Dior Homme Intense Dior 2011

This fragrance is undoubtedly one of the most famous and popular fragrances around. Yet, for whatever reason, I've given it a wide berth for years. It was probably because before I got this one under my nose, I smelled the perfume, which didn't really appeal to me. Too cluttered, too sweet, too powdery - too much. So my conclusion was that the Intense won't appeal to me either, after all they are both based on the identical basic DNA. So that's how the "Dior Homme free" years passed, until I kindly bought a perfume here in the souk that came with a sample. It was, no bad thing, a bit leaked in the package. When I opened it, I thought to myself, my god, what smells so good? Quite taken aback, I realized it was that sample. Almost sarcastically, I laughed at my stubbornness of never really giving Intense a chance after its overloaded big brother scared me off. The iris here is much softer and more refined, the sweetness dialed back a bit (don't get me wrong, it's still pretty sweet!) and bedded on woody notes. I immediately found it to be much more rounded and balanced than the perfume. Then, when I tested the sample extensively a few days later, I finally lost myself in it. It is bursting with elegance, grandeur and class. And so it came that after all these years now finally a flacon is on the way to me.

It took a long time...