Dior Joy Intense Review – François Demachy; 2019

It’s September, which means it’s time for all the high-profile brands to roll out the big guns in time for our Christmas pennies. Lancôme have entered the fray with Idôle: a lacklustre affair unlikely to inspire worshipful devotion in serious scentusiasts. Chanel have added the Gabrielle Essence flanker to their range. Hermès are placing their hopes on Twilly Eau Poivrée (yet to be tried by yours truly). Guerlain are giving us a curiously uninvolving Mon Guerlain Intense. Issey Miyake have come up with the well-made, simplistically pleasant L’Eau D’Issey Rose & Rose. But so far, the one that’s proved to be a genuine, smile-inducing surprise is the subject of today’s review: Dior Joy Intense. 

My thoughts on the ‘original’ Dior Joy were made plain on this site last year. And I’ve placed that word in inverted commas because many people are still smarting from what they see as Dior’s ill-judged appropriation of the name Joy. (Some of you will be aware that Lancôme faced similar disdain this summer in relation to Lubin and the use of Idôle.) But putting that contentious issue aside for a few minutes, I can confidently declare this new incarnation a success.

The explosive, over-musky base of the first version has been toned down, thank goodness. The rose in the heart feels much fleshier and more convincing. And crucially, the citrus opening sparkles with delight, shimmering all the way through the scent’s development, and flirting with the hints of chantilly naughtiness that appear now and then. In fact, I almost wonder if this isn’t what the first Dior Joy was meant to have been before it was market-tested into a safety net.

My one serious niggle is with the word ‘Intense’. I realise brands feel the need to sharpen the customer-pulling power of their products’ names by insisting that everything is ‘extreme’ or ‘forte’ or ‘noir’. But in this case, ‘Intense’ simply doesn’t convince. The way I read it, the perfume isn’t an expression of joy as ecstasy: a trippy, high-speed dash of happiness, shot through with the pace and colours of Madonna’s Ray Of Light video. It’s something quite different: much slower, far more relaxed, far more interested in the sensuality of a body entering a languorous relationship with the space around itself. 

If anything, it’s the perfume equivalent of the joy that comes from sinking into a hot, bubble-filled bath, where the water has been scented with a few drops of heady essential oils. It’s the joy of luxury. And maybe that would have been a more accurate name: Dior Joy Luxe. But, moniker aside, this is a welcome release that deserves to do well and shows that the mainstream can – and still does – pull off some unexpected treats now and then.

[Review of Dior Joy Intense edp based on a sample provided by Dior in 2019.]

Persolaise

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