Wrappings Clinique 1990

This is perhaps the most famous song of the not at all famous pop duo IFA Wartburg from Sweden, which happily employed a real socialist (and German) language in its lyrics and found a charming niche somewhere playfully located between swing, schlager, and jazz with a simultaneously brittle and absurd lightness.

Clinique, on the other hand, essentially stands for (primarily caring) minimalist cosmetics in the mid-price segment. Its 'dramatically different moisturizing lotion' (insiders call it simply: DDML) has achieved a certain cult status, but when it comes to perfume, this self-chosen image quickly reaches its limits. Clinique has its fans and its niche, but (fragrance-) innovation has not been much in evidence lately.

That wasn't always the case. Just recently, I discovered Wrappings, a fragrance completely unknown to me until now, whose bottle (and basic accord) unmistakably borrows from Aromatics Elixir, the only truly serious perfume from Clinique, which has maintained its fiercely loyal following for over forty years due to its uncompromising nature and strength. However, while Aromatics Elixir is clearly a child of its time - the early 70s - Wrappings hails from the transition between the 80s and 90s - a kind of olfactory Terra Incognita between quirky Fougères and the First Aquatic Crusade. And placed in this historical (let alone current) fragrance context, its essence appears even more unyielding and unappealing, even more brittle and much more absurd - a bit like Mrs. Gorbachev dancing the Bossa Nova, at the very least!

Conclusion: it comes across as the absurd relic of a time that has never been present - this little, never really prominent fragrance that has so much quirky character and so much bitter woody floral sweetness - it is hippie and punk and popper, anachronistic and retro-futuristic, a salon lion and a riot - and today more than ever, a really, really cool guy.