Amouage Dia Pour Femme: revisted

Earlier this year I tried Dia and scoffed it off. It simply wasn't the right moment for me to try Dia. There are right days and wrong days to try perfumes. I think it was back in the spring when I tried Dia and I had also purchased Amouage Gold which completely took my attention away from Dia. If you have Gold, you'll know that trying both of these fragrances on the same day was a bad idea. Gold is opulence bar none. Gold is grand, extravagant, old school perfumery at it's best. As much as I love potent old school fragrances, Gold wasn't for me either. It was just too much.

Yesterday the gorgeous Dia was staring at me. I do think perfumes call to me on occasion. I have been having a field day with big aldehydic fragrances this fall and somewhere in the dark recesses of my mind I recalled that Dia was an aldedydic little number. So I wore Dia yesterday. And today, too. Suddenly Dia is perfection. Does this ever happen to you? You try something once, think nothing of it, then try it again and you love it? I feel I owe Dia an apology. She's been sitting on my shelf neglected all this time. Well, here's my apology.

Amouage Dia Pour Femme was created by Jean-Claude Ellena, did you know that? Odd isn't it? JCE is such a devout minimalist that I would never have associated him with anything Amouage. The last time JCE created anything old school was very nearly back in his childhood when he created VC&A's First. But here's the clincher, this is where it was obvious that Amouage wanted JCE for the creation of Dia. Dia is meant to be a softer, sparser, more demure and less heady daytime equivalent to the evening bombshell known as Amouage Gold. Well, well. Jean-Claude Ellena is pretty darn good at making sparse, demure and minimalist fragrances so he seemed the proper choice to me. But please keep in mind, Dia is minimalist IN COMPARISON to Gold. Dia is absolutely nothing like JCE's Hermes creations, it is still resolutely old school, classic and perhaps on the potent side of the aisle for some.

Most have compared Dia with Chanel No. 5. This is the starting point for any floral-aldehyde - compare it with Chanel No. 5 and this gives the peeps an understanding of what the fragrance smells like. So, there you have it, think of Chanel No. 5, but add more dewy florals in the heart and less soap. Dia will seem soapy and enormously aldehydic at first but once it dries down the luscious florals emerge. I think the most prominent floral for me is rose. But this is an abstract rose - not a realistic one - think of YSL Paris as an example of an abstract rose. Dia is not dark, remember, it's meant to be a daytime fragrance, so this rose is perhaps yellow or light pink. All the florals in Dia are bright, happy and cheerful. There's the sort of generic smell of expensive cosmetics in Dia. If you were to walk into a well-off ladies bathroom, one with marble counters, floors and sinks, a chaise lounge and a gigantic vase of fresh flowers, go directly to her cosmetics closet and inhale - you'll find this smell in Dia. Beyond the florals, well into the base, Dia does have a spicy, woody aroma. As the hours pass the aldehydic blast lessens and the fragrance becomes a clean bright floral over soft spices.

Dia is truly lovely, and Dia, if you're still reading, I'm very sorry I underestimated you earlier this year. Your sister Gold gets all the attention, but you are the better one for me.

Notes:
top - fig, cyclamen, bergamot, tarragon, sage and violet leaves
heart - peach blossom, rose oil, orange flower, peony and orris
base - white musk, incense, vanilla, heliotrope, cedarwood, sandalwood and Guaiac wood.

Dia is expensive like all Amouage fragrances. Initially I bristled at the prices but now I think Amouage perfumes are high quality and worth it if you decide you love them. Amouage fragrances always have excellent longevity and sillage. So a bottle will last you a lifetime.