Tendre Poison

Dior launched Tendre Poison in 1994. The fragrance was composed by Edouard Fléchier, the author of Poison in 1985, and opened a line that would go on to include Hypnotic Poison, Pure Poison, Midnight Poison, and Poison Girl.

Nine years after Poison

Robin, of Now Smell This, points out that it took until 1994 for a sequel to Poison to appear, when a house today would release a flanker within the year. Tendre Poison was meant to win over a younger audience than its elder.

Fléchier, quoted by Michael Edwards in Perfume Legends, felt that no one could go as far as Poison again: the great classics, he said, owe their strength to the overdose of one component, like the aldehydes of No. 5 or the galbanum of Vent Vert.

What the house said

Dior presented Tendre Poison as a biting paradox, where youthful impertinence meets charm: a sparkling, fresh, light fragrance whose lively notes blossom into an elegant bouquet, for a delightfully sassy seductress.

The house called it poisonous but gentle, and saw in the fresh, sweet harmony of its floral heart the portrait of a woman hiding great passion behind a fragile appearance.

A discontinued fragrance

Tendre Poison is no longer produced. As early as 2008, Elena Vosnaki, of Perfume Shrine, described it as nearly extinct, while Hypnotic Poison remained a favorite of the line. Its launch campaign brought together models Paul Sculfor and Laurence Vanhaeverbeke.