Estēe Lauder
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
The aldehydes hit with genuine sparkle, that characteristic soapy-metallic shimmer that feels decidedly of its era, immediately joined by peach and raspberry that add a slightly gourmand sweetness without descending into candy. It's fresh in the manner that presupposes you've just stepped out of a bath, all clean linens and citrus tones.
By the second hour, the florals fully emerge and the composition reveals its true complexity—ylang ylang brings a creamy, slightly tropical undertone that plays beautifully against the greener iris and the peppery snap of carnation. Honey and jasmine create a warm, almost honeyed centre, whilst rose provides a classical anchor. The woody-mossy base begins to shadow the florals now, adding depth without dominance.
What remains after four hours is largely the cedar and sandalwood framework with traces of styrax providing a whisper of amber warmth, the florals now merely suggestion rather than statement. The musk grounds everything into skin-scent territory, intimate and powdery. It fades rather than dies, a gradual dissolution that feels entirely fitting for a fragrance so fundamentally understated in its projection.
Estēe is a fragrance caught in a particular moment of 1960s optimism—Betty Busse's composition reads as a love letter to the floral, before the minimalism of later decades rendered such profusion unfashionable. This is a super cologne that refuses apology for its aldehydic brightness; those opening aldehydes don't whisper, they announce themselves with peach and raspberry sitting in their slipstream like bright silk scarves. What follows is a genuinely democratic floral heart where no single bloom dominates—the honey-sweetened jasmine and carnation don't struggle for dominance against ylang ylang and iris, they coexist in something approaching equilibrium. This is the fragrance's greatest strength: rather than the common floral hierarchy where one note bullies the others, Busse has orchestrated something more like a polite conversation at a garden party where everyone contributes.
The chypré accords run deeper than the surface brightness suggests. Beneath the rose and lily of the valley sits a woody-mossy undercurrent—cedarwood and styrax providing architectural support that prevents the composition from becoming cloying. There's a spiced earthiness lurking too, enough to give the florals a subtle, almost herbal edge.
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4.0/5 (99)