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

Bottle Design:
Pierre Dinand

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......ihr schlägt keine Stunde.... (by Pluto)

Madame Rochas Rochas 1989 Eau de Parfum

Version from 1989

7.8 / 10 102 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

7.8102 Ratings

Longevity

7.887 Ratings

Sillage

7.485 Ratings

Bottle

7.891 Ratings

Value for money

7.218 Ratings

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

Source-backed & verified

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)

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Reviews

12 in-depth fragrance descriptions

03/11/2012

8Scent 7.5Longevity 7.5Sillage

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
363 Reviews

BrianBuchanan

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

8.5Scent 8Longevity 7Sillage

Jazzy76
320 Reviews

Jazzy76

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.

Updated on 11/14/2018

07/31/2019

9Scent 9Longevity 9Sillage

Ttfortwo
90 Reviews

Translated · Show original

Ttfortwo

Top Review 32

Timeless Elegance

A sand-colored, precisely tailored blazer. The blouse made of light silk, exquisite draping. Leather belt. A handbag, fine leather, camel-colored. A scarf, skillfully draped nonchalantly around its handle. Two butter-soft sand-colored gloved women's hands, one of which pulls a bottle of “Madame Rochas” from the bag, or is she just putting it back in? Sand, beige, light brown, dark gold, these are the colors. Stylish, elegant, and mature is the impression. Absolutely timeless - or at least almost, it’s just details that reveal the age of the advertising motif: The belt, for example, which sits very high on the waist, gloves as an accessory (and not as protection against the cold).

No bending female bodies could have ever represented the serious reserved elegance of “Madame Rochas” more accurately than in this advertising motif, which comes from the 80s, but that doesn’t matter at all, it would also fit for the 60s or for the day before yesterday and both for the 1960 original Madame, created by Guy Robert, and for the version from 1989.

I assume that I own the version from 1989, even though I bought it new. It is the iconic hexagonal bottle, with “Inter Parfums” listed as the producer.

“Madame” starts somewhat herbal and with a very disciplined orange blossom, overall rather slender and with a slightly rough texture. Reserved. Tamed. Upright and measured in its stride.

In delicate contrast to this very controlled opening is a subtle warm-spicy note that runs through the entire scent progression and will become more pronounced over time: Look at that, there’s a sensual flame smoldering in the depths, Madame can be different too. It will take a while until this promise is fully fulfilled, Madame has endurance and she’s a little bit wicked too, because at no time does she relinquish control and reveals her charms only gradually and in finely measured doses.

The flowers of the heart note are also like this: Tamed, unplayful, arranged with a certain coolness and distance. Madame has gray eyes. There’s occasionally a slight bitterness, a bitter metallic note, subtle and delicate and masterfully integrated, and at the same time this warm matte golden shimmer of warmth, somewhat more perceptible now, almost tangible, but just almost. Finely dosed eroticism, distance and closeness, deliciously delayed and always controlled.

Now I find Madame stunning and breathtakingly beautiful: Delicate veils of the adult serious heart note still rise from my clothing, but on my wrists, the base already scents, close to the skin, sandalwood creamy, dry and warm ambrosial, sensually sinking. This is no theatrical thunder, this is real.

Lastly:

In my photo album, there is a copy of the advertising motif I described.

And: Even in the Eau de Toilette version, a long-distance runner that wants to be consciously dosed.

Updated on 08/01/2019

01/10/2019

9Scent 10Longevity 7Sillage

Duftsucht
137 Reviews

Translated · Show original

Duftsucht

Top Review 27

The Spirits of the Past

This fragrance that I just sprayed shouldn’t actually be in my hand - it should be the vintage version of Femme/Rochas right there. Due to a deal in the souk, where neither the seller nor I looked closely enough, it was overlooked that it was not Femme, but Madame. I only realized the mistake at the moment of spraying, as the scent instantly transported me back to my childhood.

Dressed nicely and looking pretty, my mother, two of my sisters, and I are in the apartment. We are just about to go to a concert together. As the youngest, I am particularly excited, as it hasn’t been long since I was finally allowed to join the “grown-ups” and no longer had to stay home alone on concert nights. I hated being home alone - as the youngest of five, that was extremely rare - and I was actually terribly afraid. This always led to me turning on the lights in every room of the apartment, loudly talking to an imaginary person when entering the still dark rooms. Of course, to convince the villain lurking in my imagination in the dark room that he wouldn’t only be dealing with me alone. What I hoped to achieve with this ruse, I can no longer comprehend today...

But that evening, I get to come along. As we are about to leave the apartment and my mother is already reaching for her clutch (the very flat one made of light snake leather, which was only taken out of her fabric bag for concerts and into which only a handkerchief, comb, keys, the theater tickets, and a few loose bills for the taxi fit), she suddenly hesitates, pulls her hand back, disappears once more into her bedroom, and returns - wonderfully fragrant for my child’s nose. It is an adult, elegant scent, perfectly suitable for the occasion.

Sometimes, when I am home alone, I go to the bedroom to the vanity where my mother’s perfumes are displayed. It is such an old-fashioned one with a three-part mirror, in which you can see your own back of the head. However, you can also adjust the mirrors so that you can see yourself seemingly disappearing infinitely in the distance - and sometimes, when I am bored, I pass the time trying to count these infinitely many selves…

It is amazing what detailed memories a whiff of Madame Rochas brings forth from the depths of the past and brings into the present. In the left drawer of the vanity, my mother kept her handkerchiefs - the ones for “special occasions,” delicate fabrics, embroidered or lace-trimmed. Beautiful, transparently sheer, in my eyes (then as now) utterly unsuitable for their actual purpose. On one of these handkerchiefs, a spray of “Madame” was always applied - and so the silk lining of the theater bag had already absorbed the scent, releasing it in a small cloud of fragrance every time the bag was opened and closed.

And this little cloud delights me greatly. The beginning is already lush with aldehydes and not really my favorite part of the fragrance. A bit sharp, somewhat metallic-fruity-floral in the first minutes, before it organizes itself into an extremely tastefully arranged bouquet. Not a natural wildflower bouquet, but an elegant, rather formal affair. Perhaps a bouquet on a wedding table with orange blossoms, as the bride wears in her hair. Here, however, complemented by lush tropical scents, beautifully kept in check by a hint of bitterness and a more robust herbal note, which forms a beautiful counterbalance to the honey sweetness of the flowers. “Madame” rests on a bed of fine woods, with a hint of vetiver adding a touch of green powder.

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

Updated on 01/11/2019

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