Beyond Paradise For Men

My dear SA at the Estee Lauder counter (LOVE YOU LYNNE!) knew of my love for perfume and passion for writing reviews, and desire to know what "notes" were in things. God Bless her, because she photocopied her ENTIRE Sales Guide for all Estee Lauder regular catalog scents (from Youth Dew on)...and some Limited Editions and all the seasonal Private Collection flankers! The listed notes above are (for the most part) the ones listed (in the EL book) for the women's BEYOND PARADISE. Here are the ones listed in the Estee Lauder book, for BEYOND PARADISE Men's: TOP: Eden's Mists, jabuticaba fruit ("Brazilian grape": a plum like fruit), Eden buchu leaves HEART: Mediterranean accord, lavender absolute, Provence sage, tarragon and thyme absolute BASE: Golden melaleuca bark (this is a type of myrtle tree called "honey myrtle", and the larger species are often referred to as "tea tree"), Eden vetiver, beechwood, oakmoss and patchouli I am sure the whole EDEN thing is just a play on the Paradise theme, but it is nice to think they came from an untouched primordial paradise. I am wearing this today and find it to be one of the most unusual men's scents I have found, and the best of the three modern EL releases (not including the green masterpiece of LAUDER for Men). It has a very rain forest type of feel to it, as it IS very green, misty, rather warm and kind of "thick". It does have a bit of pulpy fruitiness in the opening and lovely exotic smelling green leaves. The opening is what "got me", as it was so very unique! The heart is very herbal; but not like dried herbs in a bag or in a bottle; these are living, fresh of just picked herbs. The blending of the tarragon (my favorite herb) with thyme concentrated to an absolute is, I believe, what makes this scent stand out so. Lavender and sage keep it manly; but Beyond Paradise Men steers clear of that soapy or "after shave" type of manscent. The finish on this is very much like the original prelude was, only in a different lower octave. It is still warm and green, but where the top notes were like walking into the edge of a rain forest, here you are deep in the jungle with damp woods, aromatic exotic trees and dangling moss clinging to trunks and branches. The vetiver here is amazing: cool, grassy and just hints of dry smoothness. I for one am very impressed with this fragrance and recommend it to anyone who is looking for something different or unique, while still gorgeous and manly. I have a large bottle of this and find it to be one of the wonders of modern perfumery. Sillage: very good Longevity: good Overall: 4.5/5 I often bash poor Mr. Turin, but here (at least for once) I completely agree with him. Beyond Paradise Men is absolutely amazing! It is a commercial perfume with (some) obviously synthetic ingredients...yes; however, it is a thing of true beauty. And, just like you can walk through a forest (or jungle) a hundred times and each time notice something new and beautiful, so it is with this perfume and me. THIS was my first Estee lauder full bottle purchase, and I must say it was not my last. CHECK THIS OUT! You may find it too "odd" or you may just fall in love with it. Whatever you think, you have to smell it; as it is one of the most enigmatic things I have ever sniffed...

A hot, white light wraps around your body, washing away all the pain and the misery...you blink...Your lungs fill with a majestic garden, brimming with bright florals and endless groves of grapefruit, bergamot, and pears - you salivate at the delicious dewy juiciness that permeates the air. You are compelled to dance through this landscape, free from the weight of all that binds. Your delighted dance brings you deeper into this land - you are lost in the depths of overgrown cypress...yet it feels strangely comforting. The years have taken their toll yet have freed you somehow. You walk among these clustered wonders touching their fragrant bark - reliving the memories etched in to each of them. So many loving embraces and tender kisses, souls aching for adventure, youth struggling to find permanence among the shifting sands of time. Your hands are gently coated by their ambery dreams - you can breathe them in at will. You dance until the stars fall around you - you find peace in the dark night and the warm earth beneath your feet. This may be a strange new place....but it's your home. May we all find our way through this vast and wild world. Day 59 - In another world Listening to: The Gathering - Travel Notes: This fume is incredibly beautiful for the first hour or so...then it turns into an interesting, albeit tried and true, wood and amber formula. The opening is majestic in its juicy, leafy woods - there are definite notes of bergamot meshed with what feels like lemon & lime. The best part is the sort of bark and wood that it evokes - like ripe maple trees in the heart of fall. I envision massive rows of these maples with psychedelic leaves that shift through all colors of green and red...very alluring! This, unfortunately, shifts to a recognizable cypress (which is still great) and citrus with an ever-growing presence of a mildly musky and woody amber note. It kind of just lingers in this stage until losing the cypress and remaining a woody amber until it quietly disappears. Overall, it opens uniquely but morphs into the love child of Dior Higher and Estee Lauder Intuition Man. Not bad by any means, just not as unique as the intro would suggest. It lasts around 6 to 8 hours and displays best in warmer weather. It may have been discontinued though....so many gems lost to the passage of time...

This is my favorite cologne. As noted by other commentors the notes listed in the perfume pyramid are incorrect, instead showing the female version. The actual notes are: TOP: Buchu leaf, jabuticaba(brazilian grape), and Eden’s mist(waterfall headspace) MIDDLE: Mediterranean notes being - tarragon, lavender, sage, and thyme; landabium and oceanic notes BASE: Beechwood, oakmoss, paper bark tea tree, patchouli, and vetiver When you realize this is a green woody scent it makes a lot more sense. It's interesting to see the power of suggestion's ability to shape our perception; considering that there is not really a fruity or floral note in this composition except obliquely through the jabuticaba and Eden's mist. The opening is quite sharp, coming from the tea tree, aqua notes, and (I'm guessing) the buchu leaf. It has a menthol/camphor quality like cedarwood oil or maybe even a musky/ammonia quality like underarm odor (I know but its better than it sounds) which I'm guessing comes from the landabium. The ammonia is probably where people get the rotting fruit smell from. The water note smells just like the crashing water of the big water fountain room in my local mall, that sort of wet mineral/ozone smell. Jabuticaba (again guessing) come through as a somewhat moist floral accord. The best feature though is the peculiar under-aroma; I'm not sure what it is but it's quite addictive. The middle notes you can definitely smell the herbs. It reminds me a Dr. Bronner's soap, in that it smells of high quality, "full" scented oil. If you ever chewed a fresh sprig of rosemary, it's like that. I have to admit it's not the most wearable scent because its so unique but its great to smell. The best opportunities to wear is when your in an energetic mood and can tolerate your nose being activated all day or going to an outdoor festival when you want something to cut through the various other odors. I've edited my review several times because each time I smell it I smell something new. This is like a fine wine that you have to smell mindfully to appreciate.

Exactly 50 years ago today (01 July 1970) in Manhattan, Jimi Hendrix & band recorded at his newly-operable Electric Lady Studios, an instrumental jam with overdubs he called "Slow Part". Within a year after Hendrix suddenly died on 18 September 1970, Jimi's sleazy manager, Michael Jeffery, exploited the track for use in the clumsy (but intriguing) 1971 theatrical release "Rainbow Bridge", mostly filmed on the Hawaiian island of Maui. In the movie, as Pat Hartley & a companion tried to walk on a Maui mountain road (probably near the rim of Haleakalā Crater), they were shown actually being lifted off the ground by strong winds, with "Slow Part" playing as the soundtrack. Scenes of Jimi's visit to the island were peripherally included in the movie & also featured fragments of his outdoor pasture concert 30 July 1970, about 1/4 mile from Seabury Hall School (where he headquartered during his visit). The school is about 1 mile south of the town of Makawao near the intersection of Hanamu Road & Olinda Road in "Upcountry Maui". Jeffery also re-titled "Slow Part" as "Pali Gap" (hence my moniker) for inclusion on the 1971 "Rainbow Bridge" LP. The musical album had nothing to do with the "Rainbow Bridge" movie, other than "Pali Gap" and some of the album's other tracks, including "Dolly Dagger", were used incidentally as part of the movie soundtrack. "Pali Gap" is a superlative example of Jimi's spontaneous "flowing" musical genius (much like the process he displayed at Woodstock, Monday daylight morning,18 August 1969, with his stunning rendition of the "Star-Spangled Banner"). When I consider which of my almost 200 fragrances in my collection that best fits the spirit of this breezy piece of "Hawaiian" musical reverie, it would be Beyond Paradise.

This one is very interesting and I'm in love with it. Allow me to explain: Wearing it is like a journey across a lake on a boat - not just any regular lake, but with sugary waters in it, and not just any regular boat, it is made of some fragrant woods and is laden with flowers. (I can't name individual notes, sorry!) The sun is above, no clouds in the sky, and the water is still. And you don't row your boat because a gentle breeze carries it along. You just ride along and drop the flower petals int he sugary water, which by the way isn't fit for drinking, because it has dish soap in it. Toward the end of the journey, you run out of flowers and the boat starts to smell like the sweaty butt that you've been sitting on it with. But it doesn't matter, you've reached the other side of the lake and it's been a long day (10+/- hours) and you need to hop in the shower anyway. So it's definitely a fit for spring and (preferrably) summer. It sits on the gender borderline. I'm getting this for my mother, coz I know she'd love it. (She doesn't mind actually masculine fragrances anyway. She actually even inherited some of mine when I moved out.) I'd say the sillage is medium but sillage doesn't matter coz it takes you away on a relaxing journey. I consider it a comfort scent; it'll calm you down in the midst of your daily frenzy. But the longevity is wonderful. You really need to hop in the shower or put something else on, once it's gone though. The final drydown does smell like some sweaty buttcrack or armpit, ew.