Soooo…. the last time I posted a review, I was praising myself for my consistency. Having set a goal to plow through some reviews of rose perfumes from my collection, I was celebrating day TWO of TWO. (Fun fact about me — my most frequently used emoji is ‘Woman Facepalming’.)

You know what they say? Man plans. God laughs. I really did have a plan. Then, on day two, my husband got exposed to COVID, and we had to quarantine away from each other. Our computers are in the same room, and he had to use his for work, so I was pretty much excluded from mine.

Could I have found another way? Well, yes, but I’m a deeply flawed human doing this solely for my own enjoyment, so any time it’s not enjoyable, I simply don’t do it. Sorry for disappearing — but I’m back with more rose perfume reviews.

Nin-Shar is an extrait de parfum, created by Sidonie Lancesseur, and released in 2015. The inspiration for the fragrance is the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and the Sumerian Goddess of Plants.

The opening of Nin-Shar is like a rose (not rosé) sangria, fortified with rose liqueur. It smells strongly of deep red wine, apples and berries, sour citrus peels, dry grass, and Damask rose. I enjoy how vibrantly magenta the rose smells, and how saturated it is in the composition.

Rose continues strongly into the heart, where there is a lovely touch of artemisia, and a bit of jasmine. The base is a green patchouli with benzoin and vanilla. An oud note that is dry-fruity and almost powdery appears. It is reminiscent of the oud note in the Maison Lancôme collection; this fragrance would feel very at home in that line.

The dry down leaves me feeling conflicted. There are moments when it smells like roses and dessicated apple peels and green patchouli and I am a bit charmed. At other times, it’s all vanilla-powdery Turkish delight and definitely too sweet for my tastes and I’m displeased. I can understand the route that was taken, but I was hoping for the Goddess of Plants to be more garden-y and less gourmand.