Product Review: Philosophy Amazing Grace Ballet Rose and Pure Grace Nude Rose Fragrance Collections

Valentine's day is coming soon, so I only thought it fitting to tell about two of my favorite rose-centric items in my beauty collection. For birthday, my soul sister got me two beautiful, bottles of rose-scented shower gel from my longtime favorite brand for shower gels: Philosophy. They are Pure Grace Nude Rose and Amazing Grace Ballet Rose. True to Philosophy's form, these are very beautiful soft foamy shower gels that make lots of bubbles but are-- as much as a foamy, bubbly shower gel can be-- pretty gentle on the skin. They are so gentle in fact, that they even can be used for shampoo, giving really soft, bouncy, shiny locks. In addition to the lovely formula, I have relished using both of the shower gels and have delighted in their fragrances and have since sampled other products in these scents, so I wanted to share a little bit about what each of these scents is like and what makes them unique.

Amazing Grace Ballet Rose: If I would describe this scent in three words, they would be voluptuous, enveloping, and dreamy. To me, this is how I would imagine a little flower fairy who lives in the folds of a giant rose petals would smell like. There is something so dewy, fresh, and alive about this scent. I can definitely sense the nod here to the bestselling scent from Philosophy Amazing Grace (a powdery floral that is like the best Parisian rose and lavender soap from the 50s). Unlike Amazing Grace however, Amazing Grace Ballet Rose does not have any lavender notes and is not at all powdery. What it is instead is more of a photorealistically natural feeling of an actual rose in bloom within the ground. The only other notes present here that I can pick out is a small dash of something sparkling and fruity that just as an overlay of effervescence to the scent and then also peony. But like in many fragrances I’ve tried that feature both rose and peony, the peony just really opens up the rose and tends to make it quite fresh but also fully ripened and lush instead of sharp.

Pure Grace Nude Rose: Three words I'd pick to describe this fragrance are subtle, elegant, and modern. Pure Grace Nude Rose hearkens back to another famous Philosophy fragrance, Pure Grace (which smells exactly like fresh cotton clothes drying on a line), Pure Grace Nude Rose does share a similar cozy fresh sensuality, but it is both a little prettied up and warmer and slightly zesty. While still a prominent note, the rose here plays a more discreet role, and it does have a more powdery and delicate edge to it than in Ballet Rose. I think that is largely because of the neroli (a type of orange blossom) note also in here Neroli often lends a very warm, sunkissed floral twist to a fragrance. This gives the scent of Pure Grace Nude Rose a very ,skin-like, slightly musky quality to where you almost feel like your skin just so happens to smell like roses and the orange blossom/neroli, rather than you are wearing a fragrance.

On Philosophy's website, these little gems currently retail for $31 dollars apiece for the very generous 16 oz of product. A little goes a super long way with the Philosophy shower gels (called shampoo, shower gel, bubble baths and they do indeed work for all three functions and provide plenty of the cushiest, sudiest bubbles out there), so this size is apt to last you a long while/ They also have the same scents available in one of their lightest weight lotion formulas called the Firming Body Emulsion at $40 for 16 oz, and in spray fragrances of 0.5 oz, 2 oz, and 4 oz at $26, $58 and $84 dollars, respectively. All prices are current at the time of writing this review and are given in USD.

Now as to which one to try, simply put, I don't think you can go wrong. If you are a rose enthusiast like me, I’d recommend trying both if you can do so. If you don’t normally like rose scents. I’d suggest giving Pure Grace Nude Rose a shot, as there is more presence of other notes in it to maybe gravitate towards while still dipping our toe into the world of roses. But if you love a bigger floral, I’d say you’d probably find a home with Amazing Grace Ballet Rose. Now, if had to, had to choose just one…. I’d pick Ballet Rose. Apparently, I am a person who wants to live among petals, and I am very much OK with that!