Dior Hypnotic Poison 25th Anniversary Review – Annick Menardo; 1998

Thirteen years after the release of the original Poison (and four years after the appearance of its first flanker, Tendre Poison) the folks at Dior added a third ridged bottle to their catalogue in the form of Hypnotic Poison, composed by Annick Menardo. Her crimson-hued creation celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, which is why I decided to place it in the spotlight in a recent episode of Love At First Scent. Here’s a link: Dior Hypnotic Poison review.

Without direct access to Dior’s secret database of batch codes and production dates, it’s difficult to work out which bottles contain Menardo’s composition and which ones bear the fingerprints of Francois Demachy, the ex-in-house perfumer who went through an extended phase of amending the formulae of several older fragrances. That caveat aside, it’s pleasing to see that a fairly recent-ish bottle of the eau de toilette presents Menardo’s concept pretty much intact: a seductively toxic fruity-vanilla, the sweetness of which is balanced out by a striking almond note to create an effect that almost comes across as restrained in today’s context of hyper-calorific concoctions. Think: evil queen in Snow White dressed in a red so glamorous and so distracting, it conceals every hint of her true intentions. Sadly, the eau de parfum is a bit of a mess (clashing notes with no clear sense of where they’re going or what they’re trying to say) but at least we still have the edt. And hopefully it’ll continue to be with us 25 years from now.

Persolaise

[Dior Hypnotic Poison edt and edp reviews based on samples obtained by me.]

—
If you’ve enjoyed this post, please consider supporting my work
by ‘buying me a coffee’ using the panel below.
Thanks very much indeed.

—