Reviews of Sa Majesté la Rose (2000)
by Serge Lutens Les Salons du Palais Royal Shiseido

Wow, I'm pretty much floored. I've smelled rose scents before but seldom one with as much depth and complexity as this -richly regal, green and alive, dewy and fresh. Sa Majesté la Rose smells incredibly potent, like a luxury rose scent only the rich can afford. Truly a rose fit for a queen.

I adore this fragrence. It is a lovely rose perfume that is a true rose scent while maintaining some complexity and sophistication. The dry down is soft and classically feminine.

A dirty green rose scent that, as always, is composed to Serge Lutens’ usual high standards. Initially, I came to the conclusion that it was too green and dark for my tastes. However, my patience was rewarded in the drydown when the scent developed into a true rose scent that smells very much fresh and alive.

I’m still on the fence, regarding whether or not it’s something I care to own, but it’s a scent I definitely admire.

[Original submission date: 10 April 2008]

Rose! Pure cut flowers and petals, fresh, floral, wet. As lifelike to rose as i believe a fragrance can get, including the rose stems as well. As another basenoter accurately mentioned, its almost dewey and watery. It's one the most natural and fresh scents that I have come across. That is how it smells on myself anyway. On my girlfriend it smells sweeter, and slightly synthetic, and she doesn't like it all, and i'm not that fond of it on her either. But on myself it works completely differently; it's maginificent and utterly refined. Excellent longevity as well, standard to most Lutens fragrances. The only problem is do i personally want to smell like roses....

What is the matter with me? For 30 years I have grown Bourbon, Damask, and other roses in parfumerie and, from all the glowing reviews; I should love Sa Majesté la Rose. I immensely dislike it. I also enjoy dirty and animalic scents as well, and yet I still dislike it. And why is this? There is something that ruins the creation for me. Amidst the lovely rose petals and leaves, geranium, clove and the animalic notes, all classically combined, a cloying and almost gagging lychee/canned evaporated milk note comes and spoils the party.

This is the first Serge Lutens that is a scrubber for me.

A drop dead gorgeous soapy lemony rose of fuschia and red, young, pretty and sexy. The Lolita of roses.

Well... I was given a sample of Sa Majeste t'other day. After more than 20 years (yes!) I've just used up my 55ml spray bottle of Shiseido Rosarium EdP (y'all know the connection), which I'd kept always stored away from sunlight in a cool cupboard. Amazing longevity. The bottle is still resplendent with the fragrance: very powerful, almost overwhelming-green top notes and then the lush, rain-drenched red rose (tea and bourbon roses melded, to my mind) slowly settling into a spicy-rose dry-down. Lovely, when I'm in the mood for smelling sensually rosy. Long story short, Sa Maj is pretty much Rosarium, perhaps not as fabulously diverse or intense in its notes, but recognisably the same. I'd love another bottle of Rosarium though - it seems better. Perhaps I'm just being scentimental. After all, a fragrance that's been in your life that long is like favorite poetry or music, a kind of counterpoint and/or commentary on both the spirit and the body of your existence.

I tried this one about a year ago,and at first found it verry old laddyish but after wearing this for an hour after the first sharp blast of rose has setled down ifound myself sniffing my wrist over and over again.So there i was the next day in the smame store buying my first bottle of Serge Lutens fragrance not nowing how addictif they become!!So now i'm the proud owner of a whole range of Serge and a new one on the way(Serge Noir)But this one will always be my one to go to comfort scent together with Tam Dao and Le Feminite du Bois.I love the true rose i smell in this one and the gaiac wood base is divine it keeps lingering for hours and hours sometimes till the next day.I'm in love and plan to stay that way,will always own a bottle of this

Don't spray this in an enclosed space! You get a huge blast of rose, a hint of green tea, and so much citronella that you could stand on the patio and ward off insects. It does fade eventually and develops a gentler, more soapy feeling with a hint of gents' toilet (pine disinfectant and pee), but still fairly strong and cheap, as if you've been brushing up against the merchandise in Lush.

Two in one here. Sa Majeste is the best rose scent I have ever smelt. The combination with the gaiac wood works magically. Fleurs D'Oranger is also the best orange blossom fragrance I have ever experienced, the mixing of the white jasmin is the key here. Unfortunately, I could never wear either as they both too feminine imo. Both scents are wonderful creations and pure works of art.

I have always been naturally attracted to the scent of a rose (in nature and in fragrances). Due to smelling so many different rose scents, I discovered how different rose scents can be. I guess you could say, ‘A rose is not just a rose.’

Sa Majeste la Rose is one of the few rose fragrances that manages to achieve an olfactory sensation of wetness (or dew resting on rose petals) when I smell it. What does ‘wet’ smell like, you may be asking? Well, that’s a hard question to answer.

The first spray recreates quite realistically the smell of a refrigerated walk-in cooler in a florist shop. Metal door (rivulets of water dripping down its side), cold concrete floor, and water filled buckets filled with roses. In contrast, there is NO garden of roses as strong as the top notes of SMLR. This sharp, almost tangy top note is neither demure nor dainty – it’s rather heavy. This Moroccan rose absolute top notes is slightly fruity and as it rests on my skin the scent takes on a much more natural on-the-vine rose scent. I love this part of the scent – because it reminds me of smelling a fresh rose, by sticking my entire nose inside the petals of a rose and inhaling.

I have never been a gardener, but I naturally always appreciated the scent of a rose garden, or a vase full of fresh, cut roses. Tons of products that are ‘rose scented’ are marketed to primarily women here in the U.S. It’s no coincidence then, that smelling a product scented with rose conjures up not only memories of flowers I’ve smelled, but something altogether feminine. It was with this preconceived notion of what rose should smell like (and who should wear it) that I began to really appreciate SMLR.

I must admit, there is the smallest hint of powder in the base notes, but not enough to bother me (a powdery scent hater). I smell more honey in the base notes, rather than the top notes (rare for a SL scent) and it’s a gentle touch of honey that doesn’t disrupt the rose notes at all.

The longevity of SMLR is fantastic. At the end of the night, I can still smell small whiffs of it on my skin, from a morning application.

It is said that SMLR is one of Serge Lutens personal favorite scents (along with Ambre Sultan and Clair de Musc) from the export line. This does not surprise me at all.

It layers beautifully with any Aoud Rose by Montale, i think the sourness and green leafy notes from Sa Majesté la Rose accentutes aoud. On its own, It's a bunch of dewy fresh spicily sweet roses on stems with leaves, they are not red roses, they are white, yellow, pale pink and green. Great sillage and longevity on skin, reminds me of the Diptyque L'Ombre dans L'Eau but not as sharp with the green opening. A beauty!

Rose-centered perfumes are usually not my cup of tea. While I appreciate the smell of a rose while it's still on the bush, I don't find the smell seductive and I have no desire to smell like one. If you asked me before I sampled Sa Majeste la Rose I would have said that you had to put a gun to my head to get me to try on any scent with "Rose" in its name. However, when it comes to any scent by Serge Lutens I always keep an open mind. My thoughts on this one: A heck of a lot of rose in the beginning, but several minutes later the honey and clove emerge, bringing a creamy spicyness that balances the bitterness of the rose and I found myself smelling my wrist over and over again as the evening wore on. This isn't your grandmother's rose perfume. This is odd to the point of being both baffling and beguiling. I wouldn't say that this one is bottle worthy for me, but if someone passed me on the street wearing this, I would stop them and ask them what they're wearing.

Sa Majeste' la Rose! This is by far the biggest boldest rose fragrance ever created, but that's just Lutens' for you! Vibert's commentary is extremely accurate. This scent has a very regal aire to it, and suprisingly unisex as well! Simply magnificent!

I get nothing animalic here -- just pure rose, artfully blended and perfectly balanced. For the price difference, I'd go for the much cheaper Tea Rose, true, but both are too femme for my tastes for everyday wear anyway. (Around the house? Another matter altogether.)

Not my favorite rose frag, no -- that would belong to the original Ungaro III, or perhaps Voleur des Roses. But it's still a damn fine rose scent. Whether or not it's worth the Lutens price tag? I'll leave that one to your discretion.

At first this seemed like a good rose fragrance--something any rose lover would love, but nothing special. How wrong I was. The base makes all the difference. As it dries down, the musk steps out of hinding, and it is dirty, not as dirty as Ava Luxe Rasa Extreme, but definitely animalic. A teriffic rose scent, long-lasting, with good sillage, warm and organic.

I don't wear florals rose or no rose!So when I was given a free sample of "Its majesty the rose", i was doubtful. But then you dont say no to Serge Lutyens samples. I am now a convert.
This is rose washed by monsoon rains, drenched dark red oldworld roses that lasted for about 18 hours retaining its sweet dark smell. No fruit, no spice just rose and rainwater. Very bold very confident and stupendously beautiful.

Today, I was testing 14 different male fragrances, when the gal at The Perfume House brough this bottle of Sa Majeste La Rose, I smelled it and my first reaction was "this scent resembles a fresh, lively red rose" and when I asked, this can't be a masculine fragrance, the young gal replied, it actually is a unisex fragrance. I told her, I would rather smell this on a chick, as it truly resembles a true alive rose fragrance.

Sa Majesté la Rose is the truest, clearest rendition of the 19th century Bourbon rose that I’ve encountered. (Keiko Mecheri’s Mogador comes close, but overdoes the sugar.) To those who know it, the scent of the Bourbon roses (Mme. Pierre Oger, Louise Odier, and Souvenir de la Malmaison among them,) is unique and unmistakable. It combines the rich, heady, and ever so slightly yeasty fragrance of a damask rose with a tropical fruit or raspberry note, with each component balancing and challenging the other in a complicated olfactory dance. Sheldrake and Lutens have nailed it.

The Bourbon rose accord is evident the instant Sa Majesté la Rose goes on, and it persists in a fairly linear manner that’s unusual for a Serge Lutens product. Don’t for a moment think that I hold this against the scent. The central accord is so bewitching that I’d happily have it go on for hours. There are few distractions along Sa Majesté la Rose’s march toward its floral throne: just some woods and perhaps a touch of vetiver in the base, with a bit of musk emerging in the drydown. All take a distant back seat to the truly majestic rose. Superb sillage and projection, and fine lasting power to boot. All this without a drop of the heavy syrup that bathes most of this house’s offerings.

Sa Majesté la Rose is a tour de force that demonstrates just what Sheldrake and Lutens can do when they lay off of their shared sugar addiction. They’re clearly not making all those sweet, heavy orientals because they can’t do any differently. If these guys put themselves on a diet more often, their line would be more diverse and interesting. Are you listening Serge and Christopher?

At any rate, bravo to the duo on this one! I hope someday they’ll make a few more like it.

Complex enough to be interesting, straightforward enough to be decidedly Rose. Very soothing. The fresh wet rose is balanced by the sweet, warmth of the honey drydown. A real beauty of a scent and a great pleasure to wear.

"Its Majesty the Rose"
Sa Majesté la Rose by Serge Lutens
the only way to appreciate this scent for me would be on a womans neck.
this is an exquisite creation.
product of a genius

I have had a difficult time wearing rose; it seems to wear me most of the time, and to seem too much like a single, literal flower, not evocative of an interesting emotion or scene. Also many rose perfumes are too cool, crisp or patchouli-laden for me, giving them an edge that prevents them from melting into my skin. They smell like a florist shop, when I'd rather evoke a boudoir, or a windswept heath.

This one is different - it yields to the heat of my body and becomes part of my sensual landscape, and I feel this is due to the broadly chosen sweet, herbal, spicy and woody notes that ornament the rose. Notes from Bela's notepad on MUA, with thanks: "white rose, camomile, lichee, geranium, Moroccan rose, gaïac wood, clove, white honey, vanilla." The rich, round sweetness of this rose I can almost taste.

Most rose scents make the mistake of assuming that 'rose' is just one smell, when really there are thousands of roses, and all are different. This scent is the exception, it is like a distillation of one or two old-fashioned Bourbon or damask roses, perhaps Mme Isaac Perreire, or Mme Pierre Oger. It is deeper, subtler and creamier than any rose fragrance I've tried before, but with a soft green freshness lifting it. And it lifts your mood right up. The best SL I've tried, too.

Sa Majeste la Rose is the best rose fragrance I have come across. It’s a ripe and dewy rose fragrance with notes of honey to further soften it. It’s also got a very interesting green nature that makes it smell, quite literally, alive. That would usually be harsh and grating in a rose fragrance, but the honey neutralizes the green nature of the fragrance amazingly well. This can easily be worn by either gender. Highly recommended.