After Portia wrote about it here, and Tom here, I put testing Clinique’s I guess iconic Aromatics Elixir on my to-sample list. I was deeply sceptical so didn’t buy a sample – just put it on my to do list when I went into town late last week, along with a micro travel umbrella and some other things.
Did John Lewis for a spritz and forgot to take off my weird, sort of Terminator sunglasses so the SA at Clinique took a step back when I reached for the bottle of AE. She recovered well though, finding me a blotter (well, half of one – how weird is that? We’re now instituting savings by cutting blotters in half?).
Anyway, as noted, I spritzed some on my wrist and on my blotter, did a quick smell and then another 15 mins later, and dismissed the fragrance out of hand as the opening was a strange combo of sparkly and really really herbal. Not my favourite combo.
So, off I went to my orthodontist consult for braces, a few more errands, with a stop at a lovely bakery for an ice tea (did I mention it’s been hot here – and humid humid humid?), a couple of takeaway croissants stuffed into my bag, and 45 minutes to read before the consult. Got the train after all this and while I was walking through the field shortcut to get home (so three hours after I initially sprayed the fragrance on) I remembered the AE and smelled my wrist again.
Oh, whole new kettle of fish.
Gone was the no-thank-you opening. Now, it smelled like a weird, absolutely gorgeous melange of modified-by-fizz-moss huge lush white flowers. I did some more smelling when I got home and that BWF was underpinned by pong. A wonderful, smoky, you-haven’t-showered-since-yesterday-but-still-smell-good thing.
In the drydown, I get a bit of sweet but only a bit and it’s still skanky as all get out.
I wonder if the fragrance would have smelled like this on me if I’d tried it in 1971 when it first came out – I know I sampled it at some point on my perfume journey but no memory whatsoever. So, I can’t imagine it did smell like this. Or did and I simply wasn’t ready for it.
I totally get why this is iconic – but it is also a shape-shifter as far as I’m concerned and that’s really compelling. Tom speaks of ‘from the cauldron’ in his review and I think that’s what I was thinking of in an abstract way. On me, it is that … sort of. It’s more that person who would be bombshell if they took off their glasses and conservative clothes but the thing is you know this when they are still all tightly togged, so they don’t need to do anything but be ever so quietly bombshell.
I did a gander at amazon and there’s a 30ml bottle for £19 which cries out for popping in the cart (the 100ml is much stronger on a ml/price basis but I don’t really want 100ml of much right now). But, I’m being good this month as I travel in September.
This gets a 3.2 rating on the Clinique site – and the majority of the one and two star reviews point to the current perfume not smelling like their older bottles. For readers who have both current and older, what are your thoughts?
The nose was Bernard Chant who also did Halston and Cinnabar, and per Fragrantica the notes include chamomile, aldehydes, clary sage, coriander, geranium, lemon verbena, Brazilian rosewood, bergamot, carnation, rose, ylang, orris root, jasmine, tuberose, orange blossom, oakmoss, patchouli, incense, vetiver, sandalwood and musk.
In any case, though, this goes on the to buy list. Smelling like that, at that price, how could it not? I’ll accept the not love opening for what I get later.
Pics: Pexels and mine
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