Sensuous Nude is the second and most recent of the flankers to Estee Lauder’s 2008 fragrance, Sensuous; it follows 2010’s Sensuous Noir. I will readily admit that I don’t pay much attention to trends in perfumery, despite spending so much time reporting on new releases. I notice the big things: everybody who wants a piece of the high end niche market is doing oud, fruity florals and modern chypres are still the staples of the mainstream women’s market, the men are still getting more bland sport fragrances than anybody could possibly need or want. Fifty-odd years after perfumer Edmond Roudnitska complained that perfumes were getting too foody, gourmand elements are still all the rage on both sides of the aisle. Up and coming, on the women’s side: powdery sheer skin scents, à la Cartier Baiser Volé, the Prada Infusions (and L’Eau Ambrée), Balenciaga Paris, Love, Chloé and Hermès Eau Claire des Merveilles.
Sensuous Nude falls into the latter group; you could probably already guess that from its reported inspiration: the “intimacy of touch and bare skin”.1 It makes a real change from Sensuous, which had some sillage (although I thought of it — and wore it — as a casual skin scent anyway), and even more so from the darker, spicier, woodier Sensuous Noir…
