Sauvage

In 2015, when I heard that Christian Dior was bringing out a new men’s fragrance, I was very excited.  Not only am I a great admirer of Dior’s current perfumer, Francois Demachy, but as designer fragrances go, Dior tends to be quite daring and generally sets trends.  Just think of Dior homme with its, then outrageous, now greatly imitated, addition of iris.  Or of Farenheit and its original use of floral and leather notes.  Not to mention the undeniable aromatic classic that is Eau Sauvage.  So you can imagine my disappointment when the fragrance turned out to be Sauvage (no relation to Eau Sauvage).  My first experience with Sauvage was being blasted with it by an overzealous sales lady in my local department store.  Instead of the wonderfully original creation that I was expecting, what I got was a generic, headache inducing beast of a fougere, reminiscent of those shower gels in black packaging that are solely geared towards men.  For the next few months, it was all I smelled on every level of said department store.   What really added insult to injury was the use of Johnny Depp as the face of the fragrance.  For me, a washed up, over accessorized Johnny Depp, playing the blues and driving around the American west, rambling drunkenly as he goes, is not the best representation of Dior.  Last but not least, there’s the name.  Why, oh why would Dior use a name so close to one of their most iconic fragrances without it being an actual flanker?  There was so much wrong with this concoction that I quickly tried my hardest to forget it even existed.

Fast forward to 2017 and my opinion has done, if not a one-eighty, then at least a ninety.  It all started with the launch of Dior’s Sauvage Very Cool Spray.  I was walking through the perfume section of my local department store and begrudgingly allowed a salesperson to spray some on my wrist.  Immediately, this fresher, zestier version of Sauvage caught my attention, and so I allowed it to settle on my skin instead of just scrubbing it off.  What I found surprised me.  On the skin, it wasn’t as harsh as I had expected; the addition of grapefruit added a brightness and vivacity to the fragrance which reminded me of Terre by Hermes.  As the fragrance developed I found myself quite enjoying its easy, mainstream nature, and I could finally see why it had such wide appeal.  Emboldened, the next day I decided to try the original Sauvage on my skin, and while not as good as Sauvage Very Cool Spray, it was much nicer than I had expected.  As with SVCS, it was gentler on the skin than when sprayed in the air, and although generic and slightly synthetic, it was not abrasive or nauseating as I had once thought it was.  It was fresh and spicy, and the much maligned ambroxan softened it enough to make it suitable as a day time office scent.  Honestly, I don’t think I will ever love this scent, but I now definitely do not hate it.  It is a decent aromatic fougere, suitable for men who like safer, more traditionally masculine scents. This is also perhaps why it is generally quite popular with women too…  In my opinion Sauvage has unfortunately suffered from its awful marketing campaign.  Like with romance, no one likes things to be aggressively shoved down their throats, instead, we love to be slowly tempted and seduced just enough so that we are left wanting more.  Many fragrances and fragrance houses are victims of their own success; if they are not obscenely priced or become too popular, niche fans and perfume snobs (myself included) shun them, but does that make them “bad”?  This experience has inspired me to explore some other scents that I have written off.  Who knows, I may be surprised by what I find.

Sauvage	Sauvage Very Cool Spray
Top Notes: Calabrian bergamot, pepper Middle Notes: geranium, lavender, Sichuan pepper, elemi, pink pepper, vetiver, patchouli Base Notes: cedar, labdanum, ambroxan	Top Notes: grapefruit, Calabrian bergamot, pepper Middle Notes: geranium, lavender, Sichuan pepper, elemi, pink pepper, vetiver, patchouli Base Notes: cedar, ambroxan

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