Elizabeth Arden
Elizabeth Arden
371 votes
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Melon and peach dominate immediately, sweet and almost sticky-fresh, whilst bergamot and mandarin orange provide citrus scaffolding. The orange blossom adds a delicate nod toward florality, but the fruity elements are unmistakably in command, creating something akin to a bottled compote—candied and faintly synthetic.
The cyclamen and osmanthus gradually assert themselves, bringing a cooler, vaguely powdered tone that softens the fruit's sweetness. The jasmine and rose emerge with restraint, creating a diffuse floral cloud rather than a defined centre, whilst the orris root briefly flickers with an almost herbal, pencil-shaving quality before fading into the increasingly sweet musk base.
Cedar and sandalwood attempt a final woody declaration, but the composition has largely dissolved by this point. What remains is predominantly amber and musk—a soft, skin-scent warmth with lingering traces of the peachy-floral heart, barely perceptible beyond thirty centimetres. The oakmoss adds a whisper of earthy complexity, but the overall effect is one of olfactory exhaustion.
Elizabeth Arden's Sunflowers is a fragrance caught between seasons—caught, frankly, between what it wants to be and what David Apel actually created in 1993. This is no floral powerhouse; rather, it's a whispered suggestion of summer fruit arrangements left on a pale wooden dresser.
The opening assault is decidedly fruity-forward, with melon and peach muscling past the bergamot and mandarin orange in what feels like an almost aggressive candy-sweet opening. It's here that you understand Apel's ambition: a bright, commodified rendition of orchard abundance. Yet almost immediately, the composition pivots into something more hesitant. The cyclamen and osmanthus emerge with a peculiar, slightly powdered restraint, and the jasmine feels diluted, as though filtered through cheesecloth. The orris root lends a brief moment of iris-like metallic-floral interest, but it quickly fades beneath the sweeter rose accord.
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3.5/5 (377)