White Linen (1978)
by Estée Lauder

Another classic that deserves the label because of its groundbreaking status when it was introduced… White Linen is, in a way, remarkably modern considering its date of introduction. It’s labeled an aldehydic floral but I’m not sure that the name applies. While it does have aldehydes in abundance, it doesn’t smell flowery. Primarily what I get is that piercing soapy “texture” that is the hallmark of the fragrance’s reputation: something I would call “laundry redolence.” It’s a disguised white floral / amber / cedar texture that is attractive in the sense that it’s hard to get tired of it, and, while the fragrance is not actually “clean” in itself, it does remind me of an atmosphere of cleanliness. Later in the development I get a pleasant light rose note that is not at all obtrusive, although its softness does properly place the fragrance in the feminine ranks IMO. That rose note is the only floral note that I can pick out individually.

White Linen is one classic that really hasn’t traveled the path to obsolescence… that is… unless it is applied too liberally. It is entirely too strong if used with a heavy hand, but used lightly, it is fresh and charming. (Edit of 17 October 2008 review.)

White Linen starts off smelling strangely Avante Garde for something so well known and traditional. Intense, bitter, soapy, snuffed-candle aldehydes screech out of the bottle like the opening chords of Penderecki's Threnody For The Victims Of Hiroshima, smelling sharply alien and devoid of life, botanical or otherwise. Of course, White Linen would be unbearable if it stayed this way, and it doesn't, quickly shifting into something I can best describe as rose-water soap. It is exceedingly soapy all the way through its drydown, but not in an unpleasant or simplistic way. Probably the closest thing to White Linen's drydown is vigorously rubbing a bar of soap on your wrist, then adding the faintest dash of floral talc. It's a sexless, synthetic, inorganic smell, but really, it's very good at doing what it does - and for that, I applaud it.

THE best perfumed body powder for warmer weather ever - clean and sparkly all day long. I can't speak to the fragrance spray, but the body powder is a spring/summer HG product for me.

Smells good from the bottle and immediately when trying it, but the scent fades on my skin almost immediately.

Yuk!...this is awful. Like old granny style soap left in a drawer for 20 years. Not sexy...not anything...except a revolting brew of nastiness.Sickeningly bad!

This is one of those scents that is just perfect for a certain time and place...and is completely wrong for just about everything else! Perfect for wearing a sailor dress or sitting on a daisy-bedecked folding chair at a garden wedding. Just right for a girls' school baccalaureate or punch and cookies on the lawn at the yacht club.

In other words: any sexless WASP gathering in the summer months wouldn't be complete without White Linen's soapy brightness. It does feel out of place almost anywhere else, though!