Despite being twenty years old, Christian Dior Dune seems to be seeing a resurgence — at least in the perfume blogs. Dune has been coming up a lot in comments to posts, and I’ve seen a smattering of reviews over the past year or so. Last week, I told Robin I’d like to review Dune for today. The very next day Victoria at Bois de Jasmin posted a marvelous Dune review. Apparently Dune is in the air.

Jean-Louis Sieuzac was lead perfumer for Dune. In 1993, Dune won a FiFi for Women’s Fragrance of the Year in Limited Distribution. The Dior website lists Dune’s notes as mandarin, peony, and vanilla. Michael Edwards's Perfume Legends adds notes of broom, wallflower, bergamot, lily, jasmine, rose, amber, lichen, musk, sandalwood, and vanilla.

Dior’s web copy could mislead a reader into wrongly thinking Dune smells like an Orange Julius at the Jersey Shore...

Few fragrances induce the instant love-it-or-hate-it response of Yves Saint Laurent Opium. Right now, you're probably either thinking, "Opium! I've had some of my most memorable nights wearing that perfume..." or "I can already feel the migraine coming on."

When Opium hit the market in 1977, women bought it by the gallon. Opium was so much more than a fragrance. It became an identity. Just as Chanel No. 5 showed its wearer as someone elegant and timeless (or at least trying to be elegant and timeless), the woman who wore Opium signaled that her life was rife with exoticism and secrets, even if she lived in a split level in the suburbs. The Yves Saint Laurent marketing machine fueled this image with print advertisements of mostly naked women surrounded by crimson and shadows.

Maybe the rush toward Opium was a reaction to stagflation and fuel rationing...

In the early nineties, I bought my one and only bottle of Fahrenheit by Christian Dior. I enjoyed it but when the bottle was empty I didn’t restock the fragrance; the world was full of scents I wanted to own and there was no time for repeats...