Roja Parfums Love is one of the hardest releases from the house to actually smell. Made by Roja Dove in 2019 as a celebration of the brand’s installation at Bergdorf Goodman, it was produced in exactly 100 bottles, priced at $1,000, and gone almost immediately. Today it is discontinued and absent from the official catalog, which means most people weighing a purchase are really choosing between an expensive resale hunt and a clone. Here is what the fragrance offers and where the affordable route lands.
What Does Roja Parfums Love Smell Like?
Love opens with bergamot and mandarin, a bright but brief citrus lift that hands off quickly to the heart. The core of the scent is where it lives: Grasse jasmine wrapped around ripe peach and blackcurrant. Wearers consistently describe a fruity iris here, juicy rather than dry or dusty, which separates it from the cold rooty iris found in many powdery florals. The peach carries a warm ambered glow rather than reading as a sharp gourmand fruit.
The drydown settles into vanilla, musk, sandalwood, and benzoin, with cedarwood, pepper, and patchouli adding quiet depth. Nothing turns musty or heavy. People who have worn it often compare its DNA to Roja’s own Britannia, but describe Love as cleaner, more floral, fruitier, and softer, like walking through the same garden after rain instead of at full bloom. The main accords tell the story plainly: floral, sweet, fruity, creamy, and powdery.
Performance
Performance is one of Love’s stronger suits relative to its soft personality. Community ratings put longevity around 7.9 out of 10, and individual wearers regularly report 8 to 12 hours on skin. Several mention that the scent survives on scarves for days after wearing. Projection sits at a moderate level, roughly 7 out of 10: it fills your immediate space for the first couple of hours, then stays within arm’s reach while remaining easy to detect on yourself. That intimacy suits the composition. This is a compliment-getter worn close, not a room-filling statement, and reviewers note that compliments do come, along with questions about what it is.
Scent quality scores highest of all at 8.6 out of 10 among raters. Value is the outlier, scoring under 5 out of 15 raters’ goodwill, and that is before accounting for the resale market on a discontinued 100-bottle run.
Best Clone Or Alternative
Given that the original is effectively unavailable at retail, the practical answer is The Dua Brand’s My Love. Dua markets it explicitly as inspired by Love, and it reproduces the entire note list: bergamot, mandarin orange, peach, blackcurrant buds, Jasmine from Grasse, vanilla, musk, orris root, sandalwood, benzoin, cedar wood, pepper, and patchouli. It ships as a 33.33 percent extrait de parfum in 34ml for $36, a tiny fraction of the $1,000 original price.
Expect around 90 percent of the experience. The fruity floral structure, the creamy powder, and the warm woody base all carry over, and extrait concentration gives it similar staying power. What the original still does better is finesse. Dove’s jasmine and iris blending reads more seamless and expensive up close, and the opening citrus feels more natural. For anyone who cannot justify four figures for a decant-sized gamble, My Love captures the character honestly. One caveat: Dua’s page has shown the fragrance sold out periodically, so availability fluctuates.
When To Wear It
Love fits cooler months best. Spring, fall, and winter give the creamy fruit and soft woods room to breathe, while summer heat risks turning the sweetness cloying. It is built for special occasions, evening wear, and date night more than office rotation. The moderate projection keeps it polite indoors, and the romantic, gently powdery character reads best in close-quarters settings: dinners, evenings out, colder-weather events.
Who Should Buy It
Buy this profile if you enjoy fruity florals that lean creamy and clean rather than jammy, if you liked or considered Britannia but wanted something softer, or if you collect Roja’s work and want the closest accessible version of a lost release. Unisex wearers who find most masculine fragrances too sharp will find Love unusually smooth.
For nearly everyone, that means buying Dua’s My Love unless you already own the original or specifically want a grail bottle.
Who Should Skip It
Skip the resale chase if you expect loud projection, dark oriental richness, or obvious luxury opulence. Love is restrained. Anyone wanting a fresh summer scent, a bold compliment monster, or strong value per dollar should look elsewhere, because even fans admit the cost per spray is hard to defend.
Final Verdict
Love is a genuinely beautiful composition judged purely on scent: a juicy fruity iris and jasmine heart over a clean, creamy woody base, with 8-plus hour endurance and tasteful projection. Its problems are access and price. With 100 bottles long gone, Dua’s My Love at $36 is the sensible way to wear this idea, sacrificing some blending polish for almost all of the pleasure. As a collector piece the original remains special. As a daily-wear decision, the clone wins comfortably.