The Body Shop Morrocan Rose fragrance

A part of consumerism is proudly wearing top designer's perfumes. But not many people know that the rose note in most branded perfumes are concocted from the roses in Kelaa ait M'Gouna valley in the Kingdom of Morocco, North Africa. 

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Morocco is known for its roses. Don't you believe me? Try to type ''Roses of Morocco" in your search engine, and you'll be in amazement if it's your first time discovery :). Morocco is dearly called as 'the land of red and pink', and the country even holds the festival of rose annually (read the latest 2013 Moroccan Rose Festival here). Inspired with this fact, The Body Shop used to launch one of its annual fragrance range, Moroccan Rose:

 

I know it has already been around since a few couples of years ago. But in some stores worldwide, this limited edition is still in stock. I was just registered as The Body shop member last year, and I'M SO LUCKY to have some Moroccan Rose products before they really vanish from the stores!

Recently, a local The Body Shop store here had 30% clearance sales on their old products. One of them is this Morroccan Rose gift set, beautifully packaged in a pink with yellow line patterns... I've been hooked up with the fragrant of Moroccan Rose perfume since the moment I sprayed it on my wrist. But they no longer sell the single bottle, so I had no choice but to buy the whole set (hahaha I don't care, as long as I finally got the perfume!)

From the box design, this gift set edition was packaged during last Mubarak Eid. Among all Morroccan Rose gift sets, I think this is the most complete one, as this special edition gift set includes shower gel, body butter, body mist spray and eau toilette perfume:

The 4 Moroccan Rose items in the set, that have been gracing my grooming table for some weeks. Actually, I would prefer to have the body butter and shower gel in mini size because the packaging are cuter (and I love cute things, haha), but they're out of stock...

Talking about the packaging; I'm not a fan of pink colour, but I quite love the packaging for this collection. Well, it's not totally in pink anyway, the design is the drawing of roses in crimson in front of pink background. I guess the concept was taken from the Moroccan rose colour itself, which is dominantly pink (refer back to second paragraph above: the land of red and pink ;)

According to Femail Australia:

"Treat your senses with The Body Shop’s new Limited Edition Moroccan Rose Fragrance Collection, a modern interpretation of a traditional rose fragrance. Considered one of the most precious of all essential oils, the rose oil used in this elegant new range is sourced from an area called ‘the valley of the roses’ in Morocco, where the roses grow between the picturesque snow-capped Atlas Mountains and the scorching, sandy desert.

To capture the fragrance, the petals are harvested at dawn when they are at their fragrance peak, while a careful process of steam-distillation ensures the magnificent rose fragrance is faithfully captured.

Containing ingredients sourced from all four corners of the world, including rose oil and rose water, as well as a number of products sourced through The Body Shop’s unique Community Trade program such as organic soya oil from Brazil, honey from Zambia and olive oil from Italy."

Harvested at dawn, meaning the roses were also handpicked at dawn... Hmm, it must be the freshest, and the finest rose scent ever. Lovely said, as lovely as it smells! By the way, I just realised that the crimson flowery design on the product packaging resembles a Henna design;

See? :)

Well, afterall Morocco is located in North Africa, which is a part of Arab world; and Henna is an Arabic cultural art. It makes sense now why the flowery design looks like it is traditionally engraved. Thumbs up for The Body Shop for making such detailed concept in the product design! 

Now let's review each of the product!

Shower gel

The trick for your perfume to stay longer is by layering the fragrance, meaning to say it's better if you wear bath product and body moisturiser in the same scent, before you wear the perfume (that's why nowadays,  And it's started right from... The shower gel. This shower gel is basically composed from rose oil and enriched with honey (I think that's why it smells a bit sweet), and that's what I love about it. It smells relaxing, making me feel like having a real rose bath spa, hehe :)

Body Butter

It's in creamy pink colour.  I wear this after I take shower with the shower gel. I think, the body butter almost smells closer like the eau de toilette -- it has this oriental and sweet floral scent (which I guess, it must come from the citrus, musk and rose notes, respectively). The texture is in right volume -- not too light, nor too thick for body butter standard. It has super moisturising properties from natural sources (shea butter, soybean oil, jojoba oil and babassu oil), which keeps my skin silky soft and prevents it from getting dry.

In the Moroccan Rose collection, The Body Shop also made its hand cream; I used to try it before, and the texture is lighter than the body butter, but I think -- why do I need a separated hand cream when I got this multi purpose body butter? I have very dry soles (feet), and I'm also using this body butter to moisturise it. Really does a good job!

However, for me the beautiful scent doesn't long lasting and although it does a good moisturising job on my skin, it leaves my skin greasy, like, when I wash my hands after hours since applying this.

Body Mist

Next thing I usually wear after the shower gel and body butter is the body mist. For me, it smells like pure rose water, although in the description it has notes of mimosa, vanilla and musk... But my nose can't detect it, because after some whiles the scent doesn't change. Smells like a fresh newly bloomed roses just after I spray it, although it doesn't last long...Well, of course, this is a body mist, not a real perfume :)

But unlike the body mist that I saw everywhere (in the Moroccan Rose ad, as well as in TBS Moroccan Rose review in lots of beauty blogs -- like in the above picture) I got mine with metal top:

...and personally I think the combination of grey and pink are ugly. I prefer the transparent, plastic top!

Eau de Toilette

Finally we come to the main fragrance! This is the gorgeous thing that I only wanted to buy at the first place! The blended notes are such a beautiful work of art, it is woodsy rose with an oriental nuance; composed from the essence of the divine Moroccan rose, with lemon oil, warm vanilla and musk. It smells exotic, subtle and sensual -- truly a feminine fragrance. 

There's a strong citrus hint at the top notes, and it starts to smell woody as the perfume fades. It has longer staying power than the body mist, however the scent still fades quickly. It would be better if they also has this in eau de parfum. 

p.s I never wear body mist with the perfume; it's always either one of them, after I apply the body butter and shower gel.

Last thoughts
Moroccan Rose is a limited edition fragrance range launched in 2009' Valentine (now the rose says it all!). Aside from the items I have reviewed above, there is also body milk (a very lightweight lotion), hand cream, and massage oil in the range. Luckily The Body Shop doesn't totally discontinue this fragrance. Last year, from the Scents of the World fragrances, they introduce the Atlas Rose range and I've been told by the The Body Shop staffs, this has similar fragrance like that of Moroccan Rose. Could it be just the same scent under the new name? Might try this next time to make comparison.