The story goes that the making of this French perfume took four years, that Estée Lauder had it tested on some friends and that the name Beautiful was the only one they could come up with.

Imagine an ad for a washing liquid or a soap: a large, open, multi-colored field of flowers, rose and jasmine among the others. Fresh, clean, and sweet, the typical sweetness of the eighties, when it was first launched. The opening notes reveal also that there’s a secret orchard in this field of flowers: plums, ripe peaches and citrus.

Beautiful Perfume

Yet it’s not only fruits and flowers what Beautiful perfume has to offer, there’s more complexity underneath. There is more than a floral perfume to Beautiful. During the day it will send out subtle oriental notes of incense, herbs and woods. I know it sounds silly, but if there’s such thing as a queen of vegetal world it would smell like this perfume smells after two hours. If Opium perfume by YSL whispers in your ear, Beautiful may also try to seduce you, but in a more open way.

Like all Estée Lauder’s fragrances, Beautiful perfume will last for long. Its oily texture will give  you at least six hours of freshness, but if you find that your skin kills it, there is also a scented moisturizer which is designed to be used with the perfume, and should fix it to your skin.

Some perfume reviews say Beautiful perfume is outdated, but I beg to differ, indeed, to me it’s as evergreen as ever. This perfume is the typical candidate as a signature perfume: one you will wear everyday, in any part of the day, in every season, people will associate it to you and will know you are in the room even before seeing you.

I know it is sometimes futile to suggest which age is more suitable for a perfume, I’ve met women in their forties wearing Vera Wang Princess, and teenagers wearing Opium, but I would say that Beautiful perfume is a young perfume, it fits better on a young woman before the age of 30.