Eglantine Rose is the sweet briar, Rosa rubiginosa, a wild European rose known for its simple pink flowers and apple-scented leaves. In perfume it is a light floral note, usually recreated as an accord, that suggests a fresh, green, slightly fruity wild rose rather than a lush garden bloom.

What does Eglantine Rose smell like?

The eglantine's flowers smell delicately of rose, sweet but thin, with a clean, almost soapy freshness. What makes the plant distinctive is its foliage: tiny glands on the undersides of the leaves release a scent of green apples, especially after rain or when brushed. Perfume interpretations therefore tend to combine a sheer rose with green, fruity and leafy notes, giving a hedgerow feel that is very different from the honeyed depth of damask or centifolia rose.

How perfumers create Eglantine Rose

There is no commercial extract of eglantine, so perfumers build the effect from rose alcohols such as citronellol, geraniol and phenylethyl alcohol, a touch of rose oxide for a green-metallic edge, and fruity-green materials that echo the apple-scented leaves. Small amounts of natural rose oil or absolute may be added for realism. In French, églantine is also used loosely for wild roses in general, including the dog rose, so the note may evoke any wild rose rather than one species.

• Also known as: Sweet briar, sweetbriar rose, églantine
• Fragrance family: Floral
• Type: Accord (created by the perfumer)
• Key aroma molecules: Citronellol, geraniol, phenylethyl alcohol, rose oxide

Eglantine Rose in perfume history

The sweet briar is native to Europe and western Asia and has long been planted in hedges and cottage gardens. It features in English literature, most famously in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, where a bank is overcanopied with sweet musk-roses and eglantine. The name has appeared on scented soaps and toilet waters since the 19th century, but it has never been a major perfumery material in its own right.

Eglantine Rose in modern perfumery

Today eglantine appears mainly in fresh, natural-feeling rose fragrances, soliflores for spring, and in home and body fragrance where a hedgerow or garden image is wanted. The plant itself has spread well beyond its native range and is regarded as invasive in parts of Australia, New Zealand and South America.

How Eglantine Rose wears and what it pairs with

An eglantine accord is usually a top-to-heart note, fresh and fairly short-lived unless anchored by musks. It pairs well with green leaves, blackcurrant, pear, apple, violet leaf, peony and white musk, and with light woods for a gentle, outdoorsy finish.