5th Avenue
Elizabeth Arden (1996)

This is pleasant and inoffensive. On me, it's a floral melange, and reminds me a bit of Johnson & Johnson baby shampoo. It lasts a few hours, and is great to wear during the day, to the office, in spring. That's how I went through my 5mL sample in just a couple of weeks. I would not seek this out, but if another mini came my way, I'd happily wear it.

To me it smells like a white floral musk, with a heavy vanilla base. I'm sure fans of Ghost (2000) will probably like it, for me it's just middle of the road, but not unpleasant.

Lasted for around 5 hours.

CK clone.

3*

Mini flacon, no box, 3/10ml

5th Avenue is elegant and feminine. I detect a lot of lilac plus lily-of-the-valley. The rest is a sophisticated mix of floral notes. The sillage and longevity are moderate making it a very flexible fragrance. It can be worn anytime and anyplace. A feminine classic.

I had chosen this one based on the fruit and spice notes, but all I got was a very synthetic generic floral. I'm not able to pick out individual notes at all.

To me, 5th Avenue falls into the "white noise" category. It's vaguely pretty and very light with little sillage or staying power on my skin.

It seems like a good inoffensive office scent.

This is from a male perspective. I like this fragrance very much indeed, though I may be biased as this reminds me of two very important women in my life. When my mother passed in 2011 (at the comparatively young age of 50) I had to go through her things and found over 200 bottles of perfume. This was among them, standing tall, and I picked up the bottle and spritzed it onto my forearm. Its a little rough when it first goes on, but within minutes I felt as though she was there.

It's a wonderful aroma. Florals mingling with lightweight citrus notes in the beginning and moving to the spicy, oriental heart notes that really conjure up an evening at the height of summer. They're not heavy, they float in a sort of dance with the floral notes. For me it took a while for the musky base to come through. This is also a light white musk, flanked by sandalwood and rich vanilla.

By pure chance I discovered that my ex-girlfriend also wore 5th Avenue and yet I hadn't associated it with my mother at all. Which makes me think that this perfume is not at all age-dependent; just a marvellous perfume that might well be worn in more than one season. Very elegant and demure, and yet fresh and flowery. A winner in my book.