Description
Launched as a salute to Mona di Orio’s life and work as a perfumer, Rose Étoile de Hollande is the culmination of Mona’s study of a special rose that climbed the walls of Maison Sainte Blanche in Cabris, France. And like her other layered and yet legible perfumes, Rose Étoile de Hollande is no ordinary rose: powdery and spicy, with a round, lush white peach note lifted by aldehydes, and sprinkled with clove.
Heart notes of warm cedar, earthy patchouli and a sly leather note adds to the scintillating heart while a hint of powdery heliotrope conspire to create an innocent, yet joyously carnal scent.
This perfume manages to evoke a rose at once regal, joyous and sensual, its progression from top notes to base notes gathering depth and beauty as it progresses.
Rose Etoile de Hollande was launched in 2012.
kara3337 – :
Wow. Sort of shocking at the onset. I got a very unhappy scent of burning plastic at first. Like a plastic purse burning and melting with dried roses inside. Then a medicinal smell, like an apothecary store of imported folk remedies. Maybe 2 hours later it dried down to a spicy powder that reminded me of Opium with a hint of roses and vanilla. Very different, not for me, but interesting. Could be worn by any gender.
Alexey_kuzin130388 – :
Rose Etoile smells like a candy necklace.
I guess the candy necklaces of my childhood were rose and peach flavored? Or maybe it’s a combination of other notes… The effect is so complete that I can’t make out what’s causing it.
Worth trying for those who like unusual scents.
guedenpou42 – :
I got it as a sample from one of the swappers. I don’t know why but it seems that samples do not give the full impression even though they are designed to do so. Heavy floral on me, nothing I would purchase. i understand that it is expensive, uses quality ingredients, etc, etc but it is too Elizabeth Arden or Elizabeth Taylor for me. Too bad, I guess.
gedrh – :
OH WOW… PEACH… that’s why i love it. Not a fan of roses but this combination is quite amusing:
Rose, PEACH, peach, rose, peach, rose, lime, and more peach. Also there are heliotrope, geranium, and some balsamic notes with some patchouli.
Now it is still on the top stages so i wish peach remains there and the roses doesn’t raise more than this level! but wait a minute…. i smell litchi as well in the dry down! which is good as well.
тося – :
MdO has pulled off something uniquely elegant and beguiling with ROSE; a scent worthy of its namesake.
ROSE opens sparklingly with effervescent aldehydes, overripe peach, bergamot, geranium and abundant heliotrope backed by the faintest hint of the rose; overall it’s a potent and syrupy combination. With time these top notes yield to rose, as you would expect, and the rose here is better than most. The gradual dry down matures with woody depth, resinous & endlessly powdery amber and hints of spicy oud with vanilla.
By pairing exceptional quality rose with a relatively green open and mature dry down, MdO has created a rather unique rose scent in ROSE; this is rich and elegant, if femininely so.
ROSE is a parfum of tremendous quality ingredients. Potent from the opening it mellows with moderate sillage and good longevity.
7/10
1osa11 – :
Peach, candy, a little rose and then powder, powder, powder, alleviated by a certain clean complexity (possibly the leather).
If you like powder, this is for you.
It’s a surprisingly elegant perfume despite it’s rather juvenile scent profile, and it is pretty much ageless because of that.
I can see this being someone’s signature perfume – and that someone being instantly recognizable because of it.
But that someone is not me!
akokolak – :
Lovely ripe peach and rose petals – it’s not what I expected when I first put it on, but I love something that challenges me to see it in a new light. If I didn’t focus on it being rose, I could experience it differently – it’s like a refreshing rose cocktail. It fizzes and sparkles a bit from the aldehydes and bergamot. There is a cool green undertone like mint just slightly underneath the rose and a rich peach that makes my mouth water. I don’t understand all the negative reviews, as I found this to be such a lovely fragrance for Spring.
master258056 – :
This opened for me with a syrupy rose, beautifully. Very little of the preachiness some people are smelling. Take each review with knowing it is different for everyone. I great rose for rose lovers, but at the price not a safe blind buy. I purchased a 4ml official sample at a decent price and will use it all up
shuravi1964 – :
This opens with a sharp,screechy,aldehydic, alcoholic blast of air,reminiscent of a wild hurricane. I actually recoiled from my own wrist as the smell overwhelmed me.
To be fair this settles down very quickly as the aldehydes and booze seem to evaporate and it leaves you wondering where the scent went. I swear I can’t smell anything in the heart of this perfume, but eventually it comes into it’s own in the drydown which I feel, is what this perfume is all about.
I don’t get a peach note but I do get rose which seems to appear in a bouquet of other florals which I can’t identify.
If there is leather in this perfume then it is very minimal as is the patch and vanilla.
Dominating is heliotrope and ceder and if I concentrate hard, I can smell the amber very faintly. I also get a burning,woody type of smell which is very apparent to me.
Ok so enough about the notes, what do I think? Well once the top notes and heart have settled down and started behaving themselves, I really liked this perfume. It’s quiet, shy, gentle and feminine. It whispers to you rather than yells at the top of its voice.
As I brushed past my hubby, he sniffed the air and said, ‘mmmm you smell lovely’. That’s a huge complement from him as he rarely mentions my perfumes.
The drydown is everything that the top notes are not.
This perfume takes you on a journey which is both surprising and interesting.
Longevity is very average which is disappointing and as I mentioned earlier, silage stays close to the skin.
Nuflareepseus – :
I really wanted to like this but just couldn’t.
It’s such a bizarre experience for me.
I can sense a sweet peachy candiedness that tries to emerge but never makes it because it’s drowned out by an acetone-like aroma.
I am a HUGE rose fan and ordered a decant but 1 year later it still smells like nothing more than a fragranced nail polish remover.
FriendElijah – :
I am a rose addict, and I smell no rose! I smell no peach! No sweets, just heliotrope! Not a rose fragrance akin to Creed Fleurs de The Rose Bulgari nor Montale Deep Roses.
Sergey_Z – :
Ok I’m only about five minutes in,here…so ill likely return with a more informed review but I really just have to ask….did *anyone * else get a good quality blush wine, like right out of the bottle. Seriously, from the initial unstopping I felt like I was uncorking a crisp but juicy blush, the sort if wine with rosehips and white peach in the bouquet.after that first double -take -worthy waft, it seems the powder and sugared-petal components are making themselves known, but that winey opening actually made my mouth water! Never experienced that in a frag before …anyone else? Or just me?
lucifer25bkru – :
There are so many rose centered perfumes out there, done in vastly different ways. I thought I had enough rose scents in my wardrobe until I met Mona’s rose. For me, this starts off as a sparkling aldehyde/rose, which settles and becomes more powdery and fuzzy like the skin on a peach. I get the brightness of the bergamot and the faint smell of woods, but the leather and the patchouli are subdued in this for me. It’s nowhere as powdery as Paris by YSL but it’s not a transparent rose like Caron’s Delire de Roses. If Diptyque’s Eau Rose were a young innocent rose and Malle’s Portrait of a Lady were a dark gothic rose, this would be their wise, grounded sister with a melancholic air not unlike Mitsouko. Sillage is good, stays within one’s personal space and longevity about six to eight hours.
TimashevDima – :
A deep, juicy, blood-red rose. So beautiful. The sweetness is minimal on me; my skin seems to emphasize a certain tartness here, something edgy yet refined, like a lovely red wine. There is a very slight smokiness as well, with the leather accord giving it a modern, almost wicked edge. Longevity is decent, with a soft, yet quite noticeable, sillage. This is a rose that truly rocks.
FriendErin – :
Rose Etoile de Hollande is fabulous and so beautiful! Juicy white peach, rose, clove, benzoin and heliotrope dance together and create a captivating number. The rose in this fragrance is no diva; she shares the stage with the accompanying notes and the result is a lively ensemble. Feminine, soft and lovely. Highly unique. I’ve been putting off reviewing this gem along several other fragrances from Mona’s fabulous line because they are hard to describe; they must be experienced.
This fragrance hardly gets any press but it’s one of Mona’s best in my opinion. Rose Etoile de Hollande starts off strong and deceitful, like most of Mona’s fragrances do. I get an initial blast of strong rosewater; it’s almost astringent like in the opening. After a while the astringent smell disappears and clove, aldehydes and heliotrope mellow out the composition enhancing its uncommon beauty. The result is a vibrant peach rose fragrance. Lipstick glamour at its finest. If this fragrance were a color it would be a mixture of pink and red. It’s mood is happy. Delicate yet deep at the same time. Ms. Mona you are missed!
fsa – :
This actually reminds me very much of one of my perfume loves – ELDO’s Vraie Blond. Rose Etoille de Hollande though is much better rounded and quality wise is far better (we do have to remember that the price tag is also much bigger than for Vraie Blond).
As some have mentioned – this has little to do with rose, though it is with no doubt there, just perfectly blended in peach-heliotrope-leather trio. The same trio for me with no doubt dominates the scent, making this as a cozy blanket, very powdery and very feminine.
There is something strange creeping around in the dry down I cannot put my finger on, but this “something” is clearly the reason for me why this is only a “like”, not “love”, though opening and heart was very promising.
If you love smooth powdery-suede like fragrances you surely will want to give this a try. It retails for 160 EUR for 100 ml and the quality and how the notes are blended together is clearly the reason why this costs so much. Worth it.
michodoArrodo – :
What a complex creation! Mona di Orio ROSE ETOILE DE HOLLANDE from the collection Les Nombres d’Or is probably misnamed, but nonetheless praiseworthy.
The perfume opens wafting a bit of aldehydes and waxy rose and so immediately evokes memories of Guerlain CHAMADE. Shortly thereafter, however, the composition commences on a rather labyrinthine journey through leather, amber, balsam, and a variety of other blended notes which pretty much shroud the rose in darkness. Upon emerging from the dark mid-stage of this perfume, I find the drydown to offer for the most part a very pleasant-smelling fuzzy peach–not the juicy inside flesh, but the outer skin. It’s a dark fruity-chypre peach, similar to the one in Guerlain MITSOUKO, against all expectations.
No one can say that ROSE ETOILE DE HOLLANDE is boring–at least not if they pay close attention to its wildly unpredictable development trajectory–but I’m sure that, because of the name, lots of people have been disappointed by the only minor role played by rose. I recommend this perfume to anyone who likes the original MITSOUKO. Although the peach note is probably closer to that of Annick Goutal PETITE CHERIE, all of the dark back-up notes conspire to create to my nose a pleasing fruity-chypre effect.
This is an excellent perfume, and having tested a few members of Les Nombres d’Or (though this is my first review of any of them), I definitely see why so many people love Mona di Orio. I had never tried any of her perfumes when I read the cruel and excoriating dismissal of this woman’s entire oeuvre in The Holey[sic] Book. Once again, Turin was wrong, in addition to being incredibly rude.
May Mona di Orio rest in peace in the knowledge that many people appreciated her efforts and creativity very much.
usepkeesype – :
An initial sweet, candied rose that bows out after a couple of minutes to strong, soapy aldehydes for at least an hour. Then, the aldehydes fade and peach steps in with a tickle of geranium with a shy rose in the background followed by gentle clove. The drydown is incredibly soft and very, very close to the skin. I find Mona’s perfumes to be so incredibly subtle and well-blended after the first hour or two and they linger on and on…
This is a thoughtful rose.
utsipogzwkd – :
Rose Etoile de Hollande is as awesome as Mona could be, as elegant as her Forties tailleurs, as deep as her deep dark yes… Of course there’s a lot of sadness related to this being her latest, unseen child. I find this powdery, peachy velvety rose to be stunning and everchanging, to arise new sensations every time I wear it.
The peach makes it so different from other rose fragrances, and its happy, spring-y face reminds me of Chinatown, of the way it adds an exotic and fresh twist to all those spices.
Also, there’s a subtle smoky undertone in it, it may derive from the leather/amber combo, which makes it so deep, but never dark.
I love it.
olenj – :
This is a beautiful rose,playful yet deep,I find it very moving that after losing Mona di Orio tragically the previous year,here we find a perfume with a smile and a quiet strength-I adore Vanille and Oud,this one is less demanding and more of an everyday perfume,and as such I treasure it immensely and cannot believe it did not show up in any of the bloggers’ best of 2012 lists!
brz567InsuffBooni – :
Because I’m familiar with this line, I decided to wear my sample three times before reviewing. All of Mona’s scents take awhile to wrap my head around, and first impressions are never final.
As to be expected, this reminds me of Guerlain: the heliotrope calls up L’Heure Bleue and the soft, dry fruity vibe Guet Apens. There is also a very lovely geranium note that amplifies with warmth, making this really special.
What took awhile was the aldehydes. I didn’t notice it much on first sampling, but now I do. The fragrance also sweetens up, and I suspect that long term fans will already have a lot of fruity florals on their counter.
In sum, this is one of my favorites from this line. It is a very wearable, pretty, charming rose. I don’t see how this would offend anyone, and I would wear it anywhere, work or play. Gorgeous.
WedaLeloabWen – :
An aldehydish rose on me. But that’s inside. Outside the rose shakes off some of her aldehydes and gets more, um, alive, with roots and leaves and a drop of sunlight filtering into the flower through the petals.
milo4ka_4ka – :
This is THE softest scent I own. Not one single sharp note in this one, it’s so incredibly soft and billowy! A peachy, candy-like (fruit toffee?) rose with some heliotrope. That’s what I get on my skin. Beautiful!
I think that this one is perfect for teenagers, it would be the perfect gift to someone who’s graduating or something like that, when you want to spend a little extra on a gift for that loved one, you know.
The teenage aspect doesn’t make it immature in any way, it is very sweet and lovely which makes it wearable for anyone who wants sweet and lovely. No age restriction at all, everyone will smell divine wearing this!
Arthur7777 – :
Fabulous powdered rose with masculine aldehydic threads – intensive, but not overwhelming! Something I’d like to have! Pitty Mona won’t see its success…