Etat Libre d’Orange Bendelirious

One of my recent New York adventures involved a trip to Twisted Lily, Parfum1’s new Brooklyn boutique, with the utterly charming Josie of Beauty Bacon Bunnies fame. It’s a mighty cute shop (see their Etat Libre d’Orange chandelier above!) with a welcome variety of price points, from $45 Smell Bents to $300 Amouages. Between cooing over the L’Artisan Christmas sets and finally caving on my longtime favorite Kai, I spotted my future Chanukah present to myself: a customizable set of ten Etat Libre d’Orange minis for only $100. The very generous saleswoman sent me home with several ELDO samples, including Bendelirious, to help me choose which fragrances I wanted in the set. After several rounds of testing, I’m happy to report that Bendelirious easily made the cut.

Perfumer Antoine Lie cleverly uses a fizzy, sparkling effect to cut the sweetness of the cheerfully artificial cherry note. Spraying on Bendelirious feels like being handed a glass of champagne with a dash of grenadine. Like real champagne, Bendelirious loses its fizz after a relatively short amount of time (half an hour for me, one hour for Tania Sanchez, according to Perfumes: The Guide), but the sweet, creamy scent that remains is just as appealing. I can’t think of anything that smells much like Bendelirious, but the similarly vivacious Frederic Malle Lipstick Rose has the same tone. Although Bendel’s and Etat Libre d’Orange appear to have gone their separate ways, Bendelirious is still available for $80 per 50 ml or in the aforementioned set.