Diorissimo Dior 1956 Eau de Toilette

My passion for fragance is kind of part of my heritage...my mum is a great perfume lover, in a not-organized way as i am. She has used wonderful perfumes since i can remember, but unfortunately not as a serious collector. Now and then i go to her boudoir and always find something new, and lots of samples, and sometimes i make an exceptional finding. Like the other day, i discovered atthe bottom of a drawer, half bottle of Diorissimo. The bottle was looking old, so i asked her when did she buy it. "Your dad gave it to me a couple years before you were born" So i assume is from 1978.

The perfume has been kept in dark, cool environment, so i assume is not too adultered. It has a sharp green opening, but among the cool greenery a warm round note of muget immediately takes shape. I find the lily of the valley accord to be very good and authentic: sweet, warm, a bit fruity and not cloying at all. Diorissimo is genuinely innocent, green and romantic. A very genteel scent.

After i tried at the local Sephora the fragance as it is sold now, I have to agree with a former review. Diorissimo, while it is beautiful and intoxicating, lacks a bit of profundity in its new version. There is no shadow. I do not find this as a negative thing. Being perfume an emotional experience, all moods are acceptable. Diorissimo is a harbinger of spring. Extremely pretty, with no surprises, no edges, no twists or dark side. A muguet soliflore from the beggining to the end.

I dont have to say i kept the old bottle for myself.

I'm torn on this perfume. Roudnitska. He was a genius and I'm an admirer of his other work. His works typically seem to have the thoroughness that denotes a masterful technical proficiency, but also an integrity of concept and intention.

I've only smelled the recent Diorissimo EDT, and I've tried to dissect the floral notes he's used to compose this ostensible lily of the valley soliflor. I get a green jasmine, a watery hyacinth, a languid ylang ylang. No base, no underbelly, no shadow. But what I get when I step back from dissecting it smells remarkably like an air freshener. Not a chic parfum d'ambiance. I mean the electrical socket plug-in variety.

A moment of seeing how the geometric lines come together to recreate the watery yet oily feel of muguet. A moment trying to sense what Diorissimo must originally have smelled like. A long sigh. Put the strip away for a few hours and then check again. Distressing reassurance of everything I initially thought. (And yes, I tried it on skin, too.)

Sad.

This fragrance is one of those classics that capture you with its simplicity and charm rather than its uniqueness or bold new approach.

Diorissimo is the perfect example of a fresh, green floral that somehow manages to be loved by so many people even though the scent itself is nothing particularly mind-blowing.

To my nose I sense a lot of lily-of-the-valley in this fragrance. Almost the exact same smell as a flower bed just after it has been sprinkled with rain. For this reason Diorissimo reminds me of Spring.

Diorissimo settles on my skin beautifully. The scent is clean, flowery, soft, elegant and only mildly sweet. There is something slightly old-fashioned about this scent, however I feel that it transcends into the modern world with ease.

This fragrance could be worn both casually and formally, it really is a versatile scent. The sillage is not strong, just enough presence to be enjoyed by the wearer. I highly recommend.

DIORISSIMO is so scrumptiously loveable that I must be a cow, for this is all about tiny white blossoms of lily of the valley evenly interspersed among endless fields of glistening green grass. Waves of jasmine come and go, and a bit of ylang and undetectable civet appear to add depth, but on its surface and through to its core this is a simple beauty which captivates in the manner of Bach's two-part inventions. Less is more!

DIORISSIMO is a resounding "yes" for lily of the valley lovers, and I'd certainly love to have a bottle of this.

I own this one (though I don't really use it very often anymore) as it is one of the few I recall as being a very little girl. My mum likes Diorissimo and usually buys one bottle after another. She isn't as fond of perfumes as I am, she never was and she still isn't, that's a heritage I get from other of the strong women that I am also grateful to have had ahead in my family, and from my father who was responsable of my first perfume obsession when he gifted me my first velvety brown Caleche box when I hadn't reached my teens. Back to Diorissimo, I perfectly recall myself opening with my then tiny hands a small lovely fluted bottle and then smelling the cap to find it was the exact same smell that would lasts just for a few seconds in the few opportunities I had had of receiving a doll as a present. As you can imagine I kept coming back until my mum decided to put her perfumes out of my reach.

Still today when I first spray the perfume I get this memories but I must agree with many others in this case, the reformulation is much weaker. I guess it isn't only the base notes which are reducing a lot the lasting power of the scent, but the lower quality of some notes, jasmine used to be much better in previous versions. This complainment about reformulation is also applicable to other scents of the same line such as Dioressence or Diorella. Dior should reconsider trying again or they'll find us rejecting to use our money in their products.

I liked the lilac, lily of the valley, jasmine, lilly, ylang effect. It used to be less simple than it is now. Being a spring summer scent original Roudnistka included complexity, appearing to be a soft scent it had a rich close to skin but noticeable settle down of which actual formula in my opinion completely lacks.

I've owned and used previous versions of the edt, now I have the new edp and it doesn't last more than two hours on my skin. I am against the new marketing strategies which include watering the products and trying to force us to carry a tiny atomizers everywhere we go. I want my perfume to last at least five or six hours. Even my mum comments on this point and is rationing her use of the edp vintage bottle she still has.