About this item
Familiar florals get traded for something stranger and more atmospheric here. Calvin Klein opens the Eau de Parfum with pomegranate, persimmon and a green accord, tart and slightly bitter rather than conventionally fruity. Black orchid, lotus and champaca carry the soul, dark and exotic florals that read more oriental than sweet. Mahogany, amber, black violet and whipped cream close out the base, an unusual pairing of woody depth and creamy sweetness that gives the whole composition its distinctive, almost velvety weight. The black violet is worth singling out: darker and more powdery than standard violet, it keeps the whipped cream from ever turning saccharine, instead lending the drydown a faintly bruised, grown-up quality rare in mainstream women's perfumery. Sold as Euphoria Perfume, this Euphoria Eau de Parfum is an oriental floral built for evening, aimed less at an obvious crowd-pleaser than at a signature scent with some mystery attached. The pomegranate up top promises brightness the rest of the fragrance never quite delivers, and that's precisely its appeal, a fragrance that leads the wearer somewhere darker than the opening spray suggests and rewards patience through the full development, best judged after an hour rather than on the first impression.