Happy Clinique 1997 Perfume

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6.6 / 10 294 Ratings

A perfume by Clinique for women, released in 1997. The scent is fresh-floral. It is being marketed by Estēe Lauder Companies.

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Main accords

Fresh

Floral

Citrus

Fruity

Sweet

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes

Mandarin orange tree

Grapefruit

Laurel

Bergamot

Heart Notes

Jasmine

Orchid

Boysenberry blossom

Base Notes

Lily

Mimosa Hawaiian wedding flower

Magnolia

Perfumers

Jean-Claude Delville, Rodrigo Flores-Roux

Ratings

Scent

6.6294 Ratings

Longevity

6.3230 Ratings

Sillage

5.9224 Ratings

Bottle

6.3233 Ratings

Value for money

7.079 Ratings

Submitted by Sani, last update on 01/20/2025.

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to

Happy Solid Perfume

Happy - A Hint of Citrus Perfume

Happy - A Hint of Citrus Solid Perfume

Funky Flower

Pani Walewska - Classic

Aqua Universalis Eau de Toilette

Reviews

15 in-depth fragrance descriptions

07/08/2021

6
Pricing 6
Bottle 6
Sillage 7
Longevity 3
Scent

Kurai
388 Reviews

Kurai

Top Review 5

Balloons

Frolic, cheerful, naive girlie scent. That comes to mind the moment I spray it on. Mild citrus followed by a colorful bunch of flowers.

Sadly this feel-good vibe does not last long, not sure if it’s my skin or just due to the poor quality. Pretty soon I get a plastic-y or actually a rubbery smell: balloons or rubber gloves. That spoils it for me. Too bad, really.

02/27/2013

5
Bottle 7.5
Sillage 7.5
Longevity 2
Scent

Sherapop
1239 Reviews

Sherapop

Very helpful Review 6

I regret to report that my sister was right

It took me years to muster up the courage to test Clinique HAPPY. It's possible that I finally did it only because of my conversion to true love for AROMATICS ELIXIR--against all expectations. I had no specific reason for believing that I'd hate AROMATICS ELIXIR beyond the flagrant contradiction that a fragrance-free skin care company should produce a notoriously powerful perfume, but I had read so many songs of praise written by so many perfumistas whose opinions I respect, that I finally tried that creation and feel shortly thereafter in love. I now own two bottles, one made in the United States and the other made in Switzerland, and both of them smell great, once one gets past the bitter chamomile opening.

With HAPPY, I had some serious baggage to deal with and barriers to surmount. Several years ago my sister sent me one of her generous gift packages filled with ceramics (she's an artist) and various snack items and usually a couple of random and unpredictable "things". In this particular package, she had also "thrown in"--just in case I might want them--about five or six Clinique HAPPY minis which she had accumulated from gwps but did not use. She warned me that, in her view, the true name of HAPPY should be MISERABLE.

I stowed the minis away among a bunch of others and swiftly forgot about them. When I began reviewing perfumes in December 2009, I noticed that the Clinique company does a pretty good job of distributing samples of HAPPY, because I always seem to be finding them, and each time they remind me of the minis, and each time I remember why I never really want to sample this perfume.

On this historic night, with a hot bath on the horizon, I took out one of the fresh samples of HAPPY and sprayed it on. In a moment's time, I realized that my sister was right. This is just horrible. It smells like orange cleaning products to me, not all-natural orange-scented cleaning products, but foul-smelling orange Windex.

Based on the reviews I've seen, HAPPY seems to be a fairly polarizing composition, with people generally lining up in either the love or the abhorrence camp. So I am aware that this fragrance has its fans, and my guess is that this particular combination of chemicals is quite compatible with some people's physiological constitution, and according to them, HAPPY is an excellent citrus scent. To me and those of my ilk, this smells like the emanations from an organic chemisty lab and so off-putting that I just want to wash it off.

My sister and I are similar in many ways, and I have to say that I agree in this case, that wearing Clinique HAPPY is not a pleasant experience at all. I cannot say that I feel miserable, but unhappy might be a fair assessment of the effect of this fragrance on me.

Now It's time for that bath...

09/19/2023

Exciter76
78 Reviews

Exciter76

Helpful Review 3

Bottled Joy For The Nihilistic Gen-X Set

Originally reviewed on April 21, 2010:

I feel the need to defend Happy's honor. Not because it is the ultimate powerhouse of all women's fragrances—it is far from it. I need to do so because it is a fragrance that defined Generation-X girls as women who did not need to let their fragrance define them nor let their fragrance announce their presence as our mothers' fragrances did in pre-Happy years.

I do not want to imply that Happy led a revolution of "passive" scents. However, ask any thirty-something woman today what fragrance was prominent in her perfume cache and she will most likely confess Happy was not only in her collection, it was the one used most often. I call it "passive" because most scents that predated Happy were strong "power" scents (see Red Door, Safari, or Red by Giorgio). They were not bad scents but it was time for a change and Happy led the charge along with Sunflowers.

Maybe my age gives me away but it does not smell dated to me. I grew tired of it by the time I was twenty-five. I have rediscovered Happy (and all of its sibling scents) recently and fallen in love all over again.

It smells simplistic—like a white floral-tinged glass of Sunny Delight—but it was borne out of a need for scented simplicity. Admirably, though, for such a simple scent it is very distinctive. Happy cannot be confused for any other scent but it is often apparent that many post-Happy fragrances were inspired by it.

Not bad for the Gen-X slacker of fragrances.

Thoughts from a forty-something Gen-Xer on September 19, 2023:

I still respect the hell out of Happy Perfume, even if I no longer own a bottle or plan to own a bottle in the future. I still respect its quiet rebellion, its need to be joyful with a generation ascribed with nihilistic tendencies. What's more confounding than meeting a young girl in a black daisy floral dress with ten eyelet Doc Marten boots and a few spritzes of Happy Perfume?

I'm no longer striving to confuse the masses like I used to. However, should I have a hankering for some good old-fashioned 1990s nostalgia, I'll turn to a mini of Happy Perfume.

01/04/2012

5
Bottle 5
Sillage 5
Longevity 5
Scent

Missk
1357 Reviews

Missk

Helpful Review 1

Popular citrus fragrance

I tried Happy for the very first time in a large department store whilst on holiday in Melbourne. I instantly loved it and quickly added Happy to my perfume wishlist. I was shocked when I heard how many negative reviews this perfume had been given and I found it extremely hard to understand why... until today. I entered that same department store, (except in a different location), where they had a Happy tester bottle waiting to be sprayed. I tried it, and was utterly shocked! I now know what people meant when they said that Happy smelt like burnt rubber and licorice.

Happy does not have a very long shelf life. It has been known to go off in as little as 8 months. Many tester bottles are kept out in the open, exposed to light and heat which will naturally see them deteriorate faster.

My advice to you, is if you have had a similar unpleasant experience, I suggest you buy from a trusted dealer, especially a place that sells Happy at such a rate that they have to renew their stock every 6 months.

07/08/2012

5
Bottle 7.5
Sillage 7.5
Longevity 4
Scent

LadyRogue
166 Reviews

LadyRogue

Helpful Review 1

Moderately Happy

A happy fruity floral scent with a faint note of lily-of-the-valley and a hint of musk in the drydown, but only a hint, because the oranges, mandarines & other assorted citric-fruits drown everything else out.

I love orange notes in happy summer scents, but for my taste there are too many heavy fruit notes going on in this fragrance. I couldn't wear it everyday and I find I can't wear it the whole day long either. A scent for those that love orange enough to smell it all day long. I would say this is a day wear scent only, and would be great for a summer holiday. Silage is "I can smell fresh oranges all around me" and the longevity is 5+ hours. Definitely sample before purchase.

To satisfy my orange need in a perfume bottle I prefer Cacharels Liberté far more. It has just enough fruity orange to give me that happy feel, yet is mixed in such a way that other lovely notes -like patchouli- help the orange to find some balance and stop it from feeling too overpowering on the fruit front.

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