Dior Feve Delicieuse (can’t seem to get those little thingies to stay properly) is the newest La Collection release, focused entirely on the Venezuelan Tonka Bean. No idea if there is some difference between Venezuela Tonka Beans and some other ones, but if there is, then we should all opt for the Venezuelan variety.
My deep love of tonka goes back to, well, the beginning of everything. Hermessence Vetiver Tonka is perfume crack for me. I think I need to do a post covering all things tonka centric one of these days. Guerlain Tonka Imperiale is also amazing. Tonka is trickier to find those perfumes that feature it because it is so universally used to add a creamy smoothness to a perfume.
Let’s get back to Dior Feve Delicieuse. Created by Francois Demachy (Lord, I adore his work on La Collection). Described as a mixture between “caramel, almonds and cut hay, milky sweet, but also bitter.” Notes listed are tonka bean, vanilla, caramel, cocoa, pralines and woody accords.
If someone were just imagining a perfume that would send me to bed with the lusty vapors, all they’d need to do is figure out how to put some hay earthy smell together with tonka. Vetiver tonka does that to some degree, but Dior Feve Delicieuse plows different ground with more smooth hay, earthy, but refined earthy. Like hay smells in your dreams instead of the real thing. It’s a vanilla perfect for summer or winter. It’s hard to find some vanillas in my perfume closet that I can wear outside winter, but Dior Feve Delicieuse is the one to fit that.
The list of notes are scary for those gourmand and sweet phobic, but this isn’t sweet at all. It’s filtered gourmand, they hay’ish notes (or whatever they did to create that) is a prism that diffuses all that sweet into something more like the idea of sweet, and it is smokier without being dark or heavy. It is vanilla/woods/hay/gourmand that floats like the idea of a cream puff in the loft of a barn. At the same time, this isn’t a lightweight, there is interest and change, it is not linear for me, it keeps shifting a little, with more to discover in its tonka-smoked depths. It is vanilla/tonka/hay perfection.
If I do a tonka-centered post, what other tonka-centric perfumes should I include? Pulling up a way too long list, I’ve come up with – (the ones mentioned above) Encre Noir, Serge Lutens Fourreau Noir, Aroma M Geisha Noir, Parfumerie Generale Tonkamande, Dunhill?, Serge Lutens Chergui?, Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille?, Versace Dreamer. What else, fam?
Winners of the Kilian Single Malt samples are – Gwenyth, Cat McNeal, and flowergirlbee. Just click on Drop Us a Note at the top of the blog, send me your name and address and remind me what you’ve won. I’ll send you a quick “got it” e-mail so you know it didn’t drop into my spam filter and then get it sent to you.
I’ll do a Dior Feve Delicieuse sample giveaway to 3 lucky commenters this well. Tell me your favorite Dior La Collection fragrance or suggest a tonka-centric perfume for a tonka post or just tell me how much you’re loving spring to be entered!
I would love to try it…my favourite from the la collection series is Vetiver.
My favourite is the one no-one else likes – Milly-la-Foret. It’s so hard to do that sort of thing well – and it fits with the Spring theme! Also New Look 1947. I’m racking my brains for tonka-centric perfumes other than those folks have already mentioned and am coming up blank. Sorry. Pretty much anything Guerlain doesn’t help much… Cologne du 68 maybe?
I have yet to experience any Dior, and so far I’ve only had a fleeting glimpse of Spring! 40 degrees, flood warnings, and snow slowly melting in the yard. Boo!
I haven’t been lucky enough yet to smell any of the La Collection series, and I was loving spring very much until now, because it is snowing as I type this!! 🙂 Thanks for the giveaway!
Ooh, I didn’t know Chergui was tonka-centric! I do love Chergui and Vetiver Tonka, as well as PdN Vanille Tonka 🙂 Thank you! And I very much look forward to a special tonka post.
So excited to hear about the new Dior – it sounds amazing! I love bois d’argent and am looking forward to your treatise on Tonka. Thanks so much for the great review.
Unfortunately I don’t have a favorite Dior as I haven’t tried many. I also don’t have a favorite tonka fragrance, but my favorite vanilla is Guerlains Spiriteuse Double Vanille. I’d love to try this one, though. Thanks for the opportunity.
Mitzah is my favorite. My giant bottle is proof of that.
Can’t wait for a full Tonka post, but my current faves are Reminiscence Tonka, and the Nicolai Tonka
Lovely review, looking forward to sampling this one..sounds wonderful! I haven’t tried many Diors. Tonka Imperiale is my fav tonka so far- but also love it in Vanille Tonka, Vetiver Tonka, and L de LL.
I love my samples of leather oud and bois d’argent, and wish for decant of mitzah…. This one, too, sounds delightful…
My favorites are Mitzah, Ambre Nuit, Gris Montaigne and Cuir Cannage. Just received my bottle of Feve Delicieuse from BG so DNEM. I am loving it!! Not too sweet, not too much hay for my taste.
Hmm, I like a lot of the ones in La Collection, but my two favorites are probably Mitzah and Gris Montaigne!
I’m trying to teach myself how not to be gourmand phobic – it’s a tough job!! I’m always looking for another opportunity to get used to vanillas in particular – so far almost everything I’ve tried with a strong vanilla note is just too soft and gummy. But I believe I can change!!! 🙂
I’m so curious about this one as tonka interests me (which is perhaps a tad strange because I still don’t know how tonka *really* smells as I’m only smelled it mixed with many other things — but also not strange as the descriptions of what tonka smells like sound like just my thing and I focus on the coumarin content I know from other plants in my surroundings). So I’d love to read a tonka post and I’d love a chance to win a sample of this one.
Can’t say anything about Dior La Collection scents, nor tonka-centric suggestions (newbie here), so I’ll just stick to saying how much I love that it’s a warm, sunny spring day here. Birds singing, sun setting and all the daffodils that cover the lawn in full bloom. So beautiful and so serene!
I like tonka paired with lavender, such as SL’s Gris Clair. I believe Caron’s Pour Un Homme also had tonka, but now they have removed it from the official list of notes. As for the Dior collection, I haven’t tried very many of them, but Eau Noire and Granville were outstanding. This one sounds intriguing.
My favorite Dior La Collection scent is Ambre Nuit, then Eau Noire.
My favorite Dior has to be Granville because it’s not often that you get a perfume with pine that doesn’t smell like Pine-Sol or an air freshener. It’s on my full bottle to buy list but I have got to save for my trip.
I was going to add Vanille Tonka but several people have already mentioned it. I also thought of VCA Midnight in Paris but I don’t know if tonka is really a featured note there or just a base note, but I think of hay when I smell that one. I would love to see a tonka post–Tonka Imperiale and Vetiver Tonka are two of my favorites and I’ve just copied a bunch from your list that I now need to sample.
Eau Noire is probably still my favorite. For other tonka bean scents, I would add Rive Gauche, Jicky, Tolu, and the original Lolita Lempicka. Ooh, and pour un Homme and Impact.
I’m a big fan of the Dior Private Collection, without having tried them all, my favorites are Oud Ispahan and Bois d’Argent.
You had me at hay, this sounds divine! My favorite perfume with prominent tonka bean is Gris Clair; also a fan of PdN Vanille Tonka. Thanks for the review and draw.
Any vanilla tonka is lovely for me. Thank you for the draw. I am enjoying the new Tauer vanilla.
i haven’t been able to smell any of the dior la collection,this sounds super yum!! it is autumn here, so i am loving the smell of smoke in the air,the deeper pale blue in the sky and the orange and reds and yellows in the leaves.
Oooh, this sounds so good! My favorite Dior La Collection Privee fragrance is the criminally discontinued Cologne Blanche.
Tonka sounds so delicious as a note. I love Vetiver Tonka but wonder if that is the vetiver calling to me?
I’ve tried very few from Dior but this sounds lovely!As for spring- I’ve stopped sneezing every five minutes so its lovely!
My favourite Dior so far is Grand Bal, I would love a FB. I am also nearly through a bottle of Escale a Pondichery (please excuse the spelling mistakes). I have not yet tried more than two of the offerings in La Collection Couturier (?), not easily available to me. Would love to try this new scent, hope the hay note is not too prominent? I love the warm aspect of tonka bean.
This sounds right up my alley! I’ve been trying samples of frags with hay/honey/vanilla/tonka and have a bunch on my wish list. Some have been disappointing so far but I’ll jot down your recs. Right now my nose is buried in Tabac Aurea from SSS. And I’m kinda loving it. There’s a hay/tobacco crossover in my mind at least.
Would you believe the Dior Boutique on 57th and 5th did not have this bit Bergdorfs did? It smells delish and not at all sweet, at least on paper. My favorite is Mitzah.
Ooh, ooh, Patty — this sounds just divine! My fave Diors are Grand Bal, Gris Montaigne, New Look 1947, and the late, great, and much-mourned Mitzah. I’m also particular to the Guerlain you mentioned.DNEM, of course, but thanks for offering these great draws.
I haven’t had a chance to many Diors…a boutique is opening here soon, though, and I hope they’ll carry La Collection! Vetiver Tonka is my go-to Tonka as well. This sounds like an absolute dream!
Parfums de Nicolai vanilla Tonka would be my favorite Tonka so far. THanks for the drawing!
Naming my favorite Dior is very difficult, but I’ll say Mitzah. I just went head over heels for it. I can’t wait to try this Feve Delicieuse! A tonka that I recently found I liked is Fragonard Encens Feve Tonka.
One of my favorites is PdN’s Vanille Tonka but this sounds like it could shove it aside.
This sounds delicious. So far my favorite is Oud Isphahan, but I love all things vanillic, so this one might become my new favorite.