Fragrance Friday: Estée Lauder Modern Muse Chic

A winner in the Allure magazine Best of Beauty awards for 2013 and one of my favourite fragrance releases that year, Estée Lauder’s Modern Muse is an insanely wearable, sophisticated blend of exotic and musky notes that also manages to be refreshing  - an unusual balancing act but one that makes it a great choice in any season. It opens with a burst of zesty mandarin and heady jasmine before a woodier accord—patchouli, amber, and musk—takes over, and it has been a bestseller since it hit the counters (and the beautiful campaign imagery featuring Ms. Arizona Muse most certainly does it justice).

So, I was rather intrigued when just about a year on Estée Lauder have released Modern Muse Chic - a floral, woody and musky take on the original which amps it up with a bold contrast of vivid florals and sensual ebony woods. Technically termed a “dual impression”, it allows you to be lured in by both sides of the fragrance - its fresh floral personality and its sexy, woody one. Very cool.

Like the award winning original Modern Muse, Modern Muse Chic was inspired by “the complexity of a modern woman”, which is pretty much summed up in the latter approach. Top notes are plum and artemisia; while middle notes are jasmine sambac, tuberose and lily andbase notes are cashmere wood, agarwood (oud), labdanum, patchouli, ebony tree, musk, madagascar vanilla and suede. Complex? Yep, you bet… but all the more beautiful for it. Love the gold studded bow on the bottle too, it’s most definitely chic indeed.

Estée Lauder Modern Muse Chic arrives on counter on November 10.