Dune by Dior

A niche perfume nobody understands, but it literally saved my life. My mom was gifted it, but I ended up keeping it and it became my signature scent. I absolutely love those sandalwood, vanilla, and wood notes with a hint of jasmine. I finished the bottle and now it’s impossible to find; the closest thing I’ve tried is Calvin Klein’s Obsession.

Finally, it’s mine! What a totally different perfume. Why doesn’t it have more hype? It looks incredibly current and unique in this formulation. It’s sweet but cool, like dunes cooling down on a desert night with a synthetic touch, as if an alien ship crashed in the Sahara at sunset. Scandalously original and unisex. More than vintage, it feels like it was pulled from an Isaac Asimov novel. They tested the old version and my opinion changed: it was denser, creamier, organic, and warm, blending seamlessly with the skin. But after a while, some heart note got weird, like strange urine. My theory is that an animal note, maybe ylang-ylang, gained strength and became odd, or the bottle was leaking. Watch out for this. It’s iconic, but don’t buy blindly due to different formulations. If you want to smell different, sweet without being another brick in the gourmand wall, memorable and cyborg, go try it.

What a beautiful perfume from my memory… in past decades, using perfume was something else. The quality was superior, they weren’t mass-produced, and the compositions were creative bets. In the case of Dune, it was sophisticated, warm, and enveloping with a powerful trail. People might like it or not, but it was a unique blend: it had fruit without being teenage, flowers without being overwhelming, woods that didn’t overpower, a refreshing citrus, and a sweet vanilla without giving you diabetes. A perfect balance for a woman with character who didn’t mind smelling different from everyone else.

I remember it melancholic, but like a youthful melancholy of a sunset. Smells of jasmine (not declared) and ripe fruit, not sour, more like ripe apricots. Exquisite, solar, and unique. I find a resemblance to Elizabeth Arden’s Sunflower and Lady Million Royal.

Excellent. Wonderful. It reminds me a lot of Chanel’s great Allure, but Dune’s aldehydes make it spicier. A bit of marketing from Dior and it would be a sales leader. There are things in perfumery I just can’t understand.

Bought it blindly based on reviews. At first, it smells dense with lots of rosewood and aldehydes, but as it dries down, it becomes dry and sweet—an exquisite blend. It wears better on my skin on cool days. It’s totally original; I’d never heard of it before, and it has that vintage touch everyone talks about.

Very refined, but I don’t like it. Smells strong and outdated, like an older lady. The trail and projection, however, are huge.

I tried it recently because I missed it. It’s been over 10 years since I used it, and I was surprised: it doesn’t smell the same as in the 90s. It’s completely different. I’m not saying it smells worse, just different. I preferred the vintage version. I don’t know when they changed it, though the current one is rich. What hurts is that now it lasts only a couple of hours; before, it was impressive. Dior and their reformulations…

One of the best in my collection; it can’t be missing from my vanity. I’ve used it since its launch. I thought it was made with desert dunes, but I don’t see them in the notes. It’s unique, with a spectacular and different scent that doesn’t resemble anything. Good sillage and longevity on skin and clothes. A worthy creation by Dominique Ropion, one of my favorite perfumers.

One of my mom and sister’s favorites. Smells like sweet sun but with marine notes that prevent it from being cloying. It has good sillage and projection, but it’s hard to find in Chile; it doesn’t even reach the drugstores.

Hello, I ordered this perfume blind online because of the good reviews… I don’t know much about perfumes or how to identify notes, but I love it when I smell it and liked it, so I bought it. It arrived today, I put a little on my wrist, and I feel a mix of emotions: I don’t like it too much, but I don’t dislike it either. The only thing I can say is that the scent is very strong; it’s starting to bother me a bit.

It smells of heat, dry sand, and the south wind. It’s a warm, slightly sweet, and very enveloping aroma. It has that vintage touch of perfumes meant to stay, to become someone’s personal signature scent, especially thanks to the rosewood and aldehydes. A warm, characterful veil with immense strength.

Dune is the simple reason why Dior will be my favorite designer house. When it launched in 1991, it was a groundbreaking fragrance that united the house’s perfumery tradition with the new spirit of the nineties, and today I can say it even looks toward the future. A well-made fragrance par excellence; Dune reflects that supposed calm of desert dunes, which, touched by the amber notes of twilight, come alive and evolve, becoming as complex as that misunderstood David Lynch film called Dune, now reimagined by the wonderful director Denis Villeneuve. This perfume brings back so many memories of my study days (my best childhood friend’s boyfriend gifted it to me), and although it was a beast of longevity back then, it still retains its spirit today. Although I can’t guarantee it hasn’t been reformulated (it surely has), this precious example that fell into my hands preserves the scent I remember and performs very well. A woody, amber, balsamic, and aldehydic fragrance that, by today’s perfumery standards, can be worn perfectly by a man (at least that’s how I see it). With notes of rosewood, sandalwood, amber, benzoin, aldehydes, vanilla, musk, and oakmoss (all very prominent), with a floral base of jasmine, lily of the valley, ylang-ylang, peony, and rose that doesn’t steal the spotlight but complements it. This is undoubtedly the jewel of the house, alongside another classic like Dolce Vita, which marked the nineties and maintained the status of Miss Dior, Diorissimo, Diorella, Jules, Eau Sauvage, and so many others still relevant to new generations, whether in reformulations, flanker lines, or mass-market hits like J’adore and Sauvage.

It’s a powerful perfume, very much in the style of aldehydic perfumes from the nineties, and it’s very feminine.

If you don’t know Dune, just seeing its 1994 commercial will give you an idea of what’s inside its beautiful bottle. It’s a toasted, slightly aldehydic, and vanilla-tinged scent, wrapped in a beautiful rosewood and creamy sandalwood. This is how a beach with Martian sand should smell. It’s perfect. In 2020, it still seems so original… I can’t imagine the impression it would have made when it first hit the market back in 1991. It amuses me that people say Dune has no personality, no nuances, is boring… It’s an achievement that Christian Dior didn’t discard a jewel like this (knowing them…) and I’m glad it’s so carefully guarded in perfumeries. I think it shouldn’t be too massified, although I understand it has a small following, and I say small because it’s a completely timeless scent. A touch-up with great performance, moderate trail, and about 6 hours of longevity. I hadn’t even seen it in stores. In fact, after learning about it, wanting to buy it, and asking, there were sales assistants who didn’t even know it existed. At the official Dior stand in El Corte Inglés, they had it locked in a drawer without even the tester visible, I suppose marketing.