Beyond Paradise for Men 
Estée Lauder (2004)

There are a couple of things I need to set straight before I can properly review Beyond Paradise for Men by Estée Lauder (2004). First and foremost, the esteemed Luca Turin did NOT wax poetic about this fragrance in his guide, so let's not get it twisted. I am sick and tired of the discourse that either places this on a pedestal as a miracle of abstract conceptual perfumery due to his glowing remarks, or goes down a sad and honestly cringe-worthy tirade of antediluvian sentiment about how synthetics ruined perfumery. Enough is enough folks; this is a mid-2000's aquatic that has little to do with the ACTUAL perfume Turin raved about, which is Beyond Paradise by Estée Lauder (2003), other than a shared perfumer for both, being Calice Becker. Yeah that's right, the fragrance you should really be going nuts for if you love Turin's opinion is the feminine-market version, which they still make (in a different bottle). Meanwhile, this one got discontinued for not selling so well, then became the weird obsession of sycophants the man himself rolls eyes at, who collect anything Turin gives five stars to in his guide, making it inordinately expensive for what it is second-hand. Now the second thing I need to address is the fact that the formula for Beyond Paradise for Men is so achingly close to the later Nautica Voyage (2006), that I'm almost certain Maurice Roucel was asked by Nautica to use his chromatography skills honed while he was at Chanel to analyze this fragrance, then do a facsimile for them. That said, Beyond Paradise for men is marginally better and would be worth the upcharge if we're comparing original retail prices and not current market conditions for both releases. As it stands today, Nautica Voyage is a far better value for pragmatic buyers, or the kind of people that use their fragrances instead of hoard 50 backups and pose them for Instagram clout.

So, with all that out of the way, what we have here from Estée Lauder is effectively their entry into the men's aquatic market, just with far greater marketing fluff and pretentious packaging than most things at the time, which were just shoved into a blue bottle and called this or that aqua and this or that blue. Becker does wield some of the nifty conceptualism she became admired by Turin for in the femme market version here, but not nearly enough to make this the groundbreaking dreams-in-a-bottle that air-headed colognoisseurs tiptoe through the tulips about on their blogs or YouTube channels. The fact absolutely nobody with both has connected this to Nautica Voyage at all just shows how high on their own hubris everyone who takes themselves "seriously" as someone knowledgeable about fragrance actually is. Everyone's just too busy either gushing or bashing to actually sit down and smell the fragrance analytically. The opening is a very fruity melange of aquatic and ozonic aromachemicals that are identified by abstract things like buchu leaf and Brazlian grape tree. There is a slightly-higher degree of floral presence here than the average calone-1951 bomb aquatic of the era, especially with hyacinth and hibiscus giving a bit of a Mexican Jamaica punch vibe, but then it slides into the same dry-down as Nautica Voyage, with sheer white musks and small slivers of woody aromachemicals over skeletal representations of vetiver and oakmoss. Turin does mention in his review for Beyond Paradise for Men that it feels more music than perfume, and there I can agree somewhat, as there is a fluid whole to this scent rather than layers of materials mixed. Is it good? You betcha. Is it great? Absolutely not. Performance is at least very good, and a few sprays will last all day, although probably not in really cold or damp conditions I suspect. Best use is like most aquatics, and found in casual contexts or in the gym.

So there you have it folks, the show is over, and you can all go home. Stop falsely attributing Turin's praise and deep analytical breakdown during his famous TED talk to this fragrance, as it is for the femme version of Beyond Paradise; which was a sales success, one of Calice Becker's favorite perfumes she's made, and the one that contains the "Eden accord" from The Eden Project. Just a tiny speck of critical thinking and maybe a 10 minute Google search could have saved many of you some heartache; but no, you had to do this the hard way and now look where we are. I don't regret buying this fragrance one bit because I fortunately got a good deal on it to sate my curiosity; but really knowing that what I have here is a slightly more-floral and complex, marginally higher-quality precursor to Nautica Voyage is just sending me through the roof with cynical laughter, especially seeing what these bottles are starting to go for on eBay while the real apple of Turin's eye is still out there waiting to be discovered. Oh, that's right, the same ossified fuddy-duddies that bemoan the loss of "real men's cologne" also wouldn't ever get near the original Beyond Paradise for fear of catching cooties or something, like a grade-school child. As for those of you who instead worship this, you follow a false God and I'm here to tell you the Goddess you serve is still available at Lauder counters and online, so get to it like a good lemming. For everyone else, this is likely a pass unless you are a collector, money is no object, or you have sentimental attachment from when it was new. Of note, Beyond Paradise for Men would be the last original non-limited Estée Lauder label masculine pillar launch from the brand to date, which sorta says something, doesn't it? Thumbs up