Hypnotic Poison extends the Poison line in 1998, born thirteen years earlier, by shifting the venomous towards the gourmand. Annick Menardo built it on bitter almond, whose biting bitterness stands up to the vanilla and sandalwood of the base. The opening is fruity — coconut, plum and apricot — before a heart of sambac jasmine, tuberose and rose lifted with caraway. The bottle takes up the house's red apple, a forbidden fruit turned signature.
Dior describes Hypnotic Poison in four contrasting facets: bitter almond and caraway, sambac jasmine, jacaranda wood, vanilla and musk. The detail of the notes counts more than that.
A fruity opening
In wear, the opening is frankly fruity: coconut and plum lay down a milky softness, apricot goes along with them, before the almond takes over.
The heart, the base
The floral heart of sambac jasmine, tuberose and rose lulls vigilance, lily of the valley and rosewood widening the bouquet. The base of vanilla, sandalwood and musk shuts the trap.
What the reviewers hear
Victoria Frolova, of Bois de Jasmin, describes spices folded into a jasmine cream crossed by a metallic note. The musk there is almost austere, and it is its contrast with the bitterness of the almond that keeps the gourmand from spilling over.
Elena Vosnaki, of Perfume Shrine, hears the opposite: a bitter almond too strong, on the wrong side of medicinal, and a stifling effect she ends up putting down to the nearness of vanilla and coconut.
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From the same line
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