Reviews of Dilmun (2000)
by Lorenzo Villoresi

Sampling Lorenzo Villoresi’s orange blossom composition shortly after Czech & Speake’s divine Neroli does poor Dilmun very little service. Like many Villoresi scents, Dilmun starts out harsh and confused, but unlike Piper Nigrum or Incensi, it never quite sorts itself out. The heart is a soapy, yet indolic orange blossom accord, but it is marred for me by a shrill, sour, chemical note that shrieks its way through the entire development. If I imagine away the dissonant element, I’m left with a pleasant, if unadventurous orange blossom floral-oriental on a sweet ambery foundation. Unfortunately, my imagination has limited stamina, and I’d just as soon save the effort by wearing something else (Serge Lutens Fleurs d’Oranger, Czech & Speake Neroli,) when I’m in the mood for orange blossom.

Dilmun is a rich, refreshing orange blossom fragrance. It is much richer than a typical citrus style cologne. I enjoy the smell of orange blossoms very much, and Dilmun is fairly true to a fresh orange blossom. It reminds me of the type of orange blossom found in very high quality cooking/baking waters. It has a nice light, spicy dry down, that ends up somewhere in a vanilla neighborhood, but not sweet or cloying. Wearing it reminds me of being in an excellent patisserie - beautiful, fragrant, flavorful, satisfying.

Well, skin chemistry reactions are certainly interesting! On me, this has a gorgeous neroli opening. There are lovely orange blossom notes, of both fruit and flowers. It then develops an airy, light green note from the incense and laurel. This phase is quite interesting. The vanilla is faint and not cloying. The orange blossom note has great longevity, and I enjoyed it for many hours. I guess this is definitely a scent that each person has to try. I have a sensitive sniffer, and I can find no odd-ball components here.

I love weird and off the beaten track perfumes. believe it or not Hoos's review was the one that made me go out and order a sample of Dilnum. I thought "wow, this must be great! It can't be that bad!". Well... it is... Probably Hoos and I have the exact same skin chemistry, because after the initial lovely orange blossom all i could smell was urine! I could not believe it! I sprayed some on a testing strip and it was beautiful orange blossom, with a hint of bathroom detergent after a while, but nothing like the vile smel of urins I got on my skin. Unbelievable. And nobody else gets tha smell on their skin. It's nice to know I have a skin chemistry buddy... Here's to you Hoos!

Last night I sampled Lorenzo Villoresi's Dilmun. And I have a story. Pour yourself a nice little beverage, maybe a small plate of shortbread, pull up a chair by the hearth, and I'll tell you my tale of Dilmun:

It all starts as a lovely trip for Mom, Dad, Dexter, and Penny. Yes, they're taking a car trip on a beautiful morning that has a hint of orange blossom in the air.

Less than an hour out of town, Dexter exclaims, "Dad! Look! A cake factory! Can we stop? Pleeeeezzzzzeeeee?"

Now Penny loves cake and thinks the idea of touring a cake factory would be wonderful and they might even get samples! So, Penny chimes in "Come on Mom! That would be fun! Let's go!"

Mom and Dad benevolently smile knowingly at each other and Dad chucks little Dexter under the chin and says, "Sure, son. Let's tour the cake factory."

As they wend up the road leading to the Dilmun Cake Factory, a road lined with beautiful orange trees in blossom, a faint chemical smell reaches out to their nostrils. Nearly too faint too notice. Mom, ever vigilant over her family, says "Hmmm. Do you smell that honey? I'm kind of concerned."

Dad, tapping out his pipe and chortling ever so gently, says, "Honey, you worry too much. That's probably nothing."

So, Mom, Dad, Dexter, and Penny trundle up to the DCF and ask for a tour. The plant manager, Mr. Glower, looks at them with a bit of surprise. "Um," Mr. Glower emphatically states, "we usually don't give tours here."

Dexter pipes up, "But it's a cake factory! How can you not give tours?"

Mr. Glower looks our loving family up and down, debates a moment, and says, "Well, if you like, come on in."

Imagine our lovely family's surprise to be greeted by aisle upon aisle of shelves packed ceiling to floor with cakes! And not just any old cake, either!

Urinal cakes! On a hot day in a huge storage room with no venting.

Yes, our little family quickly went from a pleasant day scented by a breeze tinged with orange blossom to standing inside a hot, airless room filled with nothing but urinal cakes. Cakes whose power of scentification seemed to grow by magnitudes of 10 as each second ticked by.

The family fled with noses held and feet a-flying. But they could not escape the smell. They dived for the car. Dad sped (Dad never drove like that before!) all the way home.

They took three showers and still they smelled of urinal cakes. Mom thought a nice alcohol bath might help. Alas, Mom was wrong. Dad, thinking through the horrid predicament as only a Dad could, said "Clorox Wipes! That'll do it!" Alas, Dad was wrong too. Even subsequent showers with a nice bar of Lava Soap did nothing for the clingy-sweet stink of the Dilmun Cake Factory.

Much like the emanations from a frightened skunk, the scent from the Dilmun Cake Factory was not to be trifled with. It was an event to be lived through. Even, if you will, suffer through.

So, gentle reader, the next spring morning that you step from your house, notice a lovely scent of orange blossom, and think it would be a wonderful day for a family outing. Just remember: it would be, but it would be nicer if you avoided the Dilmun Cake Factory tour.


This conflagration of fragrance is officially worse than Michael for Men simply because of its unholy tenacity. It gets no stars and a thumbs down.

Wonderful citrus, floral, and green opening—there’s an excellent tangy green stab of sharpness in the midst of the citrus and flowers. As the citruses fade, the green loses its sharpness and sweetness, and it becomes a more mature, full, rich fragrance dominated by a laurel that is mellowed by the florals. Usually I don’t care for too obvious florals in a fragrance, but I find the floral element in Dilmun to be quite pleasurable and not at all too feminine. I think it’s the lasting prominent citrus note and the resinous feel to the fragrance that keeps the florals from taking over completely. The citrus holds almost through the entire run of the fragrance, and the florals last even longer—all the way through the dry down. Dilmun is an enticing fragrance—one of the few where I really love a strong floral presence.

According to the Villoresi web site, there are 13 ingredients in Dilmun:

Top: Citrus, Rose, Neroli, Green Leaves
Middle: Petitgrain, Laurel, Opoponax, Incense
Base: Floral extracts, Elemi, Vanilla, Cedarwood, Sandalwood

This is the third Villoresi scent I have tried and I find it to be quite nice. Most reminiscent of Floris #127, although not as strong as the Floris. They both share the neroli, softened by rose, and with a petitgrain support. A very light and pleasant neroli, which in the drydown is softened by vanilla notes.

I was surprised to find that Truefitt and Hill's West Indian Limes is really a neroli based scent with citrus evident only at the beginning. This too is similar to Dilmun, but Dilmun is more subtle and sophisticated.

A very fine neroli on a par with Floris #127.

This is my favorite orange blossom scent, heightened and spiced with elemi and resins. Good lasting power, and very elegant. An extremely light touch of laurel gives it a good lift. Very bright and rich.

I love orange blossom, grew up in Orange County in the 50s and 60s when you could still catch a whiff of it in the air. This one struck me on first try as a very masculine fragrance - the woods and dry herbs came out strongly and it seemed very dry - but on second wearing I fell for it, and sensed its feminine side. It is very broadly composed around its orange flower heart. Unlike Serge Lutens' Fleurs d'Oranger which is so creamy and solid you can almost taste it, this one invites you to expand your lungs, extend your awareness over the entire pastoral landscape.

a treasure divinely crafted to delight your senses ,definitely my most beloved orange blossoms fragrance in the world

Very diappointing, as I love orange blossom immensely. Sadly, this turned almost bitter as it dried and reminded me of the horrible Paul Sebastian Fine Cologne for men (blech!)

I just picked this up in Milan. I was loking for something else entirely, but fell for this with the first sniff. Great citrus and green start, with a warm heart of orange flower and whispers of woods and resins...outstanding and longlasting, especially if you like orange flower scents.

Just ordered this along with P. Nigrum. I like it very much; it will be alongside Acqua di Parma (which it resembles somewhat) for an interesting and fun weekend and relaxation scent.

I have not worn this scent since last summer and "forgot" about how beautiful it is. I have never seen it discussed here, so I thought maybe I should introduce Dilmun to you.
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Dilmun was an ancient civilization located on the crossroads of the trading routes between the Indus Valley and Mesopotamia.(todays Bahrein). We know from Mesopotamian inscriptions and successive archaeological excavations that Dilmun was a major link between these early civilizations. According to Mesopotamian records, particularly the Gilgamesh epic, Dilmun was regarded as a Holy Land. It played a significant role in the history of the ancient world as a main trader of incenses and spices. Between 2200 - 1600, its "Golden Age", Dilmun controlled the trading routes and built fortified cities, magnificent temples and thousands of burial mounds, then started to decline and vanished around 330 BC.
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Although incense and spices are named as notes in Villoresi's composition, Dilmun is above all an orange blossom scent - maybe THE orange blossom scent. It is not deep and creamy like SL Fleurs d'Oranger or the new Fleurs de Citronnier nor is it a Cologne style interpretation such as SMN Zagara or PdN Cologne Sologne. Dilmun is an etheral and bright orange blossom, mixed with lemon and mandarine zest in the top notes. Oppoponax and sweet honey in the heart notes are only here to bring out the best of the orange blossom that is dominating the dry down. If there is incense in the base, it is used sparely and can hardly been detected. Dried laurel leaves hold the overall scent together.
First spritz out of the bottle comes out VERY sweet and may discourage you from further investigation. Dilmun however is NOT a gourmand fragrance, it just renders the soft sweetness of the orange blossom so perfectly and naturally.
I always like to refer to Dilmun as "Marrakesh in a bottle".
This is indeed what you smell in the evening sitting in the patio of one of the hidden palaces in Marrakesh, after a lunch, waiting for your mint tea and honey baklavas to be brought. The air is still warm but a little breeze fills the air bringing distant whiffs of sweet spice from the kitchen.
Your host brings you a richely decorated silver carafe with macerated orange blossoms and spritzes the content on your open hands : an old rite that is said to bring you health, wealth and happiness.
If you love orange blossom - the true thing - Dilmun is a must.

To me, Dilmun is a male scent with a strong rose feminine note stuck in the middle of it. So I'd class it as unisex.
My neice thought the same.
My mother and sister-in-law thought it was definitely a feminine scent.
And my brother thought it a very masculine scent.
This is one confusing scent.
Renato

I really wanted to like this scent, the ingredients sounded really appealing. It seems to be the Villoresi trademark that all his scents have clear, crisp, pure notes and a progression that you can clearly follow. Unfortunately, this combination was too sweet for me, even the citrus was sweet, with florals reinforced by the sweet fragrant resins, further reinforced by the flower extracts and vanilla. It rapidly reminded me of an Italian barbershop and stayed that way, down to the soap in my ears and crisp white uniform of the barber. If you like this kind of scent, by all means go for it. I guess it wasn't for me.

Dilmun is a unique scent in that, at first, I thought it was only a feminie scent, yet it clearly bears some fantastic qualities that would best be brought out on the masculine skin. Whle the citrus notes permeate throughout the opening citrus fades in potency to introduce the floral side, which has a welcome place in men's fragrance. My next acquisition.