Aromatics Elixir (1971)
by Clinique

I would love to give this an elaborate review, because I feel it deserves some kind of respect for the composition. But in all honesty, the scent was overall repulsive to me as I felt it was choking me. It's not even shocking or "bad smelling", it's just too much, I felt like I was eating a full plate of expensive incense stick. I could not figure out anything, it was plain sensory overload.

22nd December, 2011.

I've had a half a bottle of pre-reformulated AE for over a year now that a friend had passed on to me. I only accepted it because it used to be my aunt's favorite when it came out (1971) , but I disliked it tremendously. However, it was mentioned in a blog I was reading last week so I felt compelled to spray it on my skin for the first time. OMG! I can't explain it, but I was immediately smitten. I chock it up to having experienced so many vintage perfumes in the last few years that my nose learned to understand AE. Now my half full bottle suddenly looks half empty and I need more! I shudder at the thought of testing the new stuff. Now I'm on a search for some vintage AE and that Aramis 900 just in case I can't find any.

Impressions of the scent: a mystical shapeshifter that really can't be categorized. Off of the top I'd call it an herbaceous (spelling?), leather chypre. It's very dry and strangely herbal/spicy with a timid floral note that starts to peek through somewhere in the middle. This is one of those times when a scent SHOULD NOT be categorized as masculine or feminine because it's firmly in the middle. It has been compared to Aramis and Aramis 900, but I've also picked up facets of it that hint at Mitsouko and Patou 1000 and it layers well with both. Octavian has also compared it's structure to Kouros.

For those who love those powerhouse vintage chypres, this is not to be passed on and if you can, get a vintage from Ebay to experience the perfumer Bernard Chant's original intent (he also made Aramis). Sillige is so big you only need one spray, any more will go too far and everyone around you may hate you, including you.

30th October, 2011.

I am a latecomer to Aromatics Elixir. My first encounter with this fragrance yielded admiration for its complexity coupled with conviction that I would never wear it personally. It seemed to0 much of the dirty earth, more of an environmental atmosphere, herbaceous to the point of medicinal application like a healing poultice rather than something experienced merely for pleasure. Then I began to experience it through a lovely co worker who wears the body lotion like a soft mantle and through her, my experience of AE began to shift. I pulled out an old sample I had tucked away and spent an evening with Aromatics Elixir, and felt immediate infatuation. My husband's response to it delighted me : "It reminds me of an earlier time when all possibilities lay ahead." It must have something to do with the patchouli. Another male friend of mine said simply, "It smells like sex." Complex indeed, and Aromatics Elixir will soon be joining my wardrobe. Once again, never say never.

21st August, 2011.

I can't understand this fragrance. I can almost see why people love it, yet at the same time I can see why people dislike it.

The opening is bitter, strong and alcoholic. To me it smelt like nail polish remover complete with hints of acetone. Not a particulary pleasant olfactory experience.

The heart is fierce and powerful. It's like a floral explosion on your skin. I found it confusing and disturbing to say the least.

I get the medicinal and herbaceous quality that other reviewers have described, in the drydown. It was too green and musty for my liking. In fact it was very difficult for me to identify any particular notes. Aromatics Elixir can be quite messy at times.

I wanted to experience a rich, warming and unique fragrance, but what I received was unwelcoming and strange. I still for the life of me, can't understand this scent. Definitely not my cup of tea.

26th June, 2011.

It did shock me the first time I gave it a full wear because of the obvious presence of aldehyded-geranium notes morphing into rose accords, so later I decided to layer it with patchouli eo. (BTW, this drew compliments).

I kept on trying this at home, AE is one of those scents that in my case call for sensory analysis. I find it very complex and not an easy one to get, at all, besides the fact that several questions come to mind when testing this, for example, the notes I perceive during the time the fragrance evolves and the associations and descriptors I can think of.

Today, when sniffing it on my arm, I realized that what was getting me was this herbal animalic accord, which could be due to musk, the note which might explain its masculine character: as mentioned so many times, AE is a women's fragrance that can be worn by men. Thus, the floral accords would be suddenly forced to a turn in direction by musk, before proceeding to a gentler dry-down.

I strongly belief this last effect is the reason why AE is so difficult to appreciate, for it makes the blend smell somehow discordant - it is not the usual development found in most blends, for the initial olfactory proposal radically changes after minutes, somehow similar to a trader that sells you some good, being that due to the manufacturer's prowess it magically morphs when using it.

I have to make clear that this is what the ones wearing it could perceive; however, what others smell on those wearing AE might be another completely, different story.

29th April, 2011.

Tragically, this is my mother's signature fragrance--a decision I'll never understand, leaving all psychoanalytical interpretations out of it. I recall sneaking up to her vanity around the age of 8, uncapping her EDP, and thinking--literally--"What...on earth...is this?" Up to that point, I had never encountered a perfume which I found downright unpleasant, and after smelling AE, my little 8-year-old brain had to invent a new category under the heading "strange things adults do." Even still, I place it in that counterintuitive quadrant of "sophisticated but offensive." Where some people get soft, clean, and earthy, I get spiky, soapy, and medicinal. I would rather rub my face in a box of powdered laundry detergent than wear AE. In my experience, this scent is definitive proof that genetics don't have complete control over all things olfactory.

26th April, 2011.