Dioressence is the perfume that Dior launched in 1969 under the slogan “the barbaric perfume,” composed by Guy Robert to accompany a fur collection. An amber chypre, frankly animalic at the outset, it has been reworked several times, down to the current eau de toilette, which the house presents as an oriental of geranium, cinnamon and patchouli.
Three essences in the current version
The house places an essence of Egyptian geranium at the top, which it describes as complex and slightly rosy. Ceylon cinnamon holds the heart and lends the warm, spicy accent that places the perfume among the orientals. Indonesian patchouli forms the base.
A balsamic base
Benzoin and vanilla, absent from the house's listing, complete this patchouli base. These two balsamic materials place the current eau de toilette within the spicy oriental family, to which both the house and independent classifications assign it.
The earlier pyramids
The pyramids published for earlier versions were far more elaborate. At the top, aldehydes, bergamot and orange. The heart brought together jasmine, rose, carnation, iris and ylang-ylang around geranium and cinnamon. The base combined patchouli with oakmoss, benzoin, musk and ambergris.
The accord of the original
One review devoted to the older versions describes an accord of carnation and patchouli heightened with cinnamon, lit up by abundant jasmine, over a chypre, animalic base. It is this accord, joined to ambergris, that gave the first Dioressence its character.
What is left out
These materials describe formulas that have since been replaced. They are not counted among the notes of the eau de toilette sold today, which retains geranium, cinnamon, patchouli, benzoin and vanilla.
What the label declares
The eau de toilette's label confirms the spicy axis: cinnamyl alcohol and cinnamal, two molecules from cinnamon, are among the first substances declared. It also names eugenol and isoeugenol, the odors of clove and carnation, which the three essences announced by the house do not mention.
Geraniol and citronellol, major constituents of geranium essence, extend the top note. Alpha-isomethyl ionone, a facet of iris and violet, and hydroxycitronellal, the odor of lily of the valley, add a floral base to it. No oakmoss is declared, even though European regulation requires it above a certain threshold.
The list also carries three UV filters and three colorants, yellow, red and blue: the juice is tinted, and the filters protect it from light. Coumarin adds a touch of hay and tonka bean to it; BHT and tocopherol, two antioxidants, round out the formula.