CaFleureBon Modern Masterpieces: Dior Homme- Give That Man a Floral

iris lapel

Just like the old trope that “blue is for boys and pink is for girls” that could easily have been extended to perfume by saying “woods are for boys and florals are for girls”. Really the only two flowers seen widely in masculine fragrances were lavender and rose with the latter being sure to be swathed in other more “manly” notes. With the release in 2005 of Dior Homme that simple thinking was boldly broken with a floral fragrance marketed to men which featured a different floral as its focal point.

Orris_Root_Iris_Florentina

Freshly Harvested Orris Root

Perfumer Olivier Polge chose to use Iris as the floral heart of Dior Homme. This was a risky choice because iris can be very powdery and if this was a very powdery iris Dior Homme would have never appealed to its titular demographic. M. Polge had to use a specific concentrated version of Iris called Orris. Orris is mainly the rooty, rhizomal, part of an iris. It looks a lot like ginger. When it is separated and dried it creates a concentrated almost clean smell which leaves the powdery character behind with the blooms. By using orris M. Polge was then able to take some of the more traditional masculine armamentarium and create an entirely new masculine floral genotype.

perfume-nose-olivier-polge

Olivier Polge

Before challenging the men trying Dior Homme for the first time M. Polge starts off with something familiar by using a combination of bergamot, lavender, and sage. The sage accentuates the more astringent aspects of the lavender and sets the table for the orris in the heart. When the orris does arrive it still could have retained a bit of a “too clean” feel to it. M. Polge adds a bit of cacao and amber to make it a little burlier. You have to really stop and pay attention to pick both of those notes up but they turn the orris into something less easily identifiable as a full on floral accord. In the base M. Polge returns the wearer to familiar territory with a great leather, vetiver, and patchouli base. It is kept on the lighter side so it doesn’t obliterate the floral core and it meshes very nicely with the orris.

dior homme 

Dior Homme was re-formulated in 2011 by Dior in-house perfumer Francois Demachy and it is mostly the same except for the base where vetiver is now the only detectable note left and the leather and patchouli are missing. In my opinion it is the orris, amber, and cacao heart which is the true DNA of Dior Homme and that remains along with the same top notes as in the original. I prefer the original but the newer version is so close it has not been materially harmed in the reformulation effort.

According to Michael Edward’s Fragrances of the World data base; prior to 2005 there were only 10 fragrances which were classified as masculine soft florals. After Dior Homme, in the following seven years, seventeen masculine soft florals have been released with the majority of those iris-focused and mass-market. Dior Homme made it safe for a man to wear a new flower in his olfactory lapel.

Disclosure: This review was based on bottles of Dior Homme I purchased.

Mark Behnke, Managing Editor

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7 comments

  • Fazal Cheema says:

    Dior Homme is one of those fragrances that if a perfumer has created just one like this, he has become immortal in history ..just like Eau Sauvage alone is enough to make Roudnitska immortal…

  • Fazal Cheema says:

    btw, can you tell which were ten soft masculine florals before Dior Homme came along?

  • Igor Kipnis says:

    Nice article Mark, Dior homme is one of my favorites for spring. Btw, I thought iris note in general came from the orris root and that the iris flower is never used..

  • I believe Dior Homme has suffered more than one reformulations. I had the original when it came out and then repurchased in 2007 and could definitely tell the difference. The current version I think is by far worse as the base is too one dimensional and somewhat screechy in comparison to the richness of the Polge creation. For me a tragic loss of my signature fregrance

  • Somerville Metro Man says:

    Fazal Cheema according to Michael Edward’s Fragrance of the World database here are the 10 masculine soft florals prior to Dior Homme:
    1959 Tabac Original EDP
    1968 Royall Muske
    1973 Jovan Musk for Men
    1978 Dana Racquet club (Men)
    1983 Avon Musk for Men
    1991 Amouage Gold Man
    1998 Amouage Silver Crystal for Men
    2001 Alyssa Ashley Musk for Men
    2002 Keiko Mecheri Musc
    2003 Divine L’Homme de Coeur

    Igor you are correct it is the root which is the source of all iris in perfume. My turn of phrase was not meant to convey that the flowers are used in perfume rather that they are discarded upon harvest. The drying and processing of the roots is what makes iris one of the most expensive raw ingredients.

    Amer again based on the information available to me which can be suspect because it is supplied by Dior there is only one reformulation claimed in 2011. I do agree the base is changed significantly as I mentioned but I don’t love Dior Homme for the base it is the heart of iris that makes me want to wear it. I do agree the original is more complex but the current version is pretty close and in my opinion fares much better than other reformulations.

    Mark

  • Fazal Cheema says:

    there really have been very few soft florals and the only one i own among these is Amouage Gold though Divine Coeur is on wish-list. i also expected Azzaro Acteur to be in the list but i guess its a little deeper as is Ungaro I

  • I didn’t known it had been reformulated–loved it when it came out and was reminded of when I bought Marc Jacobs for men (figgy one) and the dept store people kept trying to talk me out of buying men’s cologne once they heard it was for myself and not a gift. Love the bottle too!

    Thanks for the information Mark–I didn’t know there had been so few masculine soft florals.