I Love Dior
Christian Dior (2002)

Wide open windows, the sun beams are shining inside, creating a sparkly like affect. Fowers in vases and in the window sills, a boudoir full of cosmetics, a bathroom full of luxury scented soaps, and a kitchenette full of fresh fruits, all the while the fresh Spring air is wafting around all these lovely scents, creating Love.

Very French scent. These perfumes were made before the boom of all edible gourmand perfumes, where quality goes worse. These perfumes are still from those times where quality is in the price. I Love Dior opens with a fresh, floral-fruity, juicy wave, then comes the lily-rose duet (the citrus note still lingers around), and I guess this stage gives that classic impression. By the way- there's a light, light bitter note, which makes all this fruit-flower waltz more serious. The drydown gets warmer, slightly powdery due to the musk. It is a well dressed, well versed woman who could very possibly bear a title of Lady. After all, this is Dior.

I Love Dior is my latest $12 Ebay purchase. I haven't received it yet, but the bottle, the name, the zeitgeist give me more than enough to start writing.

In 2003, French Fries became “Freedom Fries” when a US member of Congress proposed excising France from the American consciousness for the perceived betrayal of opposing the invasion of Iraq. I think there was “Freedom Toast” as well.

8260699.i_love_diorI imagine that the Dior perfume, released in 2002, was in the works before 9/11, but I don't know when the name, image, marketing came into play. The bottle is the generic bottle that Dior were using for Diorella, Diorissimo, Dioressence at the time. LVMH would eventually use the bottle as a bridge from the classics to… whatever perfumes like Dior Me, Dior Me Not and Dior Star and Forever and Ever Dior were. The I Love Dior box and bottle sported a grainy close-up of denim and a decal with, “I (Heart) Dior.”

I suppose I Heart Dior was one of the perfumes hoping to bandwagon on the success of YSL Baby Doll's nouveau feminism. Still, it's hard not to see I Heart Dior as a dumbed down version of j'Adore (translation: I heart) for Americans. j'Adore was enormously popular and accessible and I Heart Dior reads as an unnecessary dilution of an already least-common denominator.

Given the timing of its release, I Heart Dior turned out to be Dior's prequel to Freedom Fries.

from scenthurdle.com

I'll start by saying that I tried this fragrance in the store today and I'm not a 100% certain on whether or not the tester has gone bad. The juice inside was orange coloured.

I can sense alot of citrusy and orange blossom notes in this fragrance. They are in some ways strong, but not overpowering. I Love Dior is also quite soapy and fresh with slight hints of powder every now and then.

Seeming that this fragrance has been discontinued now for almost 6 years, I have a funny feeling that the town in which I found this perfume is just trying to rid themselves of old stock. Australian stores are funny like that sometimes. Fragrances aren't usually a widely bought item.

The scent reminds me somewhat of Truth for women by Calvin Klein, (I will be retesting Truth to make sure that also wasn't an off tester bottle).

From what I can gather, I Love Dior was a unique, refreshing, clean and delightful floral fragrance. It is a pity that Dior makes so many limited editions only to discontinue them 12 months later