Obsession Calvin Klein 1985 Eau de Parfum

Obsession (Eau de Parfum) by Calvin Klein

Bottle Design Pierre Dinand

See Prices

We may earn a commission when you buy from links on our site, including the eBay Partner Network and Amazon.

See Prices

Obsession (Eau de Parfum) (Calvin Klein)

7.7 / 10 616 Ratings

Obsession (Eau de Parfum) is a popular perfume by Calvin Klein for women and was released in 1985. The scent is spicy-oriental. Projection and longevity are above-average. It is being marketed by Coty.
Pronunciation

Layers well with Stash (Eau de Parfum Elixir)

We may earn a commission when you buy from links on our site, including the eBay Partner Network and Amazon.

Main accords

Spicy

Oriental

Woody

Animal

Sweet

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes

Vanilla

Basil

Bergamot

Green notes

Mandarin orange

Peach

Heart Notes

Exotic spices

Sandalwood

Cedar

Coriander

Jasmine

Orange blossom

Rose

Base Notes

Amber

Vanilla

Civet

Frankincense

Musk

Oakmoss

Vetiver

Perfumer

Jean Guichard

Ratings

Scent

7.7616 Ratings

Longevity

8.7483 Ratings

Sillage

8.3472 Ratings

Bottle

6.3469 Ratings

Value for money

8.8160 Ratings

Submitted by DonVanVliet, last update on 06.04.2024.

Reviews

27 in-depth fragrance descriptions

01/11/2021

8
Bottle 9
Sillage 9
Longevity 9.5
Scent

Can777
121 Reviews

Translated Show original

Can777

Top Review 83

Follow me!

Oh yes, I am a very visual man. I am very observant and register a lot around me. My good powers of observation are only slightly surpassed by my sense of smell. It has always been that way! No matter where I am I take or take up the scent like an animal. Always following my nose! In the events of parties, events, events, and even in daily life you can smell a lot of things if you have the sensitivity to do so. Eroticism for example! A good example for a highly erotic scent we have here. In the middle of the 80's Calvin Klein brought his perfume Obsession on the market which has to stand as a prime example for erotic decadence. A perfume what unmistakably said what it wants. Follow me!

Obsession (Vintage)
One can probably rightly claim that Obsession spreads an almost hypnotic aura. A narcotic mix of very many animating notes was and is its secret. A light effervescence of tangerine and slightly sweetened peach opens the trail. Gently softened by bitter herbaceous coriander. Various spices rush in. Not easy to discern in detail. In the foremost front it is spicy-dry cinnamon that is discernible. Nutmeg and clove can also be detected in gentle chords. Floral notes spread out, from lush, waxy orange blossom and oily rose. All transitions are kept very soft-flowing and seem almost floating. There are few perfumes that are intoxicating in all three phases of development. Obsession is without question one of them. However, here too, the base is the real enticement. A heavy,very physical,sultry musk combined with smoky accords of incense,tart smoky oakmoss,powdery spicy vanilla and sweet,warm resinous amber beguile the senses. The sensual hunt is ultimately ignited even more by a not to be despised dose of lascivious-animalic civet. Almost impossible not to follow this perfume!

Conclusion
Whoever wears Obsession, should be aware of being noticed. No perfume with which one disappears in the masses. But Calvin Klein also wanted! Obsession is a true gem of erotic, self-confident decadence and sensuality. This isn't about contenance,romance or playfulness. This fragrance lays a trail of warm spicy physicality and lascivious eroticism for anyone who knows how to read it. I have always been able to read these traces and this one has always been the dearest of them all! A perfume which still knows how to seduce. Extremely sexy! Even in the reformulated version which is so much more "harmless". Obsession is a warm and spicy oriental fragrance that can also be worn by men. And who then follows whom, should it be so, is then here the question?

04/30/2021

10
Pricing 8
Bottle 9
Sillage 9
Longevity 8.5
Scent

MonsieurTest
29 Reviews

Translated Show original

MonsieurTest

Top Review 54

Some Day my Prince Will Come. ZigZag, Live

Now there was a break between the sets. Their mood was upbeat, the place was likeable. They had done well with the first 6 songs. The audience went along. Their musician buddies hung on Nika's lips and also a little on her neck. Because she COULD talk. And she smelled good. The drummer and the bass man wanted to know from Nika, their saxophonist, which perfume she was wearing today. Because they only too gladly wanted to be able to sniff their girlfriends also soon so deliciously, if they were after the tour again at home.

In the lively conversation droning of the charmingly furnished living room club, the ZigZag, yes, many thought of curves here too, constantly..., they did not understand the strange fragrance name of the never heard brand. Something with mermaid, which would be in strange stores to buy.
So Nika jumps up, curves to the next table but one, where she had noticed a fine fellow earlier, sometimes beaming sympathetically, sometimes looking melancholy. She asks him for a pen to scribble her band-boy 'Prodischiööh' on her Realbooks.

And so, as she leans down, she also catches a whiff of obsession on the charming guy's neck. And this casually dressed man around 50 was by no means wearing the somewhat more harmless Obsession for Men, but rather the Real Stuff: the EdP that requires a gun license.

Tall and lean he was, chatting so animatedly with his mate. His boyish laugh had caught her eye as she watched the audience from the edge of the stage during his colleagues' solos. When he narrated, he gestured almost southernly with his slender hands. That didn't really fit to such a graceful grey-blond curly hair; as little as this heavy obsession. But such quirkiness had always fascinated her: the blue notes of life.

She had continued to soak up his visual vibes from the musician's table, chatting with colleagues, squinting out of the corners of her eyes. His distinctive scent now too, now! Curious appearance the guy, almost jittery alive, extraordinary somehow, ageless. She liked that sort of thing, so fast in her head that some people couldn't quite keep up, and she hardly ever liked to sit still with her body either. Something was always bothering her. Him, too, apparently.
Her pulse quickened, a warm feeling spreading through her belly. Why on earth had he captivated her so quickly during their concert here?

His lively, shrewdly twinkling eyes now smile directly at her. He nods, hands her his pen (oh dear, a 707, taste he has too), pays her a witty compliment on her imaginative sax solos, praises her powerfully smoky tone - and turns back to his friend.

His Obsession does what it must, and gives her the rest: its sensual, ambery shades of vanilla, its deep, minimally-animalic spiciness make her shiver briefly. I hope the man doesn't notice. It was a little (or more?) about her: such a distinctive guy...- hadn't come her way in a long time.

The second set started, they get on stage and continue their Miles Davis homage. Now it's 'Some day my Prince will come'. The trumpeter plays her intro, then they together in unison the melody and this is followed, as always, by the piano solo. Fred is in a good mood today too. She listens to him absorbed, and her eyes roam over the audience. In a moment it's her turn with her 12 bars on the classic, which Chet Baker and of course Miles had modulated again and again, unforgettably - melancholic and at the same time hopefully driving forward. She starts, she gets going. She blows herself into a frenzy, stretching her solo to 36, eventually 48 bars, and narrating and narrating on her saxophone - in slow motion.

The hushed conversations in the ZigZag Club grow quieter. They finally fall silent altogether as one by one in the audience realizes something special is going on. Dionysus, the pithy Greek behind the bar who not only runs the club but is a passionate drummer, marvels more and more spellbound until tears of emotion roll from his dark eyes.
This guy has a big heart and gets what's being remembered, hoped and dreamed here right now from the saxophone of this stunningly vital, tall woman. Whose curves match those of her saxophone so well, and whose gaze alternates between inward, into memories, and dreamily into the audience. As she plays and plays.

Of course, the band colleagues also notice what a special evening this is about to become, and join in: after their own solos, into which sighing interjections from Nika's saxophone are allowed to flow again and again, they also do it differently than usual during the subsequent Screw Ball, the dialogic trading fours: drums, bass, piano and trumpet always play their four bars alternately to the always new, always different, cheekily varying tempo of Nika's four bars, who is apparently just telling her life.
The band seems to fly, the hall to float away; so many pensive (or: painful?) smiling faces. They've been playing the piece - or rather, with the piece and with their feelings - for 20 minutes now. Absolutely extraordinary it was. As the time went on, one after the other in the band and then in the audience had probably realised that this wasn't going to be their every-evening 10-minute version of 'Prince Come', but that today, here towards the fabulous three-quarters of an hour of Coltrane's 'A Love Supreme' they were fantasising and pining, praying and improvising for life.

.................. ................... ....................

'Obsession' is a fragrance that, even after a good 30 years and a few reformulations, is still able to conjure up some of its seductively sensual qualities on the skin and in life. As was customary in the 1980s, it contains pretty much all the fruits and spices, woods and resins that make up an oriental-inspired erotic. And thereby was honked from full horns, but quite finely composed.

Vanilla is at the center. But here, like the simple Broadway melodies by the great jazz improvisers, she is modulated and played through in all possible keys. It sings its gently sweet melody sometimes mildly fruity (in the opening), sometimes sultry floral or dry cedar and sandalwood in the heart notes, and finally mossy, patchouli and vetivery bassy towards the end. Nuances of incense, musk and a passing civet cat add one or two more delightful choruses to this grandly orchestrated vanilla orgy, giving Obsession an animalic vivacity that is hard to resist.

From sweetly painful melancholic blues to growling free jazz outbursts, you can experience almost anything here, as in Archie Shepp's saxophone eruptions. Such a perfume sharpens the senses, makes you receptive to spices and envelops you in a warmly ambered sexiness that seems adult and indescribably sensual.

For hours, this modern classic projects its spellbinding vibes over two arm's lengths. Earlier was even more force and durability; the current, however, is quite enough for a long, elated or passionate evening.

06/27/2021

10
Pricing 8
Bottle 9
Sillage 10
Longevity 9
Scent

Chanelle
113 Reviews

Translated Show original

Chanelle

Top Review 43

The circle closes

Obsession (women's version) was the first scent that excited me beyond measure. Shortly before my very first stay in the States, a friend of mine, who had apparently mysteriously already met him and was now completely obsessed, talked me into bringing him back for her. She swore that Mr. Klein had said in some magazine that he never intended to sell his wares in Germany because he had a problem with Germany. Whether that was what was said I could never verify, but it did not make me sympathetic to Mr. Klein. Then there was the matter of the money. If Jeanie (that was the obsessive's name, and is still her name) had put a few dollars in my hand to buy said fragrance, I wouldn't have gotten into trouble either. You see, as a youngster, I practically never had any money because I always left everything entirely in perfume stores and drugstores! Oops. Nothing has changed!
Well, I went in search of this ominous obsession towards the end of the trip. In the morning, at a drug store that looked ramshackle but was also reasonably priced, I quickly found it. First of all, curiosity had to be satisfied...I tested for myself.
Within seconds, I realized that not one, but two flacons had to be purchased, because Jeanie was right: this was the absolute hottest thing I had ever smelled! Instant Obsession.
That dry, yet creamy sweetness, that unoriental spiciness. And then only the soft, soft sandalwood!
At that time I was not yet able to smell out fragrance components even approximately, but since I call vintage Bunkerflacons my own, I can reconstruct my impressions at that time to some extent.
Now I could finally stop "stealing" my mother's Opium all the time, because Obsession was 100x better! And not so old-fashioned, I thought.
But I didn't buy right away, because first I had to be clear about the financing. So I didn't get back to the store until the evening, still smelling heavenly-soft-vanilla after not finding Obsession cheaper anywhere during the day, and for the 2nd or 3rd time inserted that newfangled little plastic card that you could use to pay without having any money.
Oh, brave new world! Hopefully a miracle will happen and money will find its way into my account before the card club claims theirs.
At the hotel, I tore open one of the packages and realized I was holding a pour bottle! And the 2nd one, for Jeanie, had to be one then too, I suppose. But never mind, the fine stuff in it will be used anyway, I knew that....Jeanie and I had our flacons empty in no time, as we literally bathed in obsession every day, which in turn brought us many compliments. Then, against all odds, when Mr. Klein and his specs made the move across the pond, Kate Moss kept staring at us hungrily on TV - as an ad for Obsession! - we both grew a little weary of the scent. It wasn't until the otherworldly Vallee des Rois hit us both right in the heart at the same time.
But when I recently found and bought up several of these hand-flattering vintage Obsession pouring flacons (concentration calls itself cologne amime-wise, but lasts what feels like 3 days), my love rekindled. Whether that has to do with Dua Lipa and that whole 80s craze, or myself going back to the roots, I don't know. But one thing is for sure: obsession! Better in vintage than new, but always a vanilla/sandelwood imbiber

11/26/2018

10
Bottle 8
Sillage 10
Longevity 9.5
Scent

Schwälbchen
21 Reviews

Translated Show original

Schwälbchen

Top Review 39

Not the holy grail, but damn close

Vintage and current version - a comparison

A bottle of recent obsession has been in my collection for quite some time and I have to say that I really like this fragrance. The warm and flattering vanilla - omnipresent but not nose-filling - gives the current version a very attractive aura. The fragrance is warm, ambry and slightly spicy right from the start. I cannot grasp herbs or even green notes, rather the Eau de Parfum is underlaid with a fruity orange hint. The impression of a freshly peeled orange peel is tangible. Individual spices, on the other hand, do not want to be revealed to me. For example, I don't notice cinnamon at all on my skin, although I love it very much. It is rather this inviting, benevolent spiciness that makes obsession so irresistible. A very sensual pleasure and even if the reformulation cannot hold a candle to the original, I find both fragrances fascinating and see them as independent orientals in my collection.

The Vintage is even more sensual compared to the current version. Many stories entwine around this fragrance icon. And I also get the impression of eroticism when I sniff it for the first time. No, not subtle eroticism. This fragrance is a vamp, self-confident, radiant, refined seduction and ... yes, sex. No other fragrance is able to create such three-dimensional associations of hot and sweaty skin, damp sheets and (I completely agree with JUMI) wet hair. There's no flirting here. Facts are created here. To be able to wear a vintage obsession, a woman must give herself completely to her femininity. Pride and self-confident grace embody fragrance and wearer. For example, there is this angular, green-herbal start with a lot of incense. Animalic resonates and surrounds the wearer with a (by today's standards) wonderfully unadapted fragrance restaurant. Musk, civet and vanilla meet for a rendezvous of unimagined endurance. In overdose - and this is quickly reached here - he is able to take the breath away from his fellow men. Gently applied, it is a fragrance that has no equal.

If you compare the two fragrances, I would say that the current version with its balsamic feel-good character is definitely suitable for the office but always for daily use. Well-made designer quality with high durability at a top price are combined here.

The VINTAGE, on the other hand, with its irrevocable influence on the limbic system of apparently civilized forms of life and their predatory behavioral changes as a result, is ZWINGEND subject to a weapon licence.

Well then: Waidmanns Heil und Namaste,
your Schwälbchen

08/07/2020

9
Bottle 9
Sillage 10
Longevity 9.5
Scent

Primel
38 Reviews

Translated Show original

Primel

Top Review 27

Obsession killed the cat

It is of course the "Curiosity" that got the cat into trouble, a saying that warns against too much curiosity (and name of a band from the 80s).

I first tasted the fragrance in 1989 on a stone-rich and beautiful South American woman during a language stay in Worthing/England. Margherita, as she was called, told me radiantly: "Obsesssssion!" I was thrilled and from then on downright obsessed by this scent, by the way, you could have scented a whole gym with this extract!
Obsession is an oriental scent, but for me it is not "spicy" or even dark, but rather "golden", fruity, flowery and spicy and very sensual, wearable for both sexes equally and absolutely timeless. And what is most beautiful: Not an exploding civet stink bomb, but the fuse glows softly and extinguishes gradually...

Young and unattached as I was then, I then travelled to the South of France to learn a little French as well. Unfortunately "Obsession" became a little bit disliked there. The huge, black (and a bit threatening) tomcat of the host family went crazy and even came to see me in the bedroom at night :D After listening to the howling and howling for a while, I even thought that the animal pronounced my name! Was I going crazy? It was just creepy :O .........Oh Obsession!

That this scent has a pretty strong effect on cats, I read somewhere (maybe here?). In any case, I did not wear this scent anymore from then on.

After careful consideration I came to the conclusion that I had only imagined this whole thing.
:(

More reviews