I'd been searching for a pure rose fragrance for years and finally found Jo Malone's Red Roses. It's a really wonderful rose scent -- try it and see what you think! Here's the description from the website:

Red Roses Cologne

Composed of seven types of roses from around the world, Red Roses is a surprisingly clean, voluptuous scent. With a heart of crushed violet leaves and hints of lemon and spearmint, it unfolds like a bouquet of fresh-cut flowers.

Jo Malone is sold at places like Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom. Her other perfumes are also very good. Hope that helps!

Dunno if you can get Penhaligon perfumes in the US - they specialise in florals (from flowers, not synthetics) and some of the perfumes are breathtaking (night scented stock, cyclamen and, of course, rose). Not cheap but utterly, utterly fabulous.

Penhaligon is available in the US, one called 'Elisabethan Rose' sounds pretty sumptuous, if you can afford! $$$$$$!!

Here is a link that might be useful: Elisabethan Rose

Russian River Roses in Healdsburg CA makes rose perfume from the roses they grow. I've attended their workshop that demonstrates the process. Great fun and informative.

Diane

Here is a link that might be useful: Rose Oil

There is a branch of Penhaligon about 5minutes by bike from me so I used to annoy the assistants by going in for a free spray at least once a week. Worked my way through nearly all the fragrances. I used to get glares from the very supercilious sales people until I cosied up with a bunch of Nahema roses for their counter (and some raspberries) - needless to say, I get a much more welcoming grin these days - and have never actually dipped into my purse (and am not likely to on a gardener's wages) Cannot recall Elizabethan rose but there is a fantastic rose geranium blend I often made a beeline for.

There are several rose perfumes- i reccomend using Fragrantica.com to look for them. Pacifica sells natural perfumes and they have one called Persian rose. It's available at many natural groceries (whole foods, mollie stone).
L'occitaine also sells a rose perfume.
4 reines or something. I have it and it smells like roses, but i've discovered (as many perfumistas i've heard complain) that rose perfume can end up smelling old and dusty and makes my room reek like a mausoleum.
When i was young my grandmother had a very pretty (undoubtably inexpensive) rose perfume i loved- probably some woolworths brand)
I actually think culinary rose water you can buy at some grocery stores makes a nice bath additive.
Happy hunting!

Also some classic old perfumes have rose as a key ingredient. For example, Joy is rose, tuberose, and ylang-ylang; Chanel No. 5 is a very complex scent but includes rose and jasmine. If you don't require pure rose, but just want a strong rose influence, you might try one of the perfumes in the list below.

Of course, many, many perfumes include some rose in them. I searched http://www.basenotes.net/ and found 2435 perfumes with rose as an ingredient!

Myself, I like rose-scented soap.

Rosefolly

Here is a link that might be useful: Perfumes with strong rose notes

Crabtree & Evelyn also has a line called Rosewater that is quite good. I think it has a more true rose scent than Evelyn, which I have used. I agree that a lot of rose scented perfumes don't always smell very good or even anything like a real rose. Way back in the 1970s, Houbigant had a perfume called Rose is Rose (or something like that) which I wore. It was fabulous, and when I had it on, I was often complimented on the scent and asked about it. A year or two after it came out, it disappeared from the market. Recently I tracked it down on the internet, and there are a couple of sellers who have a bottle--for about $300! It must really have deteriorated by now, and I can't imagine anyone buying it at that price. Diane

If you are researching, try rose absolute which is pure rose. Absolute signifies the process that makes the perfume the closest to the scent of the flower, even more so than distillation. And especially try white rose absolute if you can get it. It is different than the usual but to me even more seductive.

Cath

Besides the American company Crabtree and Evelyn there is a similar English company called Caswell-Massey. Both make a number of single floral scents, including rose. It has been a number of years since I last came across any Caswell-Massey flower scented products, but my memory of them is that they were wonderfully accurate.

Rosefolly