La Rose de Rosine

On my skin, iris is the first one to show up, immediately followed by an explosion of roses lined with ylangylang. Right away, it brings to mind the image of a person lathering rose-scented soap and swishing the bubbles around. It's jammy and rosy and a little sweet and oh-so-feminine. Something woody and faintly resinous shows up as it slowly becomes powdery. Almost as if there is rose sap being tapped from a tree the way rubber tappers tap rubber. The drydown is somewhat similar to several other chypre roses, with the key difference (for me) being that this rose retains its sweetness. I really enjoyed this. La Rose de Rosine is a seemingly old-fashioned red rose, and a fairly realistic one at that, with some sugar thrown in for good measure. The bed of other flowers on which it rests brings out the rose even better, IMHO, whilst the woodiness adds dimension to it. It is at once comforting and gracefully sensual (if that's possible), kind of like a cashmere sweater on a woman who knows how to work it. Longevity and sillage were decent: about 4-5 hours, with the last 3 hours sitting rather close to the skin.

(A review originally posted on MakeupAlley in 2005, I wanted to re-post it here now because I do not use MakeupAlley anymore [but have many fond memories of using it] and I am trying to get back into writing reviews, using old 'work' as inspiration...): My favorite rose ever, period. Evanescent, ethereal, just perfect. A true beauty that deserves to be sampled. A tip because the staying power is somehow medium at times (but give it a try to see how it reacts to you, please): under armpits (!) with non scented deo or so and then on the armpits and inner sleeves of your blouse or shirt. Gives you and others pleasure. Just please seek it out and see what you think for yourself. A true beauty, queen of perfumes. Top notes: Violet, marigold, ylang-ylang, rose. Heart notes: rose, jasmine, iris. Base notes: tonka bean, benzoin resin, Peruvian balsam (musk). [4 exquisite sorts roses: from Bulgaria, Damascus, Turkey, and Greece...all French-ly concentrated and genius scientist mixed!] Mmmmmmmm.

I love all kinds of rose scents, and this Rose de Rosine is among the very best I've ever tried. It's very original; it's pure rose but it's done in a way I've never encountered before. The opening is at the same time very clean, soapy really, and quite sweet, and the effect that unexpected juxtaposition creates is delightful and wonderful, at least to me. Surprising, but in an obvious, elegant, instant-classic kind of way that makes it seem oldfashioned as well, it's so well thought out and well made. The rose is super jammy, but without any hint of fruitiness: it's pure floral richness - but only in terms of how it smells, because it's not a heavy perfume at all, in fact it's kind of airy too; as it dries down, the initial soapy clean aspect is transformed into a light powdery one. Hard to describe, but very lovely. I have many roses in my (decant) collection already, but this is so unique and so great that it's going straight to the top of my wishlist.

This is a very true rose, a Damask rose from paradise-not heavy like a Bulgarian Rose, nor does it have the strange tomato leaf-like scratchiness of tea roses-not soapy, or powdery-very fresh and very true. Despite the presence of jasmine, violet, iris, this smells like nothing but roses to me.It is indeed as light and pretty as Dia Woman by Amouage, but much rosier, of course. The dry-down is a clean warm rosy musky whisper, with a bit of tonka. I love it, but the best rose-centered rose scent I've ever tried is still Roses Musk by Montale.

I've sniffed a lot of fragrances by now, and very few elicited the response I gave La Rose: "Oh. My. God." This is just that lovely. Disclaimer: I drift towards vintage Caron and Guerlain;. I.e., I like true parfum scents, not the synthetic crap that's sold today. La Rose has my attention. My only 'fair warning': tonka bean tends to go sweet on me. If it becomes a deal breaker I'll circle back and update my review. But for now, this is a luscious, full-bodied rose-iris accord that deserves real estate on my perfume shelf.