Dior Addict

One of the stranger realities of certain perfume obsessives is: we are intimately familiar with the scent of long-lost treasures like Iris Gris, or Djedi, or Chaos – but ask us what Tommy Girl smells like and we have no idea. So periodically we venture forth into the surreal world of popular fragrances that we somehow never quite got around to smelling. Euphoria got the sniff not too long ago. We did the J Lo´s. Today – Dior Addict. It seems to be everywhere, the name is totally familiar, but … what does it smell like? We had no idea.

From Women´s Wear Daily: “Addict is a floral oriental sensual from 2002, created by Firmenich’s Thierry Wasser. Its notes include mandarin leaf, silk tree flower; Queen of the Night flower (night-blooming cereus), rose, jasmine, orange blossom, bourbon vanilla absolute, Mysore sandalwood and tonka bean.”

Luca Turin gave Addict two crummy stars in The Guide and is described it as “cheap chocolate and dissonant heavy floral” that “smells nasty from all angles.” If you picked it up on a trip to Sephora and sniffed it to satisfy your curiosity, you might reasonably expect it to be a fruity floral, like so much of the popular scents today, enlivened solely by a (misleading) racy name. But it´s interesting enough to review, and here are our thoughts.

Patty says: I have to jump over to Luca’s side of the fence on this one. While I adore Hypnotic Poison’s perfect balance, even though you do have to go with a delicate hand on it, Addict is just… chewed up s’mores and leftover Prom corsage. And I don’t mean that in a good way. The interesting gourmandy notes just smell cheap and plasticky and are quickly covered up by florals that do nothing to relieve the pain. Now, time does make it better, but only because it goes away. Do I hate it? No, not really. I just don’t want it on my skin. And now for a completely different take on it…

March says: LT and I will have to disagree on this one. First off, how the man can rave for an entire page in The Guide over the choco-fruital Missoni, to which he gave five (!) stars, and which someone on the blog recently described as “barfalicious,” which I totally agree with, and then call Addict cheap chocolate … well, you tell me. Maybe Missoni uses the most costly barfalicious ingredients, but the only thing I liked about Missoni was the bottle.

Anyway, Dior Addict is an in-your-face old-school sweet oriental, along the lines of Dior Hypnotic Poison (on the classy end) or Versace Dark Crystal (on the Donatella end.) As such, Addict is best as a fall and winter scent in the warmer climes, and I think my comparison to Hypnotic isn’t that far off, with one major distinction. Hypnotic is a scent I love in theory but — like Fracas — I don’t wear much because I simply cannot put it on lightly enough. Even spraying it in the air and walking through it is too much; I need a dabber. In contrast, I find Addict totally wearable, from the start, although one spray is enough and two is probably too much. Addict is like a stripped-down, amped-down Hypnotic on me, without the marzipan; instead it is all about the creamy jasmine, vanilla and woods. It’s less sophisticated than Hypnotic (which, love it or hate it, is a fascinating scent) but none the worse for it — it sits somewhere between the richness of a Turkish coffee and the chewy nougat inside a Three Musketeers bar, and I mean that in the best possible way. I didn’t rush out to buy a bottle, but I’d wear it if you gave it to me, and I’ll probably snag one from a discounter in the fall.

There have been several flankers, and one or two of those have some fans on the perfume forums. Please feel free to share any raves or gripes you have about any of the Addicts.