Perfumes PERFUMES

Poison Perfume

If you go to the Dior website then you will see that it describes its infamous scent in the following way:

‘A true magical formula, Poison is an irresistibly seductive fragrance, characterized by spectacular appeal. Each Poison fragrance is part of the Dior legend of seduction, embodying magic and audacity, fascination and enchantment.’

There are many people who love Poison’s smell. But it most definitely is the Marmite of the perfume world; for every woman who will liberally slap it on their wrists and neck there are plenty more who would rather spray themselves with oven cleaner. I had a look – just to balance out all Dior’s flowery hyperbole of how much of a goddess you’ll turn yourself into by wearing it - at reviews of Poison by normal people. There were many like this… ‘To me personally, Dior’s Poison smells like Playdoh on steroids,’ ‘Never been able to stomach this perfume,’ ‘Simply synthetic forest fruit-scented bathroom refresher,’ ‘This smells like a headache.’ Not fans, clearly. I guess it’s all down to your body’s chemistry; on some women it will smell more subtle and therefore likeable than on others.

But I admit it. I’ve always loved Poison. I know that it has a sickly sweet smell that is more reminiscent of cleaning products that mask fabric odours; that this smell will stay in a room for hours after the person wearing it has left and that to really appreciate it properly you need the big shoulder pads, large trashy earrings and enormous back-combed hair of the 1980s – I know all that and yet I still love it.

I was first given a small bottle of the stuff as a teenager by a grandma whose nasal passages had presumably already given up the ghost. I wore it constantly; partly because I genuinely did like the smell but partly because, whilst not unpopular at school I was certainly not in the in-crowd and, therefore, may have thought that I needed a hook to ensure I remained in peoples’ minds once we left. I was hoping for ‘Oh yes, she was the girl who always wore Poison.’ What I think I probably got was ‘Oh yes, she was the girl whose perfume meant we had to open all the classroom windows.’

It was created by perfumer Édouard Fléchier for Christian Dior in 1985 as fragrance for seduction; the purple bottle was designed to resemble an apple – the fruit of temptation. The scent description includes ‘top notes of coriander, pimento, plum, anise, mace, rosewood and carnation; heart notes of rose, tuberose, ylang-ylang, cinnamon, jasmine and lily of the valley, and base note of cedarwood, vetiver, sandalwood, musk, helitrope, vanilla and opopanax’ (a herb apparently). That’s a lot going on; no wonder some people’s noses just can’t handle it.

It won ‘Women’s Fragrance of the Year’ at the FiFi Awards in 1987 (an annual New York City event which is sponsored by The Fragrance Foundation) as well as admission to the FiFi Fragrance Hall of Fame in 2000 and it is still an iconic perfume – its name as instantly recognisable in the perfume world as Chanel No. 5.

There are now several other siblings in the Poison family: Pure Poison, Tender Poison, Hypnotic Poison and Midnight Poison (possibly named because no matter how early in the morning you put it on it still smells just as strongly the following midnight?).

Poison by Christian Dior: a scent which can both enchant men and knock out small animals.


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Do You Remember Poison Perfume?

Do You Remember Poison Perfume?

  • Chaobaby7
    on
    I loved it in the 80s with my Goth image, i don't think I'd like it now though.
  • Anonymous user
    on
    I can remember a certain set of girls in my year at school who thought Poison was the height of sophistication. What a stench when they gathered together at breaktime...
  • sarahwalter
    on
    ooooh poison, i used to waer it, aged 15 at the local nightclub, thought i was soooo grown up!! would love to smell it now just to take me back lol.
  • Anonymous user
    on
    Ewwwww most of the girls in my year at school wore this and I hated it! Actually, most of them wore the cheap pne...you know? Where they were called something simular? And it the shop it would say 'Elope' (smells like Escape). In this instance Poison was probably called 'Poisson'. French for fish. Okay, it never smelt like that....but was as equally offensive!
  • Anonymous user
    on
    I made the mistake of being polite when my partner gave me this one christmas, saying i loved it. I got it every christmas, birthday, valentines day for a good few years later until i persuaded him that i prefered the cheaper body shops musk! Poisin was practicaly migrain inducing made me feel nauseous and you could still smell the stuff on yourself after a long soak in the bath. Ive still got a bottle thats almost full, i couldnt bring myself to throw it out and now have sniff every onece in a while to send me back to days of young love eightees exuberence and life before kids!
  • Anonymous user
    on
    I feel sick just thinking about it. My Husband-to-be bought me some as a Duty Free gift.I was happy opening it,happy putting the perfume on,then gagging and gasping for air about a minute later when it dried on the skin. My Mum asked if our Cat had peepeed on the carpet as there was a foul smell coming from somewhere. Happy Days
  • Anonymous user
    on
    i actually kind of like this one. it definitely has a chemically smell, but there's a subtle hint of crayon scent to it that makes me feel like a kid every time i smell it.
  • Anonymous user
    on
    Poison was the perfume my first boyfriend bought me and I LOVED it. It was so heavy and came in a beautiful bottle (which I still have). It set me onto the path of always wearing heavy perfumes like LouLou and nowadays, Jean Paul Gaultier and Angel.
  • Anonymous user
    on
    Poison as a young lad driving a red capri 2.0s at the time my girlfriend at the time had poison on the brain and the car seats If you ever had two girls on the go! if one of them was wearing poison the other would smell it straight away
  • Anonymous user
    on
    I love poision perfume. It was the frist real perfume to ever own thanks to my dad bringing me a bottle back from abroad many years ago. Poision perfume is fab..