Angel Garden Of Stars - Rose Angel (2006)
by Thierry Mugler

I find this scent to be a wonderful conglomeration of some of my favorite fragrances - I don't love the rotted fruit and dirty earth of the original angel, so I appreciated the muted tones of this one, the patchouli more of a coromandel type patchouli, dusty and warm. The fruity floral aspect of this scent reminds me of the rose jam accord of Liaisons dangereuse, and there is a wonderful sweet tobacco effect in this similar to my beloved, and discontinued, Escada Collection. All together, this adds up to a wonderful, shimmering scent that I love for the first few hours - the only downside is that this scent eventually dries down into the original Angel finish, leaving a clingy patchouli base after a few hours that lasts, and lasts, and... lasts. It just will not die. Which for most people is good, but for me is a little much.

I don't wear Angel but I love roses & violets so I had to try these. I put Rose on one wrist & Violet on the other.. Rose was a jumble of smells, not meshing well! it smelled funky & fake. Violet started off great, thought it was a keeper with its deep purple & soft choc...after they melted in tho everything changed! Now Rose was lucious & yummy, a perfect balnce of sweet, fresh rose & choc, nice & smooth; and Violet was the stinky jumble! Rose is a keeper, but one I have to be patient with.

It's been many years since I've worn original Angel, so it's hard for me to compare La Rose with its inspiration. I can definitely say that La Rose is unmistakably Angel, and that I utterly love it. The difference I notice in La Rose vs. Original is that upon initial spray, and for the first hour or so of wear, there is a noticeable rosy warmth amongst the familiar Angel accord. As the fragrance develops, La Rose does not have a certain "melon" note that always turned unpleasant on my skin. Also, La Rose seems to be much lighter on the patchouli as well. I may be inaccurate about the melon and patchouli, because, as I stated previously, it's been years since I've worn Angel. I may understand it in a different way at this time. (Actually, I love Angel and I think it's one of the most superb perfumes ever formulated - I didn't like it on myself). I've always wanted to be able to wear Angel, but I felt it didn't work well on my skin. Well, La Rose Angel works like it was created for me! It's just gorgeous.

On me, Rose Angel smells almost as gourmand as its big sister. It's a little lighter, a little fruitier, but just as delicious, and easily my favourite of all the Garden of Stars range I tested in the duty free! And the bottle is so pretty! A very definite thumbs up here.

When I first heard about the Angel Garden of Stars series I nearly screamed in agony: how do they DARE to mess up with Angel?! I was especially appalled because I'm not the greatest fan of floral notes and that was exactly what they were going to add to the blissfully floral-free Angel. The shock and the horror!

But sniff first, whine later, and to my big surprise I quite like Rose Angel. But definitely less than I like the original, a LOT less.

Not surprisingly it smells like a teeny weeny spritz of Angel layered with a considerably bigger spritz of some soliflore rose scent.

I prefer Angel as Angel and roses as roses, but this isn't half as bad as I feared it to be.

I own a bottle of each version of the 'Garden of Stars' and I would rate The Rose as my least of the series. I find that each of the scents are very different than the original Angel. I find this particular scent to be nothing special. There is nothing that stands out or is distinctive about it. I would not know how to describe it to anyone. It is just 'perfume'. I don't event think it smells that much like a rose. I will likely give it away because I probably will not wear it.