Sensuous Stars

This is an unusual take on iris. I've had a few irises in my life, such as Hiris, Iris Rebelle, Silver Iris, and even the long time discontinued Iris Ganache. Sensuous Stars is closer to Iris Ganache than the others. It has the typical carroty flavour that iris root can have, but also the sweetness of the flowers. It's creamy and dense, without being heavy. There are plums is here, and they are sweet, ripe and dark purple. So sweet that they actually make this scent smell like candied violets. The scent is almost gourmand. The candied violets remind me of Meteorites, and a little like Lipstick On, but the perfume maintains its individuality. It turns powdery in the dry down. It also brings back memories of doll heads, (when dolls had rubber heads that were slightly scented) and it even smells a little like scented plasticine. I cannot smell any lavender. It is definitely charming and feminine. Despite being reminiscent of many childhood things, like the violets pastilles, this isn't a juvenile scent. To my surprise it lasts quite well, and the silage is not bad either. I find it very beautiful, but I know everyone's tastes differ. The bottle is nice, heavy, the magnetic lid sort of spins in your hand. I don't think it's a safe blind buy, especially because it's pricey, but it's quite a stunner. Now I really want to smell the other from this collection.

As an iris lover, I'm very impressed with this scent. A light, airy take on iris enhanced nicely by the plum and lavender notes in supporting roles, Sensuous Stars is a powdery beauty. It is rare to find iris-dominant scents among modern designer/mass market offerings, but SS features a high-quality iris note. Sweetened nicely by the plum note, and enhanced by aromatic lavender, it is simple yet beautifully composed, like this Estée Lauder luxury line in general. SS is iris-forward at its early stages, with plum emerging after a little while, adding jammy sweetness. I get lavender as it develops, restrained but aromatic. I was very excited about the powdery orris note here - it is pitch-perfect - but unfortunately, the iris note fades after the opening subsides. It becomes slightly lipstick-y as it dries down, fading to an airy, woody-amber skin scent. I get a hint of ambroxan or similar fixative in its later stages. The lavender remains, sweetened by plum. I would have preferred an iris-dominant scent throughout, but overall SS is still really good. Sillage and longevity are moderate. A youthful take on a scent profile that may be traditionally viewed as mature, SS is timeless and ageless. Best worn in spring, but is transeasonal. An effortless but excellent feminine everyday scent. 4/5.

🩰💜 Cue Tchaikovsky's 🎶 Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy 🎶 💜🩰 Oh my stars, Sensuous Stars is lovely, an underrated gem!! Sadly discontinued, but I picked up a bottle on eBay for a song and loved it so much I purchased a backup! This is Chanel's Misia, but with plum instead of violet! While not listed in the notes, I detect aldehydes in the opening, giving Sensuous Stars that bubbly champagne cocktail sparkle that I find so addictive in Misia, Volnay's Perlerette, and Vermeil by Bienaimé. The base of Sensous Stars is very similar in structure to Vermeil with sophisticated grounding via Irisy orris root. But the plum lends a dash of whimsical sweetness. The lavender note is slight, but present, providing added depth and interest in the background. Longevity is excellent, silage is moderate to strong. If you love "lipstick" scents, I suggest getting a bottle while you can! This is an enchanting fragrance befitting the Sugar Plum Fairy, and I will be wearing Sensuous Stars this year to watch The Nutcracker ballet! ✨🩰✨

I like it very much. I can’t smell the lavender but the Orris and Plum are very prominent. Its vibe and olfactory category reminds me a lot of « Yvresse » by YSL (Lately called « Champagne »). It’s a Fruity-Chypre for me. This is very poetic and also « gourmand », but not in the sense of current sugary perfumes, but rather « mouth watering » and « gourmet », I mean, it makes me want to crunch into a fruit! Very sparkly and dusty, like sparkling stardust 🤩. The purple color is a clever choice because this is exactly what I see when I close my eyes smelling this : A purple cloudy sky with bright silver stars (Think satellite pictures of the universe with saturate colors). Sensuous stars is classic and polite but impertinent and playful at the same time. I like the fact it is ageless. I can see a young girl like an old woman wearing this. Other perfumes make me the same effect, for exemple « insolence » from Guerlain (in particular the EDT), who can play very youthful game as well as mature feeling.

this is my favourite of the new EL scent line. I smell plum TEA, not the real fruit, but luckily more of an unsweetened plum tea in a wonderful combination with orris root, (so not the powdery, flowery iris, it's really the slightly herby iris root that was used here). The lavender is hardly detectable and I can only smell traces of it very late, maybe after 2-3 hours of wearing. It remains mainly this lovely plum tea and orris root mixture which immediately gave me the impression of a Japanese teahouse , very soothing, protecting, quiet, almost spa-like. The scent impression remains quite exclusive and expensive to me - especially if you are a general iris-scent fan like me and have tested like hundreds of iris scents and found that many of them resemble each other. This one is really new to my nose, plum tea and iris root, a combination I never smelled before and very well done.

This is the first one that I have tried from EL’s new Luxury Collection. And I have to say it has impressed me. All of the perfumes in this line seem to have only a few notes. This one has plum, lavender and orris. And they play off each other brilliantly. Orris and lavender by themselves are androgynous, leaning a bit to the masculine side. But the sweet plum acts as a very smartly placed counterpoint, which brings the fragrance right back into the target range of unisex. If the plum was left on its own, the fragrance would undoubtedly be cloying, but the lavender and orris temper the plum so well. These three notes offset one another in a way that I have not encountered before, and this is a welcome addition to my collection. I do not have anything like this in my collection yet. Well done Estée Lauder! I look forward to sampling more from this new luxury collection!

This was a blind buy based on one of the reviewers below mentioning a similarity to MM Lipstick On, and it does not disappoint! That orris note is the perfect powdery vintage makeup iris scent that I've been searching for. The plum on the open has a little bit of warm spice in it which is interesting. It doesn't last super long which is fine since I'm here for the orris anyway. I don't particularly smell the lavender note on its own, but it seems more like it serves to soften the transition between jammy spiced plum top & powdery orris base. Really nostalgic too as iris/orris was a popular note in the scents my teachers & mom's friends wore in the early/mid 80s. Dry down turns more woody/earthy but still pleasant. Really lovely & so glad to have it in my collection!

I recently tried this for the first time on vacation and fell in love with it immediately! There was something about it that hooked me right away. For some reason, Estee Lauder is discontinuing these, and I bought it at a fantastic deal. Later, when home from vacation, I checked Fragrantica and see that so many found it smelled like Bibliotheque, one of my top five favorites, so loving this one makes so much sense now. And yes, they are in the same vein. I'm also noting some find it similar to Replica's Lipstick On and Nest's Black Tulip - both fragrances I have and enjoy!. The bottle is also absolutely stunning - luxurious in both looks and feel. Why are they discontinuing this line?

So funny, the review below is almost exactly what I was going to write! This is a magical sugar plum fairy perfume! It definitely reminds me of icy weather, watching The Nutcracker, etc etc. It’s so different than anything I’ve smelled. It’s discontinued and being sold all over the place for so cheap, I also bought a backup bottle that I probably won’t need for a decade. Sparkling, tart plum with grounding orris—fun but also sophisticated in an Estee Lauder kind of way.

I got a mini bottle. It's a beautiful scent and light, gentle and delicate. I'm just a little uncomfortable with something(orris?) for the first few minutes though. I feels like an over-40 woman scent. Classy.... In other words, This is the Estee Lauder... Anyway, Floral Fruity scent for mature women. Not for girls. Yes, I feel "Bibliothèque without leather" slightly. Update: Finally, I got a full bottle. I'm getting in love with this scent :)

I just got this and I think it’s going to be a favorite. Underrated gem in my opinion! It has a sparkly quality but it isn’t juvenile. The plum is strong, but there is a touch of lavender which adds something floral and contributes to its calming qualities. The orris grounds it and adds some depth. The sweetness level is just right. It feels so pretty to me. It makes me think of a purple, shimmery powder in a good way.

I bought the Estee Lauder Small Wonders discovery set, and Sensuous Stars is the sweetest one in the collection. This is the fragrance I would buy a full bottle. It smells like a candied plum with a sweet powdery dry down. Think pastel purple cloud. The lavender smells more like violet to me. Very feminine and light without suffocating you with too much sweetness.

I purchased this the same week that I received Tutu by Gritti. It’s a honestly a brighter and more delicate version of Gritti Tutu. Layers really well together. This is a category of perfume I didn’t know that I would love but I keep going back to it. I have gotten quite a few compliments while wearing this!

I side very much with @Ina.rem review. This is very pretty. I found a 100ml bottle on eBay for $60 and I am exceedingly pleased. I find it seasonally versatile; it’s light and soft enough to not be cloying in summer and I would find it cozy enough to wear in winter. She’s a true delight!

Sweet iris and plum. Beautiful, very elegant! Similar to Iris Goddess by Floral Street but sweeter. Very tender. Be aware, this is one of those scents that smells super different on paper vs on skin!!! I love it!

If Tchaikovsky's Sugar Plum Fairy had a scent, here she is. This treasure instantly transports you to the Land of Sweets. How could bottled ethereal joy be so underrated, and discontinued?? I'm beside myself.

They discontinued this? What a shame. It’s criminally underrated in my opinion! It reminds me of a sparkly sugar-plum fairy, but also a little sophisticated! I’m enjoying my bottle.

Gourgegous fragrance and people who come close will compliment.

okay so usually if I was describing a raspberry leather perfume you'd not be a fool for instantly jumping to the conclusion that Sensuous stars is just some pale Tuscan leather rip off, by Estee Lauder but actually like many in this line it keeps to the traditions on EL and actually does something creative and classy with it. So to me this perfume is about a soft, supple radiant, iris/orris based leather accord, with masses of fruity raspberry on the top. Yes I know it says plum here and actually sniffing a card i sprayed it on a few days ago I can see somewhat more of that, however when first sprayed and applied to skin I get that very tart and characteristic raspberry thing. Now orris and raspberry have a strange affinity because some orris materials and molecules which can be used to recreate orris ( can't think of the specific one off the top of my head) have this raspberry juice effect to them. So perhaps it's that which is conjuring it for me? I dunno. So despite this perfume not really being for me, the orris is very soft leather and cosmetic (not that I'm apposed to that I wear Lipstick rose quite happily) something about this with the raspberry is just a little too light and playfully femme for my tastes, well it's not even about taste as such, it's more... do I want to add it to my wardrobe? and I'd say....no. However, I think it's a fine perfume, This theme may exist in this format elsewhere but I'm not really aware of it and I was quite taken with just how lovely it is.

A creamy, powdery, overripe, sweet plum is what I would call Sensuous Stars in a few words! A truly delightful scent IMO. Nothing ethereal or celestial about it from what I can tell, but very fruity, slightly sweet and gourmand in my experience. I like it a lot, because it has a pronounced plum note which I always love in perfumes, even though I am not huge fan of iris, but not enough to pay full price for a bottle. The opposition between lavender and plums is amazing, it makes Sensuous Stars feel unique. Without being a challenging scent, it’s on the unique side. A delectable, very wearable, fruity, irisy, purple floral, potentially unisex fragrance. Actually, might be more feminine because of the strong fruity aspect and the subtle sweetness. Don’t think lots of men would like to smell that fruity and sweet in the same time... Very underrated and quite different from what I have currently in my collection. Goes on my to buy list, but I will purchase it only if I can get it on a decent sale! This Luxury Collection has nicely done scents, very mass appealing but on the lighter side which for me doesn’t justify paying FRP!!!