Aromatics Elixir by Clinique

Aromatics Elixir is one of my favorites. If you enjoy it, don’t let go. It calms me with its many notes, like an aromatherapy session. The chamomile is addictive and well-crafted, present from start to finish. The opening is strong, citrusy, aldehydic with geraniums; the aldehyde doesn’t smell like in other classics, it’s more discreet. As it dries down, an opulent rose that seems to be wilting. The carnation, along with oakmoss, links it to cousins like Cabochard or Paloma Picasso. Excellent longevity; it leaves a trail on clothes for hours. Layer it with Tea Rose and Cabochard, and magic happens.

I’m talking about the EDT version… if you’re scared of the EDP, try this one. It’s softer, but the longevity and sillage are excellent. It’s a great classic that doesn’t go unnoticed. It pushes you and gives you strength. Being softer doesn’t mean it’s weak; it’s magnetic and people will always ask what you’re wearing because it smells totally different from current fashion. It’s precious, intriguing, divine. It’s not sweet, so sweet lovers should stay away. It’s dry and humid at the same time, powdery, woody, and floral, but not green field flowers, rather personality-driven and atypical flowers. It dresses you up and represents you. I love it 100%, and it works well in summer because it’s not heavy.

Sorry. I like classic perfume, the kind that smells like a lady. Not necessarily to wear it all the time, but to smell and experiment. Aromatics is oriental. It’s more of a potion or essential oil than a perfume. I love its dark and effeminate base. It’s feminine, but I understand some men could wear it and smell interesting on male skin.

I have the transparent bottle, Eau de Toilette, not the Parfum in the photo, since Fragrántica doesn’t have a profile for the EDT. The aroma is almost the same, a “slightly” lighter version. It’s still a powerful perfumazo with huge sillage and slightly less longevity than the Parfum. Discovering it was a gift because they no longer make perfumes with capital letters, those you can smell from afar, so complex and well-made. It seems perfumers now fear adding more than three notes, which seems boring and vague to me. When I finish the EDT, I’ll go for the Parfum. It has become one of my favorites: this is pure glory, a gentleman perfume. It warms you up in the cold, greets you before you arrive, keeps chatting when you leave, because it envelops spaces and caresses those who approach. It offers aroma, longevity, and kilometer-long sillage. This is how a perfume should be. A work of art.

I won’t contradict the majority, but no matter how I look at it, I can’t associate Aromatics Elixir with unisex. It’s a matter of perspective, but for me, it’s eminently feminine, and that’s exactly why I love it. I acknowledge they’ve toned down the EDT, which is why I stick with the EDP. You may or may not like it, but it certainly doesn’t leave me indifferent. It’s bold, timeless, capricious, and demands confidence while providing it. It has a dark sensuality that pairs perfectly with the austere elegance of self-assured women. A fragrance for ladies with a capital L. For me, it’s a safe bet: it’s one of my absolute favorites, and I won’t hesitate to wear it, even if it doesn’t sound masculine (ironic, I know, but even that’s enjoyable). It’s often labeled as a perfume for older women, and by today’s standards, it might be, but it’s also said to be for people with character and style, which are in short supply. Highly recommended.

I just received a 45 ml bottle of the EDT and I’m surprised. That idea that the EDT version is “on a diet” isn’t exact. It’s true it’s softer than the EDP, but in terms of sillage and longevity, it outdoes thousands of fragrances sold as perfume that are nothing but water. Excellent chypre that, like many others, needs time to learn, understand, and love it. For now, this little bottle and I are getting along great.

I’m sorry, but this perfume is possibly the worst I’ve ever smelled in my life. It’s intrusive, old-lady-ish, but not in a nice vintage way; it’s heavy to the point where I’d define it as ”unbearable heat,” a perfume that ”screams” a lot. Plus, it’s way too popular; when I didn’t know it, I asked someone wearing it for the name because I’d smelled it on so many people I couldn’t believe it was that popular, as if the wearers were anosmic due to its unbearable intensity.

I love this scent; it’s intoxicating, a caress for the senses, an unmistakable fragrance. I wouldn’t recommend it for work because it’s super invasive—if you wear it, you perfume the entire subway car. It’s for special occasions, preferably relaxed nightouts, nothing like a club. Most importantly, apply a tiny amount, just a light touch, or you risk overwhelming everyone around you.

This vintage-smelling jewel arrived in my hands a few days ago along with the hand cream as a gift. The scent reminds me a bit of Lapidus’s Création, which is one of my favorites, and also Estée Lauder’s Youth Dew. It’s a simple bottle but with a complex, strong, and personality-filled fragrance. My mom says it should be how Cleopatra’s sarcophagus smelled, haha. It’s a true luxury oriental, lasts hours on skin and clothes, and has an enormous sillage.

This perfume could be worn by men just as easily as by women; in fact, if it were released today, it would probably be in the men’s fragrance section. Although to my nose it’s beautiful—a rich, powerful, spicy, balsamic scent, almost worthy of a Grail—I think Aromatics Elixir is an acquired taste or for someone inclined toward green chypres, as it feels dry, herbaceous, woody, and green to me. You can smell the rose and flowers, but its green and woody facets are emphasized to a level that will delight some and repel others. I’m very happy to have bought a 2010 miniature, half full of dust, at a perfumery that barely exists anymore, with a discontinued and vintage section. A scent that would have been perfect when we frequented alternative discos in the early 90s, packed there a couple of days a week. The realm of punks, moods, and alternatives, but also chic people who wanted to party big. Back then, those little bottles of perfumed oil were popular because they were cheap and some smelled really good: patchouli, musk, jasmine, Ylang Ylang… with clouds of nicotine hovering over everything, and occasionally a clearly perceptible note of cannabis floating through the disco and mixing with the dancers’ sweat. If you inhaled this for a while, those odors would condense and turn into an intense aroma, and I was completely intoxicated by them. Aromatics Elixir would have stood out even then and would have succeeded. This fragrance is a declaration of war in itself, dense, intense, and full; just a couple of sprays are enough. Then it lasts, hour after hour; I can’t imagine the old version. This beautiful and complex 70s classic is so different in style from the prevailing preference for clean and fruity scents that it’s surprising: it’s still on the Clinique counter instead of behind the glass in a museum. I enjoy Aromatics Elixir, especially the initial stages that are so polarizing, with a strong, dark, and deep opening. I love green chypres, I love vintage perfumes, I love Aromatics Elixir.

This perfume is honeywater. The initial chamomile is simply exquisite. It evolves from the very first moment, telling a story of plant care and incense. It’s warm and enveloping at all times. The development is very well balanced, and in the dry down, the incense remains, its flame getting smaller but not extinguishing. My favorite moment is the beginning, and I love smelling it on other people. The name is fitting because it’s an elixir and feels like one. A chamomile, potion of natural spells. Although wearing it on my skin gets tiring after a few hours, I tried the cream and I absolutely love it. Truly marvelous.

I love it. It has a very evident aldehydic opening. And that earthy touch of oakmoss makes it irresistible. I feel its floral notes as creamy. If you like sugary perfumes, stay away from it 🤣.

It has something that feels mundane and yet supernatural, evoking beautiful images, a vast and welcoming world, cut glass vases, and fantasy creatures in imagined forests. Don’t trust the opening; it’s a bit musty, but as minutes pass, it transforms into something precious. At thirty minutes, I smell the chamomile and balms. My impression is that Aromatics Elixir resembles the vapor coming from a wooden drawer where grandma kept hand-woven tablecloths with baroque details; it’s a warm winter sun after church, a midday party in some seventies home with long tables and curved sofas to welcome many relatives who surely smoked and crushed cigarettes in elegant ashtrays. Aromatics Elixir is the scent of vegetal fermentation and mossy earth I perceive when cycling at dusk and coming across a wooded spot where rainwater has pooled because sunlight doesn’t reach. Age? Doesn’t matter; it’s for all adults, 18 or 20 years and up. I see it more as a social perfume than romantic, and although most wouldn’t wear it because it seems vintage, I’m sure that, if perceived at some event, something evocative will pass through many minds, and they’ll be left with trembling eyes and hearts remembering what is no longer physically there, and just a few moments of Aromatics Elixir are enough to bring it back to memory.

Today, wanting to imitate Midnight Poison or old Elle by YSL (which are the same), I thought about mixing Swiss Just’s Patchouli oil with a Damask rose oil my dad brought me from Egypt (it’s not essential, it’s for use as perfume oil, like an attar, but it’s just rose, young, fresh, and honeyed). The result wasn’t what I was looking for, and honestly, I didn’t think it would turn out like Midnight Poison because that seems to be a different type of rose, more red, less honeyed, more velvety… And what do you know, what did the resulting scent remind me of? I fall and I rise: it reminded me of Aromatics Elixir! At least the current one… The same accord I feel when I smell the perfume cap. But exactly the same! Obviously, Aromatics Elixir is complex and has different phases, but that combination undoubtedly reminds me of Aromatics… And I thought that effect was the vetiver. Turns out patchouli is quite predominant (a fairly pure patchouli besides)… At least in one of the development phases.

Lacking Wrappings or Clinique, I decided to try this; I’d heard about it for 25 years and loved it; I’m into strong, intense perfumes. I’ve used it alternately with others, but it’s always been with me… but two years ago I suddenly discovered something I didn’t like; a musty note hit me that I’d never felt before, and I stopped using it. I still have it, and I put it on sometimes, but it’s nothing like what I’ve felt with it before. And let’s not talk about the trail it leaves; in my house, in my closet, even after washing clothes, and in my office, everyone knew it was there just by walking in.