The Dreamer (1996)
by Versace

The Dreamer doesn’t make a very strong impression upon me at first. In fact, I can hardly smell the top notes at all. If I snort vigorously I can detect some soft and pretty spiced bergamot and floral notes, but I really have to exert myself to do so. To judge from some of the comments below, perhaps I’m lucky.

At any rate, The Dreamer does eventually open up for me, and when it does what I smell is a very sweet, bland, and aggressively synthetic gourmand woody oriental. To my nose it’s an opaque, heavy, and intensely cloying scent that seems to suck the air right out of the room. I don’t get any lily, juniper or tobacco, just grating woody amber and flat, saccharine sweetness. I’ll freely admit that this is not one of my favorite fragrance genres, but even so, I don’t think The Dreamer is a particularly good example of its kind. Next to something like Body Kouros, or even the less polished Lolita Lempicka au Masculin, The Dreamer smells clumsy, crude, and cheap. My apologies to all of its fans, but one really can do better than this.

It reminds me of a mix between two of my least favorite scents - Le Male and D&G PH - but it's better than either of those. It has Le Male's minty-sweet synthetic opening - but that fades pretty quickly. A lingering synthetic, light sweetness from the top remains to lighten the tobacco base, making it more tolerable than D&G's loud, wretched take on the note. As nice as the development is, the topnotes are just so synthetic, thick, and unpleasant. I can't give it a pure thumbs up, but I respect it.

I do not understand why so many people gave this positive reviews. I did not like this fragrance at all. The opening is horrible, way too strong and cloying. The dry down was nothing special. I tried The Dreamer on three separate occasions, but every time I still found it vulgar.

In my opinion JPG Le Male does this style of fragrance way better.

I don't exactly know what to make of this fragrance. The top notes are quite cloying, yet they die down after a short while (15-20 minutes on me). So the top notes are not too much of an issue although they are markedly synthetic. I do enjoy the dry down as it sweetens and mellows but it too seems to disappear quickly (about 2 hours or so). Total this fragrance lasts about two and a half or three hours on me and it never even gets to the leather/tarragon base that the chart shows. Although I do enjoy the dry down, the fleeting nature of this fragrance on my skin makes this a bad investment and I'm glad I only bought the 10 dollar mini. I would say an even 5/10 for me.

PS...I really tried to like this fragrance

An unconventional mixture of tangy, synthetic florals and smooth, resinous,earthy, pipe tobacco... whose combined essence could be mistaken for the vestige vapors emanating from well-worn, unlaundered clothing.


However, the exquisite Grecian bottle is deserving of the highest praise.

dreamer is like a beauty and the beast. the top notes are so harsh that I can't stand it. with some patience,dreamer morphs into something beautiful.many say this is similar to d&g ph with the tobacco note but to me they're not. dreamer has a wet tobacco smell that's been sitting in a hot barn. then later its a almost like a sweet and natural body odor that I love. a scent that changes on your skin which takes about an hour to turn into somethin wonderful. i call it sweat, wet tobacco, and cotton candy. and many agree.