Mainstream Monday – Sniffing a Popular Perfume
Eden has always reminded me of a “space garden”¹, this is a garden housed in some bubble on some planet we’ve never heard of. It’s a sci-fi fruity floral; a synthetic replication of paradise.
The opening is a metallic citrus and adlehydes, cool and mineral and somewhat like the opening in Kenzo Ça Sent Beau but more humid. It wears as green, citrus and humid with a hint of spicy anise. As the steam lifts, it’s a green tuberose and “space fruits” which in this case is the melon/aquatic aromachemical, Calone². And there’s a hint of dusty, vinyl records underneath all of this. The dry-down of Eden is nostalgic to the times. It’s a dense woods with patchouli, plum and a sweet tonka. It oddly enough reminds me of 1980’s Diors. It’s syrupy fruits, earthy patchouli and vanilla-ish cardboard. From the opening of this fragrance, I didn’t expect a dry-down like this.
Eden is a weird fragrance. It manages to be juicy yet dry. And fresh yet dirty. It also acts as a sort of bridge between 1980’s “everything but the kitchen sink” fragrances and 1990’s fresh, aquatic scents. The final result could be a bit of a “period piece” but it remains timeless because it’s unconventional. Eden was weird then and it’s weird now. Eden, keep letting your freak flag fly.
Notes listed include citrus, tuberose, mimosa, jasmine, rose, lily of the valley, pineapple, melon, patchouli, cedar, sandalwood and tonka bean. Launched in 1994. PERFUMER – Jean Guichard
Give Eden a try if you like such “period pieces”. Or if you like perfumes like Kenzo Ça Sent Beau, India Misteriosa Mahogany, Ted Lapidus Creation and/or strangely enough, Dior Poison.
Projection and longevity are above average. Also, I love the bottle that resembles jadeite glassware. I’m such a sucker for that shade.
In the US, the bottle isn’t easy to find in stores but it is available at online discounters like Perfume.com for under $50.
Victoria’s Final EauPINION – A weird futuristic, sci-fi space “paradise” of fruits and white flowers. An unusual blend of synthetic fruity and aquatic notes paired with a dense dry-down of patchouli and tonka. It’s a weirdo fragrance and that’s why I own it. And oddly I’ve always thought of it like a 90’s “club kid” sort of fragrance. It’s like a raver, sci-fi Eve costume. I mean, I even get “dusty vinyl” from it.
¹In 2013, CoSTUME National launched a perfume called “Cyber Garden” and when I heard of its release, I thought “What’s the point? Cacharel launched a “cyber garden” perfume twenty years ago!”
²That aromachemical that made the 90’s smell like the 90’s.
Want more reviews? Try…
I keep having to talk myself out of blind-buying Eden. “Aquatic notes get on your nerves,” I tell myself. Thanks to your review, I can add, “You don’t like tuberose, either.” The whole thing is so appealingly weird, though, and there are always exceptions….
Well, I try to discourage all blind-buying, lol, but stuff happens 😉
I wouldn’t recommend this one because it’s odd, hard to know unless you’ve tried it. I do think if you like Kenzo Ca Sent Beau or even Dior Poison there is a chance that you’ll like it vs. the aquatic-ness of stuff like Cool Water or Issey Miyake. It’s not like melon-fresh even though those elements are there. There are much more squeaky clean scents from that era.
It’s not as easy to find in the US but sometimes it shows up at drugstores and oddly enough they have testers. So, that’s worth keeping your eye out on.
And not to encourage blind-buying, there are some minis of this one available at online discounters. I’ve seen them for about $10 which I guess is a “safe” blind-buy price.
Thanks for the advice–$10 is about my blind-buy limit these days. I’ve never seen it at drugstores, but I’ll keep an eye out for it. Poison smelled genuinely poisonous on me, so that helps to squelch the impulse to buy.
Every single time I wear Poison, David has an asthma attack. So maybe it actually is poison?
I can only wear it when he is out of town and then I have to wash my clothes and bed linens…not suspicious at all, lol.
I was delighted to see a review of one of my favorite fragrances. A gorgeous woman from Barcelona was wearing it and I fell in love with it at first sniff. I got over the girl crush but my devotion to Eden remains eternal.
This is one of those fragrances that I still love, from first sniff until now, 2015. I like it on myself and I love the trail that it leaves on others.
Beautiful woman in Eden? Who wouldn’t have a crush?
Aaaaand the woman in the ad is blue. Definitely a space-alien vibe on this one!! 😀
I do get tempted sometimes when I’m bored at the drugstore to buy some random mainstream bottle but then I remember the Halle Barry, Shakira, baby phat, etc etc random scents I bought on exactly that kind of whim and then had to give far far away…
Thank you for reporting on the hidden gems!
I do feel like they were doing something extraterrestrial-ish with this perfume. I mean, the ads are so sci-fi creepy.
Oh, I know. So many bad things out there, too many in fact. I’ve done the same thing too many times, out of boredom. All of it gets given away. I have a 15 year old brother with Down Syndrome that I give all those celeb/Coty/”designer”AKA “my perfume purchase regrets” scents to in hopes that he’ll give it to his friends, like maybe a cute girl in class that may actually like those celebs or brands. And he’ll wear the more masculine ones because, hey, he’s a teenager. Well, I found out that he was given all the Halles’ and Heidis to people in class…just 40+ year old teachers, lol.
I do have some better luck with older launches but I’ve also been burnt too. I do admit to buying a bottle of Malibu Musk out of nostalgia. It’s not as good as I remember it, lol.
Damn this is a good review. I never focused on the tuberose aspect of it. I’m gonna have to smell it again.
Never thought of it as a club fragrance either. Maybe I should wear it out sometime.
Pull it out and wear it again 🙂
I love it in the summer.
A great review which sums up Eden nicely. I actually can’t bear the smell, but I feel it deserves it our respect and I hope they don’t discontinue it., as it really is unique. I agree with wht you say about it bridging the 80s and 90s and coming somewhere in between.
best wishes
Sam
IScentYouADay
There are plenty that fit that category for me (appreciate but can’t wear…ever), such as Mugler Alien.
Cacharel perfumes aren’t very easy to find in the US unless it’s a flanker which I find sooo weird. Oh, well.