When I was a child in the 70s and 80s Estee lauder was the epitome of class and also wealth . To say you used Estee Lauder Private Collection and Estee Lauder make up, meant you were definitely privileged and that you had taste. I was in awe of all those who owned precious Private Collection as I was in awe of those who used Joy and Youth Dew, Opium etc. These were great great scents.

Private Collection is an absolute beauty - even today - a green floral classic and bone structure to match . Opens with a gorgeous deep green note that lifts your spirit before opening up into a dusky floral heart. It reminds somewhat of Vol de Nuit extrait by Guerlain with the sensual mossy slightly bitter green character .

Truly is a great fragrance. I cannot stand it that people call this an old lady or grandma fragrance. The women ( and men perhaps ?? ) who have known this beauty and worn it for years, knew something good when they smelt it. That meant they have good noses and great classic taste. I love Private Collection and the price is very reasonable for a bottle of greatness.

Love this fragrance. I have worn it since I was 20 (off and on). I did however get a strange look from a person selling fragrance in the Duty Free shop at an airport for buying it for myself, apparently I was too young for it, she wanted to sell a new more youthful scent which I have never liked and has since been discontinued... I get many compliments from random strangers whenever I wear this scent, and I love how it smells. I guess it just suits my chemistry :-)

One word "Heavinly" , this is how heaven would smell like to me .. sillage is outstanding too , i can smell myself even the next day ! what more could any one ask for more in a perfume . Only downside is it is expensive 1.7 ounnce is for 55 USD or even 60 depending on where you get it from.. If I find this on sale any time I would stoke up , yet throughout the last 20 years I never did!

I wore Private Collection every day throughout most of my 20s. I kept myself in this fragrance when I barely had money for food, such was it's lush and heavenly appeal. Men I didn't know would follow me, sniffing the air. That was not always a good thing! But it was a gorgeous scent.

When I had my baby, either my chemistry changed or the formula did, in some significant way, and I no longer felt it was as beautiful to wear; gradually I abandoned my beloved Private Collection for other fragrances.

Recently I decided to try it again, and purchased (online, without visiting a counter) my first bottle in decades. Here is what I find: I can wear this and enjoy it, but I can only spritz once, very lightly, around my solar plexus. I used to practically bathe in the stuff, but my sensitivity to scent has grown so since then that I cannot have it on my skin any closer to my nose than there. It is as buzzy and golden as I recall, though I distinguish less orange blossom than I remember (and I love orange blossom). Nevertheless, in this milder dose, it is interesting, complex, less green than golden on me, and beautiful. It's also much more assertive and longer-lasting per spritz than I recall. I can't imagine spritzing behind each ear, on wrists, cleavage, etc., or misting into the air and walking through it the way I used to - I think I'd pass out, and so would everyone with whom I came into contact.

Again goodness for department store testers. I have been looking for a honeysuckle fragrance after walking in the woods during springtime and when doing research this popped up. The only thing I could smell was burning log, no honeysuckle. Any ideas for honeysuckle? Oh and why do scents that you detest linger all day?!

Imagine that you uprooted a bushel's worth of assorted weeds from a sprawling garden and ran them through an industrial-sized blender-- leaves, stems, twigs, roots, and all, with lots of damp earth and worms still clinging to them. The end result would smell intensely vegetal and green, no? And yet Private Collection is so much more than a big green smoothie. It feels very sophisticated, chic, and urbane, like something a wealthy, upper-class woman would wear in the city (though she does have a second home in the country, complete with the aforementioned garden, which she pays someone else to weed because she has the money for hired help).


As a girly-girl, an introvert, and a couch potato, I feel downright uncomfortable in scents that are masculine, attention-getting, or sporty. Not surprisingly, for a while I tried very hard to like Chanel No. 19, the reigning queen of intellectual, non-sporty green fragrances for women who are confident (or just want to feel that way). However, its austere, icy, business-like personality was too much for me. But somehow, Private Collection is just right-- a green scent that manages to feel confident and smart, without going so far as to be downright intimidating the way No. 19 can be.


As with any fragrance that bespeaks intense sophistication, wealth, and intelligence, Private Collection has aspirational appeal. If I like it, or if I identify with it, it's not because I represent all its good qualities-- it's because I aspire to have them some day. So I think everyone should own a decant or bottle of Private Collection as a fragrant reminder of what it means to be at one's hypothetical best: self-assured, in control, and rich in resources, whether they be material or intellectual.


My tiny bottle of Private Collection came from an antique store, so I don't know whether it's the original or modern formula. I just know it's incredibly good.

Top Notes

* Honeysuckle
* Jasmine
* Citrus


Middle Notes

* Orange Flower
* Ylang-Ylang
* Coriander


Base Notes

* Sandalwood
* Patchouli

Galbanum this bold and green, at an intensity (one spritz clears a room) I've only seen matched by Vent Vert, has a harsh beauty which I love. Private Collection seems to pick up where White Linen leaves off, some time in the afternoon, with a hesperidic honeysuckle that twists its galbanum towards fresh-cut grass, which eventually mellows into a velveted twilight of pine needles, an indolic jasmine, sandalwood, and oakmoss. I've been warned it's demanding; lucky for me, Private Collection claims an affinity for my skin.

I'd been looking forward to trying this for a while. It turned out to be a 'most unusual' smell on my skin of overwhelming jasmine sitting on a bed of flower stem sap :(

My go to fragrance and I've loved it for many years. Little expensive but well worth it.