Roses et Reines

Finding the perfect rose perfume is like looking for Mr. Perfect. It doesn't exist. So you have to settle for something that's decent and good enough. As an entertainer I love to receive rose bouquets. My mother has a garden with pink and red roses and I have been around roses all my life. Rose Absolute attar, rose water, and rose oil are the closet you can get as far as realistic rose scents. Most fragrances that have a note or more of roses are chemically formulated and only imitate what a rose is supposed to smell like. Rose is such a common domestic scent as well so that you find it everywhere: in hand soap, in body lotion, in body creams, powder, bath soap, scented bath water and shampoo and conditioner. Roses Et Reines from L'Occitane is nothing like a real rose. But it's very nice. It's a light rose scent and it doesn't last more than 2 hours at least for me. I have been reading the reviews for this fragrance and it seems to be the case with everyone else. It's an eau de toilette so it's very watered down. It's not rose water either so it's a light fresh fruity rose perfect for putting on after a shower and to spritz on when you can't find anything else to wear and don't have time to put much thought into your perfume. The bergamot orange is very noticeable at first. It's fresh and slightly sharp. Then you get the roses in this perfume that make it into a soft bouquet of pink Bulgarian Rose, white Grasse Rose from Grasse France, a Turkish rose and Moroccan rose. Someone said add a raspberry and it worked. It could have been a strawberry and would have still done the trick. It's fruity and very sweet, like a rose you can actually eat. The dry down for me is the best part. It has heliotrope which I love. There is White Musk and white cedar but they're not big players. They help with the clean soft dry down. I love it. The price is rather high for something this light but I mostly gravitate toward light soft scents anyways. If you're a rose lover try this one. It's beautiful, inoffensive, I can wear this anywhere any time.

Ah, finally, I got to wear a rose fragrance I really love, being a longtime avoider of roses. I would roll myself in it day and night all spring long, if I could! No one seems to share my enthousiasm for it, though, judged merely as a "very nice" and "springtime" fragrance (until I say it's rose and I get the inevitable "Yeah, I hate roses"). Arlesienne seems to get much more sympathies and is slowly cementing its place in my heart. R&R, on the other hand, is too basic, but I feel it's where its charm lies. Give me R&R any day! Roses et Reines is, for the most part, a simple, fresh and straightforward rose scent, verging on the powdery/soapy towards the base notes. The opening is slightly fruity and sour (the red fruit, I suppose). I love the fact that it somehow misses the oh-so-often-done citrus opening. Then the fragrance undergoes an internal evolution of the rose note, starting with Bulgarian rose and then morphing into more powdery and warm, or fruity and fresh tints of rose. It is a subtle transition, albeit one which makes this simple, rather linear fragrance interesting. Comparing it to the Rose 4 Reines, I find them almost identical, with Roses et Reines being a bit more fruity, where R4R is more powdery. With me the lasting power is just as consistent, without added sweetness. I have been using a mini (7.5 mililitres, I think) for a month now and I haven't reached the middle of the bottle yet. So, I am not going to mourn the previous release and just enjoy this one until it lasts, and then get a full bottle, perhaps. Pitty for those who find Roses and Reines lackluster, I hope you find a replacement. Next stop: Neroli&Orchidee.

I used the solid perfume version of Roses et Reines, but since I couldn't find it (and it's the same scent), here is my review: As the name suggests, rose scents are dominant in this perfume, but bergamot is also evident, and it has a clean and fresh scent. Not a faint, heavy or sugary scent of roses, but rather fresh roses. Not a rose-scented Turkish delight, but a rose garden :D I guess there is no solid perfume version anymore (and the spray version may be changed/discontinued), but if you can find the solid one, here are my impressions of it: I think sillage is good because I thought the people around me didn't smell my perfume at all (since I can't smell it from myself), but I got compliments from more than one person, and they were surprised when I said "I thought the smell of my perfume didn't spread".

Clean and slightly green rose scent. It’s unmistakably rose but pleasantly interrupted with enough citrus note and tart fruitiness to not feel like a rose only scent. To me it smells fresh and feminine. I find it to be pretty linear and it’s just nice from start to finish. It’s light with very low projection yet I’ve found the longevity pretty good on my skin. One of my favourite rose scents because it isn’t heavy, headache inducing or cloying. I love ‘soapy’ fragrances, and while this isn’t classically soapy to me it has that quality to it. Smells a bit like you’ve stepped out of the shower, squeaky clean after using a nice, expensive fruity and rose scented body wash.

Gorgeous light rose perfume that is refreshing and juicy. The roses sparkle and have no powdery elements. I bought this in a Christmas gift pack that also included soap, hand cream, body lotion and shower gel. Works brilliantly when layered but on its own the longevity isn't great, though it's a generous size at a good price point. This is a soft, young rose fragrance that can be worn at all ages. Beautifully refreshing on a warm day.