Shalimar Eau de Parfum

I'm in my 30's, and I just recently came across Shalimar. It is intoxicating. I recommend trying it on and wearing it around before buying. I found it to be intense at first, but the dry-down is where the magic is. Many scents go flat or become soapy over time, but this just keeps revealing new notes and deeper tones that change throughout the day. There's a reason this is a classic. I've come to crave it like chocolate.

I've loved and worn this fragrance for years. I quite often get compliments from both men and women on how good I smell! And that lovely aroma is even there subtlety, the next morning. I've tried others, but I always come back to what suits me the best, and that's Shalimar. Fragrance is very individual, so I believe to get and stay with what works best for you...fragrance should never shout, but whisper.

What can I say that has not already been said about this extraordinary fragrance? It is a full-immersion emotional experience. Like many others (thousands? tens of thousands?) I lost my head over this only after gritting my teeth and forcing myself to try a spritz of the little sample vial included with a shipment of something else (bless you forever, Nordstrom, for including it.) But that little vial sat on my bathroom counter, unloved and untouched for more than 6 months before I was able to talk myself into spritzing it on my arm, because the initial whiff turned my stomach, smelling as it did (to me) like nothing so much as imitation lime jello. I found myself actually insulted that anyone could have ever deliberately created a fragrance to smell like this ON PURPOSE. So I grimaced, chalked it up to you win some you lose some, and went to do something else to take my mind off my disappointment that, after reading all those rhapsodic reviews, I still couldn't stand this juice. Except that just a few minutes after recoiling from it, I forgot I had it on, and when I turned away from my task, I stepped through the little envelope of warm air that had surrounded me.... and that's when the magic hit me. That extraordinary scent that "came out of nowhere" was in fact the "next phase" of that "lime jello." And it was, and it is, heaven. I could rant on. I won't. I will never fall out of love with my other great long-time obsessions (Joy, Chanel N.5, Cristalle, YSL Paris) and am still besotted with a more recent discovery I raved about on here also, Chantecaille's fierce, subversive, Kalimantan... But I will wrap this up by saying that this was worth waiting 5 decades for. What a marvelous discovery in middle-age. Perhaps if I can still surprise myself I can still surprise others as well. And when I cannot actively smell this fragrance on myself, I miss it, long for it, and fret until I can smell it again. (I look forward to purchasing the body powder too.)

My Dad brought Shalimar home for my Mom after serving in Europe, WW11. That was in the 40's and she passed it along to me, her daughter and I have been spraying using on me for 50 years. I love the scent and people constantly ask me what I'm wearing. I love waking up and smelling just a faint smell. LOVE IT. Never have found anything close.