Rose 4 Reines

Tried this last week, at my recent pilgrimage to the flagship L'Occitane shop in my country. The store in the city closer to me doesn't carry their entire fragrance range, so once in a blue moon, when my list of fragrances that I want to try grows long enough (courtesy of Fragrantica..), I venture further afield. Took me a while to locate this scent as it has been re-bottled and rebranded as part of the Classique collection and there are so many iterations of rose fragrances at L'Occitane! Anyway, I did like this fragrance. I love how L'Occitane combines wood and rose and this is a beautiful, warm, full bodied and slightly spicy rose. I feel that most of the brand's rose scents are very well-balanced and this one was no exception. This scent however is quite soapy to my nose, so you do have to be OK with that. Longevity was average. Lasted a good while on my skin after it stopped projecting.

I am layering this up with 4610 Tuesdays' 'Le Jardin de Monsieur McGregor' to enhance the rose garden aspect of that one, and it is a real mood-lifter in these dank winter days. I tried 'Rose 4 Reines' on my husband and he loved it - says it is like smelling a fresh rose flower and that he will be sniffing his wrist all morning to continue enjoying it. Said husband is a big beardy bloke who does not immediately strike one as a potential fan of delicate rose and berry fragrances. And there ladies and gentlemen is further evidence that gendering perfumes doesn't really work.