and quite beautiful. Go sniff some if you can. I'm usually a lover of orientals and big, brash, loud tuberoses, smoky things, an avoider of lily of the valley (a note that always brings my mother to mind. I love her, but haven't want to smell just like her.) But I really like this. Maybe it's the price tag ($280!!!) but it smells and feels like luxury. I think I've been waiting for an iris perfume, and for me, this is it. It's interesting, and it unfolds its notes like a flower unfolding and dropping its petals, which is something I love in a perfume. Recommended.

Another proof that those 1.5ml samples are not good for testing. When I tried it from a sample I wasn’t impressed at all. Fortunately that brand offers 8 ml travel size and I gave it a second chance and I was amazed. Floral perfumes need more air and wider spraying to fully open up. So I personally don’t believe in those small samples. This is one very beautiful and elegant scent. I love how iris and rose are combined in this one. There’s something timeless in this perfume. It’s classical, but not in a vintage way. I think it’s a perfect perfume to gift for a perfume lover who is into delicate nuances. It is difficult to explain, but this perfume brings me tears to my eyes. There’s something really high quality in this one and not in a pretentious overpowering way. The body really reacts on this one. Very nicely balanced. I wish more people would wear perfumes like this.

Nostalgic. Essence Rare is something created out of my dreams. The closest resemblance is when I was a child, and I used to go to religious ceremonies. We would throw an abundance of flower petals at the end, a combination of beautiful flowers of all different grandiose bouquets representing different sentiments, devotion, romance, maternal love, congratulations, sorrow, regret, and gratitude that all combined and surrendered in Oneness. The quality is authentic, infinite, and enduring, this is by far the best floral fragrance in my collection, and the others (excluding maybe Amouage) fall flat by comparison in both dimension and opacity.

This smells exactly like when you enter a florist shop. It is hard or almost impossible to tell the flowers apart. It reminds me of the scent of a certain miniature carnation you can only buy in a pot. Lovely scent, very natural, but it does not project a lot. Longevity is average/above average. It belongs to the best of Ellena in my opinion. A gem for floral lovers! There is no iris or powdery notes in this perfume according to the producer. (My review is for the new one, in the bottle as pictured above. I have never tried the vintage version.)

An unashamedly huge floral bouquet. Much more floral than Quelque Fleurs, which I like also, but this is floral on another level. A flower bomb which hits you as soon as you pull the lid off this beautiful heavy bottle. You can't pick out the individual floral notes; it is so well blended, and so smooth, rich and creamy, without being suffocating. Lasts all day on me with a couple of sprays. Weak and watery it is not! I have Joy by Jean Patou and this is very similar and just as potent. I adore it.

I can’t even remotely compare this fragrance to any other, although the perfume has a classy vibe. It is a very big and romantic floral with prominent jasmine grandiflorum (it has a shady dirty facet) and lily-of-the-valley, rose comes last. A beautiful vanilla base, not gourmand, but sweet, beautiful iris powder, chypre base. I really love it, it has a long, very long and very feminine trail. For a beautiful life.

In short- sugared lily-of-the-valley. Very soft and feminine. I like it. I think this suits best for a spring and a summer.

The Three Graces: the Hermitage version by Antonio Canova ----‐‐-------‐------------ Primavera , Botticelli

A masterpiece for the ultra feminine and elegant woman.

Day 4 of comparing the six miniatures of fragrances in the Collection Privée to see which one would tempt me to buy a full bottle. This one is a soft, sweet mix, where aromas of mandarin and lily of the valley are by far the most prominent features. Good for daytime wear. I don’t find anything particularly distinctive or rare about it. I don’t get much of the bottom notes, and wearing Essence Rare is a bit like walking into a room where there’s a big bowl of clementines. However, it’s a useful fragrance to have if you just want to smell fresh and pleasant without wanting to make the point that you’re wearing perfume. In spite of its “intense” classification, there is no heaviness about it at all. Imagine being in a stately home’s orangery, with big sun-filled windows all around you while you walk amongst the potted orange trees laden with fruit. On days when I’m hosting B&B guests, it occurs to me that this fragrance will be very suitable as guests spread marmalade on their toast while I wander in and out of the room serving their full English breakfasts. It has the advantage of being suitable for any time of year. I will snap up that heavily discounted bottle I just spotted on eBay. It has no box and is one-third of the normal retail price; the seller claims it’s been discontinued, but there’s no word of that on Houbigant’s website where it’s shown as being available. So far, of the four miniatures I have tested, my only contender for purchasing a full bottle at full price is the Jardin Secret variant of Quelques Fleurs, though this one is the runner-up. UPDATE: My bargain-price full bottle secured on eBay arrived today. I am utterly delighted with it. The bottle seems enormous after days of testing tiny miniatures with their fiddly stoppers. The cap is made of glass and the whole thing is altogether very elegant and classy. It also gives off more notes than the miniature version. Would I buy it at full price? Probably not if I could have Jardin Secret instead, which I prefer, and a full bottle of which is definitely on my wish list. In the meantime, this one is very wearable and I feel lucky to have it. In fact, I’m rapidly coming to the conclusion that I need both. Essence Rare will be my go-to morning fragrance on B&B hosting days.

A sultry summer day. A field of white fragrant honey flowers that are impossible to distinguish, even the iris seems white to me here. Bees flying around. Gradually, citrus with some sourness begins to break through. It becomes a little washed out, transparent but this does not spoil it. Good 6 hours of wear.Very similar concept with Dia but more citrusy and longevity is much better.Very Ellena.

Those that say Essence Rare is like Jean Patou Joy or Estee Lauders Pleasures Intense are crazy. Sorry, but I own both and Essence Rare is nothing like either and also it is nowhere near as good as those 2 beauties. Is Essence Rare a "nice" fragrance? Yes, but it is boring. There is little life here is this gentle and extremely tidy perfume. It is like smelling a hypoallergenic lily of the valley soap. This is for the woman who doesn't want to offend anyone with her perfume. It smells like something appropriate for the office but noone is going to notice you or remember you at all. It has all of the "nice, safe" aspects for the 21st century. Slightly sweet, slightly floral, slightly soapy, etc... clean .. dull. I think I will stick with vintage Chantilly from this house. That one had presence. This doesn't. Nice but to nice for me. I will wear the sample but not FB worthy for me. Edit: I can understand why the above reviewer thinks this perfume is chemical smelling. It does have a cheapness that is quite shocking to behold in a Houbigant. I was rather shocked at how underwhelmed I was by this dull fragrance given how it is loved by so many here. But for me it is dull as dishwater. Edit wearing this again a full wearing and I'm still underwhelmed. It's nice but for the price point of this line I expect more. More iris here than rose. I think if there was more rose I might like it more. One of the reviewer/editors here said it was the perfect rose. Not for me. This is a lovely bedtime scent but is to soft for daytime unless you work in a office setting etc...

I really wish Houbigant would add aldehydes to this. It wears too heavy and borders on suffocating. I tried many ways to make it 'float': tried it on the insides of my ankles, on my wrists, behind my ears, etc. But I just couldn't get it to feel anything but weighted down. This isn't the white floral I was looking for.

I wanted to love this - This has a lot of sillage and lasts forever on the skin. Upon spraying I smell a whoosh of lily of the valley and then a spicy, orange, fruity floral. The mandarin is quite noticeable infusing and puffing out the florals. The scent is cheerful. I wasn’t sure I could pick out one type of flower over the others at first - but now I think the lily is the star. It gets a little waxy as it drys down and it seems to fade out but then the spicy/orange shows up and clings to the skin. The late drydown is citrus spice, slightly sour and dry, not sweet.

Houbigant used to be one of my favorite perfume houses years ago. I revisited Essence Rare today, ( as well as Quelques fleurs , which I liked even less for similar reasons) and found it to be way too aromatic for me ( maybe the lily of the valley) I think this gives it a vintage vibe, and really dates the perfume. I love florals , but as they came out they were suffocating under the aromatic smell as much as I was. Sadly, to me know this perfume smells " old lady". I am an older woman , but don't need a perfume to tell me that. I will be decluttering.

Not for me this one...POWERFULLY floral. It really does smell like armfuls of fresh flowers but far to cloying for me. I didn't find it at all powdery and the middle was pure soap. Lasted for aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaages though.

My friend's mother wore the vintage, which was heavenly. She was a big hearted woman who was easy to laugh and be around, who wrapped you in a bear hug whenever she saw you. Oh, how I love those hugs as a kid, not just for the comforting effect, but because I could smell this beautiful scent up close. And oh, how I wish I had that fragrance now. So hard to come by today, which is amazing when you consider that the original eventually wound up in drugstores across the US. While this version is not the same as the original, it is still a lovely floral fragrance created by master perfumer, Jean-Claude Elena. He's created some classic masterpieces some decades ago, that are still top sellers today. While this rates right up there at the very pinnacle of his perfume achievements, it is nonetheless not the least of them. I hope he continues to make many more.

A new reformulation just came out around 2 weeks ago and it absolutely butchered this perfume. It used to be a creamy powdery almost pastry-like bouquet. And now its the most generic rose you can possibly think of. The complexity? Gone. The uniqueness? Lmao. Poof. Gone. Just another iteration of the generic designer rose perfume, and its not even designer. I get it, you gotta do what sells but I'd like to see how they compete with an offering that smells like everything else we've seen before. Whatever keeps them afloat i guess. Dont wanna see them go but how i wish theyd come up with something actually interesting

This is a very nice scent. This opens like a flower shop, dewy roses and lilies everywhere but the rose becomes more prominent with the pass of time. The drydown is powdery and super feminine. It smells like real flowers. Real big dewy roses. I see some people associate this to vintage perfumes. I don't see anything wrong with that. Some of the most beautiful scents were created many, many years ago...like Shalimar and so many others. This scent would be a great wedding perfume, for a feminine and ultra romantic bride.