Rome

[dcmo]

Refined, austere and graceful. A recipe gleaned from Classical Rome: cypress, juniper, chamomile and rose.

I don't really like this scent when it's wet. It's very green, herbally and sharp smelling, but this dries down to a lovely soft rose that is just beautiful. As long as I can make myself wait through the wet stage, I love this! I love every one of Beth's oils that have Rose it in though. Just gorgeous!

[LiberAmoris]

Shollin's review of Rome is so lovely---I will not even try to describe it as well as she did.

 

I find that I'm really enjoying the herbal blends recently, not sure why, but wearing Rome felt like being outside...which is always a good thing when I'm stuck inside.

 

The juniper jumps out at me when I open the imp, smelling so strong it verges on eucalyptus. Once that calms down, it's like an herbal Dublin on my skin. The chamomile wavers in and out---sometimes I catch a hint of it, and at other times it seems to meld with the rose so truly that I cannot find it. Together, the chamomile and the rose produce a scent that is almost like apples on my skin, which adds another layer and a freshness.

 

Lovely!

[sarahjay]

I had thought that the pine and eucalpytus would be sharp and strong, but so far Rome's all rose, rose, rose on me. quite suprising.

 

I'm not sure it's me - but if you're a rose fan I would def. give it a go

[Lilithlefay]

In the imp it smelled all pine and green herbs...it took quite a while for me to actually try this because I was nervous.

 

On the skin: Wow all I smell is the rose but it is such a pretty rose!!! Like the kind my grandmother has in her garden. I can't smell any of the other notes but I really like this. I'm glad I actually got around to finally trying this one. such a pleasant surprise

[Lycanthrope]

Rome to me is the color gold. It is the image of a piazza where a fountain is sprinkling water over a vendor selling herbs and dried flowers, the sun is shining down and there are rosebushes planted in pots along the way.

 

In the Bottle or Imp:

Sweet, lightly floral but mostly chamomile, a sunny gold colored blend with herbs and dry cypress woods. If only it would stay this way, I would snorf my wrist in bliss for hours.

Wet, on Skin:

Lots of cypress as it's wet on me, with a touch of something sweeter, which I feel is the chamomile, but unless my nose is reaching for associations, I can catch a whiff of something sweeter and edible, a honey note perhaps. Staaaay, Rome... stay here.

Drying Down:

Uh oh. It begins. The cypress note is fading out, as pine, fir, and similar evergreen oils are wont to do, and I'm catching a lightly herbal floral blend with a hint of rose.

Over Time/Longterm:

Rose and chamomile, but... as time progresses, it goes completely rose on me. Which is sad, because I loved the start, but it became at least on me a fairly potent fragrance overly dominated by rose.

Final Verdict?

I like the start, but it changes into rose, rose, rose. Not my cuppa at all.

[tinyvulture]

the chamomile and rose are such a lovely, soothing combination. it’s slightly astringent thanks to the cypress and juniper. as it dries, the rose really makes its presence known. this is a clean, herbal rose scent. there’s a coolness to it that does remind me of walking through the roman forum and pressing my hands against the cool stones, imagining their history. very nice.

[Loligo]

I don't have much luck with any sort of evergreens -- the cypress and juniper make this smell like cat litter. Mostly like fresh litter just poured out of the box, but there are occasional whiffs of cat pee. Over an hour or two, it slowly morphs to soapy rose. But never any chamomile, and that's the one note that I was hoping for!

[gangstaknitta]

I was hoping to try this as a room fragrance. In the bottle, it smells very woodsy and green and like antiseptic. I don't really want my house to smell like this, i have decided. I wasn't going to try it, but ohhhhhhh it got on my skin anyway.

 

It smelled like Mr. Clean and lasted for far too long....

 

edited for poor spelling.

Edited August 11, 2005 by gangstaknitta

[Rackham's Vanity]

Rome starts out herbal and green on me, but within minutes the rose comes forward and stays there for the rest of the day. The chamomile never makes a pronounced appearance, nor does the juniper, which is very surprising to me, as juniper is usually pretty loud.

 

However, all of the herbs to work to keep the rose from becoming soapy and too sweet; the herbs are there for a reason...but I wish they were louder than they are.

 

Still, a keeper.

[Little Bird]

I feel bad when I write short scent reviews, it makes me feel sort of lazy. There just isn't much that I can say about Rome. Juniper is usually pretty strong on my skin (nice, I like juniper), but this was all roses on me. A very strong rose with lots of throw and a slight soapy twinge.

 

Rome turns into just a rose perfume on me... I don't pick up any of the other notes. And it's so strongly floral that it gave me a bit of a headache.

[inkstone]

This was a freebie from the Lab.

 

For the life of me, I couldn't figure out what else was in this blend. In the imp, it smelled herbal. On me though, it's pure pure pure ROSE. That's it. Nothing else. I don't know how that works.

[aidenraine]

Wet: Rome smells like flower stems, particularly like dandelion stems. It's a strong floral smell, really overly perfumely.

 

Drydown: Eau de stank floral. Gahhh still dandelion stems.

It's just sitting there being stinky and overpowering.

 

An hour later: Hmmmm floral lovers, here's your new best friend

[Firewaver]

I like doing this review, because this is so different from the scents I usually try.

 

Yes, Rome is rather astringent in the imp, but I always endeavor to persevere when it comes to bpal. Nothing smells like it does in the imp!

 

On my skin wet... very herbal and sharp. The juniper and cypress are front runners in this race to the drydown. I kind of like it, it's a very clean scent. No sign of spices or muskiness or vanilla or tonka... none of my usual suspects. Just the smell of a mouthful of clear water on a hot day, sitting under a tree and maybe debating senate intrigue with Caesar.

 

Drydown.. the rose is blooming nicely, though i can still smell the gentle woodiness of the cypress and spiky presence of juniper. Sometimes rose can be overpowering and sour, but I find that I don't mind it here. I think the woody notes are keeping the rose grounded; safe from baby powder territory.

 

I like Rome! I couldn't be more suprised. I love these hidden treasures.

[Aredhel]

Rating (on skin): 1/5

Summarised in one word: Rose.

 

In the imp: Equal parts jupiper and rose.

 

On skin, wet: Rose, and nothing but.

 

On skin, dry: Still rose. No hint of chamomile, cypress, or juniper. Just heavy rose.

 

Conclusion: I'm not surprised that the rose takes over: rose owerpowers almost all blends once it touches my skin. I just wish I liked rose.

[Fefferbella]

This smells like a combination between real, fresh cut dewey roses and cheap knock-off rose perfume.

 

The fresh rose smell fade as soon as Rome toches my skin and the fake rose become sickly overpowering.

 

Another floral I can't wear.

[carolinachiquita]

This blend smelled very clean and white on me, the rose eventually comes through after the clean fresh smell (cypress and juniper?) goes. It is a blend I think I would wear when I want to feel calm, it is a very graceful scent!

[wickedgoddess]

Wet - Something's not working for me, I can tell right away. I smell chamomile and powder. *sigh* it's probably the rose.

 

Dry - yep, powder, and a rather unpleasant powder at that. I am disappointed as I like all of the notes in here, but it just wasn't meant to be.

 

Hours later when this scent should be totally gone, I smell my wrist and get the slightest scent of chamomile and rose. Absolutely perfect, but unfortunately it's too little, too late.

 

On the wickedgoddess scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being best, this rated a 1.

[hypatia]

For maybe the first fifteen minutes, Rome is very much a cool green herbal with rose in the background. I wouldn't have thought roses and juniper berries would be such a good combination, but they are. I love the juniper, which asserts itself without turning the whole blend into Eau de Gin and Tonic. It's fresh and springlike -- definitely the countryside outside Rome rather than the city proper.

 

But then it turns into straight-up rose, and stays that way for the duration. I think my skin just likes to amplify rose notes, because the same thing happens to me with Wolfsbane and Water of Notre Dame.

[Diana]

Putting this on, it was very sharp, green, medicinal and antiseptic smelling. Very much like eucalyptus, but most likely the cypress & juniper explosion. I love it.

 

After 10-15 minutes that woodsy stuff fades away almost entirely, and a rose note comes up. It stays this way for a few hours.

 

3-4 hours later, the woody notes slightly reappear, but blended in with the rose, then they disappear after a few minutes, just when I was loving it again. I *think* there is a note of the chamomile... there is something kind of "off" about it, though and i can't really put my finger what it is about it that I find odd.

 

As much as I really do like this, I wish it was a bit sharper and longer lasting. While I do love roses, I'd have been much happier with a lemon or something that reminds me more of Italy. I'm waffling on this, but I probably will not succumb to a bottle, just because of the 23098 rose blends I already have, and this just isn't different enough to really grab me.

[herongale]

preconceived notion: Rose! It's been a while since I've reviewed a rose (think the last one was Pride). Now, I've had this imp around for quite a while and have sampled it several times, so it's a little hard to recall what my thoughts were before putting my hands on it. However, I've been to Rome, which is an amazingly lovely white city that looks to me like it is sitting in a bowl lined with cypress trees, full of marble monuments and dark-haired Italians driving around on mini motorbikes. It's a busy, lively city, and even with all the tourists strikes me as a wonderful place to live.

 

in the imp: almost a minty rose, but with careful sleuthing it's clear that what first strikes me as mint is really the sharp green tang of juniper. Rome has many public rose gardens with lovely cultivated roses of impressive lineage, and I remember walking around in one on a hill that smelled almost exactly like this. IIRC it was near the Circus Maximus. This also reminds me of the Boboli gardens in Florence, which were one of my favourite places to read in Europe.

 

wet: total rose. My skin apparently likes to amp up rose on first application, but this is okay because it seems to blend nicely with my own chemistry.

 

drydown: after the rose calms down and settles in I get a bit more of that green juniper scent, and it's like I'm walking in gardens on a hill in Italy, twisted foreign trees and gorgeous villas on the horizon, the sky a pale, exhausted blue from the heat.

 

verdict: such love. I will get more of this for sure.

 

post-conceived notion: I'm starting to wonder if it will be possible for me to find a rose I DON'T like. Prospects seem grim.

[Sycorax]

In the vial, this oil smelled very astringent. When I picture Rome, I don't exactly picture antisceptics, so this had me worried!

 

Fortunately, the rose note amped right up when Rome was actually in use. Mm. Rose and juniper. It's floral, with a bit of sharpness, and an almost earthy undertone. It strikes me as being a more full-bodied, worldly Rose Cross - which is fitting, I suppose, considering Rome and Vatican City's centries-long association. Rome smells like a verdant park at the height of summer, with trees and sunlight and flowers in bloom. I've never been to Rome, but I think I'd like Rome to smell like that.

 

This is very nice. However, I'd only recommend it to someone who really liked rose notes. If you want a more straightforwardly woodsy scent, then this is probably not for you.

[mdargen]

I got an imp of this today. I am so disappointed, but glad I wasn't a Roman!

 

I have to agree with what Madame Nyx said above. It smells like perm solution.

 

Onto the swap pile...

[jazlyn]

At first Rome smelled very green and herbal... a minute later I could get wafts of the chamomile and a teensy bit of rose mixed in. Now, another few minutes later, this is nearly all rose! It's pushed everything else into the background again and made this soapy. Oh and I kind of agree it smells like perm solution, at least when it's wet.

[strawberry_star]

In the imp I smell ROSE ROSE ROSE juniper ROSE. On me I smell double the amount of rose and juniper underneath. Both of which smell absolutely disgusting on me and even worse they both tend to stick to my skin like glue. I found it really hard to wash off. Definitely one of my least favorites ever.

[Babylon]

Wet: Rose, with fresh zingy juniper and a touch of chamomile. Very herbally smelling, but still mostly rose.

 

Dry: Hmm, oddly, it smells like a burning rose to me now. If I sniff my wrist lightly, I can smell rose and chamomile. But if I inhale deeply, yep! That rose is on fire! In a bed of charcoal.

 

Very weird. I don't think this is for me, but will give it another try before the final decision.