Poison Esprit de Parfum

(Bottle c. 1996) Today I'm going to wander through a forbidden forest to visit the Evil Queen. She's going to try to feed me a poisoned red apple, and I'm going to take it enthusiastically. Dior was on a roll from the 50s through the mid 90s. Forty years is a hell of a run, and in that long period they made some of my all-time favorite perfumes. Whereas Chanel presented prim and proper French chic, Dior presented the other side of the French archetypical personality: a love for things a bit lascivious, rude and irreverant. Smell some of the old Roudnitskas, Dioressence, Jules, and Dune, and tell me I'm wrong. Robert purposely made Dioressence smell like sh*t and fruit for god's sake! - and, you know what, it was brilliant! One of the best perfumes of modern times. Poison, and then Dune, are the final two chapters in this epic. I'm not going to make any comments about the next book, the sequel. In the chapter of Poison, the Esprit is my favorite of the three formats (which is the same for me with Dune), and Dior's penchant for ill-behavior is apparent right from the start. The opening immediately greets you with deep and dark blue fruits, but something is wrong. There are notes of black pepper, and some seed spices, that give this impression that the fruit is closed-off and inaccessable; something is wrong with the fruit, and this very brooding and haunted feeling overcomes me. It's poisoned! It's a very good way to set the stage for what comes next, which is a claws-out, energetic, and malevolent tuberose. This tuberose is angry. There is, of course, plenty of the "pretty" floral rose notes to it, but what is most attention-grabbing is the fatty and very animalic creaminess. It is strident, dense, complex, and not at all friendly. Safe for the office, this is not. The trick to this angry animal is more spices and some beeswax, but they are very cleverly veiled behind the tuberose to make sure you don't immediately notice that they are present unless you really go looking for them. The beeswax imparts a gentle sweetness adding to the feeling of density and complexity, while the spices give a woody, funky, and slightly sweaty feel to the tuberose that is the stridency and animalic feeling. Then comes the woody amber base, a seemless transition, pulling down the creaminess, sweetness, and woodiness from the heart without much of the challenging aspects. If you want to understand Poison through your ears rather than your nose, you should listen to Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C Minor. Poison is just like it. Baroque should be a genre of perfume too; Beethoven would've loved Poison. Beethoven was very controversial in his day because he "did things wrong" - his music was loud, could be startlingly angry, lascivious and rude, and didn't follow any of the norms or rules. Sound familiar? It was also incredibly grand, full of complex emotion, and Symphony No. 5 in particular chaotically cycles between foreboding anger and elation. That's Poison. It's a difficult beast to handle but it's also a masterpiece.

Quintessentially Poison! The richness, the darkness, the plummy liquor one finds in the vintage edt, here it is amplified by the animalic castoreum or civet, or both, to new heights. This is in perfume form (pardon my language) the best f**k you’ll get, leaving you wanting more and more. I always thought that the edt was enough, and god knows I have enough vintage bottles of it to last me until 2967, but an unexpected surprise came in the form of a cute little 15 ml Esprit and soon I was buying the only 50 ml Esprit that I could find on evilbay. Man this is a stunner. My only fear is running out, or worse, thinking the edt is not good enough. Dumb fears I know, but once you get the thick taste of it, everything else seems inferior. Luckily, the sillage is out of this world potent even when dabbed so I hope it will last long enough to probably outlive me. If the edt takes the plummiest and booziest tuberose to new heights, the Esprit introduces the heliotrope, which now sings clearly, the ambery resins that stick to skin like molasses, the fiery redhead bestie of Poison, miss carnation, and their pets, most likely a castor named Hulk and a civet named Priscila. If you thought the edt was suffocating enough, which I happen to love, the Esprit is the heavyweight champ. But the main difference is the 4K definition of notes. Every wearing is different but Poison takes its time to introduce every note to you, sometimes all at once and sometimes one by one. Here you can see the complexity and smell it, see how every note plays out to something greater that the sum, all the while with incredible finesse. Brutal strength, but elegance. I really feel the Esprit is the one every Poison worshipper should own, and at the same time the one that can really show what Poison is all about to anyone interested in this 1985 beauty. The spices never let the tuberose completely take over, while the honey and plums engulf it like the finest Bordeaux. For all it’s detractors, it’s overuse or abuse in the 80’s, there’s a person that adores her, and there’s no denying that there aren’t beauties like this made today. The quality is obvious in the fact that 30 years later, well cared bottles smell absolutely gorgeous, there are scents directly inspired by Poison (Loretta is one, Tubereuse Animale 3 is another) and even today it elicits strong feelings in people, even if said people are mostly perfumistas. Regular folks have left her behind, along the other beauties of the decade, closing the door to excess and welcoming minimalism. In this context, Poison wouldn’t make it, there’s too much in that deep purple-almost-black bottle that most would feel uncomfortable. I don’t believe in signature scents, but Poison Esprit is me. And if I’m ever remembered for my scent, I want to be the guy that reeked of Poison, and absolutely rocked it!

As reticent as I am to say this, I've got to confess that - despite its representation of so much that I love in perfumery and respect as "the good ol' days" - POISON just doesn't quite work for me. And that makes me a wee melancholy. Having known it since its conception - an unmistakable presence - I was delighted to be gifted an Esprit de Parfum mini by someone who preferred to relegate its unabashed opulent big-haired glamourous overtness to the distant memory of themselves inhabiting the same mode of those heady bygone days. And so I became the lucky recipient of a bottle which had languished in a dark boudoir corner for a couple decades & several years. Naturally I was thrilled to revisit POISON in all its narcotic glory and feared I'd be unable to resist using up such a precious amount all too quickly. But, surprisingly enough, after a year - it remains nearly full. POISON is big & bold to the point of obnoxious (and I absolutely ascribe to that) - an operatic perfume. Bravo! But all this everyone already knows. I love balsamics. I adore tuberose. I worship resins & incense. Woods & spices & white flowers galore, yes, please - and more! And yet... there is one member of this exuberant orgy of lushness which I've reluctantly had to conclude really rather ruins it all for me: that tutti-fruity grape-juicy scented felt tip marker dripping all over in saccharine saturated glee. For fleeting moments this culprit recedes, leaving an aria of intoxicating sophistication to seduce with gothic tinged, sexy maturity... only to inevitably return, rendering an elevating seance of the senses gimmicky at worst - or at best, quickly returning the sensuality back down to earth. And therein lies my conundrum with POISON - a lamb in wolfs' clothing it turns out I can't take too seriously. No one is more shocked, confused, & saddened by this than me. But as a reference, I'm grateful to have it to hand all the same. Perhaps some cold, cold windy winter's eve the purple soda pop won't bother me? We shall see. Excellent longevity & silage, of course. Magnificent presentation, bottle, packaging... what's not to love? A bunch of sweet grapes, it seems - else it would be five stars from me. I envy those of you who can indulge in this with abandon. Enjoy! ★★★★☆

I own a 1986 EDT formulation and a demonstration flacon of the esprit de parfum used to promote the fragrance in the 90s I believe (a 100ml flacon might I add! 100ml of this incredibly glorious juice! Blessed!!!) There isn’t anything I can add to the spectacular reviews of this big, bada$$y, bombastic 80’s powerhouse fragrance. Albeit all those 3 mentioned, Poison by Dior in my opinion; is classic and sophisticated when used in the right doses. Like marmite, you either love it or hate it. A “kitchen sink” fragrance—a term I use to describe a perfume with a plethora of bewildering notes that just work. Tuberose has my heart and within this composition, perfumeur Edouard Fléchier showcases this white floral beauty with honey, incense, opoponax, plum 😚🤌 amongst other exquisite notes and accords which in turn makes her somewhat dark, tenacious, smoky, alluring, drenched in liquor-like plum syrup which has a purple grape edge (delicious). What’s to be said about this perfume has already been said—and the reviews here have been a pleasure to read. Comparing the EDT to the esprit, there are just subtle differences between the two—the esprit pulls more incense forward on my skin whereas the EDT feels lusher and a little more syrupy. I absolutely adore both. I was wearing the esprit one day and my sister-in-law commented asking which oud I had on and that it smells beautiful. That’s how woody and incensey the esprit can get. I feel like Poison is a staple in anyone’s perfume collection and dare I say it, a fragrance that a beginner could build around in their collection. I would always say if you can find a bottle of 30 Avenue Hoche vintage or 33 Avenue Hoche 90s batches at a reasonable price then you’re onto a winner. I use in any weather because I don’t care muahahahaha but beware in warmer weather. A stunning spicy, resinous, drunken tuberose which may challenge and borderline suckerpunch you into a daze and leave you a bit shooketh for the first 5-10 minutes. But wait. Poison chooses you. And if that happens, so does a little magic.

In the late 80's, (1986-87?) Dior and a few other houses opted for a new market with a new product: the Eau or Esprit de parfum. They considered the pure parfum too expensive for most, and wanted to create something more affordable. At that time however, Poison Esprit de Parfum was launced for 150 USD/50 ml, according to an article in NY Times from -88. So I'm not sure how much more affordable it was ;): I bought mine, a 50 ml, unopened vintage Esprit de Parfum some years ago for about the same price and it is a heavenly blend, or perhaps better described as a devilish brew? If you have smelt vintage Poison edt, you will find that the edp smells very close apart from that it is a little less blatant, overtly sexual than the former. Instead the sillage is a bit softer but it is deeper, more woody and far more carnal than it's predecessor. The opening is sweet from plum cinnamon, honey and tubereuse. It's quite gourmand in a way, like a ripe booze-soaked fruitcake. The sillage is quite substantial in the opening and also the sweetness, but only after a short time it becomes a little softer. The splash bottle suggests that is meant to be dabbed, perhaps in order to control it better. It's very hard to describe it's carnal quality, but it must derive from the heart of the tubereuse as I have smelt it before in other tubereuse fragrances, only now it's embedded in honeyed sweetness, spices and some woody elements which makes it even more sinful. And it dries down in this way, getting less sweet and more carnal by the hours. The longevity is immense, it has almost a nuclear halflife, so don't think you can wear the same scarf or clothes the next day without beeing surrounded by a cloud of Poison Esprit de parfum ;). Well, it's probably much more to say about this beauty, but I'm going to stop here and let you try it out on your own.