Reviews of Fahrenheit (1988)
by Christian Dior

Words cannot describe how much I hate this fragrance. I like and wear many scents from the 80s, but this just smells horribly outdated now - like the Le Car, piano-key rep ties, and glam metal, Fahrenheit represents the '80's at its absolute worst. It is also probably the most chemical, cheap synthetic fragrance I have ever smelled, like one of those horrible cinnamon Yankee Candles dunked in a bucket of gasoline and Aqua Net hairspray, with a heavy emphasis on the hairspray. Literally. Also, its ghastly, spicy stench can be smelled for blocks. It is the pinnacle of bad taste and tackiness.

add honey, resins and sandalwood to Narcisco Rodriguez for him and you get Fahrenheit...or if you havent sniffed NR..thn simply add violets...i just don't get it. it doesnt last and is an incredibly boring scent.

Only 1 shot in required: to sicken me. A favorite of jerks, teenage boys, and those ready to refer to those who "don't get it." What you do get is a soapy (shampooey) leathery flower after the allegedly (masculine? existent?) petrol note fades. And then a feeble attempt to call the ending "wood."

The kind of "new" that fatigues. Concept scent with a bottle and a name that sells a product. For me, a person in denial about actually being boring and programmatic, their notion of "interesting."

A burned tire on me. Or a warm asphalt. I can understand that some people love this. But I just can't stand it! I'd risk it to see how women might react...

The petroleum oil note in Fahrenheit makes it intolerable for me to wear. It’s a shame because it's, apparently, a compliment getter.

[Original submission date: 30 October 2006]

It's very odd...and not very nice! It has a strange smell ..sort of like vegetables cooking(possibly turnip) and rotten grass-cuttings mixed with a thick petrol cloying 'scent' trying to break through..and then some stale things(not sure what) added to this satanic brew..it all smacks you in the face and you think 'what the hell is this??' it has to be petrol or rubber... and it gets weirder the longer you wear it.It's not like a fragrance, it isn't uplifting or sensual ...but i don't really know what it's like! Fortunately it isn't about much these days!Quite vile!

Car air freshener like - orange peelish...Respect for the vintageness though.

As soon as I tried the tester at Kohl's I immediately found the gasoline/oil/grease/cut grass smell I experienced when I cleaned my lawn mower's carburetor 2 weeks earlier, disgusting. Drydown is a bit more tolerable but that gasoline just wont go away.

Strong and penetrating, it permeates the air around you with an overbearing pungency. It reminds me of gasoline accidently spilled on the ground, or on your hands at the pump. It is loud and strident, but it certainly has its fans. Unfortunately, this is from the fragrance house that makes two outstanding men's fragrances: Dior Homme and Eau Sauvage. Fahrenheit is no Cinderella, but it should definitely be kept out of sight and camouflaged. Along with Pi, a towering mistake from Dior.

Vile is more like it.

But beyond that it's a cucumber top not that turns into an old mans linament, into that same old mans medicine. Thats one cheeky old gent, trying to cover up his nursing home scents with nasty cucumber. Blach! He pinched my behind!

Fahrenheit provides a good example of why one cannot take house spin too seriously. For example, the Fahrenheit notes listed at the Dior website are given as:

Top: Howthorn, Honeysuckle
Middle: Sandalwood
Base: Cedar, Patchouli

Yet the carded sample I have tells a different story. It labels it as a ‘woody leather’ (a description that matches that of Luca Turin in the book “Perfumes”), with notes of tangerine, cedar wood and leather. At least there is one note that matches. Further, the Dior website describes Fahrenheit as a “virile, delicate and rounded fragrance." While I could concede virile and rounded, I fail to see anything delicate at work here.

As to the fragrance itself: the opening strikes me as the smell of gasoline. This quickly transitions to a motor oil smell that lasts a good deal longer. Then a muddied mix of wood and leather emerge. I love the smell of gasoline, but not on me. I don’t like the smell of motor oil. The base of Fahrenheit is okay, but not worth the wait.

Fahrenheit, quite an interesting title, what is Christian Dior trying to provoke?

Fire and brimstone? The sweltering sexuality of the wearer? The pretentious friction induced Heat generated between wearer and his Mark?

Seasoned marketers would be onto their second round at some swanky bar after reading this definition, saluting to a job well done ..None of them however would be wearing this scent.

The initial blast unfortunately reminded me walking through a gaggle of mechanics, 4 hours into their work day..towards the office where I will be inevitably charged far more than I anticipated.

After the intense black smells of motor oil and pneumatic drill lubricant or whatever instrument they use to cause holes in my $600 exhaust pipe reside, you find yourself sitting in some kind of oversensitive purgatory.

A purgatory embodied by the office itself. The freshener on the wall set to release its pre-timed overcompensating spicy-sweet humanitarian aid on the doomed receptionist. Yet the door still swings open sending an occasional reminder of the mechanical workplace outside..

After 30 minutes floating, wondering more or less what the price tag will be..You get called to the counter snapping you back to reality..

You reluctantly pay your bill, paying more attention to your exit strategy than questioning the replacement of your brake fluid reservoir. Get handed your keys and sprint to your car.

Reversing quickly you breathe in and raise an eyebrow..You notice they have put some kind of gentle chili and cinnamon air freshener dangling from your rear view mirror..This is daringly left on because you signed a petition recently supporting the criminalization of littering our streets, and turns out, you were charged for it anyway.

On the long drive back you do get a chance to catch a glimpse of the bill. The price tag leaves you wondering if one of life's most unenvied errands can be possibly avoided altogether.

Fortunately Fahrenheit is...ooo...

Sweet, sharp green. Rubber and oil smells afterwards. This can't possibly be still liked. Still, it was very innovative back in the 80's. Must've been reformulated since then because it's so seemingly weak now.

This is awful stuff. The initial blast is like a bad 80's generic aftershave mixed with burnt motor oil. It has got good sillage and is long lasting but I find this to be a totally unwearable scent.

An offbeat, rubber, grass and petroleum scent that possesses all the olfactory charms of a commercial automotive fuel treatment.

When Fahrenheit first came out I disliked it and now I still feel the same way and thank the Good Lord I smell it less often but when I do there is no mistaking it. When it first came out every other guy wore it and there was something in the fragrance that was nauseating to me (Lensticus maybe, never heard of that) but oh how I longed to get away from it. And how much they'd spray on and still do. To wear this to an office is to cause panic attacks in co-workers. The smell lingers on elevators and after you've left the room.

Fly spray in an interesting bottle with a cool name. Ok in the 8o's when not much else was around, not for today, there are better male fragrances available. For those nostalgic types that still rave about it, get over it, this one's had it's day.

Yeesh... smells like insect repellent. Should be avoided.

I could not improve on odysseusm's spot on report. I might only add that if it is your intention to smell like a man who actually did bathe (quickly) and put on cologne and then worked in a hot mechanic's workshop for 10 hours in Florida, but on his lunch break went home and mowed the lawn with his old walking mower spewing black fumes, this is the fragrance for you. Phew!

absolutely vile. huge sillage, synthetic rubber/gasoline notes. this is the scent of a powerful man - who smells awful! it's incredibly unique, but totally ubiquitous. give me a man wearing anything BUT this.

Fahrenheit is like nothing I have yet encountered. Its centre almost defies description, and it dominates for a long time. First of all, I’d like to disabuse people of the notion that Fahrenheit has any claim to being a green scent. Folks, there is nothing – and I mean NOTHING – green about it. No freshly-cut grass, no green herbs, no oakmoss. Fahrenheit is, in my opinion, a weird sandalwood/floral scent. The combination grabs you by the throat as a rubbery, sharp and really odd scent. It is so unusual that categories of like/dislike, attractive/obnoxious hardly seem to apply. Puzzlement may be your reaction, it was certainly my reaction! That this sort of quasi-industrial scent would be designed is surprising, but look at the fringy appeal of the later generation of Comme des Garçons synthetic line. But that such a scent was a mainstream success in the late 80’s is nothing short of astonishing! An anthropologist could do a dissertation on it. I suppose that the purpose of this odd centre is sillage, as others have suggested. “I’m here!!!” is shouted as the person enters the room. If you have survived the initial onslaught, a couple of hours later the weirdness burns off and one is left with a pleasant and close-to-the skin sandalwood scent. But as the Grateful Dead have noted, “what a long strange trip its been.”

a friend of mine used to wear this. its a smell you cannot hide from. if you go out with a group of friends and talk with eachother,you only smell the person using this fahrenheit garbage. Its smells like somebody is busy in the kitchen cooking something terrible, nobody is able to define it and all thinking 'what the hell is he trying to make' the whole house smells like it and it keeps smelling, smelling, smelling all night long and it wont go away. My friends girlfriend(now ex) finally left him probably because he continued to use it.

Recently I was at my parents and I noticed this in the bathroom. I gave myslef a little schpritz and I just could not stop smelling myslelf.

A thousand questions rushed through my mind: Is this for real, or did someone urinate in the bottle as a joke? Could this really be so disgusting? Is this fancy insect repellent? Is my skin going to peel off? Should I call 911?

I used to like this, but don't anymore. It doesn't seem strong enough for me. Smells like a forest. Think woodlands.

extremely bad on my skin. for me it was one of the most disgusting scent I´ve ever tried.

GAG GAG GAG. Everytime I smell Fahrenheit it takes my breath away, and definitely not in a good way. Smells too much like a mediciney gasoline.

This cologne smells like it was put out by OPEC. It doesn't emit an aroma; it emits fumes. You could power an industrial tractor with this stuff, but why mess up a perfectly good tractor. I wore this for over a year, and I never received one compliment from anyone--Not even my mother!!! Once I was wearing it when I went to the mall one day in search of a new cologne. The sales lady proceeded to describe the various colognes to me and all the ones she enjoyed. When she passed up a bottle of Fahrenheit, I asked her what she thought of it (all the while I was wearing it and she didn't know). She then began to tell me how much she hated it, and how nasty it was and how it made her sick to her stomach. I sort of agreed with her but I had to keep wearing it so I could justify all the money I had spent on it. I ended up wearing the contents of the 3.4 oz bottle I had purchased for about a year until it was gone. I then went to a landfill and hurled the empty bottle as far as I could into it. When I threw it, I saw like three stray dogs come running out of the landfill. I guess they smelt it and wanted to get away from it too.

Reminds me of a horse. So its alright if you want to smell like a horse.

Wow, this smells like turpentine, gasoline, and floral notes. This is a very disagreeable fragrance. It fails at what it is, and it fails at what it tries to be.

not a favorite. Very heavy smell that gives me a severe headache after 5 mins wear.

What an overrated fragrance. Smells of petrol and chemicals. Yuck. I work in the fragrance industry, and honestly would rather spray kouros all day than have to tolerate this stuff. It's time to discontinue this unleaded product- and fast.

It's a terribly exotic fragrance to me!!Its smell is repulsive... I hated it!

I bought a pack of minitures and i found none of the 5 christian diors i liked!! It makes me wonder if i got a old bunch of cologne past its due date because the smell i am getting smells like some type of detergent!!