Beyond Paradise (2003)
by Estée Lauder

From Luca Turin's book:"[fragrance is] a portable form of intelligence."

From the AMA:: "[NASA] researchers are concerned about the long-term effects of exposing yourself to high levels of vibration. At least one is worried that brain damage is possible".

First up I should confess that with the odd exception (Lys Mediterranee comes to mind) I am not a fan of full-blown florals, so clearly this was never going to be the scent for me.... but I find this almost unbearably strident, especially in the first half-hour - tropically bright with potent melon overtones. An hour later and the jasmine and honeysuckle start to come through (although still with a hint of melon) but there onwards I find it strangely linear and flat - nothing draws me to keep smelling at my wrist. It reminds me of one of those huge cocktails, complete with paper umbrella and plastic flower, that a girl in the Eighties would have sipped by the pool - sweeter than she'd bargained for and probably destined to bring on a headache. Having read the other reviews, I'd be interested to smell this on someone else - maybe I'm one of the unlucky ones this simply doesn't suit!

I'm with ubuandibeme on this one...I think I understand why some call this a masterpiece (the straight-from-the-get-go warmth and complexity), but then there are times when I all I get from it is fabric softener. I'll stick with Beautiful as well...guess I'm just a sucker for a mossy base.

I know this is redundant, me saying that Beyond Paradise is beautiful, but it is, it's like an orchestra for the gods. There is so much depth to this fragrance, so many levels, I don't think I even have the abilities to begin to delve deeper and elaborate properly! It's very intelligent for a feminine fragrance, which isn't too common for feminine scents.

I'm convinced this is one of those fragrances that smells very different depending on the wearer. And it even smells different on this wearer depending on the day. I sense the honeysuckle and jasmine, yet this juice is neither sweet or "wangy" (my word for the unpleasant, funky thing that indoles do on me). I have a very hard time picking out any individual notes, but the overall impression is that of a dry, green floral. Sometimes this starts out on me with a sharpness akin to hairspray, particularly in cooler weather. Fortunately this doesn't present in hot, humid weather and BP also works well in dry heat. I find many of my favorite fragrances too heavy to wear in very hot 90º+ weather, but this one seems made for it and is very enjoyable on those days. I first tried this while in vacation in Florida, loved it, and wore little else for the rest of the trip. However, I absolutely cannot wear this when the temperature is less than 80º. It smells persistenly like hairspray and cat urine!

This is not a stable scent and changes a lot from skin to skin. I have bought it during first marketing rush in 2003. I thought it was magical as all flowers of the world should be in this potion. Hyacinth and honeysuckle are my two favorite flowers They are rarely distinguished in a floral because of their scents being faint in quality;they were even there. I wore it happily for a few months with dozens of compliments from even strangers. Two of my friends liked it so much that bought for themselves. I have gifted mine to a third friend which liked it very much but not bought in respect of me. So i have said goodbye to my love before it became official fragrance of our floor. But none of these three friends of mine enjoyed the scent on themselves as they do on me. Our other office friends who complimented it on me did not even take notice it on them. (God has justice?) Skin chemistry changes a lot. And this can be the only explanation about the negative reviews here. Beyond paradise is a really wonderful floral.