Poison is the first women's fragrance Dior released without the founder's name on the box. Édouard Fléchier overdoses tuberose over a base of honey and opoponax, in an amethyst apple bottle designed by Véronique Monod. Launched in 1985, it imposed a frontal femininity the decade adopted, and one critics still argue over forty years later.
Three signed critics hold Poison to be a classic and an avowed excess: Elena Vosnaki praises the craft, Neil Chapman the joyful toxicity, Persolaise the abstraction. Chapman finds today's version weakened.
Olfastory’s review
Elena Vosnaki (Perfume Shrine, 2008)
The critic files Poison among the most powerful tuberose orientals of its time, an interlay of berries, spices and musk. The craft strikes her as excellent, and so does the result, provided the hand stays light.
Neil Chapman (The Black Narcissus, 2013)
The critic owns his attachment: a purple potion of pimento-spiced berries, coriander, honey, opoponax and carnal tuberose, neither pretty nor discreet, which he holds to be a great classic. Today's version, diluted and reformulated, strikes him as weakened.
Persolaise (2022)
The critic sees in it one of the last great abstract compositions in perfumery. Custom files it among the tuberoses, but set beside recent tuberoses it depicts almost nothing. Cinnamon, rose, berries, plum, honey, pepper, vanilla, musks: an accord at once tender and wicked.