Essence No. 1 : Rose
Elie Saab (2014)

A rich and sweet rose blossom greets me, a medium-dark mix of the Bulgarian and the Damascene varieties, with an undertone of candy; the whole has a nigh liqueur-like character at times.

The drydown sheds a bit of the candy,but some f it remains present, and the whole becomes very smooth, and develops a tad of a powdery characteristic. The roses remain not only firmly dominant, but do not yield any territory any any other notes, floral or other.

I get moderate sillage, excellent projection, and seven hours of longevity on my skin.

A good spring scent that is all about roses. I am not sire whether a composition of various roses can me correctly labelled a soliflore, but this is a "soli-rose" made from several different varieties of rose notes of a good quality. Overall 3.25/5

It has the most delicious edible opening - a sweet syrupy rose. Sadly this only lasts a few minutes and it then settles down into a quiet powdered rose skin scent with only a hint of the sweetness remaining, and there are few changes after that. Why why why can't the opening last longer?

First test - smells like Tocade.

Second test - Ok, Tocade has been ruined. But this is on par with pre-reformulation Tocade.

Third test - I think I like this better than Tocade. In the same way that Kenzo Flower took Bain de Caron's original formulation and made it up-to-date, Elie Saab has taken a great scent and reconstructed it with better ingredients and a more angular structure. Tocade always smelled cheap to me, even though it smelled good. No.1 Rose smells lush and, frankly, better.