Rosa Alba

Note Profile

Botanical 7 perfumes

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About

Rosa alba is the white rose. In perfumery it is the cool, transparent rose. It is lighter and airier than damask rose and less heavy than centifolia. It opens green and waxy, turns into a clean rose heart, and finishes quiet. Oil suppliers add a soft lemon note. One artisan grower adds a brush of anisette and apple skin.

Scent Profile

Rosa Alba is a cool, transparent white rose. It is lighter and airier than damask rose and less heavy than centifolia. It opens green and waxy, with a green-tea edge and a soft lemon brightness. Then it settles into a clean, dewy rose heart and finishes quiet. A faint honey note and a trace of clove sit underneath.

ScentWheel

Breadthbroad

EnvelopeHeart · ~5h lasting

Family Floral, Green & Aromatic

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

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ScentArt

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Materials That Can Make This Note

Perfumers can build Rosa Alba from materials such as:

Natural extract Rose alba oil
Geraniol rose · floral · citrus

Smell words come from published sources.

Allergens perfumes with this note can list: Rose alba oil, Geraniol, Citronellol

A given perfume with this note may use some of these, or something else, and may or may not contain the allergens above.

Origin

Rosa x alba is the white rose of York, a hybrid of unknown parentage grown in Europe since ancient times. It may first have been grown for its scent. In Bulgaria it is the second oil rose after Rosa damascena. It once made up to 40 percent of the old rose fields, and its oil is sold as Bulgarian white rose oil. The flower holds about half the oil of damascena, and steam distillation of fresh petals yields about 0.015 to 0.02 percent. That low yield is why most white rose fields were cleared, and why the oil is rare. 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. Its oil carries less citronellol than damask rose oil. 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.