Beverly Hills

I love this perfume. It's civet and clove mainly, but there are also lots of other floral notes to give this complexity and make it seem very opulent. It's a dark and rich perfume. There is a lot of civet in the opening, and clove and ylang and ylang, but there is also another note, that is relatively very loud, that I cannot place. It drives me crazy. It's somewhat familiar and I think, is this a candy that I've had before? Maybe one of those Good N' Plenty candies or a Smartee? It's something distinctive, and something I've smelled before, but something I smell very infrequently. So every time I wear this perfume the mystery note drives me crazy and I search online for a clue. Well, there is a clue: on basenotes and on many reviews, there is a reviewer (fuzzybutt59) who says he worked for Gale Hayman perfumes, who write this about the perfume: "the top notes are very jasmine,also drier notes of bluebell.however,after the dry down,there is a lot of ginger and dry woods.a lovely fragrance,very under-rated" Bluebell? Is that the mystery note? I pulled out Bluebell and White Tea by Love2Love and compared arm to arm. Yes! Compared this way, they are exactly the same! Now, when I smell Beverly Hills by Gale Hayman I can't smell anything but bluebell. Ha ha, I'm not sure I like it as much anymore because bluebell doesn't have the same cache as "civet, clove, ylang ylang and other rich floral notes". Who knows what bluebell actually smells like? Usually we just use other perfumes as reference. I would love if someone could confirm whether or not they would agree that the note in Beverly Hills is bluebell (if so, it is a very strong note, it's not subtle whatsoever). Or perhaps that is just the power of suggestion or my desperation to identify the mystery note!

I got a mini of this in a sample swap from a friend I have made here. I had never heard of this perfume before but then again, I am very new to the fragrance game. The liquid is a very dark brown color. It looks like the deepest darkest maple syrup. When I first applied this immediately my thought was consumed by the smell of simmering spiced wine and as I let my imagination travel further, I could see a Christmas party in a lavish home. I got this deep cinnamon and clove spiced red wine smell; a red wine that has been made not only w/ the finest red wine grapes but roses as well. Possibly from their own reserved collection and a secret recipe for mulled wine filled the air of this beautiful home. As the fragrance goes along it becomes more floral w/ ylang and gardenia and jasmine coming through. My thoughts went to the beautifully dressed and perfumed women attending the party. Their various vintage perfumes mingled in the air creating an air of posh sophistication. As it dries down, I get a lot of sandalwood which smells like Mysore sandalwood, and I get that vintage Jean Patou feel. It reminds me of the sandalwood note in my bottle of L'Heure Attendue. I get civet here as well, but it isn't really the star for me in the dry down not like the sandalwood is. This is a beautiful perfume that would really shine in the holiday season. It has all the elements of a fun Christmas party or gathering. Spices, wine, cognac, beautiful flowers on the table, the coziness of wood on the fire. The warm feeling of happiness and revelry w/ cherished family and friends.

I recieved the vintage parfume with the stopper that you apply this with in a swap. I am totally in love with this fragrance. The civet smells so good! I never thought I would actually get to smell real civet in any perfume I own. I have Shalimar but it’s not vintage so I’m not sure if it’s synthetic or not. So anyway I’ve wanted to smell it. When I swapped for this I had no idea about this perfume but I’m so happy I have it now because I love it! It’s one of the most interesting scents I have ever sniffed. I mostly get Tonka, civet, sandalwood, floral I think Gardenia I don’t notice the tuberose much at all. This I did not in all honesty think would smell good but I’m a sucker for parfum and I love old school,scents so I wanted this but it turns out I actually love it, it’s so unique. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever sniffed. Even my sig other liked it and I wasn’t expecting him to appreciate this. I don’t get the Shalimar similarity except for the band aid note which I now attribute to the civet. But that’s the only thing I get that’s remotely similar. This is a sexy, animalistic perfume and I finally get what they mean when someone says a perfume is animalistic.:) I adore it and the fact that it’s let me smell things I never thought I could makes me happy. ;)

Gorgeous ! Just gorgeous, cinnamon goodness ! A potent melange of unlit incense and opulent spices, with sweet, heady nuances of creeeeamy gardenia and other narcotic flowers. Its drydown is "buttery", custard-like (but non gourmand), redolent of bourbon vanilla, and chock-full of high quality sandalwood. Powdery, and very boozy. (As if one had steeped jasmine petals, ginger root, cloves, and cinnamon sticks, for months, in aged cognac.) Extravagant, decadent... glorious !! I personally prefer this to the current incarnation of Opium. (they murdered that fragrance years ago 😢) I have the Edp in the original formula, circa 1989. This version, though richly animalic, is not the civet bomb (tons of cheap civetone) that others are describing, the drydown is more Shalimar than Tabu. I have not sampled the most recent formulation of Beverly Hills, but I doubt that the amount of resins, and other quality materials that were used to compose the late 80s vintage, are still being utilized in the more current, and relatively inexpensive "cologne" version. So get the earlier Edp or parfum formulation if you can, and keep in mind, this stuff ain't for the faint of heart. Enjoy !

Absolutely lovely!! So warm and spicy, with a big ylang ylang note, this perfume makes me want to bathe in it. The clove notes make this a perfect holiday scent, the spice is warm and sweet without medicinal sharpness. The spicy notes remind of Youth Dew, the flowery ylang ylang recall Ysatis. Both are personal favorites, and BH is joining their ranks. Someone mentioned a similarity to Krizia's Teatro - also a beloved fave. Despite similar notes BH is a unique creation, different in lovely ways. I'm so glad to have these wonderful scents in my collection - thank you to the reviewer who mentioned cloves! Love those pretty little nails!! The pretty bottle with the kitty cat topper deserves a mention, too. It recalls old Hollywood design, elegant and opulent in equal measures. I'm delighted to find this perfume has several flankers!

This smells of rose for a few minutes, and then cloves. The smell of the cloves keeps changing character but is unmistakably clove for several stages. I would say that rose, clove and civet defines the main character of this perfume. There are floral notes but they are well-blended and difficult for me to identify. This makes me think I ought to re-try this in colder weather to see if I can pick out more notes. Probably the ylang ylang is also discernible. The civet lasts forever and is gorgeous sitting in a sweet background (maybe rose or just floral). This vintage is my main reference for knowing what civet smells like.

I feel so lucky to have scored a vintage parfum of this one. Wow it’s so beautiful and it lasts very long . Very rarely do I love the opening to dry down of a perfume. With this one I love it all the way til the end. It’s amazing. Vintage in all its goodness.

This is so beautiful, I get a huge EL Youth-Dew vibe from this from the get go. Longevity is so long and this is a very powerful scent. I find this to be one of my best blind buys ever. This will be beautiful in the fall/winter.

A fabulous perfume. Everything you guys below me say is spot on. Beautiful. The cinnamon is stunning I agree!!! Oh.....and what an amazingly exquisite bottle!! Wow!!! Beautiful!!!

Sweet, cinnamonny, warm and delicious! It feels like being wrapped in a warm hug.

I was lucky to sniff a super vintage version of this today at the antique mall, so my review should be prefaced with that. The leopard had black spots, and it was fully rich, deep amber brown in color. Clearly very aged. The sales assistant recoiled from the smell of this, and called it "old lady style!", but although I do understand that point of view, I didn't find this to be off-putting. I tried to be polite, because I kept smelling the bottle...where the scent still emanated in all of its vintage glory. I only got a small amount of scent onto my hand, it barely transferred, but it did somewhat (I wasn't allowed to spray it, it was $80 and didn't contain much). Yet...I was perfectly capable of immediately recognizing STRONG warm, boozy vanilla alongside a super healthy dose of civet. Or, possibly I was primed to expect it, the large cat was nothing if not overt. Admittedly, some of it was sour, and had gone off. The basenotes though, had absolutely not. It's one of the *warmest* fragrances I have ever smelled. It's truly a winter, fur coat, pearl earrings, black gloves, black lace trim sort of perfume. Sultry, full-bodied, voluptuously spicy and full, FULL of character. The clove is extremely dominant, yet not at first sniff, I actually received more vanilla upon first whiff than anything else. The civet is real, and I cannot even describe how I intrinsically understand that it is, but it resonates within the gut. It's very heavy and animalic, even a fraction of a drop was potent. The white florals were lost on me, I regret to report. I felt that much was missing here, so I dare not wager a guess at how they would be if I had been able to wear more of a preserved formula. Or, maybe they're just not there for me anyway? It was a truly ambery, vanillic animalic affair, with little to offset the heft. I needed this today, it was a lovely excursion and olfactory experience. I won't be tracking down a bottle, but I believe this deserves all of it's respect and regard. If you love vintage ambers and don't shy from skanky, swanky civet, this is for you. An absolute weighted blanket of opulence.

Fragrantica added at last this dream fragrance to its database. it was a bombshell in a bottle. It smells exactly of the notes listed above, to me mostly cinnamon, Amber, jasmine, sandalwood, cloves, to ka bean and patchouly. It is not classified above as for its olfactive group, but I would classify it as oriental woody. The flowers are very subdued. The scent of cinnamon here is marvelous, true natural cinnamon, very rare in perfumery, cinnamon always smelling terribly synthetic and nothing to do with its natural scent. I wish I could buy a new bottle of this. I still have a little bit but very little really. With time, because it is a splash bottle, it got more concentrated than perfume. It is intoxicating and although very natural smelling, I do not know of any other fragrance similar to it. Smashing. I wish some brand brought it back. Please!

This reminds me of Shalimar but stronger and muskier. Completely. That kind of odd/different scent with vanilla. I would swear there is citrus in here, too. I am wearing the vintage extrait. In the drydown, it gets that sour note before mellowing. No cinnamon detected at all but that's probably because it is well blended and part of the spiciness of the scent. STRONG and lasting. P.S. According to my frag expert friends and all info that we can find, this is the same as Glamour. They are one and the same perfume. Gale Hayman is in Beverly Hills; so, it just says that under the name of the perfumer.

Found my diary that I noted down my perfume I used in my teens. One of them was Gale Hayman's Beverly Hills, and I wondered what it was. I searched and found a familiar bottle of a cougar crouching and immediately recalled its scents. I also remembered it was one of the scents that I was really fond of. Warm, woody, spicy, aromatic and womanly. I have no idea why a teen want to wear such a grown-up scent but at 17-18 I really liked it. A classic scent of the 90s.

🙂 seductive and unique. has a very 80's to early 90's "affordable luxe" vibe. heavily feminine. smells more expensive than it is. the clove and amber notes give it character. beware though. it's a "sillage bomb", so go lightly. definitely an evening scent. if you like posh, statement, "perfumey" perfumes, you might like this. sophisticated and womanly.

very much not for me. I have two bottles of this and it’s the bane of my existence. Super headachey- can’t really bear through it enough to describe it. Usually kills my nose for the entire day

never was the arrival of a perfume so eagerly awaited by me as this one. always speaking in hyperbole is dangerous. my twinbrother simply says: 'you say that of every perfume'. true, if they belong to the exquisitely and demographically strong aromachemical perfume rockets from the 1980s. then in particular the Trias of she-Devils Giorgio- Poison- Obsession. yet this perfume also came from one of the designers of Giorgio: Gale Hayman and as it was called: 'Gale Hayman Beverly Hills Glamour Cologne (or Glamour Perfume)' then it already made me stand in line (not so long a line) for the acquisition of this perfume, housed in a glamorous bottle as also box. if I remember correctly the price was 110 guilders. for 3.3oz100mL. the box was of a striking Orange Red with gilded edges. the name was written in a pantheresque guarded Old Fashioned Film Noir font, the pantheress with her tail swirling above the 'Beverly Hills'. the flacon of the Glamour Cologne was of an artefact found in Tut-an-Chamon's Tomb with an [asymptote] quasi-cilindrical as elongated vase, urn, flacon with its cap speckled like a panthers skin. the Glamour Perfume looked even more stunning (but was 420 guilders I seem to vaguely and yet persitently remember): an enamel panther(ess) sat on a 'Rock' (in South African and also halfly Dutch: a 'Kopje'), and the Rock was made of Glass where it was the ultra sleek canister with ink dark perfume. but already the Glamour Cologne had a drop dead scent of wilthed white flowers, a barely hidden piss facet of civet, of Roses and Ylang Ylang, Cloves, Gardenia, Tuberose, Cinnamon, Amber, Sandelwood, Patchouli, Oakmoss, Tonka and Cedar. the perfume was as tempting as it was clawing, as sensuous as letal, as dramatic as it was asphyxiating. I immediately knew this perfume wrapped up all those vile hookers from the 1980s and this was the penultimum summum of Velours Cushioned, barely billowing yet more of an inimpenetrable wall of perfume. and it was also a perfume that smelled after ... perfume! so there was no doubt that ever none would witness you entering the building. Opium, Cinnabar, Nahéma, Fleur de Bulgarie, Jasmin d'Impératrice Eugénie, GEM, FIRST, Oscar de la Renta, Knowing, Youth Dew, Karl Lagerfeld (1983), Giorgio, Obsession, Poison, Coco, Eternity, Beautiful, Paris, Amarige, Must de Cartier, Giorgio Beverly Hills Red, Bijan, Fred Hayman 273, they were ALL, well, sublimated, annexated, beheld, heralded within this just One Perfume. I have thought about what exactly makes this perfume to a masterpiece (not everyone shall agree). it is the sheer denseness, syrup like cloyingly sickly 'Times Gone By' perfume which covets lots of Mystery and the Batiste Cladden Hollywood Mansions of Gloria Swanson, Marilyn Monroe, Louise Brooks, [Jean] Harlow et cetera. this perfume stood at the crossroads of Beverly Hills and Hollywood and then some New York mixed in. the Flowers used are so strong, and none suppresses the other. it is an onslaught for a certain kind of people. not more important than others. just the ones who liked such a heavily draped, Worth like Couture of a Perfume. for me it summed up the essence of the 1980s. I have bought myself in in the Authentic Perfume. first thing I smelled again this morning was the piss scent of Civet, to be usurped by the not less intoxicating heady fragrance of all the wrong flowers. (other) what I remember of this fabulous perfume is that I stood in line for it. 1990. the Glamour Cologne (realy an Extrait de parfum) is the projectile of one of the headiest and most floral and sultry perfume ever. as it contains Rose, Gardenia, Civet, Ylang, Tuberose, Jasmine, Oakmoss, Cinnamon, Sandelwood et cetera this is a Floriental Amber Spicy perfume all in one. it summarizes all the 1980s perfumes especially her 'Siblings' Giorgio (1981) and Giorgio Beverly Hills Red (1988) (or 1989) and Fred Hayman brought out (after the divorce) Fred Hayman 273 Rodeo Drive Beverly Hills (1989) also a strong abrasive but Monumental perfume while Bijan Beverly Hills launched Bijan (1987) w flacons of perfume for $1,000. now these were perfumes. but then this perfume is rather the mother, retroactive, to all these Hooker perfumes. I had it 'on' watching Sunset Boulevard with Gloria Swanson and it is that kind of perfume. in the movie she and Erich von Stroheim bury a [real dead] chimpanzee in the nightly Beverly Hills Mansion. it is sinister and precisely that athmosphere sits in this perfume. about the cat. this is no Puma, Cougar, Lynx. it is one of the spotted cats and probably they are two kinds. on top of the perfume Glass Rock lies a Panther more than a Jaguar. Jaguars have rosets and are far stronger and bulkier build, almost like a Spotted Hyena. I guess on the perfume bottle it is a Panther (dots, not open rosets). but at the box leaning elegantly over the letters it seems more like a Cheetah. I also love the alarmist colours. Gale spended also a fortune on this perfume and it lasts. I am stocked with 6 bottles. Never a perfume 'turned' on me. first the Civet's Piss escapes and then an extraordinary Wealth of Flowers. fantastic. one of the best perfumes ever. I would understand if people loathed this perfume and the whole esthetics but it is my cup of tea ! I also watched Twin Peaks during the whole event. what fantastic time that was.

today I received the vintage flacon (the sixth) of Gale Hayman. "Beverly Hills" with the post with le parfum des parfums still in this thick, dark, syrupy colour and the scent, when sniffed again, immediately transponding you to 1990/1, as then the perfume was produced and stayed in Holland for just four years while this scent even sended ferventest of poison, giorgio, coco and obsession lovers in the trees so unbelievably, again "thick", dense, opaque was its smell mainly due to what was either used as main 'fixatif': civet or castoreum and my guess is that it is civet as it brings out my inner jaguar. the box, flacon, name, impact is so deliciously over-the-top and this is a must with such roomclearing scent. it is high drama in the heavy curvacious flacon with the leopard spotted topper. it evokes the athmosphere of the film "Sunset Boulevard" with William Holden, Erich von Stroheim and last but not least, Gloria Swanson. the nightly, ghastly scene when Erich as the butler in this old Hollywood mansion with his "madam", Gloria, bury a dead chimpansee in the garden and you really see a dead waxen chimpansee on a kind of stretcher driven on a cart through the nightgarden and who knows this was partly a snuffmovie and they killed the ape for the scene; for instance a lab chimpansee. but this whole sinister athmosphere is mirrored in the noiretée of "Gale Hayman. Beverly Hills" with the civet alone reminescing to animal secreta and human secreta in the sense of the fluids and secrets of "humans in the nite". for me this particular perfume evokes that kind of fierce memories, disturbing like a grande dame with her own toxicologic agenda with the cloaked couture coat (Adrian, Worth, Mainbocher, Chanel, Edith Head) and bejewelled richly by her pimps who work for her not she for them. it is THAT kind of bewitching perfume leaving a vindictive murderous trail through LA and NY completing the booque of postneofeminism as later picked up by MM and M

Update Feb 2018: I have the perfume in cologne Spray - deep super dark liquid. I have heaven on earth! Its sultry smooth and unapologetically present. Now I get the depths of "animalistic" expertly blended in a lush sweaty sexy forest. I am after Animale Animale next which feels like it will be a one note entry in comparison to this delicious richness. If i wore fur - it would be with this. ........................................................ Update Oct 5th 2017: Just got the body lotion. OMG, the bottom notes rule like being hugged by a Jaguar - so unusual as there are ingredients that are banned now in this mix which makes it roar for me. Then it calms down for the flowers to filter through - oh my. Its hugging me and won't let go. Super strong, so its great value and the cream formulation is so so rich and sinks into my skin. I think I might have to lie down when the perfume comes. Its a special occasions signature one for me. If you love drama and don't mind asserting your presence in an intriguing confident manner, then check this sophisticated wild Feminine Feline out! Be really mean with application, she is powerful this dame. ......................................................... Am a total vintage nut. Just ordered 50 ml of this in Cologne concentration , plus found a 200ml perfumed body cream on ebay - that's in the post too!!! I feel this could be a signature perfume, just from reading these wonderful reviews.Sounds so so sexy to me!! Thanks for helping ramp up my excitement about this perfume that i have wondered about for a while. I pray the liquid is as dark as can be ha ha. Review to follow for sure.

I have a dark brown 100ml bottle of this in cologne form. I *think* it's vintage, but I def don't get civet as the strongest note. *pout* This came on my radar because of the civet and comparison to Teatra Alla-Whatever by Krizia. But... aside from being similar Orientals/Spicy 80s scents, they aren't alike. There isn't any real sweetness to GHBH. Gale Hayman Beverly Hills is like the 80s version of Britney Spears Hidden Fantasy. You get Oranges, Cloves/Spices, and then spicy earthy incense-like stuff. It's a really good perfume for this genre. I have Royal Secret in the modern "Eau de Royal Secret" and I don't think they are anything alike. The modern EdRS is so weird and fruity on me... but while wearing GHBH on my chest/body and a drop of EdRS bath oil on my wrist- I totally got a similar vibe! Oh how I wish I had the real vintage Royal Secret. If you love deep dark potent scents like Youth Dew, Opium, Tabu, etc... try out Beverly Hills. Good stuff. Moderate to high sillage, and good lasting power. I also understand the Shalimar vibe. It's like wearing Shalimar for 8 hours and then putting 1 spray of Opium over the Shalimar. This was a warm summer test, so perhaps climate/weather will change the notes.

with Migalex i absolutely agree that this is, in my opinion, the best perfume ever made available. that it is discontinued has certainly to do with the outerworldly strength of the perfume, due to the civet and the amber. it also represents the "old hollywood" athmosphere more, than i could imagine any other perfume would. it is interesting that they omitted the real 80s powerhouses from the list the buyers of "beverly hills" also most certainly would love: giorgio-obsession-poison, the trinity, furthermore knowing, opium, boudoir (1990), coco, no.5, joy [these of course older] but also "red" of giorgio beverly hills fame. also interesting is that in these times i would certainly compare it with dusita's "oudh infini", also a presence not to be ignored. "beverly hills" of gale hayman with its over-the-top styling is for me an exceptionally strong yet also cozy and soothing perfume, perhaps not so much for the social circles and i would like to recommend to Migalex that it still goes round in the ebay and amazon circles and my advise is: the darker the better.

To serve a modest slice of praise, I will grant that Beverly Hills by Gale Hayman managed to secure a relatively sweetly-scented spot, halfway between the malodorously civet-fouled Paloma Picasso and the irritatingly eugenol-overdosed Giorgio Red. That in 1990, Hayman & Co were still relying on such 80's standbys as oriental spice and overbearing civet doesn't show much originality or trendspotting, but I will allow that there was at least some attempt at tonal moderation. Regardless of the scent, I do quite enjoy the dramatic, camp-glamour of that bottle. I think they were trying for Cartier, but landed on Sheena, Queen of the Jungle instead, ...which is totally fine! N.B. This is a reworking of a comment from a previous review article.

What a perfume! This is what an oriental is all about, that is: rich; exotic overly decorated. This is also an unabashedly classical perfume and evokes similar perfumes from the past, but is uniquely luminous and shining. Therefore, it is a welcome addition to the cannon of great orientals. The bottle of course emphasizes the oriental character of this perfume and is truly glamorous. I picture a brunette, very made-up 80s woman in a moire silk dress wearing this as a kind of glamorous bludgeon. As a man wearing this, I wear it as an intellectual statement and as a rejection of neoliberal drabness.

A winter wear gave me Coco vibes! Coco and Opium together with a dash of juicy orange. Strong as hell in the cold too. A totally different experience! Rich and heady-- making me prefer the current reformulations of both Coco and Opium over BH. I still like BH, I just need to spray less next time. And directly on skin because it so warm/rich. It's also so strong on clothing. It's loud/rich spices, orange, clove, patchouli with florals.

I can’t afford to buy a vintage bottle of my favorite scent from my mid-to-late 80s teenage years, KL by Karl Lagerfeld. GHBH reminds me of KL, or of my memory of KL. I started with a mini with the leopard and then found a full-size bottle of the “glamour cologne” spray with the leopard-spotted cap. I love it. It’ll take the place of much-missed KL for now.

Spice bomb, so animalic, with a slight floral nuance. People compare it with Youth Dew-EL and Obsession-CK. To my nose, this one resonates the most with Opium-YSL and KL-Lagerfeld. The flacon (mine is the 50ml) represents 80/90s phase, with the leopard pict and motif. So powerful, pretty, and pretentious. Beware not to overspray. It’s a silage monster.

I love this. It’s very similar to both Tabu and Youth Dew. Cinnamon galore. I hope to find another EDP splash of this but I’m having no luck, so hopefully the cologne sprays will be sufficient for my future purchases.