NICHOLAUS PAUL AUGUSTINE
LA ROSA BULGARIANA

2020

PERFUMER
Nicholaus Paul Augustine

Bergamot
Neroli
Blood Orange

Bulgarian Rose

Tonka Bean
Vanilla

La Rosa Bulgariana is one of the best imaginable blends of rose, citrus and sweetness with excellent quality to me, from a house that I rarely hear mention of.

The rose is very soft, it feels traditional and it will be feminine leaning for most people. It’s not a light rose-water style, not overly sweet and jammy and not dark either, but very middle of the road and mostly soft and musky, almost fuzzy.

The star of the show for me is the citrus; there’s neroli, bergamot and blood orange. It starts off more on the orange side, while after about an hour it’s more of a nondescript tart citrus edge. At that point, you start noticing the sweetness. It lists tonka and vanilla, and it’s definitely leaning in a vanillic, caramel/toffee direction, but it doesn’t take away from the floral aspect or the citrus (although the citrus starts to fade quickly anyway). I wonder if/what other florals are used, maybe jasmine, because it feels very floral, but after a while, I lost the distinct rose note.

The vanilla really helps and I was glad to see that it’s not an overly sugary sweet jammy rose akin to Oud Satin Mood. The quality and blend here is top notch, so it delivers on the price point for me. I can’t really say anything about the performance, but it seems to be solid, yet subtle.