Azurée by Estee Lauder (1969)

Azurée, Estee Lauder's late-sixties chypre/floral animalic, is a complex beauty. At first sniff, it sends your olfactory brain off into multiple directions at once rather than staying in one fragrance category.

Top notes: Aldehydes, bergamot, artemesia, gardenia

Heart notes: Jasmine, geranium, cyclamen, orris, ylang-ylang,

Base notes: Leather, patchouli, oakmoss, musk, amber

Bracingly citrusy and herbal (bergamot/artemesia), vaguely tropical and candied (the sweetness and lushness from the gardenia/amber), Azurée ends with a a bone-dry, bitter-green leather accord that is Bandit-like (yet softer) in its elegance and austerity.

One of the most intriguing aspects about Azurée for me is that although the forals are flanked on either side by dry notes, there's a rich, momentary gourmand quality to the scent because of the sweet amber and perhaps how it combines with gardenia and ylang-ylang. For a brief second in the midst of these florals-in-the-desert, a beguiling and fleeting Oriental quality wafts into the perfume, as if Azurée had tucked a piece of caramel candy into its otherwise dry floral pocket. The hint of sweetness rounds out the florals and dry woodsy leather, making Azurée momentarily an olfactory puzzle.

Azurée makes me think of a suntanned woman on vacation in the sixties, in a deep blue floor-length maxi, kohl-rimmed eyes and frosty lipstick. (See Lauren Hutton in '69 above.) She's stepping out onto the deck of her hotel balcony, the hot wind joining her perfumed, suntanned skin, her dressed cinched with a leather belt to give her some edge. Because of the way its notes seem conspicuously separate and dissonant at the beginning (only to marry together gorgeously in the end), Azurée is like a color-blocked Mod dress or Twiggy's makeup, to your right.

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One of the wonderful things about writing about perfume has been having the chance to converse with other perfume-lovers. In exchanges with readers in the comments section of Yesterday's Perfume, or in personal emails with perfume bloggers, and even through meetings in person (I'm talkin' to you Lucy,  Leah and Rita), I have had the pleasure of bonding with some smart and creative people who indeed stop to smell the roses (and the amber, patchouli and civet).

Azuree was sent to me by Wendy from the perfume blog, Qwendy: Shoes, Cake, and Perfume. She'd been raving about it for a while and we finally did some perfume swaps. (Here's her great post on '70s scents and Estee Lauder scents in particular.) I am in debt to her for introducing me to this perfume, which I otherwise probably wouldn't have gotten to for a while. It's on my list of favorites now and I'm so happy to have a chance to review it. Thanks, Wendy! It's perfume friends like you that keep me blogging!

Comments

[ScentScelf]

Isn't it great? I know, I know; to each perfume fan their own...but I am a fan of the odd bird Azuree. I've also heard it called a "citrus leather"... put that with your own description, and someone could start to get an idea of how it's hard to wrap your head around it.

But I like it. :)

I like its equally challenging stablemate Alliage, too. For some reason, though they made me hold up my palm and say hold on! when I first met them early in my perfume descent, I never stopped coming back to retry. Certainly glad that I did.

Thanks for the interesting portrait.

[moongrrl]

I love Azuree and Aliage, too. It was a head-smacking moment when I finally tried them. Who knew that such odd, complex beauties had been sitting behind a poky old Estee Lauder counter all of this time? I'm glad you picked up on the hint of sweetness; I liken it to burnt brown sugar.

[Perfumaniac]

"Who knew that such odd, complex beauties had been sitting behind a poky old Estee Lauder counter all of this time?" I let you say it, moongrrl! And yes, ScentScelf, Azuree is really an "odd bird" — odd and beautiful.

[Joan]

I just read this review as a reference for mine. I was only able to recognize about half of those notes. Thanks for giving me more to think about.

I'm really impressed with how you likened Azuree to a mod fragrance. Who else would think of that?!

[Robert]

Aramis smells so similar I'd regard it as interchangeable for Azuree.

[Perfumaniac]

Robert, they are very similar! I think Aramis is a bit skankier, though. I love them both...