Dior Homme Intense

Marin Kristic, Scent Grail

Marin Kristic reviews Dior Homme Intense in November 2021, on a bottle of the 2011 formula dated May 2013. He counts it among his all-time favorites and sees it as the benchmark among men’s irises, one of the most creative masculine fragrances ever composed.

In the opening, he smells powder, lipstick and aromatic herbs over a background of bitter citrus; the lavender strikes him as less natural than people say. The powdery iris takes over the heart of the composition, and a buttery pear keeps it from tipping into the feminine.

That pear, often mistaken for cocoa, is to him the secret of the fragrance’s success. The base leaves him an ambery, musky vanilla, hints of chocolate and the ambrette; he finds neither cedar nor vetiver in it and regrets that the iris fades.

He does not find it typically masculine: a woman wears it just as well, and a niche house would have declared it unisex. He keeps it for fall and winter, for the evening as for the office. The 2020 edition seems airier and woodier to him, the iris still at the center.

He prefers it to Givenchy’s Gentleman Eau de Parfum and Valentino’s Uomo Intense, which he reads as mere variations on its formula. He recommends it without reservation and credits it, he says, with his taste for more daring compositions.