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"Beyond Paradise has incredible wearability."

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Floral

Even a person who does not wear perfume can probably identify a floral scent. Florals are perfumes dominated by flowers.

If you are a person who is familiar with perfumes, you probably know that most fragrances use at least some floral notes. So what makes a floral? If the fragrances is mostly flowers, it's a floral. There are subdivisions that sometimes come into play here, like white florals or pink florals.

Florals are great mixers and you run into citrus florals and fruity florals and other combinations as well.

In terms of fragrance families, this one is a basic. It is sometimes perceived as a bit old-fashioned, mainly by people who want to smell like soap, but I prefer to think of it as a classic. The right floral is like a beautiful sunny day with puffy clouds--sure, we didn't invent it and we aren't the first people who benefited from it, but it's still nice.

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Beyond Paradise

Estee Lauder scents have a reputation of being very potent. Knowing that makes me always approach the bottle a bit gingerly, because you know that what comes out, even in a tiny little baby spritz, is going to zoom into your nose. So the first time I tried Beyond Paradise I was cautious, but I still found the scent extraordinarily powerful.

My initial impression of Beyond Paradise was honeysuckle. It also contains jasmine and some other soft florals. There's also a bit of an orange opener, just a little whiff of citrus on the top. It is a sweet floral, not cloying, but a kind of thick, lush sweetness. It sort of reminds me of the old-fashioned neighborhoods around New Orleans (in better days) when jasmine and honeysuckle grew wild and perfumed the night air. I'm not from New Orleans but I live on the Gulf Coast and I can say that we have fatter air than most places. It's humid and heavy and thick and it holds things like jasmine and honeysuckle in a way that makes them seem borderless or infinite. It's like you can't separate the air from the smells.

The Estee Lauder people call the fragrance tropical and I guess that's what they mean by it. There is something warm and floral and opulent about it. And there's no edges or edginess to it.

So my first encounter with Beyond Paradise is one of cautionary exploration and an overwhelming jolt of honeysuckle and jasmine and a reminder of fat Gulf Coast evening breezes. At this precise moment, I cannot possibly imagine wearing this stuff. It's overwhelming. It's huge.

Of course, being a true woman of fragrance, that momentary pull-back was just that: momentary. I sprayed a bunch on myself right then and, as is my fashion, started to wear this scent religiously for three or four days (I'm a serial perfumer).

Beyond Paradise wears really well on me. It's still not my favorite swoosh out of the bottle, but it wears on me so well that it has been bumped up not just into the regular rotation but near the top of it.

Beyond Paradise has incredible wearability. I have many friends who are total fragrance monogamists, utterly devoted to one scent for all occasions. One of them is in a monogamous relationship with Beyond Paradise. Interestingly, her comment on the scent mirrored my own experience. "It just wears well on me."

Wearability is not a commonly discussed factor in perfume reviews, but perhaps it should be. Most people by perfume for the top notes, those delightful little notes that gush up out of the bottle the first time you encounter a scent. Perfumistas know that top notes (like meaningful eye contact across a crowded room) do not last and shop with the dry-down in mind. Wearability transcends mere dry-down. It's the sum total experience of having a perfume on your skin over the course of a day or many days.

Beyond Paradise is very wearable. It seems to metamorphose into the right kind of scent at the right time. Although it's a knock-down floral, it can be sporty or businesslike or playful or weary or look-at-me-I'm-wearing-stiletto-heeled-boots. It works at the beach or in a casino, two places I have not worn it but I know it would work there.

This may be one of the easiest scents around. If you try it, go slowly and don't pass it over because you just don't see yourself as a honeysuckle kind of gal.

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Estee Lauder

Estee Lauder was an immigrant woman living in New York when she started to peddle some face creams. She eventually owned a little cosmetic company that reportedly was so small she changed her voice when answering the phone to hide from the fact that the same person who answered the phone was also the shipping department.

Estee Lauder was a quality fanatic, a workaholic, and a hands-on manager. But perhaps the greatest thing she brought to the perfume industry was her salesmanship.

Estee Lauder, more than anything else, was a saleswoman. She is best known for pioneering the use of the "free sample," a staple in the cosmetics industry today.

Other Scents by Estee Lauder

Estee Lauder makes a lot of "family scents." For instance, you can get Beyond Paradise and a similar (but different) fragrance called Beyond Paradise Blue. She is also the brand behind Beautiful (also Beautiful Sheet), Pure White Linen, Youth Dew, and the re-make of that classic scent, Youth Dew Amber Nude.