Dare

What is this!?!? I just picked up a grab bag auction online and this was in there! It looked familiar but I couldn’t place it. So I sprayed it on my inner wrist and was amazed!! I thought it may have been a drugstore cheapie, but when I sprayed it, I thought “whoa!! This is amazing!” I feel like I was shot through a time warp straight back to the 80s! But in the best possible way!! Bustling shopping malls, record stores, teenage angst, smells of food courts, endless optimism! Yet somehow, I don’t find it dated! It’s definitely nostalgic, yet wearable! I have Bijan, ysatis, organza, and Sand &Sable. They all have aspects of this, but it’s as if they took the best parts of each and rolled them into this. And some of those feel way more dated to me! I can’t believe this was a drugstore cheapie in its day! The 80s &90s never cease to amaze me with their creations in perfumery! Drugstore scents smelled this beautiful!? Truly amazing! It obviously has way more notes than listed. It’s also a powerhouse! One spray fills a room! Longevity is fabulous! I’m pretty sure this is a vintage bottle. I feel like it has matured and smoothed out so well. Nothing smells rancid. Nothing smells low quality. I would have been in high school when this came out, but this one got past me somehow. If you enjoy oriental florals, try this! I’m not sure if it’s still available or if there’s been reformulations over the years. There are no batch codes on my bottle. But this older bottle is an absolute gem! With that, I have to run, I have a sudden urge to watch The Breakfast Club! 😉 -A few hours later, I asked the hubs what he thought of my newest fragrance that I am so enchanted with. His reply- “you smell like my Gran!” Haha 🤣 I don’t care, I still love it!

Quintessence Dare was a really elegant and beautiful drugstore brand. At times in the 1980s and 1990s, when I was especially short on disposable income, I would buy Dare as a cheapo substitute or for Ysatis by Givenchy. On my skin, Dare has almost the same top notes (mainly tuberose) and middle notes as Ysatis. The only thing missing in Dare is the deeper, musky dry-down of Ysatis. I'm surprised that nobody else has mentioned the similarity between the two fragrances, unless I've missed a post that notes it. Dare was available in drugstores and was a great product for its price. I wish it still was! Fyerwoman, are you still there? I believe that the similarity to Sand & Sable is in the tuberose note. I wore both of the two lovely cheapies, and I think that's what made the biggest impact on me (I love tuberose). In the same way that I saw Dare as a budget Ysatis, I saw Sand & Sable as a budget version of another fragrance ... Fame de Corday, perhaps? I'll have to smell S&S again to remember.

This is very similar to Bijan for women and Jil Sander No. 4 --- I can see the similarity to Ysatis too. I purchased this on eBay and made the mistake of buying the bottle without the spray... this leaked in transit before delivery. I liked this better as an every day autumn, winter perfume than Jil Sanders No. 4. This is a lighter, more livable expression of tuberose and tobacco notes. I really liked this on... it has more of an airiness in the deeper notes. This is well blended and is just as good as a lot of department store perfumes, but was first marketed in the drugstores. There's a lot to like with this perfume. I really like the notes in this for the fall and winter.

This summer/winter (2016/17) have made neroli a demon for my chemistry/nose. The very bottom of the drydown here..........neroli is one of the flowers.....it HAS to be. However, before it gets to this point.....this is a DIVINE fragrance! Love, love, LOVE it! I am praying that neroli and I can come together again :o(

After searching all over the web for a descriptive review of Dare,i realized i must try it for myself.Afterall,two people agree that Dare reminds them of S&S and i'm not gathering any specific other details from this mysterious classic. I recieved my bottle in the mail leaking a bit. I can't blame too much on the sender for this because the "so called" stopper doesn't do a good job at stopping lol. The few ounces that leaked were quite strong and all i could smell was carnation and oakmoss. I'm having doubts already. So i quarentined the bottle to try again later after gaining my olfactory senses back. You see,i grew up in the 80's & 90's while having a perfume collecting grandmother who would send some of the 80's very best power house frags for each birthday & Xmas. By the way,i already had Poison,Nina Ricci L Air Du Temps,Gucci,Anais Anais,Emeraude,etc by the age of 9. I never enjoyed the heavy chypres,blinding powders and smokey plums anywhere near that tender age and still haven't desired the sort unless for nostalgic reasons. The fruity candy blends that have become the norm of today would have probably been more desirable back then but it's too late for the super fruit candy fluff for me now. I sprayed Dare on before bed tonight. What a pleasant suprise! There is a sweet honeysuckle type top note that i love. This must be sweet fruit. Could be peach,could be citrus. I'm not sure. This is the part that reminds me of Sand n Sable. If there is any white floral than it coincides with this sweet note equally to where i can't yet discern which white flowers are here. I can feel the rich oakmoss and woods underneath like a timebomb ready to protrude out any moment but they stay tamed. I wonder if this oakmoss is the green note highlighted at the top of this page. At first they give me the impression that patchouli is in the mix but i'm not so sure. I could be wrong. Half an hour later,an iris,violet & carnation type of powder emerges out of nowhere. It is soft but sharp and now hindering the sweet honeysuckle type note that has been making my mouth water. I'm too tired to stay awake for the remaining ride that Dare wants to take me on tonight but i will follow up on a day i can commit to Dare. I have a feeling this will be a great layering go-to bottle for me. So far it has that vintage feel but to me this is a cream of the crop find from the 80's era. I'm not regretting this buy one bit right now. To be continued.... Update: This is a very appropriate work fragrance when spraying lightly. Definately a unique chypre that i adore. Sillage: Moderate to heavy Longevity: 8-12 hours Overall i give this classic a 9/10

In the late 80's I worked at a fragrance store. Dare was one of those drugstore cheapies that I quite liked. It has been a few decades so my memory may not be perfect but I remember this as an 80's white floral (honeyed orange blossom, tuberose & gardenia were big at the time) with peach (a popular note back in the day). Maybe amber and a touch of spice?

This is the dictionary definition of an old lady perfume! It's not bad and I don't mind it but it definitely smells vintage. I can't place a single obvious note but to me it's a thick yet tangy green heady oriental fragrance without the spices. It's not sweet or floral, not fresh or clean smelling but it has a crispness that I assume come from the citrus. While I wouldn't mind wearing this on a daily basis to the office etc I am conscious that I would smell like an "old lady" so for that reason I'm hesitant to wear this too often. I do like layering it with a sweeter smelling perfume to make it a little more office friendly. It is a beast though,a few sprays and it lasts all day and night and forever on clothes. I have yet to own a modern perfume that has the longevity of perfume created in the 80's

Dare is a pretty good vintage floriental Tuberose. The quality is probably on the low end of average for the era, and at least average by modern standards. It feels very familiar to me, although I'm not sure which perfume it reminds me of the most. I smell Mackie (with less fruit), White Shoulders (with less lilac), and Moments (with less skank). I do smell a resemblance to Organza (with less woody notes), as well. I haven't smelled the other perfumes Dare reminds others of. I detect a very slim similarity in the tuberose between Dare and Poeme, also, although Dare is not sweet. Unlike Poeme, Dare does feel dated, although not in a bad way (like Mackie IMHO), and I'm pretty sure I can pull it off. In addition to the tuberose, I detect gardenia, amber, sandalwood, perhaps ylang ylang, probably a touch of "obligatory-for-the-era" peach, as well as a hint of civet, but only enough to lend depth and longevity, and not so much skank. I purchased a spray bottle, and it is a powerhouse―I sprayed one spray in the shipping box an hour ago, and a bit leaked onto my hands. I rinsed them off, but my living room and I still smell pleasantly of Dare. It was incredibly inexpensive, about $10 for 50 ml, and I definitely recommend trying it out if you like fragrances of the late 80s and early 90s.

I can remember wearing this regularly in high school in the 80s. I worked at sears paint and hardware with a bunch of guys and one day they asked me “what perfume is that?” And i said with an air of mystery and intrigue “Dare” and they died laughing and said “Dare to Wear?” It was then revealed they hated it and thought it was awful🤷♀️ i still wore it but only for audiences with the necessary olfactory skills to appreciate this gem.

I believe the experts have all the "review" points covered, I just wanted to add: I have ordered this from several different places and each time it arrives leaking with about 1/2 inch gone. It's so cheap it isnt really a big deal but if you order you may want to ask them to tape the lid or something or have a VERY perfumy mailbox =D

I believe that there is quite a bit of gardenia and/or tuberose here.