Reviews of Ombre Rose L'Original (1981)
by Jean-Charles Brosseau

My mom always said I was not supposed to wear perfume as a kid, the more forbidden, the more appealing and seductive it becomes. In 1994, at the age of 14, I found that bottle unbelieveably beautiful and very Art-Deco, and the scent was soft fruity powdery rosey and there's nothing I'd dislike about it, nothing I would disagree with it. So I bought it from a drug store, cheap for its quality. That's my first perfume. It's my comfort scent in the cold cold Canadian winter nights, my guilty pleasure.

Few years ago I saw the EDP in black bottles in Japan, unfortunately I was in transit and didn't have time to have a sniff of it.

I wore this back in the 90's and liked it when it dried down because it was a soft powder. At first, it is strong and quite floral, but it dried down nicely. It's a pretty and feminine scent.

Calchic has put it beautifully, above.
I agree that Ombre Rose has much which is characteristic with Gueurlain's style and It could be mistaken for one of theirs.
This is a magical scent and now and again I can get a sort of Mitsouko touch with the opening peach with the aldehydes.
She may be like some others which many of us love, but for me she still stands alone and distinct, not very much spoken of sadly, as she deserves plenty of acclaim. The bottle is perfect for the wonder fragrance contained within.

Beautiful stuff. I'm a guy, and I'd wear it (if only I could get my sister away from her bottle long enough...)!

It may suprise you to learn that I am straight too!

This is great stuff, powdery, soft, romantic, just unisex enough for a thoughtful, kind and sweet young man like myself to pull it off!

I know a lot of people think it smells like baby poweder, but they are wrong! It just has a baby powder element to it!

I find it smooth, elegent, sophisitcated, romantic and solid, not nearly a baby powderish as some people say it is!

Notes: vanilla, tonka, honey, peach, moss, sandalwood, cedar, spices and musk.

MMMM'mmmm!

I am a lover of rose scents, but I am starting to realize that not all rose scents actually smell like roses. "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet ...." ...well, not necessarily to me. I kind of liked this when it first came out, and then every time I smelled it, it screamed "old lady." This is the most powdery scent I have ever encountered ... not only takes powdery over the fence, but running through infinity ad nauseum. Like a blast of air upon opening the door to a gift shoppe...a potpourri scent I hope I never encounter again.

This used to be very, very pricey. When I finally got a bottle in the 80's I used it sparingly and felt that I smelled "expensive." Ombre Rose is a beautiful rose perfume that evokes powdery aldehydic classics, but its floral and fruity notes are very rich. On me, Ombre Rose is strikingly similar to Mariella Burani Mariella Burani, and it smells exactly like the original Lutèce by Houbigant. (The reformulated Lutèce is a disaster).

Ombre Rose's Art-Deco bottle is absolutely beautiful. This fragrance provides an elegant sniff of nostalgia for me.

Light yet distinctive; powdery yet not "talc-y"; inexpensive but not cheap.

Great bottle, too!

A rose scent for those who don't want to smell like Tea Rose/funeral homes for DAYS.

Ombre Rose is my favorite everyday rose. I know some people consider it a special occasion perfume but for me it has much more versitility. I agree with CALCHIC, that it shares similarities with Guerlain Nahema. I will add only that on me the Ombre rose has an oily sheen quality to the scent, a rich and almost buttery rose. It is especially stunning in hot weather which brings that sexy oily quality out. Ironically, it is a comfort scent for me as well. Very affordable, too.

Absolutely my favorite Rose fragrance.Luminous, elegant, fresh, powdery, tender and sensual.Perfect in every occasion!

A sultry, envelopingly honeylike rose in the manner of my all-time favorite fragrance, Guerlain Nahema. Happily, Ombre Rose is just different enough from Nahema to warrant its own special spot in my collection. Both fragrances open with peach and aldehydes but where Nahema is also green with hyacinth and bergamot, Ombre Rose features the spicy thrum of geranium. The heart and base of both scents are very similar but where Nahema deepens into a rosey, florally, fruit honey with traces of spice and a foundation of soft balsams, Ombre Rose veers just a bit more toward the powdery end of the spectrum with its notes of iris, tonka and heliotrope. It's funny, because tonka is so synonymous with so many of the classic Guerlains and forms the basis, along with vanilla (which Ombre also has) of the famouds Guerlinade- the Ombre Rose is in some ways more classically Guerlain-esque than the Nahema, which also has tonka in its base but not as markedly so. Anyway, there's more than enough room in my heart for both, and besides, the delicately divine bottle design of Ombre Rose is reason enough to keep it in my lineup.