Joy by Dior

Joy....yes, JOY! I've always low key been fascinated by this scent, from the advertising I'd have thought of a watery, fruity floral (watery, dewy fruits, not aquatic per se) and when I first smelt it on a strip wayyy back in 2018 I actually was repulsed! it smelt like baby wipes, overly powdery and in an obnoxious way, I couldn't wait to scrub it off. In 2019 on a trip to York I saw Joy advertised and thought I'd take a punt at that when I was in town as a holiday treat, I wanted to try it out again and maybe purchase it, but I couldnt find a tester, so I ended up buying Viktor&Rolf Flowerbomb instead (and L'ombre Dans L'eau by Diptyque was a naughty extra treat). Fast forward to January 2021, I had this nagging feeling about Joy again, my birthday is next month and I decided that I'd consult the reviews here since in Wales we've been on lockdown since the week before Christmas and I can't go and sample this again, I saw conflicting reviews, some said it smells like Allure, others say it smells like shampoo and others say it smells boring, the curiosity got the better of me and I bought a 50ml bottle that was on offer as an early birthday present for myself, at the worst it could smell like Allure EdP (which I already own) and in which case I'd use it up and move on * added to basket * It arrived, I tore into the box, sprized on 4 sprays and....peach, fleshy, fuzzy, realistic peach, thats when I realised the associations with Allure, its a similar peachy opening, drying down, however, Joy has its own personality. The drydown is airy, light "pink" white florals with some musky undertones and some mild fruitiness from the peach, its more shower fresh/shampoo clean smelling, its light, I'd also say its playful, further into the dry down the woodsy notes come out to play and it starts reminding me slightly of Calvin Klein Contraditction, its like a mixture of 2 perfumes I love! The silage is soft/moderate and longevity is about 6-ish hours long, its an easy to throw on and enjoy scent, I see that people find this boring, personally, sometimes you need something thats universal and simplistic, you're not always going to want to be wearing something complex and heady, Joy is one of my favourite grab and go scents, dumb reach worthy and so far, I'd say repurchase worthy!

When I first smelled Joy I was surprised and, because of a 40% discount, bought it on the spot. When I checked the reviews I started doubting, had I been too optimistic? Joy instantly reminded me of both D&G Light Blue as well as Dior Pure Poison (which I both love) just not quite as citrussy as Light blue and not quite as flowery as Pure Poison both in opening and in dry down to the respective scents. Later when I compared notes this is not surprising. Joy could be a well done mix of these two scents, with common base notes and a few shared middle and top notes of each. And that's exactly what it smells like. I do in fact smell the citrusses, the rose, the white flowers. Each gets a turn on my skin on a bed of wood, musk and resins in that order. The dry down is in fact identical to Pure Poison in the end. Joy is not as in your face, energetic or exciting as light blue and it's not as present and romantic as Pure Poison, but does that make it bad? No, after 8 hours it still left a fresh, clean scent, which is more than I can say for Light Blue, and it's far fresher than Pure Poison. Everytime I get a whiff of Joy it's like putting on your favorite cardigan at the end of a warm spring day, where rosy streaks fill the sky at twilight and the temperature cools and you're coming home. It's not out there, it's not exciting, it is safe and maybe it's generic, but it's comfort and happiness. I don't regret my purchase, Joy makes me feel happy and stressless.

I haven’t smelled Joy yet but after reading a review below I feel the need to have an intervention before there is a Jonestown situation in the fragrance community. A user below said that “by law in France perfumes have to be drinkable”. This is absolutely 1000% false as I’m sure most people reading the comment would know...but just to be on the safe side before people start chugging their Dior Homme, I wanted to clarify that it is absolutely not safe to drink no matter where it is made, including France, as it’s full of denatured ethanol and not safe for ingestion. You can safely spray it but you absolutely can not drink your perfume safely no matter what sort of fake news may be being passed around on the internet. Dior isn’t making a French version of Joy for cocktail hour and an Arsenic and Old Lace one for the Americans. They are making it the same for everyone. So, don’t pour your Miss Dior on the rocks with a little umbrella and have it as an after dinner treat just yet. Your breath may smell lovely but your internal organs may not fare as well Edit: Since Genny17 continues to claim that French perfume is drinkable, risking the health of Fragrantica members, here is the specific European regulations that say the ethanol/alcohol used in perfume must be DENATURED. That means it has an additive which makes it unsafe for human consumption. Visit: ec dot europa dot eu and see Article 27, (1) (b).

I spritzed this in Macy's while I was shopping. I liked it, it smelled "nice." It did smell unremarkable, quite similar to countless other fragrances who've actually done it better (yes, this is a really weak Chanel Allure). Everybody asks what's going on with the perfume companies these days and I think I'm on to them. They are treating their fragrance lines like they do their makeup lines. They've got their lower price point fare that they make as inoffensive and universally appealing as possible, use fewer (or lower grade, who knows) ingredients to make it cheaper for them to manufacture, because they're just trying to please masses and sell the max number of units. Then for the clientele who are considered more "discerning," they bring out their exclusive lines that they make more avant garde and charge a corresponding price for the smaller number of sales (because the average consumer isn't going to spend $250+ on one fragrance). It wasn't always this way, but this seems to be the sales model now. That's why we keep getting the same thing over and over. And it's also why we keep getting the same movies made over and over. Sell to the masses. Make a huge profit. Rinse repeat. Sigh.

Nostalgic sigh. The Hollywood glamour of the 1970s deconstructed beautifully to reflect contemporary me. When I scooted past the Dior counter at my local department store recently, I commented on something beautiful I could smell on the Dior sales lady. When she handed me the Joy tester, I rolled my eyes (to myself) but sprayed it on my arm to be polite. Wow! The citrus fruit & bergamot opening of the original Diorella from my youth smacked me in the face .... with delight! I've never smelled it in any other perfume (and I'd worn Diorella all through the 80s so I knew it well). It's more fragile and ethereal in Joy but the Diorella bones are definitely there. I sprayed the tester liberally all over my person and sometime later I was detecting a light, airy and dry scent which was soulful and elegant. The exquisite citrus & bergamot still present, a lovely light floral and dry musk rounding it out to what I thought was total disappearance on my skin by that point, until two different people in two different places asked me what I was wearing later that day. Now that's Dior delivering on great sillage.