Legendary Beauty – Estée Lauder Beautiful Perfume Review

“The fragrance of a thousand flowers”

Launched in 1985 and created by Sophia Grojsman, Beautiful is described by Estée Lauder as “the fragrance of a thousand flowers” [1], and it is an exceptional example of a big floral bouquet, something that the Lauder brand seems to specialise in. I would classify Beautiful as a floral chypre, it’s a wonderful blend of heady florals and rich, mossy base notes.

Beautiful has always been marketed as Estée Lauder’s bridal perfume and I can see why, it is completely romantic and there is a young innocence to it that conjures up images of beautiful brides draped in white. Despite it’s obvious bridal connotations, it isn’t exclusively bridal, it is wonderful enough to be kept only for special occasions but also works perfectly well as an everyday perfume. Beautiful is one of those perfumes that would make a good signature scent, not that I’d EVER dream of having one of those, I’m too greedy!

I always find it hard to review the classics, it’s difficult to do them justice whilst attempting to showcase them in a new and interesting way. . That said, it is a perfume that I appreciate from an olfactory perspective, and I truly believe that it it is more than a classic, it is a legend. It it so legendary in fact that it is rumoured that Andy Warhol was buried with a bottle.

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The Candy Perfume Boy’s Guide to Tuberose

I have always wanted to ensure that The Candy Perfume Boy is a diverse blog that not only features perfume reviews but also showcases interesting articles and pieces on different aspects of perfume/fragrance. One of the things I’ve wanted to do for a while is a series of guides to particular perfume notes and genres, including information on the fragrant facets of the note/genre as well as a list of ‘reference perfumes’ that showcase the note/genre in different and interesting ways.

I’m a tuberose freak, so it makes sense that I start with one of my favourite notes. Why do I love tuberose? Well, as you probably know, I’m a bit of a ‘Fragrant Magpie’, in the sense that I am attracted to those perfumes that are shiny, loud and showy and tuberose is most definitely shiny, loud and showy!

Tuberose

Tuberose is a night-blooming white flower, which despite the name, has absolutely no relation to rose whatsoever. The name actually comes from its swollen, tuberous roots. Tuberose has been used in for perfume for many years but it is also used as wedding and funeral flowers in some cultures.

On a side note, Tuberose is a flower that I’ve always wanted to grow, but it is really difficult to find in garden centres over here and a lot of places haven’t even heard of it, which is a shame because I need me some of those pretty white flowers on my balcony!

The Smell

Tuberose is a complex smell that can be described as; lush, green, cool, almost camphorous and also buttery, rubbery, exotic, sweet, tropical and like white hot flesh.

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My Very Own Narnia – The Capsule Wardrobe

Last weekend, after much nagging from my long-suffering partner, I decided to have a tidy of my perfume collection and samples box. Now, anyone who knows me well will be fully aware that tidying is not really something I do very often, in fact, it is something that I avoid at all costs.

Anyway, during my tidy up, I totalled up the number of perfume bottles in my collection and I was genuinely shocked when I came to the nice round number of 120. “How can I have so much perfume, I never feel like I have enough choice” I thought, “Do I really need so much?” and “Do I feel like I don’t know what to wear because I have too much choice?”

This led me to think in depth about my collection of fragrances, what would I choose if I were to reduce its size considerably?

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Now That’s What I Call Perfume – The Best of the 80’s

Ahh the 80’s, a time of excess where everything was big; the clothes, the music, the hair and of course the perfume.

The perfume in the 80’s was loud, proud and would announce it’s arrival a long time before you entered a room, and stay a long time after you left. There were big bouquets of aldehydic florals and massive oriental spice bombs. I shouldn’t forget the HUGE jammy roses and the loud syrupy tuberoses either.

These fragrances, affectionately known as ‘Perfumes with Shoulder Pads’ by the #fumechat Tweeters are representative of the era, and whilst they may not be entirely popular today I have a real soft spot for them.

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