Reviews of Sunflowers by Elizabeth Arden

A lovely orchestra of notes to start. A good balance of fruits. Touch of green. Some creaminess. Very bright, with a hint of wood. It is definitely an Elizabeth Arden scent.

The middle reveals more greenish notes. Flowers are well-mixed, hard to pick out singularly. So far, I've enjoyed the top notes more than the middle. Now, it has definitely turned into a "mainstream" floral.

Lots of lily of the valley emerges over time. It becomes more woodsy and green. However, this one is gone from my skin in a matter of a couple hours. At least I finally got around to trying this one. I'd always been curious...

I bought this because a full 100ml bottle only cost me about $1.It's not my favourite and it's not even something I would buy if it was full price, but it's decent enough to wear when you don't want to waste your treasured scent on a normal day, or just want something to spritz on after shower.

I bought this one purely for nostalgic reasons, plus I found a 100ml for less than $10 so why not? It's funny to see how many of these reviews are memory/nostalgia based comments, because that's exactly my connection to this perfume. Does it smell cheap, plastic, and terrible? I don't know, I guess it does to some people, but not me. Personally, the memories connected to it are so strong that it's nearly impossible to be objective. I don't usually like (nor write) reviews that describe a memory/fragrance link, but because it seems to be a theme on BN for Sunflowers, here is mine:

The winter in the mid-1990's, I'm 11 or 12 years old and my friend took me along to the Florida Keys on a family vacation. His sister, 15 or so at the time, got to bring a friend too…and she brought Ann. Oh, Ann. I was still at the age where talking to girls wasn't easy (if not impossible) never mind talking to two older, gorgeous, tall, leggy high school girls who perpetually wore bikini tops and cut-off jean shorts. Ann and my friends' sister got tipsy one night and flirted with me…a lot. Ann wore Sunflowers. I know this because she sprayed some on her bare long neck and asked me to smell it. I was in heaven, pure bliss…it was more the situation than the perfume, but you know what they say about scent and memories.

It's my first strong memory of that cosmically powerful, burning desire towards the opposite sex, and Sunflowers played a lead role. How can I not still love it?

Innocuous enough, pleasant green floral from Arden.

It does have a plastic under scent that can give it a "cheap" feeling. I am most reminded of Arden's other paean to the fields, Blue Grass, which it resembles.

Nothing at all special, and therefore highly affordable.

Top notes: Lemon, Rosewood, Neroli, Mandarin
Middle notes: Cyclamen, Muguet, Rose, Jasmine, Orris
Base notes: Cedar, Musk, Amber, Moss

Nothing to go out of your way for.

Floral & fruityOrange, mandarin, bergamot and a bit of cantaloup start it off, to be followed by jasmine. Then Sunflower kicks in quite a pleasant way. Later in the drydown a bit of wood is added, but essentially this is and remains a medium-sweet yet never cloying floral scent that is clearly synthetic and linear on my skin, but quite nice. What is really decent is the projection and the silage, and the longevity of over six hours on me.

This is probably the worst fragrance that has ever been created. It smells cheap, smothersome, sickening, like those flowers we used to put in the garden to repel bugs and slugs (marigolds?). Any $2 fragrance from the bargain bin at a flea market would beat this vile mess. And all the toxic knockoffs that came along.....

LOL! Wow, sorry if somebody thinks I have no taste or hopelessly downmarket sensibilities or something, but I like this scent a lot, and suspect I'd still like it if I could afford much pricier stuff. I do know what a lot of the expensive juice smells like; some I love and a lot just bores me. This, though, is different, and special.

Fragrance is extremely seasonal to me as an herbalist and wildcrafter, and this smells to me of late summer and early fall, my favorite time of the year. That may be because to me it smells recognizably of the scented/aromatic sunflower varieties that grow wild or near-wild here, and of rudbeckia and solidago and the dried cones of echinacea, zinnia and feverfew. The smell of slow, dusty sunlight crossing a September field. To each h/er own, but this is one I'll want even after I win the lottery. ;-)

Sometimes the most memorable scents are also the cheapest, they remind us of a time in our lives when this was the best we could buy. For some they bring back memories of happy times, youth bright sunny days. For me it was a gift from hubby, with a newborn and a 2 year old it was all we could afford. Was it the greatest scent out there, probably not,was it the greatest scent for some at the time definately. Will I wear it again maybe, will I sniff it and be flood with wonderful memories, always.

Awful, cheap and very artificial floral. So strong, acrid and chemical. It smells like urine to me. People with no taste spray this on liberally and it LASTS.

I buy almost half of my fragrances blind, Sunflowers being an example of such. The reviews here and other places spoke of a strong nostalgic attachment to this perfume, which only reminded me of my most nostalgic scent, Clinque Happy (I now hate it). So I was wary in buying a small sample of Sunflowers as a summer scent which I own few of. I was more than pleasantly surprised. This scent is mature yet youthful, bursting with soft flowers and just enough muskiness to give it depth. To me, it's like an Estée Lauder scent, (my 50+ yr old mother's favorite perfume maker) mixed with the memories of when Clinique Happy made me drool. A great summer (the season for reminiscing) perfume indeed.

This is an ok perfume, but inappropriate in these depressing times. If you love sunflowers and intimately know the sensation of brushing faces with one, you will notice this product doesn't afford the same fragrance or high, either. I don't like the marketing of this product, it's so 1990's when times were nice and I could get a career, or so I thought. Now I find the overly happy, contrived bottled design very depressing, like a big, phony smile as an interviewer excuses me from his office saying nice to meet you. I can just picture the other bottle design sketches in marketing. 'And this one is shaped like a sunflower seed! The colors need to parallel the orange Imac, because that's hot right now! Orange is the new red!' Who cares about your idea for a bottle? It's a fragrance. Put it in a clean mayonaise jar. It's about the essence, you know? Not your cheesy, perfect, bottle idea that is subtly shaped like a sunflower seed. Thanks, Elizabeth, for putting so much money into designers who think of bottles and not actually recapturing one of natures most beautiful scents.

Once innovative and inspiring, now tired and overdone. The Calone/Helional overdose was very much of its time and made this memorable. However, this can me smelled miles away and is totally unpresentable. I'm totally over the 90's.

I once loved it. Not it smells cheap, plastic and sickening.

Deeply unpleasant. Smells only of tomato and wet dog to me.

Sunflowers is a lovely fragrance, its inexpensive here in the U.K but shines so much brighter than other inexpensive frags. I find it very distinctive, I cant think of another that is like it. This is the frag that can take you back to summer holidays, school days and great days. Also I love the simplicity of the bottle and box design.I feel it is great for any age too, I wore it throughout high school and my mother wears it today...timeless.

Quite possibly my favourite perfume of all time. I always make certain to have it in some form (body wash, lotion and/or perfume) in my personal collection at all times.Every time I uncap the bottle, I'm taken back to the summer of seventh grade, laying in bed with a warm breeze wafting through the open window of my room, writing in my diary. Most everyone to whom I'm spoken about this scent has a similar story; it has a power of not only enveloping you in its delicious, aquatic notes, but also to transport you through time and space to the whimsical days of youth.It's pure, unadulterated magic. There's no other way to explain it.

This perfume takes me straight back to junior high. It's certainly not the most sophisticated or compilcated fragrance, but to me, that's part of it's appeal. It's a bright, happy floral with a bit of musk. Definitely has some sillage when you first apply it, but it's not very long lasting.

Pleasent fragrance, stays on for ages, decent price tag...thumbs up for me

I don't like this at all - I find it quite strong and it just smells like a generic perfume with no character of its own. It is definitely not for me.

the name arouses nice inspirations sun and flowers. but the huge sunflowers do not have a flowery scent other than some green saps and i could never get what is the the dusty sour head note of it. not exciting in anyway.

This perfume reminds me of a tarty girl at High School. It's 'over ripe' and cheap like she was!

I love it because it smells sort of like shaving cream yet its floral!

i used this for sometime and i like it but i got used to the smell of sunflower that i dont appreciate it anymore.

I remember moving away from home and living in my own apartment. I remember the scent of the laundy room as clothes were drying in the drying. It was spring/summer and life was young. Whenever I smell Sunflowers, it takes me back to those sunny mid mornings on the weekends doing laundry and sitting by the apartment swimming pool. It is a bright and sunny scent that is perfect for spring/summer (not a fall or winter fragrance at all). It is refreshing and full of the spirit of life itself. I real mood booster when you smell it. It's sunshine in a bottle!