This post contains affiliate links. Product provided by my spouse :)
This is my first ever fragrance review. If you aren’t interested in the backstory, skip to the name of the fragrance in bold.
I have a complicated relationship with fragrance. When I was young, my mom and grandma had a couple of pretty but almost empty bottles that they treasured. I even got to keep one as a special “gift” - it was clear glass and quite small. I loved it. Grandma also had a wooden carved vial of Bulgarian rose oil. Well, it held oil at some point... By the time I was around, only a faint smell remained.
In high school, I had a lonely bottle of Britney Spears Fantasy. I don’t even remember using it much. In college, I acquired a small vial of VS Bombshell - I loved it.
By the time I bought a house and went to grad school in 2011, I dove head first into wellness culture, EWG, “toxins”, and fear mongering. I was using face cream made of tallow scented with lavender essential oil and making my own deodorant. Anything with any hint of synthetic fragrance (or joy) was donated, discarded, and avoided. After several years of that, I stopped being able to tolerate strong scents altogether, to the point that my then-boyfriend and now-husband had to switch his personal care items for something more “natural” (aka more expensive and worse smelling).
Fast forward a lot of years, and getting into skincare reviews involved learning some science - following chemistry nerds, dermatologists, and cosmetic chemists. EWG is no longer an authority in my life, and while I still enjoy many “natural” items, I see through most of the greenwashing. Instead of diving head first into wellness blogs and pseudo health gurus, I was plunged into the joys (and stresses) of adulthood. And because life is hard, I hold onto every shred of joy, which includes nice smelling things.
Versace Dylan Blue Pour Femme
I got a sample of this perfume in a rogue Sephora order and fell in love immediately. It’s been years since I had any real fragrance - I was smitten! Without doing any further research or even checking out more samples, I decided that I wanted a full size Versace Dylan Blue Pour Femme for the closest holiday. That happened to be my birthday. And because my husband pays a lot of attention to specific details, he got me… a gift card :) to Sephora. Which is fine, because I promptly spent it on the 1.7oz bottle of Dylan Blue.
This is a floral fragrance promising a unique, captivating experience. “Dylan Blue pour femme is my tribute to femininity. So I created a strong, sensuous yet refined fragrance for a woman who knows her own power." - Donatella Versace.
The fragrance comes in several sizes and is sold at Sephora, Ulta, Amazon, Nordstrom, Saks, Bloomingdale’s, Selfridges, and Lookfantastic.
Top notes:
Granny Smith apple, Black Currant, Clover, Forget me not and Shiso
Middle notes:
Peach, Petalia, Rose Hip, Rose and Jasmine
Base notes:
Musk, White Woods, Styrax and Patchouli
My impressions
Let’s just say that this was a big learning experience. Did I even know that fragrances have opening and base notes? No. Did I know that scents change when they dry down? No. Did I know that body chemistry affects scents? Nah.
My sample was a tiny bottle with a stopper, which required dabbing to apply. Once I got the full size, I realized that the scent was a lot more potent than I thought. If I sprayed Dylan Blue Pour Femme as recommended by fragrance influencers - on the pulse points - I got quickly overwhelmed by the scent. Instead, I spritz it in my hair. Just 1-2 sprays is enough and definitely very noticeable. On me, it lasts for several hours.
I still really enjoy the scent. It’s feminine but not overly sweet, floral but not cliche. I even redeemed my Sephora points for a tiny rollerball version of this a month ago. But again, I like the smell of the bottle / initial whiff more than the actual full on spray.
This summer, I went through a period of fragrance hyperfixation / retail therapy, but took my time and got samples or travel sizes, read reviews and watched videos, and tried to think things through. I don’t consider this bottle of Versace a waste, and I will finish it, but I would not get a full size of it again. There are a few fragrances that I like a lot more and that still smell interesting and not overly girly. But Versace will always hold a special place in my heart. And I love the bottle - not a spec of pink anywhere!
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Versace Dylan Blue Pour Femme ingredients: Alcohol Denat. (Sd Alcohol 39-C), Fragrance, Water, Benzyl Salicylate, Limonene, Citronellol, Hydroxycitronellal, Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone, Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate, Linalool, Benzyl Benzoate, Hexyl Cinnamal, Ethylhexyl Salicylate, Butyl Methoxydibenzoylmethane, Geraniol, Citral, Benzyl Alcohol, Farnesol, Cinnamyl Alcohol.