12
Helpful Review
Harmonious Balance
WHAT IT IS
This is the closest scent I've found to the PNW coast in summertime... dry cedar wood, wildflowers in a meadow, someone peeling a citrus fruit nearby, and a clean coastal musk (cashmeran???). After years of ever more powerful Sauvage flankers, Demachy hit the reset button on the Dior Homme line and gave us what might be the most perfectly balanced - and tastefully restrained - men's fragrance in a generation. There's a burst of citrus to open, then it's all luxurious cedar wood and musk with some floral accords drifting by during the dry down. Linear for 6+ hours (which is excellent for an EDT) and while I go noseblind quickly, others can still smell it.
WHO IT'S FOR
Men over ~30 seeking one bottle for all seasons, all occasions, and all moods. You likely believe versatility is more important than making a statement, but you also don't want a "dumb reach" when you can have something as sophisticated as this.
ALTERNATIVES
Let's start with what's NOT an alternative: Dior Homme 2005/2011/Original, Intense, and Parfum which are all (beautiful) iris & leather fragrances, but bear almost no resemblance to Dior Homme 2020. Want more citrus? Dior Homme Sport dials up the bergamot and has punchier projection based on the same DNA - it's excellent. Bleu de Chanel EDT, EDP, and Parfum have somewhat similar citrus + woodsy notes with the Parfum coming closest to replicating the musky dry down; all are more "blue shower gel" + powdery to my nose.
FINAL THOUGHTS
As a die-hard fan of Polge's groundbreaking original, my decant of Dior Homme 2020 went from "meh" to "that's not bad..." to "wow there's a lot of complexity" to purchasing a full bottle as my daily driver in the span of two weeks. Time will tell if it deserves a perfect 10 (I need to test it in winter), but this might be my favorite creation of Demachy's to date. Dior's only mistake was reusing the Homme nameplate which seemed to inflame a lot of negativity around what is otherwise an outstanding grown up fragrance. Very highly recommended.
This is the closest scent I've found to the PNW coast in summertime... dry cedar wood, wildflowers in a meadow, someone peeling a citrus fruit nearby, and a clean coastal musk (cashmeran???). After years of ever more powerful Sauvage flankers, Demachy hit the reset button on the Dior Homme line and gave us what might be the most perfectly balanced - and tastefully restrained - men's fragrance in a generation. There's a burst of citrus to open, then it's all luxurious cedar wood and musk with some floral accords drifting by during the dry down. Linear for 6+ hours (which is excellent for an EDT) and while I go noseblind quickly, others can still smell it.
WHO IT'S FOR
Men over ~30 seeking one bottle for all seasons, all occasions, and all moods. You likely believe versatility is more important than making a statement, but you also don't want a "dumb reach" when you can have something as sophisticated as this.
ALTERNATIVES
Let's start with what's NOT an alternative: Dior Homme 2005/2011/Original, Intense, and Parfum which are all (beautiful) iris & leather fragrances, but bear almost no resemblance to Dior Homme 2020. Want more citrus? Dior Homme Sport dials up the bergamot and has punchier projection based on the same DNA - it's excellent. Bleu de Chanel EDT, EDP, and Parfum have somewhat similar citrus + woodsy notes with the Parfum coming closest to replicating the musky dry down; all are more "blue shower gel" + powdery to my nose.
FINAL THOUGHTS
As a die-hard fan of Polge's groundbreaking original, my decant of Dior Homme 2020 went from "meh" to "that's not bad..." to "wow there's a lot of complexity" to purchasing a full bottle as my daily driver in the span of two weeks. Time will tell if it deserves a perfect 10 (I need to test it in winter), but this might be my favorite creation of Demachy's to date. Dior's only mistake was reusing the Homme nameplate which seemed to inflame a lot of negativity around what is otherwise an outstanding grown up fragrance. Very highly recommended.
1 Comment
Hasano 2 years ago
Couldn't have said it any better. Thank you.