Beautiful Perfume by Estée Lauder

Beautiful perfume was launched in 1985, and within Estée Lauder it is still considered one of the most difficult ever created. According to Estée Lauder's website, the formula of the perfume is one of the most complex of the brand, with such ingredients like: roses, mandarins, iris, lemon blossom, marigold, lily-of-the-valley, jasmine, ylang-ylang, sandalwood, vetiver and amber/

It required many years of trials and errors and researching to get to the final result: a romantic, feminine, out of time fragrance. This is what Beautiful perfume is: a fragrance that does not depend on current fashion, and that reflects and idea of woman who feels beautiful. Since its launch, all the marketing campaigns for this perfume had two elements in common: white flowers as basic note, and the image of the bride as symbol of innocence and being on love (see clip below).

The opening notes are quite feminine, and almost completely floral: classic, white garden flowers. In the middle notes the fragrance is more open, keeping the line of white flowers, but taking on a soapy, clean jasmine, and some more yellow floral notes like ylang-ylang and daffodil. As hours go by, Beautiful perfume's style is still clean. Jasmine still stands out, but it is surrounded by other flowers on the same line. Honestly, I find it difficult to tell one from the other, but I can clearly smell a hint of light marigold, very close to mandarin. All around there is a creamy sweet sensation, partly a secondary effect of florals, partly a mix of amber and lightly incensed notes. In the base notes the range of florals is wider and has may lines: daffodils, classic jasmine, amber mixed with mandarin (that give a sweet touch) rose petals, vanilla and iris.

As you can see the variety of flowers is wide and well selected. The majority of them complete each other, resulting in a very feminine fragrance and with really few restrictions on its use.
It works well as daily perfume for a work environment, and even if it has enough intensity to be used also by night, the creamy clean notes give more an idea of a spring or early summer morning.
I would not recommend Beautiful perfume for first dates either. It is an extremely feminine fragrance, but it is maybe more suitable for night out with an established rather than with a prospective partner.

See my review of celebrity perfumes.