The Coveted Duchess Rose

It smells like my grandma, but in a good way. It strikes me as a very old-fashioned rose fragrance and not much else. Definitely rose bar soap like other reviewer said, which is great for a just a clean set and love the bottling. It's my favorite of what came in the Penhaligon's Discovery Set.

I don’t understand the negative reviews but I also know fragrances don’t work for everyone. It was really love at first sniff. I am not a rose person but this is different. I think most rose scents are too overpowering and headache inducing. This one is not overpowering. It smells sophisticated. It smells like a million bucks. This is for the lady who wants to smell enticing, like a mature slightly sweet deep rose soaked in a luxurious green lush bath house full of delicate rose petals. Seriously, the longevity is out of this world. I can spray once and that’s enough for the whole day. I can smell it continuously and I didn’t hesitate to buy the full size bottle. Empressa is next!

I expected this one to be sweeter and bigger than it ended up being - a positive. On me, it smells like a really natural, uncomplicated rose. It's quite fresh without being green at all - no old-lady mustiness here. My husband really likes it, and he doesn't usually like rose fragrances. Unlike the other reviewers, I love it, but I truly don't understand the price tag.

I am new to the perfume world and I've tried about seven perfume samples before getting to this one and I highly dislike this perfume. Some of the others did nothing for me and I was okay with it being on me but this one I hoped the dry down would be better but it's not. Same all the way through for me. Right away I smell roses and then after that its bar soap and roses. After two hours of it on me I decided I wanted it off me - I tried using water to remove the perfume from my wrists and that didn't work, so I used hand soap and that didn't work as well. I'm going to jump in the shower. I don't smell the mandarin, woody notes, or oranges. I'm bummed! Three stars because of staying power.

Donno why many people said it was so great, but to me, just so-so - Nothing amazing, nothing special that we haven't seen before. There are many wonderful rose-note perfumes. I don't recommend this one unless you are not able to resist its pretty design of perfume bottle.