04/29/2025

kittea
56 Reviews

kittea
2
Cabotine's older sister is just a bit too demure for me
After a disappointing time with Floralie and Eau Vivide, the uninspiring aquatic flankers of my beloved Cabotine, I didn't have terribly high hopes for Rosalie. As it turns out, she was quite a pleasant surprise.
I'm not judging based on family resemblance, but it's worth noting that Rosalie actually feels like a relative of Cabotine. There's a similar sharp aldehydic green-ness to the opening. After that, they both go in very different directions. Cabotine had strong, lush, white-and-green foliage that jumps out at my nose, while Rosalie is a very soft, powdery rose-violet that dries down quickly to a musky-sweet vanilla. The combination of rose, violet (flower rather than leaf) and vanilla puts me in mind of some old-fashioned cake for a high tea, the kind decorated with candied flower petals that I love and everyone else thinks tastes like perfume.
Pretty, dainty, and velvet-textured, I can't imagine Rosalie offending anyone, especially after you get past the surface-level resemblance to her louder sister. And this is where my attraction to her fades. She at least sticks around and is perceivable, unlike the vanishing Floralie and the mumbling Eau Vivide, and carries on a perfectly pleasant conversation, but she just doesn't have much to say that others haven't said already.
I'm not judging based on family resemblance, but it's worth noting that Rosalie actually feels like a relative of Cabotine. There's a similar sharp aldehydic green-ness to the opening. After that, they both go in very different directions. Cabotine had strong, lush, white-and-green foliage that jumps out at my nose, while Rosalie is a very soft, powdery rose-violet that dries down quickly to a musky-sweet vanilla. The combination of rose, violet (flower rather than leaf) and vanilla puts me in mind of some old-fashioned cake for a high tea, the kind decorated with candied flower petals that I love and everyone else thinks tastes like perfume.
Pretty, dainty, and velvet-textured, I can't imagine Rosalie offending anyone, especially after you get past the surface-level resemblance to her louder sister. And this is where my attraction to her fades. She at least sticks around and is perceivable, unlike the vanishing Floralie and the mumbling Eau Vivide, and carries on a perfectly pleasant conversation, but she just doesn't have much to say that others haven't said already.