Eau de Rochas Pomelo Passion

Since 2023, Rochas has been giving its founding water a summer appointment. Pomelo Passion is the fourth installment, after Citron Soleil, Orange Horizon and Néroli Azur. The principle does not vary: a sun-kissed raw material takes top billing, the range's wavy glass is recolored for the occasion, and the exercise is repeated the following year with a different citrus fruit. This time it is pomelo that comes forward, backed by bitter orange and passion fruit.

The series advances less by accumulation than by displacement. Citron Soleil was classified as floral musky citrus, Orange Horizon turned woody, Néroli Azur kept that woody and musky base. Pomelo Passion returns to the classification of the first, floral musky citrus. Four summers, two balance formulas, and a back-and-forth that resembles a correction more than a progression.

The choice of pomelo has a longer history than the collection itself. The 1970 Eau de Rochas already opened on a citrus accord in which grapefruit held its place, alongside mandarin, bergamot and lemon. The series thus takes four years to bring back to the forefront a raw material that the original juice carried from the outset, and that none of the three previous variations had chosen. What presents itself as a novelty is also a return. The house readily recalls that this 1970 water established itself as the first cologne designed for women; the summer collection draws on that legacy one raw material at a time.

The composition is signed by Nathalie Gracia-Cetto, a perfumer at Givaudan, who already held the pen on Orange Horizon and on Néroli Azur. A doctor of pharmacy before joining the Swiss house's perfumery school, she has written Burberry Brit, Soleil Blanc for Tom Ford and Quatre for Boucheron, and says she keeps returning to lavender. Across this collection, her approach is consistent: let the citrus occupy the opening alone, then move toward a floral material that takes over without a break.

The bottle reuses the range's wavy glass and tints it a vivid pink, matched to the fruit's flesh rather than its rind. The collection thus changes color each summer, and the shade announces the material before the cap is even opened. A single size, one hundred milliliters, paired with a scented body lotion offered as an extension of the sillage.

Reviews are split, and the split is clear-cut. On one side, a water held to be a summer success, where rose and peony highlight the grapefruit rather than smothering it. On the other, criticism of acidity and overly raw fruit, judged unrefined. Both camps, however, describe the same fragrance: a bold, straightforward opening, which will please exactly to the extent that one likes this kind of entrance.