Desert Eden

My surprising Summer obsession! I originally tried this scent and the 7 other new "luxury" EL scents last year in the fall when I purchased the deluxe sampler kit. I wasn't wowed by any of them at the time, but they were all pleasant. Because the bottles were so nice, and I'd spent so much money, I of course gave each one multiple chances. By Spring, I'd started to like Desert Rose quite a lot, and I realized that I "needed" a full bottle by May. I purchased the smaller full size [I tend to rotate frags quite a bit, so I never buy the huge bottles]- I have used nearly a third of the bottle now! If most of your favorite fragrances are too heavy and deep for warm weather, Desert Eden is a fantastic seasonal break away that lets you smell sexy and glamorous and mysterious w/o choking people out or being cloying. It dazzles in warm weather especially, and is a great change of pace from the freshie/citrus/jasmine/coconut rut. I don't particularly like smelling like grass or furniture polish, or suntan lotion. Sometimes those fragrances are ok, but they are definitely NOT my faves, and living in a usually hot climate [Sacramento California], it always makes me sad when I have to put my "good" fragrances away by March 1st or so because they just smell awful on hot skin. Along comes Desert Eden, and she is PERFECT. Of course it is a "dry" scent- desert is in the name! Everything around me from May-October is dry and hot, and this fragrance shines in such a setting. It blends perfectly with Mother Nature herself. Are you walking through the woods in the Sierras looking at all the dead undergrowth and worrying about the next fire? This scent calms you. Are you outside in your garden at 10pm watering in the dark so the precious H2O gets a chance to reach the poor plants roots before it evaporates? This scent makes you think that you need to hurry up so you can take a shower and spray more of it on to entice your partner in bed. Are you inside bored as hell because it is the 5th day of a heatwave and you can't be outside for more than an hour w/o risking heat stroke? This sexy warm scent is a happy reminder of Winter, when you get to bring out the big gun perfumes to wear. I love it so much, and it is definitely a fragrance made to be appreciated when it is dry and hot.

I love this perfume. It instantly makes me happy upon first spray. The sandalwood and olibanum are strong but the rose mellows it out in a very elegant, mature way. This combination is my favourite of the moment but I have noticed some other brands are experimenting with the same at the moment. It smells very similar to Tom Ford cafe rose, and Charlotte tilbury cosmic power. It’s on the unisex side for sure but only slightly more feminine (before the dry down). You can tell this was inspired by Arabian fragrances. Edit: this scent is long lasting. Sillage is good for the first hours but doesn’t project far as time goes on. Though in some cases this is okay. The dry down however (after at least 6 hours) does change compared to the initial first few hours. The dried down smell is very dry and genderless and almost no rose is detected. Still a very interesting scent. You are left with dry sandalwood, as if left in a hot desert with 50 years of no rain, with a spread of dry frankincense. Perhaps this is just down to my skin chemistry. I still like this but I do wish the initial scent lasted longer before the change - it just calls for a midday top up to keep the rosy sweetness :)

Blind buy from the brands online store as soon as it got on sale in my area early this year. It sounded really nice and i decided to go for it. Oh. My. Darling. Sweet rose, insane, and peppery sandalwood, all dancing around each other, never quite mixing, and yet working perfectly together. I have yet to figure out which is the dominant smell. On consecutive days of the same temperature, humidity levels, and having eaten and bathed with the exact same things, it smells different: one day it is a sweet rose perfume, followed by smokey incense and just a hint of sandalwood in the back, the next day it's sandalwood scented incense with hints of rose adorning it.... Same exact notes, just different intensities. Absolutely beautiful. Luxurious, and mystical. It lasts way too long on the skin during the colder months, easily reaches 10 hours while holding onto satisfying intensity and good projection. Oh and it is intense. The third day i was wearing it, threw hours after application, my hairdresser was impressed by it and she was double masked!

Desert Eden is, like the other Estée Lauder luxury perfumes, simple and good-quality while familiar. A rich woody-rose scent with an amber base, it is traditional but beautifully formed. It is unisex too, in the way of Middle Eastern perfumery. DE is rose-centred from the opening, initially dewy and increasingly jammy as it develops. It is rich and well-rounded yet somehow light. Woody notes creep in, complementing it beautifully, creating the classic rose bush accord. As it develops, the balsamic base emerges, becoming more prominent as it dries down. The olibanum does not reach full-blown churchy incense vibes, but it provides a beautiful counterpart to the woody rose. It fades to a slightly musky rose scent with the wood and balsamic olibanum giving an almost oud-like effect. Sillage is moderate and longevity is long-lasting. A beautiful, high-quality rose scent, complemented to perfection by the woody and balsamic notes, DE is for rose lovers of any age or gender. A superb classic rose. 4.5/5.

Initially I was aiming to purchase Tender Light as I enjoy tea fragrances. However, upon smelling the entire EL line, Desert Eden has won me over as an outstanding fragrance that both gives an elegant feeling while wearing it and also probably the best longevity from the lineup. Yeah, it is maybe not be the most unique blend. But it does not have to be. Because the rose and frankincense combo here is well crafted, divine, elegant and does not cause fatigue when worn all day long (unlike almost all other rose+incense samples that I have and by hour two of wearing them I grow tired). Actually, it is fresh but with a substance due to the frankincense and sandalwood. It does get that myrrh, almost coca-cola sparkle and that’s what makes it more modern and not stuffy. majority of frags from this line, regrettably, are a let down. A couple are OK. But this one shines and I do regret only purchasing a 40ml bottle instead of the 100ml. My jacket still smells of this 20hrs later. Divine. Signature worthy.