Dune pour Homme (1997)
by Christian Dior

By way of a disclaimer, perfume critic Tanya Sanchez’s description of Dune pour Homme as “a very good eau de cologne (sic) with a transparent, natural feeling in its leafy, lemon top note and a sweet, soapy floral drydown” bears no resemblance to the scent I’m reviewing. Is my sample mislabeled? I’m not sure, since Michael Edwards does list Dune pour Homme as a woody oriental in his taxonomy of fragrances. At any rate, here are my impressions:

Dune pour Homme’s first few minutes on my skin are an olfactory train wreck of raw alcohol, soap, powdery-sweet gourmand notes, citrus, calone, and brash, banal synthetic woods. It’s as if Dior decided to play every commonplace theme from the past twenty years of masculine perfumery at once in an effort to include everybody’s favorite. Thank heavens the raw alcohol subsides quickly, while the woody notes, soap and powder integrate. The resulting structure is an opaque, gourmand woody oriental lolling in a pool of artificial fruit punch and calone.

The idea here was apparently to juxtapose a sweet woody oriental in the manner of A*Men or Lolita Lempicka au Masculin with a fresh, sporty citrus aquatic. It turns out to have been a very bad idea. These two ubiquitous stereotypes of 1990s male fragrance are dreary enough on their own, but their combination amounts to even less than the paltry sum of its parts.

But wait; it gets worse! Though supposedly developed in rebellion against the bombastic “powerhouse” scents of the 1980s, the masculine aquatic and the woody oriental gourmands are both in fact extremely loud and tenacious olfactory constructs. Piling the two on top of one another is akin to booking Metallica and Mötley Crüe for the same stage: a battle of the bands that I don’t want to hear. It's enough to make me wish I were anosmic.

There's a top note in there that never stops fascinating me. But then there's something so sour it makes my teeth blunt. And this sour, very dry wood type note doesn't give up. How often would one be inclined to wear a scent just for a top note? I'll give it another try in stifling hot weather just to see if there's something else to enjoy, lurking deep inside, hybernating. Thumbs up just for one note and that overall Dune smells less synthetic than some other fresh/marine/ozonic perfumes.

A fresh, sweet, gentle and comfortable scent. Suitable for casual wear, this is a timeless sensual fragrance.

A lovely fragrance and one that I am very happy to have in my collection - it never ceases to fascinate me. However, I must admit, it is not one that I wear too often, but it certainly has it place. Viva Dior!

Very distinctive and original. The scent is fresh but not that typical male zesty citrus fresh. Warm, subtle, and powdery as well. Longevity is excellent.

It was a summer evening and I was at the beach. I was wearing Dune. Suddenly, a tall, good-looking blond woman approached to me and said: “Excuse me, you smell soooo nice, and I just couldn’t resist coming to you and smelling you better. Can I?” I wanted to make an impression on her as a smart and eloquent guy, so I said: “A-ha”. She leaned over me and I felt the touch of her nose and after that of her lips on my neck… and then… and then I woke up and I realized that people around me could love Dune only in my dreams.
I bought this one and CK Escape for Men on the very same day. It was a double mistake.
I was wearing Dune when someone said to me that I smell as a brand new rubber toy… and when you smell as a brand new rubber toy you definitely do not smell mainly, sexy or attractive.
I have never thought that I could say that I hate some scent… but I do hate this one, as much as I hate the hypocrisy, waiting in line or my ex-girlfriend.