Madame Rochas Rochas 1989 Eau de Parfum

Version from 1989

Madame Rochas (1989) (Eau de Parfum) by Rochas

Bottle Design:
Pierre Dinand

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7.8 / 10 99 Ratings

A popular perfume by Rochas for women, released in 1989. The scent is floral-chypre. It was last marketed by Wella / Intercosmetics.
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Main accords

Floral

Chypre

Spicy

Woody

Powdery

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes

Orange blossom Neroli

Neroli

Broom

Honeysuckle

Heart Notes

Jasmine

Ylang-ylang

Bulgarian rose

Tuberose

Iris

Base Notes

Musk

Sandalwood Vetiver

Vetiver

Amber

Cedar

Perfumers

Jean-Louis Sieuzac, Jacques Fraysse

Ratings

Scent

7.899 Ratings

Longevity

7.885 Ratings

Sillage

7.483 Ratings

Bottle

7.888 Ratings

Value for money

7.617 Ratings

Submitted by DonVanVliet, last update on 08/02/2025.

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to

Madame Rochas (1960) Parfum

Madame Rochas Eau de Parfum Intense

Madame Rochas (1989) Eau de Toilette

Madame Rochas (2014)

Gold Woman Eau de Parfum

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Reviews

8 in-depth fragrance descriptions

03/11/2012

7.5
Bottle 7.5
Sillage 7.5
Longevity 8
Scent

Sherapop
1239 Reviews

Sherapop

Very helpful Review 8

Another Rochas Reformulation Better than Most Twenty-First-Century New Launches

I understand the movement toward simplicity, and I realize that some people are turned off by "old" perfumes, but I have to say that after trying a few contemporary fragrances, I find it extraordinarily nice to don something as wonderful, complex, and unique as MADAME ROCHAS. This is a perfume. This is a creation. This was the product not of painstaking marketing analysis but of the art of perfumery. MADAME ROCHAS participates directly in the Platonic Form of Perfume.

She opens as a slightly citrusy floral aldehyde and then moves through layer after layer of luxuriousness, finally ending in a powdery chypre drydown that lingers on and on with a substantial but not suffocating sillage. Every single stage in the development, even as the scent slowly fades away, hours after only light application, is stunningly beautiful.

Wearing MADAME ROCHAS is a lesson in what the fine art of perfume has been, and I do hope that it will not disappear, slain by the procrustean forces of image-based capitalism which lead so many peddlers to focus entirely on package with scant attention to product.

While there are many who lament the crime of reformulation, I must say that the reformulations familiar to me (including this bottle of MADAME ROCHAS and also ROCHAS FEMME, both reformulated in 1989), are still vastly superior to most of the first-run juices out there today. MADAME ROCHAS may not be a great office scent, but this is a great perfume.

03/18/2023

BrianBuchanan
351 Reviews

BrianBuchanan

2

Rive Gauche Regenerated

When comparing the old Rive Gauche with Madame Rochas (1989) it's clear this has a quality that perfume - and the aldehydes in particular - often lack, a sense of fun.
It's sweet, with a sparkling touch that gives 'madame' a youthful air that makes Rive Gauche seem dowdy, more like the rich but dull Rive Droite.
And even though Madame smells old - with aldehydes and a dry floral, the fizzing top feels modern - and reminds me of This is Him!
Where I didn't like that, I love this - and I'll wear it forthwith.

11/14/2018

8
Bottle 7
Sillage 8
Longevity 8.5
Scent

Jazzy76
320 Reviews

Jazzy76

1

A tailleur and a string of pearls

This perfume is a myth and a must have for a classy woman. In this elegant and a quite vintage bottle, very similar to the original one of the Sixties, there's a wonderful jus to discover little by little.
I think that the key-word to describe this scent is DISCRETION.
So, the opening neroli notes aren't too strong and vibrant but masterfully measured for a refine result. But let's smell the heart: it's a tripudium of very feminine notes such as the warm and sensual ylang ylang, the tuberose, the jasmin, the iris and the bulgarian rose. A wonderful and precious bouquet anyway not resulting too intoxicating or "screamed", but composed with discreption and mastery for a refined touch.
At the base, the warm notes of the amber, neither too strong nor too medicinal or oriental, of the sandalwood, only suggested and of the musk.
It's the timeless charm of the famous "chypre" accord recalling immediately a classy lady wearing a haute couture tailleur and a string of pearls.
The sillage and the longevity are quite good, you smell good for hours although the scent isn't heavy.
This masterpiece could be worn mainly in the cold or mid season, by day, maybe with an elegant outfit, just like a string of pearls. It's less suitable suitable in the hottest days, but why don't dare a touch of "Madame rochas" in a special summer night too, maybe with a very feminine dress ?
Last but not least, the price: quite high but not over the top. it's money well spent for a milestone of perfumery.

07/31/2019

10
Bottle 9
Sillage 9
Longevity 9
Scent

Ttfortwo
41 Reviews

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Ttfortwo

Top Review 32

Timeless elegance

A sand-colored, precisely sewn blazer. The blouse made of light silk, exquisite drapery. Leather belt. A handbag, fine leather, camel. A foulard, skilfully wrapped around their handles. Two butter-soft sand-coloured gloved women's hands, one of them pulling a bottle of "Madame Rochas" out of her pocket, or is she just putting it back? Sand, beige, light brown, dark gold, these are the colours. Stylish, elegant and adult the impression. Absolutely timeless - or at least almost timeless, it is only details that reveal the age of the advertising motif: The belt, for example, which sits very high in the waist, gloves as an accessory (and not as protection against freezing).

No woman's body that somehow bends could have ever depicted the serious reserved elegance of "Madame Rochas" more accurately than in this advertising motif, which originates from the 80s, but which doesn't matter at all, it would also fit for the 60s or for the day before yesterday and both for the 1960s original Madame, the one by Guy Robert, as well as for the version from 1989.

I assume that I own the 1989 version, even if I bought it new. It is the iconic hexagonal bottle, the producer is "Inter Parfums".

"Madame" starts somewhat herbaceous and with a very disciplined orange blossom, overall rather slim and with a slightly roughened texture. Restrained. Tamed. Tight upright with measured gait.

In delicate contrast to this very controlled opening, there is a subtle warm spicy note that will permeate the whole fragrance and become clearer over time: Look, there is a sensual flame blazing in the depths, Madame can also do differently. It will take some time until this promise is completely fulfilled, Madame has stamina and a little bit of evil she is too, because at no time does she give up control and her charms only peu à peu and finest dosed free.

The flowers of the heart note are also like this: restrained, unplayfully arranged with a certain coolness and distance. Madame has grey eyes. There is at times a slight bitterness, a tart metallic note, subtle and delicate and masterfully integrated and at the same time this warm, matt-golden shimmering warmth, somewhat more audible now already, almost tangible, but only almost. Finely dosed eroticism, distance and closeness, deliciously delayed and always controlled.

Now I find Madame stunning and stunningly beautiful: My clothes still have delicate veils of the adult serious heart note, but on my wrists the base already smells, very close, sandal creamy, dry and warm ambered, sensual to sink into. That's not a theater thunder, that's real.

And last but not least: Also in the Eau de Toilette version a cross-country skier who wants to be dosed consciously.

01/10/2019

8
Bottle 7
Sillage 10
Longevity 9
Scent

Duftsucht
105 Reviews

Translated Show original

Duftsucht

Top Review 26

The spirits of the past

Actually, this scent that I just sprayed on shouldn't be in my hand at all - actually the vintage version of Femme/Rochas should be there right now. Due to a deal in the souk, where apparently neither the saleswoman nor I looked closely enough, it was overlooked that it was not a femme, but Madame. I only noticed the mistake at the moment of spraying on, because the scent immediately took me back to my childhood.

My mother, two of my sisters and I are standing in the flat, beautifully dressed and pretty. We're about to go to a concert together. As the youngest I'm especially excited, it's not so long ago that I can finally come along with the "big ones" and don't have to stay at home alone on concert evenings. I hated staying home alone - as the smallest of fives this was extremely rare - and I was really terribly scared. This always led me to switch on the lights in all the rooms of the apartment, always speaking loudly to an imaginary person when entering the still dark rooms. Of course, to convince the villain, already lurking in my fantasy in the dark room, that he wouldn't be dealing with me alone. What I expected from this deceptive manoeuvre, I can no longer comprehend today...

But that night, I can come with you. When we are about to leave the apartment and my mother already stretches out her hand to the clutch (the very flat one made of light snake leather, which was only taken out of her cloth bag for concerts and into which only a few loose bills for the taxi fit next to a handkerchief, comb, key, the theatre tickets), she suddenly hesitates, pulls her hand back, disappears into her bedroom again and comes back - wonderfully fragrant for my child's nose. It is an adult, elegant fragrance, perfect for the occasion.

Sometimes, when I'm alone at home, I go into the bedroom to the toilet table where my mother's perfumes are. It is such an old-fashioned one with a three-part mirror in which you can look at your own back of the head. But you can also adjust the mirrors so that you can see yourself disappearing almost infinitely into the distance - and sometimes, when I'm bored, I spend my time trying to count them, these infinitely many ego's...

Amazing what detailed memories a breath of Madame Rochas takes from the depths of the past and brings them into the present. In the left drawer of the little table my mother kept her handkerchiefs - which were embroidered or crocheted with lace for "beautiful", delicate webs. Beautiful, transparent and translucent, in my eyes (then as now) very unsuitable for their actual purpose. A sprayer of "Madame" was always applied to one of these cloths - and so the silk lining of the theatre bag had already absorbed the scent itself, so that each time it was opened and closed it would release the bag in a small cloud of scent.

And this little cloud delights me very much. The beginning is already lavish with aldehydes and not really my favorite part of the fragrance. Somewhat pungent, slightly metallic-fruity-floral in the first minutes, then arranged into an extremely tasty bouquet. Not a natural meadow bouquet, but an elegant, rather formal affair. Maybe a bouquet on a wedding table with orange blossoms, as the bride wears in her hair. Here, however, supplemented by luxuriant tropical fragrances, nicely neatly kept in check by a hint of bitterness and a more bitter herbaceous part, which forms a wonderful counterweight to the honey sweetness of the flowers. "Madame" stands on a bed of fine woods, a trace of vetiver adds a dash of green powder.

I very much enjoy this spirit of the past, which so unexpectedly moved in with me, and welcome the surprise guest warmly to me!

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