Reviews of Salvador Dali pour Homme (1987)
by Salvador Dali

Salvador Dali pour Homme is the first fragrance I have ever tried that has made me recoil in discomfort, and made me want to immediately scrub it off. Within a few seconds of application a hot animalic note smothered and overwhelmed me. The feeling was something like claustrophobia (as if I was trapped within this smell), and I had to will myself to calm down and not head straight for the bathroom.

I don’t know what the hot animalic note is, but I can try to describe it. Other reviewers have suggested that it is a lot of castoreum, and it may well be, but it is the heat that gets me and that I want to try to describe. Imagine the smell of a pan on a hot stove with nothing in it starting to glow red; now add the smell of air above hot tarmac on a sweltering day; and now add the smell of the blast of heat that comes out of an old tin shed when you open the door on a stiflingly hot day. The hot note is pervasive, and warps the animalic note far away from any civet, musk, or castoreum note I have smelled up until now.

Within a minute of application, and after calming myself down, I began to smell some other things. The basil and sage come across as a kind of dewy greenness, which provides a strangely captivating counterpoint to the hot animalic note. The contrast between the hot animalic note and the dewy greenness is interesting and somehow calming.

The arrival of the jasmine and lily of the valley add sweetness and depth to the dewy greenness, and at this point SDpH becomes wearable for me. Don’t smell your wrist directly at this point, or the hot animalic note will overwhelm everything else that is present to be smelled.

As the woods arrive, SDpH begins to lose its dewy greenness, which is a bad thing. The hot animalic note turns all of the woods dry and almost acrid, and it is only the sweetness from the amber and/or vanilla that gives SDpH any life in its dry down. The leather that comes through in the dry down is not just old and dry: it somehow smells like decay.

Salvador Dali pour Homme is a confronting and challenging fragrance. The opening is a shock, the middle is interesting, and the dry down is off putting. I have left it on for three testings, and I am pretty sure that there will not be a forth.

Salvador Dali pour Homme seems to attract a lot of metaphors, derision and the like. It also gathers good praise from those who appreciate (smell) its virtues. It is like Hugo's Quasimodo of Notre Dame, outwardly ugly, despised and derided, yet to those who really appreciate Hugo's story and the character of Quasimodo, a being with a beautiful and loving heart. His beauty had to be appreciated by his acts, putting aside the "negatives", giving him a fair chance in spite of his unappealing "externals" and reputation.

I love Salvador Dali pour Homme unreservedly and write this review surrounded the aura of its dry-down after 12 hours of wearing during a good day at work (coincidence? i dont really know) and yes, with a biased mind. The initial onslaught of leather-funked lavender and bergamot definitely requires a certain kind of wearer in order for SDpH not to be described as "hot tar and satan" and the other colourful metaphors here. My first sampling drew interesting looks from my 4-year old daughter and my wife. I initially thought: "what the blazes is THIS???!!!" I knew i was at a threshold of my fragrance experience and was glad i crossed it positively. Wifey liked it by the way.

To be honest, i still have not been able to get my nose around, by note, any of the florals i know are in this scent, but is the floral sweetness in it, apart from the vanilla, that makes this scent wearable. In about an hour into wearing, SDpH takes a turn into a much more mellow path, but all i can smell (and feel - strange!) is leather, leather and more leather. The notes do not indicate it but i always detected (subliminally?) castoreum, a lot of it. To confirm this, i have sprayed some AbdesSalaam Attar Profumo Castoreum (pure and natural as castoreum can be, with birch tar added) on one hand several times for a side-by-side with SDpH and yes, that is it. That "note" that has been described as blood, hades, smoke and what have you must be castoreum infusing itself into the other constituent notes. Sublime.

SDpH is one of those scents always in my nose while i wear it, yet it neither cloys nor wear me out. Rather, it keeps me thinking about it. In that sense one could say it is distracting, but positively and beautifully so.

As already indicated above SDpH's longevity is amazing. It is still going on significantly 12+ hours after!

Many thumbs up to SDpH and to the noses behind the scent. A fitting homage to the man Dali.

It is very alike to Davidoff's Zino, a strong oriental and spicy fragrance with heavy tobacco notes. It has good sillage but por longevity, at least on my skin.

It comes to my attention most reviewers describe it as "black". I don't know the reasons for this, but I asumme it must be the way the bottle is like.

Smoky
You smell the wood burning
It is fresh, wet wood with green still on it
As it starts to dry a more rich smoke smell develops
It's like a smoke that's meant to be smelled, not just a nuisance smoke
Then a mossy dark scent starts to emanate
Thus you realize this fire is burning in a hobbit hole with walls of dirt, root, and herb
Intriqued you stepped into the other room
Now you're surrounded by an earthy, musty smell with a hint of smoke
The smells of odorous trinkets, furniture, and and halfling crafted fragrances mingle
And thus you sit down into a luscious leather armchair with a dusty old book. A crackling wood fire in the room next door


And that is what Salvador Dali smells like.

Absolutely entrancing.

Lol this fragance is so rediculous. Its conjures up an image of a fiery demonic cult ceremony. Very dark, and actually to be quite honest, the smell combined with the bottle are scary to me. The fragrance is totally unique to me and very interesting as most famous painters are. But in the end, its as wearable as Joop!, wait.... its less than Joop! (aka keep it at home).

This is so bad it's good.
Sometimes.
Now, where did I put that onyx dagger and the goat I was going to sacrifice to Cthulhu?

I think this should come in EDP!

Don't ask me why, if I told you I'd have to tie you to the altar as well.

Sweet dreams . . .

I am the God of hellfire and I bring you.....

Baleful images are evoked (or invoked) when worn and I can't get licking flames out of my mind. This is a heavy spicy hot fragrance with a fiery amber mix at the bottom. It's a one-off, which is now hard to find. I love it for it's boldness and other worldliness. I also thinks the fragrance itself smells great and kicks a--.

This one is a class of its own. Took me ages to like it since it felt unwearable - but than I found it in a ridicules price and thought I better give it a try.
Brilliant and wonderful, it's not for everyone, it's what I would call an aggressive scent, but sometimes you want to be aggressive. As always I'm pretty weak in detecting the notes, but I like this "plastic" ricochet I get from it - not cheap, just, well, plasticky.
Thank god someone actually made this unique perfume.

i know that dali was a great painter. but dali pour homme really smells like urine... it's great fragrance for haloween when you are in nosferatu/dracula/wearwolf/zombie/canniball costium ;]

this one is scary. bottle is like from nightmare and so is the scent... to use this should be one of the traps in "saw" movie.... " smell or die - make your choice"

This is what all those "black" fragrances should be modeled after. This is a deep and dark fragrance but not so much as gothic bt more melancholy. Like a whimsical sadness. Incense and animalic notes conjure up images of castles but in modern day, surreal terms. Herbal accords bring in a touch of witchcraft and some flowers are thrown in to make the whole concoction a trip.

Thumbs up for a crazy frag. I would never wear this outside.

Every time I put this on I think that this time it will click. It will have finally grown on me. But it never does. Oh it's interesting, always interesting but I don't want to smell it for long. Certainly not on me all day. That would sort of be like staring at those ants and melting clocks and empty seascapes in a Dali painting so long that the images started to move; and who wants that? An insane person perhaps? Or a nosferatu? But why? Why does it not work for me? I love heavy complex scents like Kouros and Opium...This is too gimmicky. Too trying to be avant-garde and heady, like one of those pretentious artistes we all knew in college who always had "problems" and chewed our ears off about them until they bled. The kind who wore a cape to Psych 101 class.
For some reason, I imagine that the werewolf in that "Werewolves of London" song would dab this scent behind his ears before going out for drinks at Trader Vics.
No, this is what "Salvador Dali" smells like: It's 1977 and Margaux Hemmingway stumbles into her bathroom at noon after a night of dancing at Studio 54. She removes her panty hose and then peels off her panties. As she's doing this, she loses her balance and knocks a 12 ounce bottle of Babe cologne off of the shelf above the toilet and it falls to the white tile floor and shatters. Still slightly drunk, she tries to navigate around the shards of glass but steps on a piece. Her foot begins to bleed and she sits on the edge of the tub with a groan. She picks up the cologne soaked panties and wraps them around her foot. Once the bleeding subsides, she tosses the panties in the hamper, where they sit for two weeks, because she has fly to Paris on the Concorde in two hours to be in Paris for Fashion Week. When she returns, the hamper smells like "Salvador Dali"; a smell she doesn't recognize but finds vaguely intriguing yet off putting. A smell she doesn't recognize because it hasn't been invented yet.

Heavily incensed, brooding and disturbing. This is what Nosferatu would wear if he had a special midnight rendezvous. I bought it blind and regretted it from the first spray. Turn away in horror, lift your cape a run from this scary brew!

Totally wonderful, but kind of hard to wear fragrance. (I only wear this scent in the time I spent in solitary)

Simply put, this smells exactly like Zino that has been set on fire and burnt to ashes.
Another point : It transportes me to this giant, completely dark warehouse that has a cool concrete floor. Im standing there wondering what that warehouse holds inside, but I could swear there is some rubber (perhaps tires), some oily metal objects and few barrels of petroleum....Something else there too for sure, but it`s too strange for me to figure out.
Then when I shout, the cold haunting echo travels through the space and never ends.

I recently aquired a set of scents called the Salvador Dali Metal Collection. The coffret features 5 of the Dali scents in bottles with "metallic" finishes of various colors. The 5 scents are: Salvador Dali For Men (EDP), Laguna (parfum), Dalissme (parfum), Salvador for Men (EDP) and Salvador Dali (parfum). My interest in this set sprang from the fact that I had already owned one of the scents (Salvador Dali, originally in a black nose and lips bottle) for years, but had only recently tried it and fell in love with it, leading me to become curious about the other scents. When this set came up on ebay I pounced on it.

Judging from the limited reviews and information on most of these scents, I would say that they're rather obscure, but I figured I should write a review for them anyway, since the few reviews I found on this site were very helpful in me making my decision to purchase the set. I figured that my review could be helpful, along with others if someone else came upon one of these scents and wanted a few opinions before making a purchase.

The bad news first: Laguna, which is marketed as an "aquatic" women's scent is the one in the bunch that I just plain don't like. I don't even know where to begin. I'll just say that everything about it smells a little watered down, cheap, synthetic and cloying. Dalissime (also for women). With it's notes of peach, apricot and lychee, seems like a bad, watered down knock-off of Guerlain's Mitsouko. It has almost no sillage.

Salvador (for men) is not bad, but there's nothing exceptional about it either and I agree with the other reviews for it that can be found separately on this site.

Now the good news: Salvador Dali (I think it's intended for women, but it's definitely unisex as far as I'm concerned) is to die for. I already wrote and submitted a review for this that has not yet been posted, so I won't repeat myself here.

The final scent is Salvador Dali for men, which all of the reviews on this page are for. Marketed to men, I see this one as unisex as well. As you can see from the previous reviews, you'll either like this or you'll hate it. It's definitely strange and almost undefinalble. Someone mentioned the smell of blood. This may sound weird, but as I moved about this evening I caught a whiff of the scent and that's exactly what came to mind. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, just surprising and strange. Shortly after I applied it earlier today, it started smelling like something I was already familiar with. Then it hit me that this is similar in smell and strangeness to Vera Kern's "Onda" (which I also reviewed in the same review as Guerlain's Djedi that has not been posted yet). S. D. came first, but Vera Kern's Onda is much more pungent and assertive. Those of you who don't like this will probably hate Onda, which I think is wonderful.

Since this review is really for Salvador Dali for Men I'll just rate that one. I give it a thumbs up.

Salvador Dali pour Homme smells just like the mythical Babylonian beast, forget its name, that was supposed to be unwashed bull from the waist up and overripe persimmon from the waist down. He could neither walk nor roll and so tragically took his own life by chain-smoking and wearing too much Halston Z-14. With our modern knowledge of mythical composite creatures, I like to believe that he could now be saved. Alas, we are too late, and all we can do is write copiously and wear Salvador Dali pour Homme. Cruel isn't it?

I first heard about Salvador Dali from this site when I was interesting in purchasing a cologne with a mysterious, spooky quality. I'd heard people compare this to blood and human sacrifices and all kinds of other things, so i wasn't for sure what to expect, but i was hoping it would at least be eerie enough for me.

After smelling it though, I don't really think any of the comparisons I heard were exactly right. It is a very dark, brooding scent. It's very masculine but sweet, in a vintage kind of way. I don't consider myself a very butch guy, so I don't know how well it fits my personality, but I love it! In the right mindset I can definately see how it would conjure up images of vampires and other sophisticated creatures of the night. Whoever said it smells like poop or body organs or whatever else is being ridiculous. This cologne is brilliant, not to mention Long lasting. I don't think i've ever had anything last as long.

If you're interested in a classy masculine scent, I honestly don't see how anyone could be disappointed by Salvador Dali. Also, if you're interested in this because you've heard it's mysterious and spooky, it's a start. I'm still looking for the perfect horror scent, but this will satisfy me until i find it.

like everyone else
dark
smells like dead flowers, left in a house, sorrounded by trickets and old photos
definatly for those with a dark side
its like an evanescence song in a way

Thumbs Up! This stuff is a woody Oriental fougere that is not for everybody. It has the predominant smell of slowly burning wood scented with herbs. There is an agarwood/aoud quality to the whole fragrance as well in that it is dark, sharp, and piercing, although it also has a goofy/quirky/Surrealist tone to it.

It's not for everybody but this fragrance has recieved a few good comments when I've worn it. It is very unusual, and on my skin has good longevity.

Horrible scent and very disappointing perfume.
It is an Oriental Fougere type of perfume.
It will smell good at first, but soon you will notice the stinky smelling scent, which made it awful.

I’m gona have to support Leifer’s review, it is a disgusting scent (sorry), but I just can’t stop noticing the dirty scent in it, without it, the perfume wouldn’t have been so bad.
The bottle design is not good either.

I usually like most perfumes, but this has (by far) one of the worst smells I ever smelled in a perfume.

Yuck, since when did my dog's poop come bottled? As soon as I smelled it on my skin, I ran to the bathroom to wash it off.

On the positive side, my dogs loved it.

On the negative side, I'd rather impress girls.

The opening of this one is much more attractive than the drydown, and I also found the longevity disappointingly short. Definitely a Gothic experience, though, and would go well with a black leather trenchcoat. The gasoline note is dominant for me - overall something of a Satan's armpit vibe going on.

Dead flowers on a wooden coffin covered in talcum powder.
Smells quite 80's.

Fire and brimstone, satan's furnace, human sacrifice, evil. Say what? Man I just don't get that at all. What I get is a wonderful full bodied, sweet, and smokey perfume. I am no expert to say the least but I know what I like. This is great stuff and what an awesome price. My only beef is like most others on me, it doesn't last as long as I would like. But hey, I am learning to live with that.

I like it. Gasoline + powder + jasmine. Androgynous, undefinite, dark. Black lilies in an abandoned garden.

Odd, and slightly off-putting, but not THAT dramatic, now is it? What I smell here is mainly indolic jasmine with very dry and smoky woods. It gets dryer as it dries down (sounds redundant, huh?). The amber here is most like the amber in Ambre Canelle - not as sweet as what I normally associate with amber. In fact, Ambre Canelle has some similarities to this - indoles, jasmine, amber, and eccentricity - only in Salvador Dali, I get a lot more woods - smoky woods.

Wow!
I was looking for such a revelation since a long time! Five stars!
Beautiful masterpiece, this scent is rich, masculine, refined and elegant.
The mix of florals, dark woods and vanilla is outstanding.
The initial smokeyness doesn't last long and the true beauty evolves gradually.
If you like this but want citrus notes on top, look at Lalique lion. (it also has more cedar in the base)

Beautiful bottle, awful fragrance. Powdery, acrid, sour... Like what Kouros or Alfred Sung would be after spoiling in the bottle. It wants to be dark, smokey, yet fresh; instead it comes across as simply bitter. Sung homme pulls off this mix much better.

I have to change my opinion from the previous review I wrote about this scent. I've grown to appreciate the funky qualities of Dali. While I initially found it dark, smokey, and brooding; I now consider it a nice woody scent accented with floral notes and liquorice. It still seems "dark" and I haven't changed my mind in that sense. But it isn't something that I find horribly strange anymore. I'd recommend it to people who want a break from the ordinary. Besides, if you're a lover of macho scents from the 80's then this would be a walk in the park for you.

A creative fragrance, appropriate for the Dali name. There are very unusual notes in the opening—possibly the anise / sage combination (that ‘blood’ comment by kilted is not necessarily an exaggeration). After the opening, Salvador Dali settles down to a very nice—close to traditional—floral / wood / amber fragrance. Oriental, I would say. Wonderfully surrealistic bottle—I enjoy the juxtaposition of the flippant lips-cap to the dark Gothic-ness of the fragrance. Beautifully Dali—strong, powdery, unique, complex, Gothic—I bought it for the bottle but the fragrance itself has surprised me with its ingenuity, uniqueness, and proximity to wearability.

This scent gave me a headache when my husband tried it at the cologne counter. It is confusing, and forgive me, stinky. Dali is a GREAT artist; unfortunately melting watches and burning giraffes sort of sum up this scent.

I get what this scent is trying to do... dark, brooding, thick.. smokey, but to be honest it's a little much. The floral notes clash with the smokey character in a way that makes my scent glands want to run to the next province and bury themselves in the sand. This fragrance is like a train wreck.. it intrigues me, I look every now and then.. but regret when my curiosity takes me to that unfortunate place.

Evil. This is exactly what I imagine Buffalo Bill's pit in "Silence of the Lambs" must have smelled like---a mixture of blood, sweat, fungus, abject fear, feces and that dirty, filthy Precious. And the bottle cap consists of "lips", which is fitting since what's on the inside of the bottle is so reminiscent of raw, unrefined halitosis. I'd very much like to shove a tic-tac into those lips. It's also the closest replication to human body odor (more precisely "fat man funk") that I have ever smelled in the entire world of perfumery. I actually considered wearing some once just to be a little different, but then wisely thought, "No way, people's gonna think I haven't showered in a couple of days", and that's not exactly a fear that should ever be associated with wearing cologne. It smells like a corpse's butt. In sum, I'd rather wear pepper spray.

I like the headiness and the dark mushiness of it all, it sort of reminds me of an obscure dream place where after a plunge in brown waters and after walking via spiked plains, i went off to kill a beast with a fume-and-fire firing machine...in an 80's suit!...the scent is fresh at the very start but don't be fooled, it goes down to a heavy musks and yeah it's very masculine and will get you attention. I like it! The leather, patchouli and cedarwood are very strong here as well. I use it sparingly and strangely, not so often.

It took me a few trys to finally decide that I really LIKE this cologne. It's not for everyone as it has a stand out scent. But after giving it a fair try, I really do love this scent. It's fresh and unique and has a powdery dry down. It's worth a try...or two! Joshaugustt

It smells like a true artist and genius, everything from the botttle to the content itsself being as unusual, controversial and fascinating as Dali himself.
It was the first brand brand scent i ever got and i was only fourteen by that time- needless to say a little too dark and sophisticated for that age, nevertheless i enjoyed it because it was an unusual and challenging debute in the world of perfume for me. It definately sparked attention how a fourteen-year-old can smell so strangely dark and mature. It was very good value for money too because the quantities i had to use were very scarce in order to smell quite strong.
It is more than just "dark", "satanic" or "goth", it has also very subtle chypre, wood and spicy notes, though clearly exotic it tends to be partly compelling like an Oriental fair full of strange, almost mystical fragrances, partly abstract like modern painting.I could effortlessly picture the bottle among Dali's canvases with melting watches and burning giraffes.

Yikes! Scary stuff!

Very dark but sweet the way blood must taste to a vampire. It changes constantly, one moment it is intensely floral, the next it reeks of gasoline. It is not for everyone, probably not for most, women probably won't find it very appealing, but if you have the self confidence to wear it effectively I am certain women will love that confidence.

A very nice scent, also the bottle. Extraordinaire. A very charming woody an warm stuff. Not for youngsters but for a really man. Try it, well done!

Reeks of hot tar and Satan.

What a funky, funky bottle! :D Seeing the liquid swirling around the slightly translucent, green black bottle is somewhat hypnotic. 8) This one is an aggressive, attention grabbing scent which is not for the meek. It is reminiscent of many Italian scents from the 80's onward, IMO. I believe that this one could get overapplied and is best sprayed under a clean undershirt, so the muted essence would exude out without suffocating others around you! :)

You're in a dark forest in Transylvania. You can barely see in front of you. You are terrified because you are hearing praises being given to Satan and screams of people's throats being slit. Off in the distance you see a bright, orange light. The closer you get you see that it is an gargantuan bon fire. Hooded figures in black are circling the fire. Underneath the hoods you can see that they are grotesque, demon-like people. Black, puffy, clouds of billowing smoke are everywhere. Black, sooty ash is hovering all around you. Blood is covering the ground and the hooded figures. Your corneas are seared by the blinding brightness of the fire. This is what Salvador Dali pour Homme smells like.

A rather heavy spicy floral chypre with a herbal accord. A classic 80s scent. The base note is also quite strong with tobacco and leathery patchouli notes. Best for colder temps. Daytime formal fragrance, very formal. Excellent bottle! I like it very much and highly recommend trying it. You'll probably like it if you into Kouros, Trussardi Uomo, Polo and classic Paco Rabanne.

Heavy oriental tobbaco scent in a funky twisted bottle. Woody, a bit powdery, with hints of florals. It's very much mid-80s: strong, in-your-face, I'm-here-please-stand-up type of a scent, and quite unusual like the rest of Dali colognes.