Perfume Review: Christian Dior Diorissimo

By Beth Finally, finally it is becoming spring! This time of year you will find me in the garden singing Beatles songs with my hands happily buried in the dirt,talking to my plants! I buy flats of flowers way too early, plant huge pots of herbs and take as many long walks in the woods as I can. I just love that smell, when the last of the snow is gone and the air is fresh and green. I’m a big believer in seasonal fragrance, certain times of the year will always live powerfully in my imagination and never disappoint me. I fall in love with everything and everyone in the spring, I kick up my heels, I play, I dance and make love with abandon. I fantasize about Beltane fires, I dream of picnics in the park with my friends! I make May wine! My husband accuses me of being an incurable romantic and I’m quite sure that he’s right about that! But doesn’t spring do that to everyone? To my husbands delight, the arrival of spring means that I also begin to wear as little as possible, with the exception of Diorissimo, a fragrance by the House of Dior that hardly needs any introduction at all, especially this time of year! It is my favorite springtime perfume, an absolute classic and for me once April cometh nothing else will do. Of all of the lily of the valley fragrances, I believe that Diorissimo is truly the most beautiful and I don’t live well without it! Sometimes in the dead of winter, I’ll spray a bit of Diorissimo just to remember! I now need to bite my lip, blush a bit and admit that I tried this fragrance for the very first time at age 16 when I discovered that it was Mick Jagger's favorite. I spent many a day in front of the mirror styling my hair, lining my eyes like Marianne Faithful and trying to become as mod as possible. Before Diorissimo I had been in love with Coty’s Muguet du Bois, but once I bought my first bottle of Diorissimo I was smitten. Alas, even though I spent many a summer following the Rolling Stones , Mick never discovered that I was alive, but my husband who also lives large in my imagination (and even larger in real life!) did and he adores the fragrance! Every time I spray myself with Diorissimo, he buries his head in my hair and sighs. My son told me once that if he ever found a girl that smelled like it that he would marry her on the spot. Diorissimo may appear innocent, but it casts quite a spell! Diorissimo is Muguet du Bois on steroids, a true Lily of the Valley fragrance that seems the only one of it's kind to really capture the essence of that beautiful little flower that appears for a fleeting few weeks in May. I’m really a purist when it comes to Muguet fragrances. I really don’t understand most of the perfumes that seem to fall into that category, to me they have nothing in common with that incredible scent. Lily of the Valley is such a lovely flower and every spring I bury my head in my bunches of it. I am lucky enough to have a gorgeous patch of it that I have loved since childhood, that lives in a quiet corner in my fathers garden. It is such a fleeting moment of time, that brief two week period in May when they bloom, so very Shakespearean. Diorissimo captures that moment for me perfectly. It is innocent yet very sexy, modern and at the same time very traditional, a truly iconic fragrance. It is very dressy, totally classic with black crepe and pearls, yet completely playful with hemp and linen. It is restrained yet sensual by nature and totally chic. Diorissimo is my Chanel. Although I adore wearing it for elegant dinners, I love to wear Diorissimo when I go riding and it smells even better mixed with the scents of saddle and the wild ramps of the springtime forest. Yes I know, it’s all part of my Lady Godiva fantasy, but I can hardly help myself! At this point, you can still find Diorissimo online, but the only store that I can find it in is Saks Fifth Avenue. If you’ve never tried it please do. You will love it, I promise. For the record, this is one fragrance that I enjoy the Eau de Toilette version better than the Parfum. I’m not sure why, but it could have to do with the vast quantities of it that I spray!