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. The longer list of notes is intriguing, but it doesn’t communicate Dune’s clean, complex warmth. Although Dior designates Dune as an “oceanic floral,” don’t expect the ozone-melon of Issey Miyake Eau d’Issey or Calvin Klein Escape. I’ve also seen Dune referred to as an oriental, but to me it smells almost like an herbal-floral chypre — dry, woody, and mossy — especially in extrait.
In The Book of Perfumes, author John Oakes writes “Dune is something of an enigma…It’s certainly engendered much opinion, both for and against.” I understand that. Dune doesn’t remind me much of the ocean or even of sand. It’s singular, and it's hard to describe. Really, Dune is just Dune.
At first, Dune Eau de Toilette smells of lavender, anise, and waxy aldehydes. It’s clean, dry, and almost masculine. Within seconds it warms, and its delicate and strange floral heart emerges to balance its herbs and wood. Except for iris, I can’t pick out Dune’s individual flowers. They smell dried — not like potpourri, but like the desert. A hint of amber sweetens Dune, the tiniest touch of white musk keeps it clean (but not fresh), and moss — or is it a woody musk? — blurs the whole composition. In the end, Dune feels like a slightly scratchy, feather-weight mohair throw that has been stored in a wooden chest with lavender sachets and a chunk of asphalt. It is light but not radiant, and elegant but not fashionable. Dune in Parfum is mossier, muskier, and more dense than the Eau de Toilette.
Dune stays rich in its fusty way, but close to the skin, like having washed with a scented soap. Even the Eau de Toilette lasts a long time. A few spritzes in the morning will make it to dinner, no problem, but I’m not sure it suits night. In the evening, I’d top off Dune’s residue with a few lavender-amber drops of Jean Patou Moment Suprême, or even just a straight amber. The day after wearing Dune, a sweeter version of the fragrance infuses my sweater.
So, why is Dune resurfacing after all these years? The former head of Parfum Christian Dior, Maurice Roger, said Dune was created as an antithesis to the demanding fragrances of the 1980s. It was meant to be serene and calming after the broad-shouldered, hard-partying Dynasty years. Maybe we're looking for our own calm now, not from the excesses of greed, but from economic uncertainty. Or, maybe it's simply that Dune is still one of the most interesting mainstream fragrances on the market.
I’ve seen Christian Dior Dune Eau de Toilette at department stores, online, and even at the drugstore. The Extrait de Parfum no longer appears to be in production.
Angela, I am delighted that Dune is in the air and that more of people are talking about it. It is a gem! I also agree with you that “it’s singular, and it’s hard to describe. Really, Dune is just Dune.”
In a way, I am glad that Dior is not diluting Dune with flankers and so on, but I am disappointed that its amazing line of products (parfum, excellent creams) was discontinued.
I was so surprised to realize Dune has never had flankers. But it’s sad to see it doesn’t have other forms, too. I bet the body lotion was especially nice. I feel lucky to have a mini of the parfum.
What a refreshing concept. No flankers. No bad or unnecessary reformulations. No packaging extravaganzas, “with Swarovski crystals” for $1000..
I had to laugh at your comment. What is it with all those bling-encrusted bottles, anyway? Isn’t there enough useless stuff in the world?
Add this to the long list of “classics” that I haven’t yet smelled!
Can I hope to find a “good” bottle easily? It seems that so many well-loved scents from days-gone-by are reformulated and folks practically insist on smelling the original or nothing at all (which means I don’t sniff them). It sounds as if the current version is just as loved?
I know what you mean about reformulation fears, but I couldn’t smell much of a difference between the spritzing I did in Nordstrom last week and my older bottle of EdT. I think you’re smelling the new EdT.
That’s reassuring. I’ll keep my eye out for it at Nordies next time I’m at the mall.
BTW, I just noticed the tip of some guy’s head in the far right of the ad–kinda creepy the way it just hovers there!
It’s strange to try to figure out whose body is where. Weird.
I bought a bottle of Dune when I dropped my daughter off at college this past fall, as we were shopping in Ulta before moving her into the dorm. I also have an older supposedly pre-reformulation bottle, that came in a different box. While my nose isn’t as sharp as it once was, the differences between the two are extremely minimal to me. The older Dune seems just a tad bit deeper and ever so slightly warmer. But that’s it. Love them both. I keep wishing that I happen upon a bottle of extrait at a garage sale or second hand shop.
Keep looking–I think my parfum mini was only a dollar. I know they’re out there.
I’ll keep looking. You never know what you’ll find. Thanks for the review.
I don’t know about the rest of the world but Dune got a huge boost in the UK when it was reported that Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge had worn this as her signature scent for about ten years. In the same way that her wedding fragrance White Gardenia Petals by Illuminum suddenly sold out. You can’t buy publicity like that! But Dune is at least a much more interesting fragrance than the very blah WGP – if it introduces it to a new generation that’s great.
White Gardenia Petals didn’t move me at all, but Dune is a whole different creature. But that sure explains Dune’s sudden popularity!
Like Victoria, I’m also glad to see Dune belatedly getting its due: it’s “tipped” lately, to use the Gladwellian terminology. (Wow, that sounds ominous, being close to Orwellian…) I got a bottle for my birthday and have been wearing it all year – with it’s contrasting clarity and richness, it was particularly lovely in the spring and fall. It’s nice that there’s at least one Dior that the company hasn’t utterly ruined in the last 12 months…
I know! I’m sure Demachy would like to spank me for saying it, but so many of the Diors have gone down the toilet as far as I’m concerned. I’m grateful Dune hasn’t been monkeyed with too much–or if it has, it’s been well done.
Hi Angela – I bought Dune edt and (amazing) body lotion at the end of a long semester abroad in Europe in 1993. I was in love – it was leagues away from Chanel Coco and YSL Paris that I had been wearing. It was so sensual – even the bottle feels smooth and sensual in the hand. I didn’t know anything about reading notes then, I just really liked it. None of my friends wore it at the time, so it was really unique. I currently have a small decant of vintage Dune. It brings back huge memories for me of that good and awful time of my life then (the early 20s). I like smelling it now, but I don’t think I could ever wear it again. It’s hard for me to think about it analytically now because it’s smell has just fused into one personal smell for me. It’s nice to see how influential it is all these years later.
It’s truly the sign of a loved fragrance when its smell is confused in your mind with your personal smell and memories of a particular time.
I like the bottle a lot, too. It’s intuitively obvious yet unusual at the same time.
one of my top-ten. (shhh! let’s not tell anyone else about it’s magic)
Dune seems to be a sleeper. I think you’re safe for the moment…
Angela,
Nice review. Thank You.
I had a “Dune Period” where I was hunting down splash bottles of EDT and EDP. I purchased several on Ebay and there was a significant variability in the scent. Some of the bottles had more of the wilted nauseating florals in the top and middle notes than others. And that was regardless of the concentration. It could very well be differences in exposure to light and the way they had been stored all this time.
I purchased the Dune Parfum in 15 mL (beautiful bottle!) and its top notes were almost gone but the base notes had the “dark chocolate” notes that some mention about Dune. I had not detected that note in any vintage EDT or EDP.
I then purchased very recently an (obviously reformulated) EDT in Duty Free and sure enough, it has been “cleaned” and is a rather simpler clean vanilla floral now by comparison to those vintage bottles from the 90’s.
But what I really wanted to add today was that Dune indeed had one flanker!
And it was way before flankers became the norm within mainstream perfume houses.
Dune’s flanker was called “Dune Sun” and was launched in 1996.
I have never experienced it. Good luck finding one!
Eric
Thank you for your rundown on the various editions of Dune you’ve encountered. That’s good information! It’s distressing to hear that a version of Dune was a simple vanilla floral–after all, that’s what we have Vanilla Fields for. If it helps, I didn’t get that impression from some Dune I sampled last week, so I’ll cross my fingers that it was a blip in reformulations.
Thank you, too, for the news about Dune Sun. I guess it was just too good to be true that Dune never had flankers.
Very nice review. I remember sneaking some of my mom’s Dune on days when I wanted something special in high school. I didn’t know anything about notes nor understand quality, but there was just something so unique about it. I still can’t quite pinpoint what it is that I love so much; It’s just one of those fragrances that has that “it factor” for me.
A few months ago I visited my parents and found the mini edt that came free with my mom’s purchase back in 1993. It smelled exactly as I remembered it. When I compared it with a tester at Macy’s, the new one seemed to have a different opening (more chemically), but the middle and dry down were spot on. I have a slight preference for the original, but the reformulation was good enough that I am just happy it is still on the market.
You have a longstanding relationship with Dune! Does your mother still wear it?
I adore Dune. I’m not often in the mood for it but when I am, nothing else will do- if that makes sense. I first smelled it when I was about 20 and kept thinking about it and then finally went and bought a bottle. I’ve had one in my cupboard ever since!
That makes a lot of sense to me. I rarely wear Dune, either, but that doesn’t mean I don’t crave it sometimes.
I love Dune! I bought a bottle about two years ago, and it really is like nothing else. Oddly, it only smells good on me in the summer — it really blooms and gets resinous in the heat, whereas in the winter it smells kind of dry and austere.
I can see Dune being especially nice in the summer. It’s not bad year round, really.
That’s funny I have the opposite reaction. Dune is an old favorite but I find it unbearably heavy in the summer.
You two could share one bottle of Dune, then, and mail it back and forth!
LOL, funny idea 🙂
I really like Dune, own a big bottle which I have had for over 5 years, but I don’t often wear it. Your post and Victoria’s post have convinced me that I have to wear it more often. I would love to find a small bottle of the Extrait, but never seem to be able to find it.
I don’t often wear mine either, but I like having it around for when the mood strikes.
I stumbled over my extrait in an antiques mall by chance. I hope you find some, too!
Adding to the love: I’ve had an unfinished review of Dune sitting around since last summer — I wore it two weeks in a row to give myself a break from testing. I know what prompted my curiosity to revisit it — the fact that SL De Profundis somewhat reminded me of it. To add to the Dune revival I should finish and post that write-up!
I’d love to read your review, and I’m sure I’m not alone in that!
Would happily read another review of a top twenty Perfume (for me at least). Enjoyed Victoria’s and Angela’s. De Profundis did not make me think of Dune though.
Thanks for adding your encouragement!
A sample of Dune was a gift from a friend when I was in France in 1993. I loved it immediately and still wear it occasionally. It has deep memories attached too, especially of an island off the coast of Normandy where the air is so salty and fresh. If I could find the parfum or bath products, I’d buy them.
Your associations with Dune sound so nice! With any luck you’ll find the parfum somewhere.
I saw this just the other day and am going to purchase this I think at the drugstore. I’m so excited. I remember one of the writers wearing it last week or close to that and she remarked at how nice it was. I cant wait. I knew I was right. I didn’t buy it in the 80’s because I was young at best it seemed classic old like Chanel#5, which I have just bought and why did I like the EDT sooo much better. Doesn’t even smell like the same perfume in comparison to the EDP. I would not have bought that. Sephora has alot ofChanel and Dior offerings. Just noticed that I got a J’Adore set for Christmas I may regift this, should I? It was given 5* on THE LIST where there are only about 20-30.
It sounds like you’ve been trying lots of perfume lately. That’s so much fun! I’d say, trust your nose. No one can tell you what you like, only you.
Time for Dune
Yep!
This was the first feminine perfume I fell in love for. My English teacher used to wear it; she was so beautiful… Now, I’m confused…
It sounds like a good kind of confusion, though.
LOL! Moore!
As a teacher AND a perfumista, I often wonder what little whiffs of inspiration (or abhorrence!) I may be awakening in my students!
Then use Dune to go to school that I assure you’ll always be in the best memories of your students! 😉 And the best: will always be there with the same age!
Angela, you’ve completely nailed the overall effect and appeal of Dune. It’s not quite this, it’s not quite that, it evokes the beach without a synthetic “aquatic” accord, it’s dense and yet airy, mossy yet linen-smooth and sweet, beige but with a shimmer running through it. It really doesn’t smell like any other perfume, nor does it fit neatly into a typical category. It just smells like Dune. I’ve dug Dune since my first sniff, but I always manage to convince myself that I can’t pull it off. Then I’ll read a fabulous review like yours, or absentmindedly spray a tester in the store, and my lust reawakens. It’s a zombie lemming.
lol–zombie lemming.
I know–it’s funny!
Really, you think you can’t pull it off? To me, Dune seems pretty easy to wear. I bet it smells great on you!
I have two bottles of Dune, which I bought soon after it came out. It is lovely, though I rarely turn to it. Just the other day, Los Angeles was experiencing a winter-heat-wave, I read the Victoria’s review and ended up wearing it on an 80 degree January day. Very nice and stayed with me all day. I regret that several years ago, before I fell down the rabbit hole, in a cleaning frenzy, I tossed the lovely talc powder.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on Ralph Lauren Safari which I believe came out around the same time and which gets no love at all on the blogs.
Wow that’s warm for January. I’m glad Dune was there for you, though.
Is Safari still in production? I’ll see if I can hunt some down. Thanks for the tip!
Safari has been discontinued *sniff*
But I would be happy to send you some!
witchypurple@yahoo.co.uk
I loved Safari!
I remember the bottle–pretty–but that’s all.
How generous! I’ll get in touch with you.
And now I need to investigate Dune!
I keep hearing that Safari is no longer in production (which accounts for the two backup bottles I have), but I often see it at online retailers. Love the juice and the gorgeous bottle.
It’s nice to know it’s still around for those who love it. I know I’ve smelled it, but I barely remember it.
Safari for women was DELICIOUS.
The Safari for men turn into rancid cheese on my skin. DARN!
Cheese. Ugh! Nice to eat, not so nice as perfume.
Hi, Angela. Argh! Yet another review where I want to upend the box of sample vials onto the bedspread and go a-hunting. One more reason I need to get those darn things sorted alphabetically into the system I actually already have set up.
This definitely intrigues me, not least because of the mention above of De Profundis, which I love. Your reviews [almost] never fail to inspire me to seek something out, to want to smell it and think about your vivid descriptions. Thanks.
Oh, and ain’t nothin’ wrong with Orange Julius down the shore (said by someone who grew up a half hour away from it). 😉
I’d love to know what you think of it once you’ve found it!
I need to do some serious organizing, too. My samples are heaped in plastic shoeboxes.
I know a person wearing Dune almost every day since 1995, and refusing to wear another fragrance. It happens that I lived in her house after she moved. For 7 years I couldn’t get rid of that smell, it was impregnated in the furniture. I think it is the strongest and most persistent perfume ever created in modern times. Besides, I hate it!
The ghost of Dune!
Good review, thank you. I wonder if it is something to do with the feelings of insecurity which are prevalent today and which were also around in 1991/2/3 after the eighties which links us to Dune all over again. I wore it back then for about a year or two and loved it. You sum it up well by saying “it is Dune”. I enjoyed its association with sandy beaches without it particularly smelling of either. Gorgeous bottle. I then went on to wear Ralph Lauren Safari for a bit!
Maybe that’s it–Dune is calming, and times are insecure.
Dune will always hold a place in my heart. I tried it for the first time in Amsterdam, on the airport, at 5 am, just before taking a flight for a job interview. I was exhausted, having had to wake up very early to be at the airport at such an ungodly hour, and nervy with anticipation of the coming interview. Luckily the company was nice enough to fly me first class and after a wonderful breakfast I dozed off, not having registered the few sprays of Dune applied hastily at the only fragrance counter that was open. When I woke up, we were about to land. The plane was descending, and waves of hot sand, a small hint of slightly burned caramel and gusts of salty sea air wafted at me from my suit lapels and wrists, and for a moment I was a child again, at the beach with my grandmother, waking up from an afternoon nap under a makeshift tent. I could almost hear the tent edges flapping in the wind, feel the small hard sand waves under the beach towel, hear the seagulls. Our sea shore is shallow, you can walk ankle-deep for ever, so the waves don’t crash, merely tumble gently in a fragrant foam. I could feel all of this and for a second I was transported. That was the Dune effect.
Upon my return I bought a 100 ml bottle, craving the soothing salty warmth again, but eventually, for no reason I can explain, it lost all appeal for me and I ended up giving the half full bottle to a friend. There may be occasions when I’d wear it if I still had it, but they only have the largest size here. Dune is far too classy not to come back in style, so here’s to Dune and its mirage!
Thank you for making me remember, Angela! 😀
In 1993 I went by a perfume store here in Buenos Aires.
It was spring, and still chilly, but after just a sniff I saw the mirage too.
Well this is MY mirage…
Hot sand dunes by the atlantic… Mid afternoon heat. The smell of the sea, the brush, the sweet caramel of a food vendor* and a waft of the heady mix from one of the tents, a woman wearing the most expensive sun tan lotion and a citrus cologne.
*(we have “barquilleros” in mar del plata, they sell a sweet cookie confection, light and crunchy called barquillos, of course they have vanilla in them)
Terrific story, too, and very evocative! (Besides that, now I’m hungry.)
What a great story, and how beautifully told! Somehow, I can understand why you gave away the Dune. I feel like that sometimes, too, that Dune doesn’t really suit me, and someone else would appreciate it more. Then all of the sudden I want to wear it again.
I love Dune. Classy, slim, elegant and to the point. KInd of an odd choice on a man, but I quite like it, and often get compliments when I wear it. Feeling a little down in the dumps before bedtime? This is a marvelous quick spritz before reading a little something as you slip into dreamland.
Oh, I think it would be terrific on a man. Thank you for your recommendation to try it as a bedtime perfume, too. You’re right–it’s meditative, almost.
Dune was my younger sister’s first signature scent (she moved on to Coco Mlle, and now is wearing a lavender-frankincense EO blend that she made herself), and I was Absolutely Forbidden to Wear It. EV-er. I don’t remember what it smelled like, except that I think I enjoyed smelling it on her. I must have said something to the effect that she certainly smelled lovely, and what was she wearing? and got the THIS IS MINE HANDS OFF DON’T TOUCH message back. (Whoa. It’s not like *I* stole *her* stuff when we were growing up…)
I was just commenting to someone the other day that I really should go sniff Dune.
I can see how all of your sister’s fragrances relate to Dune, somehow. (And if you’re ever feeling generous, I wonder if she’d like Encens et Lavande?) It would be hard to sample Dune, though, without thinking of your sister, I’d imagine.
Am I the only one wearing a generous application of Dune today, thanks to Angela?
I’d wear it if I had it!
I hope you’re enjoying it!
Is Dune 20?! Oh my! It is NOT an oceanic floral. What nonsense. Angela, you pointed out the lavender in Dune a while back, something I had never picked up on (I should have). Also, I believe in her uPdated review Tania Sanchez mentioned a fruity floral opening. I couldn’t believe it but a spritz and it was there, but very briefly. A friend in college wore Dune and after smelling it on her I had to buy it. It is warm yet fresh. It’s wonderful! Dune is often my traveling companion.
I agree–“oceanic floral” doesn’t work for me, either. Neither does “beachy.” Maybe they were thinking of the Mediterranean and the lavender fields of Grasse?
I ran to get my mini Dune EDT to revisit the scent. Perhaps it has gone a little off. No doubt this is a perfume to be reckoned with. It originally did not appeal to me because of my disappointment that it is, in fact, not oceanic. Upon trying a fresh tester years later, I have a new respect for it. I’ve seen it described as an oriental aquatic!
The same experience happened with L de Lolita. A fresh tester gave me a much truer feel for it. Again I was disappointed that this exceptionally beautiful bottle did not contain an aquatic. Too much vanilla!
Frederic Malle’s Un Lys is supposed to evoke the dunes on the beach too but it also is very heavy and lasts forever on the skin.
Conclusion: while none of the three above fragrances appeal to me, they are certainly well done.
What launch did not disappoint? Giorgio’s Ocean Dream. Now that was me!
It can be a real bummer when a fragrance doesn’t match its branding. I’ve never smelled Ocean Dream–I bet it’s long gone, though. Hopefully you snagged a bottle!
“Dune” is so serene and unique! It’s this sheer, peppery layer of crumbly resin and salt air, with a spray of dried grasses. It’s clean and benzoin-sterile, but skin-musky — the musk is windswept. It doesn’t quite fit into any genre but it feels so special. It really does remind me of dunes, of sunny places and smooth, crumbly minerals. It’s such an original!
Really, “such an original” is the best description yet. It’s so hard to describe, but you nailed its spirit!
Dune could have a great comeback now. The problem is that most of the places where it is available, the testers are old and rancid. Either the sources for the top notes have changed or the top notes are prone to rancidity. When I try Dune at the perfume counter, I do not smell the same Dune that I wore in 1991. However, after the top notes have worn away, the scent is the same as it was in ’91. I hope that the House of Dior recognizes this problem so that this perfume can make the resurgence that it is capable of.
Dior seems to be reformulating a lot of its fragrances these days, and Dune may well have fallen victim. I wouldn’t be surprised at all.
Dune remains my “go-to” scent. It is in my gym bag so that every other day, as I go to the gym and shower there, I wear it. My bottle is a recent purchase from Macy’s, and while I don’t remember what the old one smells like, I think the recent rendition (which I think this one is) is close to the original (aka 1991), though I have no way of verifying my claim.
My bottle still smells of the ocean and the salt, which later dries to floral/musk. On me it smells leathery more than anything else. It is a very complicated scent. While Chanel’s allure might be “inspired” by it, Allure does not come close in complexity to Dune.
Dune is truly an original fragrance. It’s so nice to know there’s something fascinating and unusual that you don’t have to special order from an online store.
For some reason Dune reminds me of an older sister/aunt of Eau de Merveilles. I can’t believe it’s been around for 20 years and I’ve never smelled it! Received a sample from a generous swapper… it’s lovely!
Dune is one of those fragrances that seems so ahead of its time. I’m glad you’ve discovered it!
I first smelled Dune appx two years ago and it immediately reminded me of the ocean on breezy sunny day – – did I mention that I live in Barbados. Dune ranks as one of my choicest scents and I hope that it won’t ever be discontinued!
I agree with you–I also hope it stays on the market!