Private Collection Jasmine White Moss (2009)
by Estée Lauder

I give this high marks for an original jasmine fragrance becuase it starts out drier than any other jasmine frangrance I have ever smelled. I would rate it higher if the dryness stayed throughout the fragrance. It starts with a strong grassy, salty accord that offers a counterpoint to any floral sweetness. The grassy note is my favorite part of this fragrance. It is an extremely clean vetiver that smells like dried grass, which is beautiful. As for oakmoss, it may use a certain percentage of the real ingredient (which I always think smells a bit like salted popcorn) but most of the moss note consists of a technologically-rafted accord that is stronger and drier than the real thing. As this part fades away, a more traditional jasmine fragrance emerges, one that is creamy and fuity, almost cool and aquatic because it involves a
lovely melon aroma. By itself, this part of the development offers a sweet, pleasant, abstract jasmine. I would like to see the dry part hang onto the wet part longer because that trick elevated this fragrance to a unique take on jasmine.

2nd June, 2011.

This scent has a very retro style that may not be for everyone, but i think it fully represents what the good old days of E.L. were and it takes a lot of confidence to release a scent like this in the current market.
This is a very green chypre very saturated floral with heady , rich white flowers and if used sparingly, it is a very nice elegant and chic scent, it has a base of moss and woods. The top smells very much like galbanum, similar to the top of YSL's Y, but where Y remains green throughout the drydown, this one changes from green to jasmine-ylang to white moss. It's good, but can be cloying.

9th August, 2010.

An extremely boring, aggressively, synthetically "fresh" green/white floral that assaults my nose.

24th April, 2010.

A modern version of Diorella, or - should I say Eau Sauvage?
There's no doubt about the overall theme here - white flowers in the background, helional, of course - and the "modern chypre" ingredients. What I love about it is it's freshness and staying-power, the greenery is present through to the final lingering notes.

It's the sort of self-assured MODERN green perfume I like and have been looking for for ages. Tenacious, honest and uncomplicated, though not very "innovative". I prefer it to many recent expensive "niche fragrances" of over-cultivated sophistication.

8th March, 2010.

Private Collection Jasmine White Moss is like Cristalle with fangs and talons. I found it very disappointing. There are two impressions I get from PCJWM, other than its being an obvious nod to Cristalle. One is the smell of acetone. You know, fingernail polish remover. The other impression I get is a good measure of helional, which here smells discordant. Helional, by the way, is the impression of aluminum tinged milk. If JWM doesn't contain helional, then it contains something very close to it. JWM is much too rough for my tastes. My advice is to go for Cristalle, the real deal.

2nd February, 2010.

Uhmm... all round, no. Not enough. Yes it's fresh at first, but soon the vaguely sweet and musty drydown already mentioned creeps to the fore. And stays there. This smells really familiar, but the drydown reveals the (sadly) modern nature of this scent. I don't care if it DOES outperform Cristalle and Eau Sauvage in longevity, as this has nothing but that fact to say for itself, I'll stick to the classics when I want refreshing crispness. And for jasmine I'm sure the same applies; been done better.

16th October, 2009.