Bottle Design:
Sylvie de France

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Essence N°1: Rose Elie Saab 2014

7.8 / 10 134 Ratings

A popular perfume by Elie Saab for women and men, released in 2014. The scent is floral-powdery. It is being marketed by Shiseido Group / Beauté Prestige International.
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Main accords

Floral

Powdery

Sweet

Spicy

Woody

Fragrance Notes

Turkish rose absolute Vanilla

Vanilla

Bulgarian rose

Turkish rose

Damask rose

Grasse rose absolute

Rosa centifolia

Cedarwood

Perfumer

Francis Kurkdjian

Ratings

Scent

7.8134 Ratings

Longevity

7.7111 Ratings

Sillage

7.1110 Ratings

Bottle

8.1115 Ratings

Value for money

6.921 Ratings

Submitted by Freeestyler · last update on 12/17/2025.

Source-backed & verified

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to

Snow Rose

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La Fille de Berlin Eau de Parfum

Rose Flash

Tocade (1994) Eau de Toilette

Carita (2012)

Reviews

5 in-depth fragrance descriptions

11/07/2017

7.5Scent 8Longevity 8Sillage

SuzanneS
40 Reviews

SuzanneS

Very helpful Review 5

Ellie Saab Essence No. 1

This was a very kind gift from a fragrance enthusiast I will always be grateful for sharing this rose with me.

Not a lot of reviews on this fragrance due to its limited availability. Couture in a fragrance.

This is the rose that dances whirls, twirls all the while morphing into different rose varieties. It quite literally is a rose that changes its nuances thru the wearing. Its supported by a light vanilla ribbon weaving through the petals of rose and cedar to add structure. Sometimes the rose smells like rosewater infused confections, sometimes a herbal aspect, a touch of sour moment, and other times.. a fresh velvety deep pink rose with dark red jam on the edges. Never veering into the heavy, red, dark gothic variety. Longevity is long, sillage is moderate.

Note it is not in the gourmand sense of a rose dripping in caramel, or drown in a syrupy quagmire. This is a lithe, supple shapeshifting rose that moves in and out of its light gourmand aspects. Make no mistake, this is a floral and its masters thesis is rose. I liked it so much bought the candle as well.

Notes:
Centifolia Rose, Damascena Rose, Turkish Rose, Bulgarian Rose, Rose Absolutes from Grasse and Turkey, Vanilla and Cedar

04/11/2024

8Scent 8Longevity 7Sillage

Musicandarts
235 Reviews

Musicandarts

1

A beautiful intense rose from Francis Kurkdjian

Many perfumes that Francis Kurkdjian created for lesser-known brands like Indult and Elie Saab have become masterpieces. Essence No. 1 Rose is a simple, yet intense rose fragrance, a harbinger of many great rose fragrances to come from this perfumer. With the Essence line for Elie Saab, Kurkdjian had created a series of perfumes focusing on a single accord such as oud, rose, amber, neroli, tuberose etc. It is unfortunate that the entire Essence line has been discontinued. It looks like Elie Saab now focuses exclusively on women’s merchandise. This review is based on a full bottle of Essence No. 1, bought from a US discounter.

Essence No.1 opens with an intense blast of rose with a tiny whiff of vanilla. I sense primarily Damask rose in the opening notes, but the rose accord becomes generic soon after. There is a premonition here of the rose that reappears in Kurkdjian's Oud Satin Mood. The vanilla note in the opening gives a slight powdery air to Essence No.1. Upon successive uses, I find tiny nuances of certain aromatic notes like bergamot and cumin also in the opening. There is a hint of cedarwood that stands out in the background. I do not see any real change in personality from the opening to the heart notes, except that the powdery nature settles a bit in an hour. Rose and vanilla persist to the very end. But I can smell some mild woody notes in the dry down on my skin that is not in contact with clothing. It is one of the best clean rose fragrances you can find.

Longevity is very good, lasting about 8-10 hours. Essence No. 1 survives much longer on clothing. The heart notes were still very active on clothing even when only a weak dry down was perceptible on the skin. So, one or two sprays on clothing is recommended to extend the performance of Essence No. 1. It exhibits very good projection and sillage. It will function as a good work perfume in modest doses, but you will have to deal the youthful powdery personality.

It is a great bargain for $60, currently the price on Jomashop. I am afraid this perfume will soon disappear into the annals of history, once the existing supply is exhausted. It is a safe blind buy if you are a rose enthusiast.

09/14/2014

9.5Scent 10Longevity 7Sillage

Hannah
16 Reviews

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Hannah

Top Review 42

Tame

Francis Kurkdjian has created four fragrances for Elie Saab, which, due to their restrictive distribution - in Germany, they apparently are only sold at Douglas on Königsallee in Düsseldorf - are probably not well known to many fragrance enthusiasts. Since rose and Kurkdjian are two charms for me that trigger classical conditioning immediately, the charming Mr. Albert on the phone didn’t take long to entice me into making a purchase. As a preface: I am very grateful to him for that.

The rose fragrances by Francis Kurkdjian speak a common language and clearly showcase the perfumer's signature. Yet Kurkdjian always varies the theme anew and does so so skillfully - be it in Manakara, in Lady Vengeance, or indeed in Essence No. 1 Rose - that one can easily own several of these fragrances. The fragrance notes listed for Essence No. 1 include various types of roses, cedarwood, and vanilla, which, in my opinion, overlooks the patchouli that is characteristic of all of Kurkdjian's rose fragrances.

Until now, Lady Vengeance was my favorite rose fragrance - darkly sparkling, a bit rebellious, rockish. However, it can sometimes be exhausting to always want or need to be self-assured and sexy-seductive. In Essence No. 1 Rose, the lady reveals another facet of her personality. Setting aside thoughts of revenge and intentional defiance, she shows more ease and softness. The dark variety of rose is dusted with a beautiful vanillic powder that is almost addictive. The cedarwood and subtle patchouli ensure that the fragrance does not drift into overly pleasing territory. The rose in Essence No. 1 is by no means boring or tired, just a bit tamer, very charming, and grown-up. Not sexy, but sensual and enveloping. It has less freshness than LV, but a soft, sweet, rounded, darkened depth. The relationship between the two fragrances is evident to the nose. Essence No. 1 Rose is suitable for an elegant evening just as much as it is for an office scent. Elegant, for me, means that it is casually feminine, fine, enveloping, and charming. It lasts all day on me, although without a room-filling sillage, which I find pleasant. The bottle is heavy and valuable, but not particularly impressive.

For my own assessment, it helps to categorize fragrances in a context with similar scents:
Czech & Speake Dark Rose seems crypt-like compared to Essence Rose. Byredo Noir wants to be fresher and more transparent, yet to me, the rose smells mossy, earthy, and ultimately dirty. Black Jade is spicier. Manakara's rose is similarly soft and beautiful but has a cheesy note in the opening that Essence Rose spares me. Even with Malone Rose Water & Vanilla, I would see a relationship in the powdery sweetness, but the Malone is too sweet and a bit too dry for me.

With Essence No. 1 Rose, Francis Kurkdjian has created a fragrance that is perfect for my nose. It hasn’t necessarily dethroned Lady Vengeance, but it stands on equal footing with it. Both are similar and yet cater to different moods. Since thoughts of revenge are quite foreign to me, Essence Rose will likely be my companion more often.

09/10/2015

8Scent 4Longevity 2.5Sillage

Zeraphine
4 Reviews

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Zeraphine

Very helpful Review 25

It's nice here!

It's nice here in the Ruhr area, no smoking chimneys and dirty streets. It's green, and quite a lot of it. For example, there are the community gardens, you know. Super great if you need some relaxation right outside your door. And if you stroll through one of those gardens (you can, the paths are for everyone), you'll see that the gardener's favorite child is the rose, really, it is. And how it smells when you wander through. You go from one olfactory orgasm to the next (oops, can I say that here?) And it looks great too. Well, since I've been stopping by there from time to time, I also know that there are many different scents, you know. A rose is not just a rose. And my favorite is the Westerland, it smells just like a fruit basket.
Well, you know, recently I thought to myself, why not join in on the sharing of that super expensive Elie Saab. Rose, I just say, and when I dabbed that stuff on, I thought I was in the community garden, rosy, but with a lot of fruit. Wow, I thought, this is really delicious. But as the devil would have it, after two hours, Elie had disappeared. Skin chemistry, hormones, or just scent-eating skin, I've had enough. Such an expensive brew and then nothing??? Dear Elie, I think I'll go to the community garden and throw myself into the rose bushes, and that's all your fault.

06/07/2016

1.5Scent 10Longevity 8Sillage

Fefaminz
134 Reviews

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Fefaminz

6

Zentifolie comes from Folie?

I listed the contents of the test package and boldly went for it, bam, freshly sprayed, wetting my arm, sniffed - and: yuck, what is that?!

Plastic, biting, strange, rises in my nose, an artificial rose that seeks its equal in its foiled synthetic nature. I read the description here in complete confusion: rose in all variations, deep red, lush, fresh, enchanting, green, dewy fresh - whatever the imagination conjures up while reading the rose names in the fragrance pyramid, my imagination runs wild and is mercilessly brought to a halt when sniffing my arm! So if all these rose varieties are supposed to be present, then certainly under an enormous foil cover.

Only very gradually does the plastic layer become thinner, and I almost think I catch a hint of rose, when the vanilla club hits hard: great, also the universally disliked base that I can't stand! It could have happily disappeared under true mountains of foil, but it remains extremely present for the next few hours! Now, after more than 12 hours, I just want to wrap my arm in plastic and put it away.

Rarely have I perceived a scent so extremely differently from the enthusiastic crowd - did someone switch the contents of the bottle??????