Dior *Sausage*: A New (?) Fragrance.

I don't know where to start with Sauvage.

let's start with this:

For unknown reasons, I really wanted to like it. There's something about most Dior's mainstream masculines that's never *too banal* or *too cheap* and, on top of that, the association between the words Dior and Sauvage must have played some mental tricks on me and made me think about Roudnitska's classic Eau Sauvage. Ok, we all know this is not an Eau Sauvage flanker and as a new, massively advertised, delivery from Dior, I thought I couldn't have skipped it.

For starters, this is not as bad as I expected. It's not even as bad as a rushed test might lead to think….but it's bad anyway in the end.

I won't go through a proper note breakdown because there's really not much to mention here. The opening it's the most generic peppery-citrus combo you could expect from a whatever modern woody-citrus fragrance. Slightly aromatic, zingy and metallic.The first hour in, I was really this close to dismiss it but then a smooth mineral amber base (ambroxan) broke in together with vetiver and things slightly changed. The fragrance plays in the same league as other *depersonalizing*, post-disinfectant fragrances such as Bleu de Chanel, Guerlain's L'Homme Ideal and before these, D&G Light Blue Pour Homme and L'Eau D'Issey but it takes the distance from the aforementioned perfumes by skipping that certain synth-y stickiness and / or loud volume that made all of them completely annoying to me. The Dior has a certain *raison d'être* provided by an elegant restraint and a class that is completely missing in most similar fragrances available on the market. It wears smooth and velvety with nice dark-ish facets in the base. It's extremely simple but, at least, they got right one of the two accords from which it is composed.

Do I like it? Let's put it this way: It doesn't completely suck. In the end, while I surely believe Sauvage is by far the best fragrance in this post Bleu De Chanel-phase, I still wonder if we really needed a post Bleu De Chanel phase. It feels deprived of any emotional aspect but not in a creative kind of way. It's unemotional without that certain sparkle that makes the difference between the words *aseptic* and  *aloof*. It feels devoided. It's carb free, gluten free, peanut free, allergens free…it's too politically correct. Ok, it's well done but for me it's not enough and, in the end, I guess it's just another fragrance for people who actually don't like fragrances. 

Last but not least, I'm not the biggest fan of the Dior Homme saga but compared to this, they're completely on another level. Like completely.

Rating: 5.5-6/10