Rose Ishtar
Rania J

A very interesting take on a Rose and Sandalwood marriage.
Start is a Rosy Red Currant enhanced by the vaguely bitter Citrus of Bergamot. Some Rose Damask Absolutes I have nosed, open this way and quickly twist my nostrils to a Spice which blends with Sandal to create something quite magic.
This is the best part of this scent.
Although better than the Mancera Roses Greedy, it dries down to a Contemporary Saccharined Almond Extract (Heliotrope?)and rather Generic Musk with not quite enough Patch too save it from causing pain, in my brain.
I tend to ClaireV's take with this.

On first application you get a sweet watery red rose fragrance with a patchouli emerging not long after. This makes the rose smell like a old Victorian rose fragrance where the added patchouli gives it a earthy austere like smell. Though the sweetness does eventually soften this aspect.

Eventually the sweet jammy like rose note does start to get a bit powdery in the dry-down.

I quite like Rania J's perfumes, especially Ambre Loup and Oud Assam. But I think Rose Ishtar is a misfire. On my skin, it is a green, sour rose (watery) swamped by a greasy layer of tonka bean paste. The rose tries to break through, but it is mostly held back by this sweet, lumpy-oily tonka, obscuring it like a thick blanket on a muggy day.

There is a cheap almond smell to the tonka, a certain underlying shoddiness inherent perhaps in the tonka bean or coumarin itself, and it reminds me most unfortunately of almond-scented room sprays or candles. In fact, I don't get much rose through much of the scent's progression, except for hour 18 when the grease breaks and the rose pops out like a spurt of pus from a zit.

This is a really nice take on rose! It is rare that I try a rose and find something new to enjoy! I keep sniffing my wrist and trying to come up with ways to explain what I am experiencing...and I find I am at a loss!

I think early spring is a start - the scent of life after a cold winter, bursting forth, green and true with glorious colors and scents. There is a base of something woody and this may be the sandalwood. But it isn't too pronounced - just a frame, if you will. Perhaps a trellis. It alludes to Chanel's Coromandel, but this is the Spring version - lighter, airier, and greener.

I may need this...

A beautiful rose opening with a green touch, the fragrant leaves of the roses contribute to the top note. Over the first few hours the roses' scent's character changes, as if moving form one type of rose to another; I feel a bit like ambling in a rose garden. Later in the drydown I get spicier notes, and after about five hours vanilla sets in.  The later base notes have a pleasantly soapy element that dominates the last hours. Good silage and projection, and on my skin an excellent longevity of around ten hours. A great bouquet of spring roses.