A Critical Review of Dior’s New Release “Sauvage Elixir”
This past week, Christian Dior released Sauvage Elixir into the Canadian market. Back on July 11th, we posted a photo on our Instagram breaking the news about the new release by Dior. As everyone and their grandmother know about Sauvage and its mystical essence, this release was drummed up to be something special.
The release drew curiosity from consumers as employees in stores were telling two different stories. From some, we heard that Elixir is a tremendous scent and was blended to be worn on its own. Whilst others were told that Elixir was meant to be layered with existing Sauvages.
For the benefit of the viewer, I tried both of these methods. But first, the basics.
Sauvage Elixir’s note breakdown has been updated since the news broke. The top contains Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Cardamom and Grapefruit. In the middle is Lavender, and the bottom consists of Sandalwood, Licorice, Amber, Patchouli and Haitian Vetiver.
The bottle is currently only available in a 60ml size and retails for $155 USD. Elixir’s bottle design is short and stout, with a blue lacquered finish and a cap that mirrors previous Sauvage releases.
After listening to all the hype that was produced by this release, I was excited about something that was supposed to be remarkable. What I received was a fragrance that seemed to derive from Axe Fresh with a small dose of a woodsy accord. In essence, this release is very generic.
Lavender and Grapefruit work harmoniously with the dirtier notes of Sandalwood, Patchouli and Vetiver. The overall aroma of the scent was very disappointing as it was simply fresh and clean.
As it is a flanker of arguably the most popular scent from the last five years, we as consumers expected more. By no means is the scent poor as Dior released a scent that will be crowd-pleasing for a long time to come! I expected more unique features from a scent that was highly touted for such a prolonged period of time.
However, the narrative changes once layered with Sauvage EDT. Once utilized together, the best aspects of each scent seem to merge and project an aroma that is simply superior to its peers.
The freshness and floral accord of the EDT fuse with the dense woodsy notes in order to create the shower gel scent to end all. After about 14 hours, the combination lingered on my hand with projection concluding at around the three-hour mark.
I was in disbelief to see a scent that was so disappointing transform into something so exceptional. In my best description, the fragrance oozes sex appeal with its use of fresh citrus’ and neat florals. The back end is held up by the Ambroxan and Cedar from the EDT, whilst consolidating with Sandalwood.
Dior Sauvage Elixir is worth buying but, I would only recommend it if you are looking to only have one blue fragrance in your collection or you intend to layer it with a previous version of Sauvage. For fragrance collectors, Elixir is redundant to Bleu de Chanel and other impeccable blue scents. The scent on its own is simply elementary and unsatisfying.
