Rosa Alba

Note Profile

Botanical

About

Rosa alba is the white rose, and in perfumery it is the cool and transparent one. Sources describe it against the two roses everyone already knows: lighter and airier than damask, less heavy than centifolia. It opens green and waxy, turns into a clean rose heart, and finishes quiet. One artisan grower adds a brush of anisette and apple skin that no trade source repeats.

Scent Profile

Floral is the rose itself, citronellol-dominant per the trade source, and it is set below the published rose at 0.85 and bulgarian-rose-otto at 0.88 because every source calls this one transparent and airy rather than dense. Green is the 'green-waxy opening' and the 'green tea edge', clearly above the the generic rose note carries. Honeyed is the least settled number in this vector and the spread of 0.30 says so: one trade page calls it 'less honeyed and jammy than Rosa damascena' and another page on the same site calls it 'softer and more honeyed than its red counterpart'. The value sits between the two readings rather than picking a side. Aldehydic is the 'cool aldehydic lift' and the 'green aldehydes' the same page names twice. Below the line, aquatic_ozonic carries 'almost aqueous' and 'a rose washed clean', warm_spice the hint of clove, fresh_spice the trace of pepper, and fruity the artisan's apple skin.

ScentWheel

Breadthbroad

EnvelopeHeart · ~5h lasting

Family Floral, Green & Aromatic

Read off the wheel, not a label applied to the note.

Origin

Rosa x alba is the white rose of York, a hybrid of unknown parentage grown in Europe since ancient times and, per Wikipedia, possibly grown first for its scent. It is farmed alongside Rosa damascena in Bulgaria, which is why trade copy calls it the white rose of Bulgaria. The oil is steam-distilled from fresh petals at about 0.015-0.02 percent, roughly half the yield of damascena. That halved yield is the reason it appears far less often than the damask roses. Small artisan makers also enfleurage the fresh flower.

Usage in Perfumery

A heart note in fresh-floral and green-floral work, used where a dense rose would flatten the structure. Trade sourcing calls the oil richer in citronellol and green aldehydes than damascena, which is what gives it the clean, dewy read. Fragrantica records 7 placements, Parfumo 6 across 6 brands. Three related terms are already rejected as single-brand one-offs: indonesian-rosa-alba, rosa-alba-absolute and rosa-alba-attar.