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Casual Friday is always better than a regular Friday. Casual Friday is the victorious token of Corporate America’s affection for those who are willing to make it work. The one day when Cinderella does not care about her attire and can attend the ball in her flip flops and boyfriend jeans, which she actually borrowed from her boyfriend.

Clinique’s Happy perfume is Casual Friday personified in an olfactory form.

Clinique Happy was released in 1997. I remember walking into our small town’s nice, polished beauty store, and feeling completely lost.

After all, I was at the very beginning of my teenage years, and I was there to find something that will help me get over my hormone-induced shyness, probably in the form of some miracle working makeup foundation.

Instead, I was instantaneously attracted by something at the counter: the staff was preparing the ad for the perfume, and they were giving away free vials of the perfume.

I know that most people vividly remember where they were when some very important or dramatic life event takes place. It is the way I feel about the first time I succumbed to the charms of Clinique.

I remember the feelings, I remember nervously fidgeting and staring down my feet, trying to understand how this olfactory art piece has fallen into my clumsy arms.

If you have never tested this perfume, then I am sure all of this sounds like nothing more than blabbing to you. But if you have, then you know what I am talking about.

The nineties were marked by these clean, sharp, fresh, unisex and rejuvenating perfumes. It is almost as if the perfumes of the nineties wanted to wash away the heavy, loud makeup and the edgy perfumes of the eighties.

Clinique‘s Happy to me always takes me to that happy place. It opens with sour notes of fresh apple, plums and bergamot. They are stingingly sour, but very light at the same time.

Soon, the smell of freesia, lily, rose and morning orchid make a force entry and the scent suddenly changes dramatically. It goes from a completely unisex, fresh perfume to a soft, comforting scent, with a dominant feminine side.

I feel like a teenager once again, but as soon as I sense the musk and amber, I know I am home.

Clinique Happy perfume elicits thoughts of happiness. It is like you are locked in a glass orchard in a middle of a storm, an escape from the real world. And while the rain outside is falling mercilessly, the orchard comes to life, beckoning you to witness its magic.

The rain stops and suddenly the sun chases away the clouds, like a policeman clearing away an angry mob.

The sun wants to make it up for all that time it was forced to hide, so it is shining with more zeal and enthusiasm than ever. And the scents are responding to this generosity, losing themselves to the love.

And all you can feel at that moment is happy…pure, simple happiness.