Dior Homme Intense (2007)
by Christian Dior

One eau de parfum that continues to give me great pleasure is the hard-to-find Dior Homme Intense eau de parfum. I received a bottle at the beginning of November and by Christmas I was trying figure out how to get more of this little treasure. By little I mean the size of the bottle. Though I would like to have seen a larger size of 75 ml instead of the 50ml, I now realize that for all practical purposes a size in this formulation is fine. I sometimes complain too much. [...]Back to the fragrance at hand. Today I went outside after having finished the daily ablutions and I was struck by what I have called the 'SWIRL FACTOR'. This happens when you head outside and the fragrance you are wearing envelopes, I love this word, yes, envelopes you. In the case of the Dior Homme Intense, the heavier iris, a slight trace of mint, and wood rise to my head and I am delirious. Delirious from the sight of all the snow yet to melt and from the this most handsome concoction, I like this word,too. Heavier on the iris, creamier than the edt,and most pleasantly long lasting, I have worn this for two weeks straight since replenishing my supply and I am a happy man.

This one would probably set a new definition to coolness. This is as cool as it gets.

I have much appreciation to the basic Dior Homme, which strikes me as new and original. The intense version is indeed intensified formula of the first, the leather notes are much more present, it is less sweet – to sum it up: It's bolder. It's the kind of fragrance that creeps under your skin, your radar – vey close and not immediately conceived. On top of that there's the coolest bottle ever.
Many perfumes call themselves black – this is one of the few that really deserves it. Wearing it feels like wearing a dark cloaks…

Definitely my new signature fragrance.

As a Dior Homme enthusiast I did not enjoy this as much as the regular one, which was disappointing. Boo.

Heaven! Heaven in a bottle! This contains all the notes of the original, but with different emphasis (and because it's an EdP, better sillage and longevity).

The original has dominant heart notes of iris, cocoa, and vanilla with the more masculine notes of vetiver, patchouli, and leather lurking in the background, not particularly noticeable but clearly present to balance out the sweeter notes. Whereas the masculine notes provide balance in the original, they take on a more dominant role in the Intense version. The iris and gourmand notes are still present and dominant on application, but the base notes are immediately obvious, with a somewhat salty note (vetiver? patchouli?) competing with the iris notes for equal dominance. As with Dior Homme, this fragrance is very well blended and single notes, especially the base notes, can't easily be picked out.

Now that I've finally procured a bottle I must find another for safekeeping.

TWO thumbs waaaaay up!

After all the waiting and anticipation for this one, I was bitterly disappointed.

I still get the 'make-up bag' accord but less so, which I'm still finding hard to get past (but then again I was never a big iris fan). Also, I don’t get much longevity from this (sillage is okay but almost as subtle as the original version) – within an hour, I couldn't detect much on my wrist.

Apart from a woodier drydown, it's not that much different from the original - in other words, it could easily be mistaken for the original version. It's a slight improvement on the original but it still wasn’t good enough for me.