Reviews of Jules (1980)
by Christian Dior

I bought a sample of Dior's Jules to try after one of the leading perfume blogs termed it a "holy grail", "must-smell", etc.. fragrance. I am also a huge fan of older Dior perfumes such as Diorling, Diorama, etc.. so I was pretty confident I would like Jules. Well, let just say that I am extremely underwhelmed and a bit disappointed. To be completely honest, Jules smelled like an elderly man to me and honestly, it had a "cheap-smelling" aspect to it. If I had smelled this blind and someone had told me it came from the sale bin at Marshall's I would have believed them. There are so many great men fragrances available today (Guerlain Vetiver, Creed Silver Mountain Water, FM Bigarade Concentree, Cristiano Fissore Cashmere for Men- just to name a few) that I could never imagine wanting any man to wear Jules. In fact, it turns me off in a major way.

From what I've been able to glean on the internet, here are Jules' notes: galbanum, black pepper, cedarwood, sandalwood, and Russian leather.

Jules smells like generic Man Juice. Not like today's bland, aquatic colognes, but like an old school harsh, bitter, heavy, spicy, leathery concoction. I could appreciate the woody dryness of it if it wasn't for a certain cool or metallic note that feels very generic men's cologney and annoyingly aggressive - almost like mosquito repellant. Yeah, Jules has a lot in common with insect repellant, only a little nicer and deeper and more smoky/leathery

I so wanted to love this, so wanted to be smitten with my new friend, Jules, but it just didn't turn out that way. A product of its time, and now a man who's past his prime. This is the cologne version of the Simpson's Disco Stu.

In the same vein as Bel Ami....However, there is a sour fruity note that does not agree with me.

I so wanted to love Jules. Throughout my entire life, people have called me Jules. It’s just always been my nickname. I know it sounds kind of corny, but it’s got a coolness factor if some one asks what you are wearing. Imagine my disappointment when I smelled the bottle I had gotten blind. It smells like a raunchy Kouros Clone. This thick dry leather with that urine soaked bathroom note. I swapped it within an hour of getting it. Oh how I wanted to love Jules.

Jules suffers from that 80's thickness that is just too much. Like Drakkar Noir, the original Van gils etc, Jules is very uncompromising in it's herbal, dry and arid composition. I do enjoy the leathery basenotes that are perfect, overall it's a very high quality scent. It's just to extreme in its dark, woody ruggedness, let some light in please...