Clinique Wrappings

The most recent version of wrappings I have dates back about five years ago. It has the brilliant frosty brightness of Chanel No. 22, a kind of glare that would make you squint outdoors. It smells of cypress and first-to-spring-up florals under even fresher sheets of splintering ice. The 1990 original involved a much lighter jacket. It was brisk; more in-between seasonally. The light was more afternoon sun, and the snow was starting to melt and drip from the tree branches. Saps and resins were a crucial part of that effect. This steered the fragrance closer to the more-chilly-than-cold evergreen climate of Bill Blass and Private Collection. It’s unlikely anyone would have drawn comparisons between the original Wrappings and No. 22; the relationship to Aromatics Elixir was far deeper then than now. Aromatics Elixir was almost twenty years old when Wrappings first came out; whereas the oceanic craze was just cresting. Escape came out the year after Wrappings, and it’s interesting to think of Wrappings as a bridge between old and new; Clinique trying to keep up with the market at the time. Wrappings transplants its water from the beach to the foliage of the great outdoors. Both bottles of Wrappings I have, old and far less old, are worth having, like slightly different flankers of each other. There aren’t very many scents that capture the emotional experience of climate and place this specifically. Wrappings puts you inside a scene you animate with memory and imaginative longing. The older version for me is a certain kind of afternoon in my Midwest adolescence—at the far end of an oppressive, shut-in winter, when the trees and nature are first gasping back to life, warmed awake by the sun. The newer version is the morning after a third or fourth heavy snow, a vista of white and the blinding sun it amplifies in every direction, a sense of being out in the wide open but bundled up to hold your own in it.

At my age, the year 1990 seems to have only passed by a few days ago, but then I think about it longer, and realize that it's been 22 years since Wrappings was first released. Even at that time it seems things were geared toward grown ups, but nowadays I feel like everything is geared toward your average 12 year old--books (Twilight? TMZ?) TV (American Idol, et al) and perfumes (see: most celeb scents, shampoo-conditioner frags, Kool-aide/cupcake scents, etc.) So when I got the tail end of an older bottle of Wrappings in a swap, I was completely blown away. It literally smells like sharp, clean, high mountain air in the middle of winter--a frozen balsam/pine/conifer forest. Invigorating, shocking, cold. It is so gorgeous. The green-aldehyde-artemesia, bitter balsam artemesia, oh my. I don't detect any florals in here, and as Wrappings wears down, it becomes oakmossy-musky-resinous. Obviously this is not a feminine sugary clean modern frag, and I don't even know if it's in production anymore. In light of further perfume restrictions, I am lamenting the death of perfume notes that I love. So to find a few ml's of Wrappings is bittersweet for me.

Wrappings opens with this wonderfully sharp effervescent sherbert lemon note with a backbone of fresh pungent moss and greenery.Its very much a lovechild of Aromatics Elixir and Calyx with the freshness and easiness of the latter and the unusual structure of the former.The artemisia adds some bitterness and the hyacinth makes a fleeting appearance as do the rest of the florals after the midpoint, when Wrappings is very much a skin scent ,with just an echo of its former glory.Longevity is arround 5 -6 hours and slightly more close to the skin. Wrappings could be Niche as its so unique and beautiful.I wonder whether the 'monster' longevity of old has changed as this perfume must have been reformulated many times.Certainly the Oakmoss will have changed.Finally Cristalle devotees I suspect will love this perfume as I do . Wrappings is currently available on the UK Clinique website as a set for a very reasonable price.Just a heads up as It's sometimes difficult to obtain without paying silly prices.

ladies, Wrappings IS NOT a discontinued product, but it's a Christmas season Exclusive, being sold only limited time of each year. If you love Wrappings check it out during November-December at your local Clinique counters, it's always available then in a gift sets with body lotion. Definitely my next purchase when it appears in the stores next Holiday season! I cannot classify this scent easily, don't find it particularily floral , rather kind of cool, herbal and woody, with a hint of warmth in the heart . This little,simple and pale frosty bottle holds inside a unique, chilly,earthy and warming wintery scent, if that makes any sense. Absolutely very well blended mix of herbs, flowers and woods. Outdoorsy and fresh , scent of clean Alpine forests! A little goes a looong way, superb longevity and sillage guaranteed for all day!

I wore it today and I remembered again how gorgeous it is. I would not classify it as an aldehydic perfume because I cannot recognize any aldehydes in the whole composition. Moreover it doesn’t remind me the Christmas season or a winter day and that’s the reason I have not worn it since October. On the contrary, although it’s woody, I feel it so green and cool that I consider it ideal for a sunny April day as today is. I believe that it suits well the Mediterranean spring. The bottle I have is from 90’s as the Christmas limited edition never reached my country and I keep it as a crown jewel because it’s only 25ml and I’m afraid that I will never find it again in the market. It was one of the most exceptional perfumes of that decade and it still remains unique. It’s a shame they stopped creating such a masterpiece.