D'Orsay Le Dandy

d'Orday Le Dandy EdT

Is it an oldie? Is a new designer scent from 2003? Who knows? Le Dandy seems difficult to place as the benchmark fragrance for dandies at the turn of the century. Dandy is certainly a gourmand fragrance with an opening of bergamot and Oriental spices like mace, nutmeg, cardammom, a touch of ginger, and a dash of cinnamon to warm its composure followed by bourbon, vanilla, tonka, musk, and a sprinkling of powdery florals such as carnation and geranium. Le Dandy is certainly a nice winter scent, but it is spicy, heavy, and sweet. It has all the body of a 2000s something designer fragrance with all the dressings of an Edwardian classic. Le Dandy is a good experience for experienced noses, but heed my advice, experienced as it is a delight, but probably not that wearable.

Le Dandy by D'Orsay was introduced in 1922, and recreated in 1998. I’m not sure how much relation the “recreation” bears to the 1922 original. This review is of the modern version.

A retailer describes Le Dandy thusly “top notes of tobacco flower and whisky, the heart is spicy with ginger and the base notes are woody and balsamic.”

Le Dandy is a hard one to describe. It is sweet. If I was going with the alcohol theme I would call it a brandy, with a hint of rose. Whereas some characterize Le Dandy as dark, the ginger and sweet notes make it seem somewhat light to me. It smells edible, or drinkable.

I find it too sweet for office wear, but is good for the evening. The sweetness is ok once in a while, but not being a sweet guy it would become tiresome for me if worn two days in a row. Longevity is good. As it dries down some of the initial sweetness moderates and the woody basenotes start to come forth, and are quite pleasing.

I find Le Dandy an interesting occasional variation, but I do not wear it frequently.

Here is an old advertisement, from 1928, that seems to capture some of the spirit of this scent. If anyone would care to translate the text of this old add in the discussion thread I’d be much obliged.

The discussion thread for this review is here. If you don't want to rate the product, please post in the discussion thread so as not to skew the review scores.