I remember trying Clinique Aromatics Elixir¹ in my early twenties (didn’t like it then) and forgetting it existed till I met someone 13 years later who wore it all the time. When I first met her, I said: “You’re wearing Aromatics Elixir, aren’t you?” How could I remember a perfume I had tried so long ago and never wore again? (I was proud of myself…what a memory! what a Nose!) But I can take only partial credit for this feat; Aromatics Elixir is distinctive, and one of the few perfumes with a strong oak moss note that I now enjoy.

Last week, when I reviewed Aramis (a fragrance that shares Aromatics Elixir’s perfumer, Bernard Chant), I admitted oak moss is not one of my favorite fragrance ingredients — an understatement. Oak moss is something I imagine as a brittle, sticky thread that takes over other ingredients as a virus overwhelms a host…

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