Fève Délicieuse (2018)

Oh my, oh my. Never would I have imagined myself to be utterly obsessed, head over heels in love with this perfume! If you are looking for an objective, accurate description, you might as well discard this review. I am merely just an average vanilla, fruity gourmand fragrance enjoyer! If you also enjoy perfumes like Lost Cherry by Tom Ford, Vanilla by Kayali, the Scandal line or other known sweet gourmand perfumes, you should consider trying this one out. While the perfumes mentioned have a common sweet note to them, this is a great addition for variety. Feve Delicieuse is minty, but chocolate-y with a prominent note of sweet tonka. It might be my nose, but I smell myrrh on myself whenever I spray this on, it might be the benzoin! I find the blend gorgeously made, it is perfect for everyday, but also luxurious enough for more formal events. The perfume‘s performance is to be complimented too. Putting the price tag aside, the perfume on its own performs incredibly well, I smell it on me after a whole busy day, but the sillage is not too penetrating or headache inducing. My nose would randomly pick up the sweet, creamy notes of tonka, vanilla, mint, chocolate and sandalwood/benzoin throughout the day. If you consider getting this perfume for its gourmand notes like caramel, chocolate or cherry, I would like to remind you or share with you, that these notes generally do not last for a very long time sadly no matter how much money you decide to invest, at least speaking from personal experience! This perfume would rather fit someone who wants an everyday vanilla perfume with rich, "delicious" depth that is not too intoxicating, but sweet and minty enough to be worn casually like at work. I have worn perfumes like Sweet like Candy and other super sweet fragrances before, so blind buying this expensive perfume was a bit nerve-wracking, but I am glad to say Christian Dior has successfully wrapped me around his finger! I wear this everywhere anytime now and I still cannot get enough of it either. I cannot wait to explore more of his collection in the future! :)

I have waited far too long to smell this beauty! Fève Délicieuse is a feast and a delight to my senses. This blend is mesmerizing and each time I smell it, my eyes roll to the back of my head... On my skin, this pulls gourmand. There’s the sweetness of the caramel, the chocolate and the vanilla, there’s also something aromatic, perhaps the lavender? I smell a very slight hint of coconut and leather as well. Coconut and leather are two notes I am always weary of because they almost always pull weird and wrong on my skin but not in Fève Délicieuse. I also smell the Tonka beans and the benzoin, and it is delicious and powdery but in a refreshing way. It’s hard to describe. To my nose, it’s pure ecstasy. I do not smell the cherry nor do I smell florals in this though I am sure they add to the beauty of the blend overall. Longevity: decent 5 to 6 hours, then it becomes a skin scent that is to die for!! Projection/Sillage: medium to skin scent Price: yeah, well... it’s pricey but I’ll have a full bottle one day, of this, I have no doubt 😝😝😝 This is more of a Fall/Winter fragrance as the notes in this blend are robust and deep. Summertime would definitely amplify these notes and morph into something beastly (on my skin) and I’d rather avoid that...😅😅 Does it remind me of Vanilla Diorama? No, no it doesn’t. Why? Because Vanilla Diorama has Patchouli in it. There is NO patchouli in Fève Délicieuse. Yes, both smell strong and spicy and on the gourmand side but they are both very different to my nose. I would say that Fève Délicieuse is creamier and a tad sweeter than Vanilla Diorama. I long to smell the Original non-reformulated version of this but I am told it’s not an easy quest...perhaps some day, who knows? But if the reformulation smells divine to me, I am willing to bet my entire collection that the original will send me straight to Heaven to sing with the Angels there... Definitely worth a try, it’s a classic from Dior and if you are a gourmand lover, I do recommend it. It’s what I did and I have zero regrets!

Not expecting much, I looked for a fsb of Fève Délicieuse last week & somehow stumbled across a 40ml 2022 bottle on eBay @retail $... seemed suss but thought wtf & got it. It’s 100% authentic. stupid lucky to have found it from a reputable seller at that price. Its not what I expected but stunning. Like an elevated gourmand? Very diff from others I have. Long lasting (slight hint @24hrs) & feels luxurious, dimensional, soft, *powdery* & resinous. In a way it reminds me a bit of Zoology Bee, minus the honey. Where Bee is a more deeply sweet powdery resinous w. animalic, amber incense notes, FD has an overall much brighter feel; more overt florals, not overly sweet but still very vanillic +caramel & coconut notes, which makes it appropriate yr round. I do get a hit of bright mint & lavender @1st but quickly softens & sweetens; not much cherry if I’m honest, but I don’t mind. Then resinous benzoin, lots of tonka & powder, a def sweet nuttiness (almond?). Faint chocolate notes if I reach. Sits closer to the skin than Bee but leaves a gorgeous aura of sweet vanillic powder on dd. Highly recommend if you get the chance. It’s hard to understand why Dior would discon such a beautiful & unique fan fave; and if it immediately selling out after a discon announcement was any indication, they’ve made a mistake. Apparently there’s only room for 1 vanilla in the coll & VD sold better, so prob comes down to profits. I hope this isn’t MKFs doing... Féve D is DRASTICALLY different from V.Diorama (warm spicy boozy rum licorice?) Not a fan @1st spray tho does soften; but a very diff vanilla from FD. So WHY wouldn’t they keep both in the coll? A sweet gourmand & a warm spicy. Vanilla is one of the most popular, best-selling frag genres. And the collection now has one. How many privee ROSE frags are there now? Too many to count. Floral? Fruity florals? Oud? Woody? Etc. Hint: it’s way more than 1/ea. I can’t understand it. I deeply regret not exploring this one yrs ago. And of course now I love FD and it’s gone :(

Very nice and likeable soft gourmand scent. The lavender and mint in the opening are neither heavy nor aggressive and they disappear very quickly. Equally the white floral notes, freesia and jasmine, are not very noticeable either, which I very much appreciate since I often find prominent white florals challenging to wear. Instead, Fève Délicieuse is all about the notes listed as base. Tonka is very prominent here, in combination with vanilla and benzoin giving the scent a soft pleasant vanillic backbone. Apart from that, the other notes are so well blended that it is relatively hard to pick them individually or consistently. Sometimes I smell milk chocolate or caramel, sometimes I smell a hint of cherry... and a lot of the other times I don’t. It smells so delicious that I just want to keep sniffing my arm or shirt. Fève is a perfectly unisex and “neutral” gourmand, but I am afraid it will disappoint those who like typically male (shower gel) fragrances. Projection is very soft, definitely no beast mode, sits close to the skin very quickly after spraying. Longevity seems alright, I definitely choose to spray spraying on clothes for increased longevity. You can smell it after 6+hours but you have to get really close. The fragrance seems wearable throughout the year with the exception of hot summer days. Right now it is spring (temperatures around 15 to 20 degrees C) and it still feels very appropriate and enjoyable without becoming too cloying. I’ll have to wait at least half a year to test it in cold temperatures, but I have a feeling it will perform even better. Overall I genuinely enjoy this release from Dior, in fact it is probably my current favorite from the Prive line. The only downside is that it is quite expensive and does not project much. Fève is positively one of the fragrance you wear for yourself, not to please others or fish for compliments. (Batch code 1H01. Manufactured 2021/08.)

I've had Fève Délicieuse for a few weeks now, but I decided to wait out a bit until reviewing it, in order to fully appreciate its complex and unexpected facets. The thing is, I was expecting (or rather, suspecting) Fève Délicieuse to be much sweeter, so I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it is neither overwhelmingly sweet nor sticky-syrupy. It was a great idea by F. Demachy to open this fragrance with mint, lavender, bergamot and leather: and while it is clear from the outset that the fragrance would eventually meander into a somewhat gourmandish direction, this fresh, almost fougere-like opening, with hints of Guerlain Shalimar, dominates on my skin for almost an hour, before it finally succumbs to tonka, benzoin and sour cherries. I also expected it to be a winter-time fragrance, but actually Fève Délicieuse is rather transparent and totally appropriate to wear throughout the year, even in the summer heat. I'm happy to report that I can't detect any caramel / praline / chocolate / toffee / coconut or any other sweet foody notes. This perfume is completely unisex and perhaps even a bit more masculine, although as a woman I find it to be completely wearable, not least because of the strong Shalimar association. In fact, now that I think of it, this is what I would have loved recent Shalimar flankers to smell like; but since this product was released by the house of Dior, they had to give it a very different moniker. Fève Délicieuse (Delicious Bean) is a good enough name, although quite misleading, because the tonka only kicks in the drydown and the scent itself never becomes 'edible'. Btw I have never tried the first (2015) version of Fève Délicieuse, so I can't make any comparisons. Judged on its own merits, the 2018 version gets a strong 9/10 from me. I'm happy to have finally found a new Dior fragrance that I can appreciate, after so many recent disappointments.