Dior Spice Blend Eau de Parfum has a splash opening full of aromatic, sparkling spices with dark rum and fresh ginger, but it shifts quickly into a soft, almost blurry mix of lightly spiced rum.
Spice Blend Notes
It is described as combining “the most potent and the freshest spices with the tangy personality of rum extract.” Here are the notes:
- top notes: rum, ginger
- heart notes: pink pepper, cinnamon, black pepper, cloves, nutmeg, coriander
- base notes: bay leaf, woodsy notes
What does Spice Blend Smell Like?
It opened with green cardamom, pink pepper, and ginger; aromatic, sparkling, and spiced before dark rum flowed through, dampening the ginger’s bite. The clove, cinnamon, and nutmeg were the next spices to join the blend, while cardamom lingered in the background. There were minor shifts apparent until about 20 minutes in when the composition sweetened significantly warmed through with winter spices.
After an hour, Spice Blend was mostly soft, boozy rum with moderate sweetness and a hint of cinnamon and clove with blurry woods and what seemed like some diaphanous floral notes. From there, the journey was quite linear with little change until the drydown, which was a waft of vanillic sweetness and barely-there woodiness (maybe sandalwood?).
I found this fragrance more difficult to describe because it was softer and more nebulous during most of its phases, so it had vibes of spice and woodiness but little that felt concrete.
Longevity
It lasted for two hours until it was a skin-scent and about eight hours before it was quite difficult to detect on my skin. The sillage was light, while the projection was moderate for the first half hour but were very close to my skin after that.
Personal Notes
These are more subjective feelings based on what I like (or don’t like) in a perfume as well as considering the fragrance against other perfumes I own and love.
I’m not entirely sure where the florals came from based on the listed notes, but this went far more floral and less spiced on me than anticipated! Even the rum note that I was looking forward to was nowhere as nuanced and deep as I’ve found rum often is (even if not for long!) in fragrances. So no, not quite for me!
Testing Methodology
For testing, I used 1/3 of a 0.7ml sample vial dabbed to the underside and topside of my wrist area on my left arm. I used an unscented moisturizer prior to applying the scent as this is also my swatching arm (aka, incredibly parched at any given moment) as I found scent did not hold well here otherwise.
I received my press sample in January 2022; fragrances are known to be reformulated over their lifetime, so be mindful of when a review was made, e.g. a review from 2010 may not reflect what the same-named perfume smells like in 2022.
Availability
Spice Blend is available in multiple sizes, which are listed below.
- 250ml for $350
- 125ml for $260
- 40ml for $125
If possible, I highly recommend trying a fragrance before purchasing a full bottle because fragrance can wear differently just because of skin chemistry. Skin chemistry can effect not just the longevity of a fragrance but also what notes are prominent or hidden.
Spice Blend Samples
We recommend the following retailers for purchasing decanted samples (typically 0.7ml to 2ml in size). This is a fuller list, so individual availability may depend on inventory.