Reviews of The Dreamer (1996)
by Versace

Growing up in a Persian household, I was constantly surrounded by the scent of Persian spices simmering in the kitchen. There is one extremely popular spice, called sabzi, that incorporates parsley, leek, and fenugreek leaves, and sometimes a few other spices.

Well, Versace The Dreamer smells exactly like sabzi. I kid you not. It's as if I took a bottle of this spice, added water, shook it up, and sprayed it on myself. It's good to eat, but not to wear.

The opening spray smells nothing like the dry-down. It opens smelling as if you just sprayed gasoline on yourself. It's "chokingly" awful. It takes about 30 minutes or so for the base scent to develop (the sabzi smell). I have never come across a fragrance that transforms into something utterly and completely different from top to bottom like The Dreamer does.

I thought about purchasing this for my father or brother as a gag gift, just to hear them say "Why did you give me this? Why the hell would I want to walk around smelling like sabzi all day?" But alas, this is too expensive. :P

THE DREAMER ???

They should rename it into "THE NIGHTMARE" !

I tried this before buying and thought it was worth getting a bottle. It seemed sophisticated and different. As soon as I put it on at home, though, I was disgusted. The tobacco note is just too strong. I feel like I've rolled around in pipe ashes. It has excellent longevity, but whether that's a good thing depends on your feelings for the scent.

I want to love this stuff. Mainly because the bottle is so great. And the name--how could THIS frag have ended up as "The Dreamer"? Could it be that I am not a Dreamer? The lily note here is like volatile Kool Aid to this poor daybound nose. It's candy-sweet, maybe to match the dreams of a younger man. But don't even the young dreams of late capitalism smell a bit of blood and gasoline?

Just can't get beyond the top notes. They are oppressive. A nice drydown but, I'm not willing to live with the top note assault to get there.

On my (female) skin, the juniper and some strong orange/mandarin and high pitched musk notes mix into a cloying mess that reminds me of Goo Gone (a solvent for removing gluey guck made with orange oil and something like acetone. Great product! Doesn't smell too good.). These top notes just do not let go, and nothing else in the composition comes through.

The top notes are indeed pungent and hard to bear for some...and they last for like 2 hours. The drydown is decent, with a smooth tobacco base. Longevity is pretty good.

Because of the tenacious and wretched top notes (which I cannot stand at all) I wont be wearing this anytime soon ! There are other scents out there which do tobacco far better.

Yet another awful fragrance from the Versace line. How do they keep putting these out? This is an awful synthetic smelling blend of mint toothpaste and tobacco. Yes, its as awful as it sounds. Powdery to the extreme. Its nauseating.

One of the briefest but most memorable lectures that the Baron de Charlus delivered to the Society of Perfumes in Paris concerned the much praised Versace Dreamer. 'Non!' he thundered,raising his hands dramatically to the heavens. 'Non!' he declared again, this time with his voice ascending to a falsetto shriek. 'And again, non!' he announced a third time, his voice descending to a barely audible growl. 'Messieurs and mesdames, abjure this vile synthetic concoction!'

Well, after months of searching, I finally found a scent I truly don't like. I found it to be like wearing chemicals, in particular: soap and turpentine.
I know lots of people love this scent and say this is the best of the Versace line, but to me... yuck! I think Fahrenheit may be closest to this scent - not sure, but Fahrenheit at least keeps the florals in check. I think the florals are off-kilter in this scent, which is why I find it to have a chemical smell. Eh, bien...