Knowing (1988)
by Estée Lauder

I started wearing Knowing in the 90's, and fell in love with the reaction it got. Men would come up to me, say I smelled great, then give me their number and walk away as if it were already too embarrassing of an encounter to bear any further risk of embarrassment.

To the comment of allergies or sensitivities: I have chronic sinusitis, with few allergies, but TONS of sensitivities. I can not be in the same room with Easter lilies or wild phlox, but I can still wear Knowing. However, my mother is extremely sensitive to the scent, and if there is even the remote possibility I will be around her, I will not wear Knowing.

15th December, 2011.

There is something about these big chypres that doesn't sit well with me. Allergies? Sensitivites? I don't know for sure, but Knowing doesn't work.

Rose, what rose?

Knowing is in style of big bold Chypres with a capital C. Perfect if that is your thing. It's not mine.

26th March, 2011. (Last Edited: 27th June, 2011.)

A dark chypre that makes me think of a forest of thorny roses growing in a mossy ground.
For some reason it reminds me of Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty, when Prince Phillip fights with Maleficent in the bush of thorns.
It is intoxicatingly feminine, alluding to the scent of a woman and at the same time lush, warm and woody.
Powerful at first spritz but with the softest drydown. It sinks into your skin instead of just staying on top, but never losing its aura of self confidence.
I think it is a lot more Maleficent than Princess Aurora.

Bonus: it is inexpensive but doesn't smell cheap at all.

4th January, 2011.

Knowing is a rose chypre. A large category, rose chypres can be dark, fruity, sweet, leathery, day-glo, animalic. It’s a fragrance family that has a large range of tones. Take all the forms a chypre might take and multiply that by all the facets of rose. What distinguishes Knowing is its lack of sweet elements. Ungaro’s Diva has its honey and Paloma Picasso’s Paloma has sweet balsams. Knowing has a dry woodiness that perfectly ties the moss to the spiced rose. The key here is the rose. Not a dewy rose, not a flaming rose. This rose is dry verging on bitter and is in perfect accord with the moss. This is the fragrance I'd recommend when people ask for a rose that a man could wear, which is funny because I'd wear anything I like whether targeted to boys or girls. Also funny because the EL fragrances always seem to have that suggestion of solid, practical American femininity (I guess I'm falling for marketing here.) But you know what? Knowing shares as much (categorically) with the rose chypres as it does (in tone) with men's power fragrances of the 80s. It is huge, woody, has preternatural sillage and a half-life of days. My god, this could be Antaeus.

29th November, 2010. (Last Edited: 9th April, 2011.)

What makes Aldehydes Patcholi Jasmine
Sandalwood & Civet a good perfume
ingredients i just don't know. 90 %
of my perfumes That i love are these
ingredents it's Romance Wraped in a bottle An elegant perfume perfect for
going to a high class Resturant
Going to a Posh Fine Art Museim
having a candle light dinner with your
signifigant other. i'v notice some a leather note in this perfume i'm deffinily buy this again when it runs out.

16th August, 2010.

I wore KNOWING when it first came out in the 80s....I drenched myself in it (the horror!!), but now as I revisit this old-time favorite....I do apply it with a lighter hand.
Now, KNOWING has a lot of oakmoss in it and I fear(ed) a reformulation, so I got my hands on a bottle of new old stock (15 years old) and a bottle of fresh new stock and I will compare the 2 side by side.
The old new stock is a deeper amber color whilst the new stock is a lighter gold/slightly green color (I didn't notice the green tinge - it's so light - until I compared it side by side with the older one). Also, the older bottle has a more secure gold piece on the bottle.
I spritzed the older KNOWING on my left wrist and the newer on my right....I think I did pretty well with equal sized squirts. Within the first moments - I thought, oh no, the new old stock is "old" because a few moments of musty "old fragrance" were evident, but they disappeared in about 10 minutes and now I believe I am smelling true old stock in my comparison to new stock.
The old new stock now smells (25 minutes later), a little softer and less sharp than the new stock but this is a VERY minimal difference....honestly I would not notice this difference if I weren't doing a side by side. They smell very similar (so good job EL if there have been changes). The sillage of both seem the same. When I press my nose to the skin I cannot make out obvious note differences, however the one difference that I do get - and I can't explain since they do smell almost identical - is that when I breathe in the old new stock I almost think of the smell I get when walking into an Hermes boutique, however I do not get this mind/smell image when I breathe the new stock. VERY WEIRD and I can't place what is causing this difference.
Overall, if you are a KNOWING fan, I say kudos to EL for keeping this one true! I am a KNOWING fan and when I wear it, I feel rich and sophisticated and unique, but as others have said you've got to be in the right mood. Fabulous chypre IMO!

12nd August, 2010.