Elizabeth Arden's Red Door - A Lovely Scent (Elizabeth Arden: Red Door, Eau de Toilette)

Member Name: anonymili

Product:	Elizabeth Arden: Red Door, Eau de Toilette
Date:	12/04/09 (171 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A cheap, distinctive and fresh fragrance

Disadvantages: None really

Red Door is Elizabeth Arden's signature fragrance which was named after the Elizabeth Arden Red Door Salons. It's a luxurious fragrance with a modest price tag and it's in my top 5 favorite perfumes. I am proud to say I was working at Elizabeth Arden (EA) in 1989 when Red Door was first released and I have my own little story to tell about this.


IN THE PAST (MY STORY)

Years ago in the very late 80s I worked on a temporary contract at Elizabeth Arden in the Sales Administration department. I was in my early 20s and found it quite exciting to work in this well esteemed company.

Part of my role in Sales Admin was to deliver figures to various people within the company. On the floor I worked on as well as my department there were other departments including Human Resources, Marketing, Accounts and the oh so scary Directors. Well of course they weren't scary in the least but at the tender of 20 or so Directors were people to be respected and somewhat feared. Well back to the story, I was delivering some analytical information to the Marketing team and saw a rather boring bottle on one of the desks. I asked what it was and one of the team said it was the new EA fragrance Red Door, I casually asked if I could try it and was told to feel free. I squirted some quite liberally on my wrists and straight away thought it was a fresh flowery distinctive scent and that I really liked it. I wondered back to my office area passing the Director's office on the way. One of the Directors was returning to his office from somewhere and walked past me and suddenly stopped and said to me "Hey, what is that perfume you're wearing? It's great!" I was rather nervous. Here was me, just a temp, being spoken to by one of the top Directors of EA who'd never even noticed my existence before now as far as I knew. I didn't know what to say, so I stuttered out feebly "It's, erm, your new scent, I can't remember what it's called!" Not much more to tell of the story except that I was quite chuffed when he gave me a huge smile and said it smelt fantastic on me before going into his office. I was quite confused that the big boss had complimented me on the company's own fragrance and hadn't even known what it was. There started my relationship with Red Door


BACK TO THE PRESENT

Since leaving EA I have purchased and worn Red Door on and off over the last couple of decades. Lucky for me it's available at a very reasonable price so it doesn't break the bank to purchase it, wherever you see it advertised for sale the suggested retail price is always very high but the actual price is extremely reasonable. I also have a close friend who adores this so I know I can regularly buy her a large bottle of the perfume and even splash out on a whole gift set (with body cream and shower cream) at birthdays or at Christmas.

The bottle has a fairly plain design bottle but with a distinctive red lid and the box that the perfume comes in is in the shape of the signature EA Red Door. I don't want to go into any more detail describing what the bottle looks like as you can easily see that from the product photo here and it's not really anything really that special.

The perfume itself though is extremely distinctive. I don't know many people that wear this scent but if I pass anyone in the street wearing it I can tell straight away.

As an aside, when I was in Nordstrom last year (2008) on a trip to the USA 3 separate members of staff in different parts of the store commented on how pleasant they thought I smelt when I was wearing Red Door. This isn't something that happens in the UK, sadly most retail assistants don't even acknowledge your existence until you ask them for help. It was quite a strange thing to happen as I even felt there was a conspiracy but then I remembered that people in the USA who work in retail actually seem to enjoy being in customer service roles and they do their best to make customers feel welcome...

All perfumes have varying degrees of notes in them and here's what you will find in Red Door:

# Top: Rose, Ylang-Ylang, Violet
# Middle: Jasmine, Orchid, Freesia, Lily of the Valley, Orange Flower
# Lower (or Base): Honey, Vetiver, Woody Notes

In case you aren't aware, the top notes are the notes that give you the first impression of the scent but they don't last very long. The middle notes are the ones that give 'body' to the scent and take a short while to establish their presence (i.e. be noticed). Mostly these are soft and warm scents. Lower (or base) notes are the heaviest part of the scent and the ones that outlast the former notes; often they are concentrated and stimulating.
The EDP is available in varying sizes including 5ml, 25ml, 50ml and 100ml. Price-wise - in the UK you can easily pick up a 25ml bottle for around £10. Please note that the EDP is more expensive than the EDT as it's more concentrated but the prices are still very reasonable.

Red door is a long lasting scent, a few squirts in the morning before going to work and I can come home 9 or so hours later and my husband will still notice that I'm wearing it. I'd personally say it's suitable for daytime wear, it's not generally my evening scent of choice but that's just my personal taste.


IN CLOSING

What other endorsement can I personally give about this scent apart from the fact that I've enjoyed wearing it for 2 decades now? I don't wear it every day and can't even say I wear it every week. I go through phases and might wear it day after day for a couple of weeks and then not wear it again for a month or so. But overall I'd give it a strong 9 out of 10 and say that I'm glad it's so cheaply available considering that it's such a distinctive scent.

Go on, I dare you, try it out next time you're in a fragrance store or somewhere where they sell fine fragrances.



This review may appear on other consumer review sites under my same username.

Summary: A relationship that's lasted 20 years so far...