Diorella Dior for women

Just received a bottle of 2004 vintage won at auction, in pristine condition inside and out. :)

I LOVE this perfume and can hardly wait for summer to wear it out. I see it is listed as a floral chypre, but it is a lot more fruity on my skin than floral, up to the last.

I get citrus, mostly lemon at the top, with some basil in the background. Soon after it's all about melon and peach, and bordering on over-ripe melon and peach at that. After about another 45 minutes I can smell honeysuckle. I'm not sure if I can parse out the base yet. It disappears on me after about 2 hours, or perhaps my sense of smell when it comes to this perfume is no good. But it's great while it lasts!

It reminds me of visiting my gramma in the Texas panhandle when I was very young. She had a very old house with honeysuckle growing all over the porch, and there was often melon on the table for breakfast.

A gorgeous, and for me, evocative perfume!

6 hours later - this perfume is so much richer than what I've described. There a note that comes and fades quickly right after I've sprayed it on. It's not the citrus, but it's incredible. I wish I had the knowledge and words to express what I'm smelling.

Just lovely :)

Very very similar to First by Van Cleef & Arpels.
First is more soapy, Diorella is more mossy.

I had bought EDT Diorella in Paris in 1991. A bottle with silver-edged blue cup. It was my favorite (along with Turbulescense) at that time. Actually I had only these two, but I had chosen them from many others in the store. In 1998 I have bought in New York a huge bottle of EDT Diorella with white cup. When I brought it home it was almost the same but different. More transparent, more basil and more watered down. I like the first one much more. Actually I would say they are two different fragarances, while they have the same notes. The first one always draws compliments from men, so bright and flowery, just fantastic. I never met this again anywhere.

Damn this stuff for the way it grew on me. I'm somewhat skeptical of the inescapable perfumista obsession with vintage versions of reformulated or discontinued fragrances. While I do believe that many fragrances are changed for the worse, I question whether this is the perfume version of "it's really obscure, you probably never heard of it." It allows people to indulge in that part of ourselves that gets old and hates change: it was so much better in the old days, before you came along.

But. In spite of how much I have started to like this, I suspect this may be one of the formulas that truly is broken. It seems weaker than it should be and requires a heavy-handed application to appreciate. I am trying to resist the urge to gamble on an expensive bottle from sketchy online retailers. I also suspect I will cave in around January or February.

This is a masterpiece if you like your perfumes green and dry with tones of citrus. I'm amazed it's for women because it could work equally well for both sexes.

In some respects it resembles "Miss Dior", but only in the broadest aspects. This has more guts than the prim Miss Dior, almost converging on YSL's priceless "Y" creation. Only, the latter has more darkness and bitterness whereas Diorella appears more light-hearted at the outset before going on to develop into a serious scent which seems to be very thoughtfully composed. Most definitely a top mainstay of my current perfume wardrobe and for those of you who don't know this scent, I can strongly recommend ordering a small sample.

It’s so easy to liken Diorella to other perfumes because it has so many points of obvious comparison: fruity chypres, citrus chypres, green chypres, Roudnitska classics, dirty jasmines, 1970s liberated perfumes. Sometimes I feel that relying on comparison is a cop-out. As if I can’t be creative enough on my own to capture what I mean. In this case, though, the use of comparison simply points to how rich a composition Diorella is, and the fact that it is the standard-bearer in the above categories.

OK. So a few of the comparisons:
Where Eau Sauvage is crisp, starched and shimmering, Diorella is tantalizing and sultry. There is also a cologne-like aspect to Diorella (esp. as in Eau d’Hermès), but if a cologne is refreshing and tonic, Diorella is like a lot of cologne after a few drinks. Diorella smells like Pour Monsieur sprayed on a sweaty body. Ms. Diorella makes the uptight Miss Chanel 19 see red every time they meet. (And, don’t ask me why, but this is the one that captures it for me.) Chanel Cristalle has an infrequently-used, symmetrical smile like a strand of pearls with canines. Diorella shows that Lauren Hutton, gap-toothed smile with every frequent laugh.

Diorella combines the best of all the categories that I love. Green and dry. Sinister fruit. Gorgeous color against mossy darkness. Bitterness with flavor. There are more well-struck balances in this perfume than you might find in another house’s entire line. The striking set of accords set in motion at the start remains in place from its almost tipsy-drunk start through its tart-green heart to its mossy-woody base. Diorella slides back-and-forth between its fruity, mossy, floral and woody tendencies, but remains specific and identifiable at all times. (Caveat. Perfumes change all the time, and chypres are endangered. The Diorella edt I know was bought in 2005.)

We perfume fans (freaks) often list favorites, the one we’d take to prison or a deserted island, the one we’d grab from a burning house. I’ve listed Rabanne’s Metal in my theoretical top 5. I’ve said Givenchy’s Insensé is my favorite in my collection. Both true, but if I could have only one perfume, Diorella would be my easy choice.

Another memory of my mom. She wore it and loved it, and loves it nowadays too. Beautiful perfume. Love the beautiful bergamot with cyphre undertone, floral and ladylike. Somehow suitable with slightly vintage clothing.

Dior's brilliant chypre that will never be forgotten. The trend of the 1970s was green, mossy chypre. This seemed to be the flagship of the trend. This was not mere perfume, yet fine art. Freedom within the industry allowed such treasures to be produced.

It gets attention and by todays standards, could cause a riot. Its now lost and very expensive to collectors-needless to say, very worth it!

I smelled it when I was about 10, and it was soooo strong! A shame that perfumes today don't last as long...

really weird that nobody mentioned the cumin at the top which is really really accentuated. After we go to indol, and a very mossy chypre base, as a la mode at the time it was created. full of emotions, beautiful creation.

wonderfull fresh fragrance. When smelled it for the first time when I was young, I connected it with the organza textile. A transparent smell. Years after, it reminded me the Cristalle by Chanel.

I just try this one today and like it, it's very feminine and similat to Eau sauvage, but I find Eau savage better I can't explain.

This was my first grownup perfume, and I found it after a clerk in a "bath "store let me smell "Eau Savage". It's as close as you can get in a Women's scent, and I am ready to find a bottle of the Savage to wear now, (no longer worrying that it's a "man's scent" who cares, I LOVE it!) What they have in common, (other than the obvious soft citrus top, is a kind of understated classiness that has pretty much died out with Veal Oscar, Surf and Turf, and "quiet dining" in dark places. Concentrate on those middle notes and compare them to newer florals and you will see what I mean. The old standards, jasmine, rose,sandle, are still there, but they are skillfully all held back, and become one signature...a sachet that you wish you could maybe get one closer whif of!(or a plate you wish you could lick!)There is nothing cheap or common about it. Now days it would just be a WASH of white musk, vanilla,water chestnut, etc......non offensive, but also..not very sophisticated. Both are wearable anytime, but there is a universe of difference in quality if you pay attention to detail. And I think that is what this era of scents had :great Attention to DETAIL!
They come from a time before everything had to sport a lable, (to be "special") and "designer" meant it was custom made for YOU, not an overpriced ,mass produced mediocre item sporting a "sell out"famous name.. LOL! Diorella was a classy number, and I wonder if we will ever get this quality back in even semiaffordable offerings??I think it's GONE, sisters....(except maybe in Paris). sigh.....

My elixir of youth. Actually my first fragrance, at 16, and still love it like crazy. Forever green, fresh and real, nothing like the juices on the marked today.

"WHO LIKES THIS, ALSO LIKES...Miss Dior"? Not true, at least not for me. Miss Dior is exactly the opposite, like old and stuffy. Kind of empty chest smell.

very very relacxeng parfum
remind my of damp body sponge
i adoooort

Diorella is an old love story for me.I loved this perfume since 1980 and I still love it now.Fresh and beautiful and unic ...

Diorella is the scent of God .. and God is a woman, remember

When I tried this, it wasn't quite what I was expecting. Most of my favorites are chypres and I wanted to explore the idea of a summery chypre. Diorella is light and wearable while having the complexity and interest of a 70's classic. The dominant note is lemon. I do get the slightly overripe melon thing, along with some florals over a dry base. I can also say that I think I know what Tania Sanchez was talking about with the "Vietnamese beef salad" comment. It doesn't literally taste like beef salad, but it has an odd richness that contrasts with the light citrus. If I were to compare this to some kind of edible thing, I imagine a cocktail with bourbon, lemonade and Midori.

This fragrance ended up really growing on me. I can't think of anything like it. Yes Cristalle is similar but that melon richness of Diorella is what really grabs me. Will probably invest in a FB.

A favorite of mine for summer. Living in Texas, the heat gets out of control in July and August. Most of the fragrances I wear the rest of the year simply do not stand up against that heat. Diorella, along with Chanel's Cristalle and #19 are among the few that work during those months for me.

Diorella is bitter lemons, basil and bergamot to start, ending with vetiver and oakmoss. Those are the notes I get from it, anyway. I pick up none of the middle floral notes at all.

Wearing this is like stepping back into the summers of the 70's.

An amazing feminine fragrance also perfect for males. Woody citrus at their best. Diorella is awesome and should be tried by any fragrances lover in order to put some good basis on their personal olfactory culture. No need to spend many words on this kind of perfumes , instead we should hand down history to always preserve this marvellous creations from olbivion.

Rating: 10/10

A spectacular chypre. But as always, chypres just smell like soap to me.

After having a less than thrilling introduction to Diorella, I scrolled through Fragrantica's list of Chypre Florals and discovered exactly how many I've tried (a LOT) and counted how many I'm in love with (none). I think the only group that has a worse record with me is Floral Aldehydes... Anyway, Diorella smelled like a combination of pine trees and body odor to my nose through the top and heart (my hubby thought it smelled good) and then it dried down to a lot of oak moss. I like the base, but there are other perfumes that take me to a destination of oakmoss without the the pit stop in b.o. city. I'm willing to try Diorella again, since my hubby thought he was smelling something good. I just don't think it will be happening anytime soon.

Leaving my distinctly personal impressions aside, I would say that Diorella seems both very prim and wildly bohemian.

Diorella to me is a more complex version of Eau Sauvage, and definitely outshine others green fragrances like Chanel 19, Cristalle, Bvlgari Eau Parfumee, Ô de Lancôme and Ivoire in every possible way.

Diorella place more emphasis on Melon, Peach, Green notes and Jazmin. Eau Savage is more sharp and citric.

It is grassy and fresh and summery but also incredibly classy and French smelling. If you don't like Green/lemony fragrances don't even try this.

Definitely a class act. One of the best chypres around. It smelled good then and it smells good now. I think I may just re-visit the Diorella girl.

Classic chypre and high quality composition.
Fresh, for spontaneous person full of life and self confidence.
Diorella is like invigorate elixir, honeysuckle and oakmoss are in perfect balance with vetiver.
Pure and clean harmony - grand parfum in simple bottle.

I saw a bottle of this in a perfume shop today and something told me that I should try it. I LOVE it!!! It's packaged like the picture above. The lady behind the counter had the nerve to say it had an "old lady smell". Whatever. Had I been as bold and courageous in my teens as I am now, I would NEVER have worn the likes of Acqua di Gio, Calvin Klein Eternity, Tommy for Men or even Polo Sport. I actually had a sniff-a-thon today and I prefer this over Acqua di Parma's Colonia Assoluta.... now THAT should say it all for what I think of Diorella. Needless to say, this will be in my collection within a week. When the bottle runs out, I'll be ordering the newer one from the Les Creations de Monsieur collection...

belleive it or not,I found a body line from it(bath gel-bowder-and body lotion) it was left from long time ago in the shop,and the last peices!!!

This is a highly unique and wonderful quality fragrance which has outlived the rest of the flogged to death old Dior line. Slightly edible in a savoury way, herbaceous and green. The peach and florals keep it warm and firmly in the feminine camp in my view, bravo Roudnitska!

One of the most unique scents around. To me, it dries down to a most unusual dry, herbal scent. Lovely, but for a very sophisticated or mature person. Somehow an "intelligent woman" scent. None of this sugar stuff here.

Doirella is a bit sharp and bitter on me but mellows out with dry down. I particularly like to spray a little Bvlari veil of jasmine on it. Then I like this combination very much. It's interesting to try this with different scents.

'UNDECIDED'

I wont sooo much to like this but my nose cant get past the delicate 'blue vein cheese smell'

update:
I was wrong, its not blue cheese, its crayola wax crayons and though strange I like it.

Burn your bra and wear DIORELLA. Unless you happen to be 36C, in which case I highly recommend that you keep the bra and wear DIORELLA. In any case, whatever your beliefs about appropriate displays of women's liberation might be, I encourage all of you, men and women alike, to wear DIORELLA!

This 1970 creation opens aromatically and entirely unisex. Lots of lemon, lots of basil, lots of other greenness as well. No one can convince me that this is not every bit as suited for a man as a woman. Refreshing, clean, invigorating, DIORELLA lies at the extreme end of the chypre spectrum (at the other end of which are found lots of shadows and fog...) and is a true gender-bender fragrance, eventually winding up in a subtle, lightly floralized vetiver drydown, which could be interpreted as feminine, but decidedly not in the pink lipstick, vanilla sugar, bouquet of roses way.

I love DIORELLA, and have added this to my wish list, although I'll be buying the edp--if such exists--since the edt seems too shortlived to me.

Zvoncica review almost brought me to tears, what a refreshing review. I am curious to try this fragrance, it has all the notes thst I love.

After months spent in Fragrantica I still have no clue how to define cyphre floral to another person. So if any of you friends, members or guests stumble upon Diorella here is how she looks...

Diorella is history teacher in girls school in London back in 1960`s. Dressed in grey tweed suit, with the skirt covering her knees and blue-white emblem on her jacket. Her black shoes have round toes and small heels. She walks fast and quiet, so quiet you can’t hear her until she is right behind you. Heavy book is in her hand while walking through school corridors, and her fingers are long and skinny. No nail polish on them. She hides her look behind decent silver glasses. Her hair is brown perfectly twisted to the back of her head. Collar on her shirt is white as snow and tightly pressed with iron. Smells on lime, bitter green lime. When she comes closer I notice the bitterness is not strong, more like unusual. Reminds me on soap my grandmother had while I was a child. Home made soap, with glycerin, beeswax and water in which lemon peel was boiled. Not strong, yet there. As she passes by me, nods her head and wishes me good afternoon.

If you do meet her, anytime, anywhere, be patient and gentle to her.

Too bad I don't see this one anymore...reminds me of my youth when i used to wear it and just LOVED it.

Diorella is a very classic scent, you'd be hard pressed to find anything of this calibre in modern fragrances.

Typical of most chypres, Diorella opens with a citrusy and refreshing burst of Sicilian lemon and bergamot. Adding to the citrus is an interesting blend of green notes and basil which gives this fragrance a herbaceous like quality.

Despite this rather sharp and sour opening, Diorella is extremely feminine and balanced.

The top notes transcend delicately into the heart which is mostly subtle, green and slightly sweet honeysuckle, rose, jasmine and peach. After a while the heart takes on a clean and soapy quality which is a little similar to Miss Dior.

Rounding off this scent is the drydown which is rich, animalistic and woodsy. A masterpiece in my opinion.

Upon your first encounter with this fragrance it may not be love at first sniff, but like so many other Dior fragrances it will certainly grow on you.

Of all the perfumes I've worn, and there have been many, Diorella has always been my one of my favorites When I first started wearing it, you couldn't even buy it in the U.S. and I had to order it from France, but it was worth every penny because it was so different and I didn't smell myself coming and going.

Classy - a real fragrance that exudes elegance, totally different from modern perfume, not even a little coquettish, or sweet.All moderate to perfection, even the initial sharpness is softened; on my first fresh and floral, slightly green. The signature Dior feeling at any time, in fact even today when someone mentioned to me the first Dior fragrance association was - Diorella!

(I won an award? Where?) I'm reading a wonderful and hilarious book called WORD FUGITIVES by Barbara Waldraff. It's a collection of made - up words for situations, thoughts, things, and people that never had names but clearly need them. For example: what do you call going through the dirty clothes hamper for a reasonably clean and wearable item of apparel to finish up your outfit? Why, DRY GLEANING, of course. I invented one of my own: what do you call the foam that goes over the rim of a glass of beer or soda, making a mess? A BEVERLANCHE, naturally. Anyway, there needs to be a name for the anosmia induced by overly solicitous and/or nosy sales people who hover over you when your'e holding a smelling strip under your nose and trying to evaluate a perfume. I have a word for that type of sales associate, anyway: SMELLICOPTER. Well, I've always wanted to like Diorella, but the goddamn smellicopters at Saks wouldn't leave me alone to find out. I've always wanted to like it because Luca Turin raves about it, and I truly LIKE the guy; I feel a kinship with intellectually restless, hyperactive nonconformists. That's a shock, huh? Come to think of it, there should be a word for those kind of people, too. I've got it: SPLINTELLECTUALS! Well, now I have a bottle of Diorella, thanks to a nice little discount stor I discovered on Sunday, and I can truly say that it is everything that he says it is. What makes Dirella great? The same thing that makes Chanel No. 5 great: Titanic Abstraction. Diorella does for fruit and citrus what Chanel No. 5 does for flowers: creates an entirely NEW and original fragrance; it's fruity, but not sweet; citrusy, but not acidic or oily. These perfumes do for scent what Willem de Kooning did for the human figure: take it to the realm of abstraction while keeping an identifiable shape. Great creativity in perfumery consists, in part, of this: creating entirely NEW smells. Sure, there are amazing scents that I love that smell LIKE things; incenses and gourmands, naturally. (I think the most amazing thing a gifted perfumer could do is create the scent of a completely new and unidentifiable food that's also wearable...wouldn't that be amazing?) But I think that the level of true ART is reached when you can't find words or analogies, when you can't say "this smells like X" and your only recourse is to say "this smells like No.5 or Shalimar or Mitsouko" This smells like Diorella.

I adore the Green Chypre family, and this is the reference. The bottle I am using, from the early 90s, has an incredible amount of oakmoss. Lots of citrus in the top, too. The floral heart is mild and serves more to round out the compostion than make a statement. High quality ingredients, and Dior is not skimpy with them. I am happy to see that it has not undergone a massive reform to make it more marketable to the 21st century set. Let's see how it survives the new EU "oakmoss regs" Wears very well due to the almost oily base (I note this also in older versions of Ma Griffe). Classic.

b.n. Definitely the grandmother of "Wrappings" by Clinique, but not as dry.

I adore the Green Chypre family, and this is the reference. The bottle I am using, from the early 90s, has an incredible amount of oakmoss. Lots of citrus in the top, too. The floral heart is mild and serves more to round out the compostion than make a statement. High quality ingredient, and Dior is not skimpy with them. I am happy to see that it has not undergone a massive reform to make it more marketable to the 21st century set. Wears very well due to the almost oily base (I note this also in older versions of Ma Griffe). Classic.

b.n. Definitely the grandmother of "Wrappings" by Clinique, but not as dry.

I don't know what it is about these types of perfumes...floral-chypre. I wanted so much to like this especially because of the lemon and lime but I just couldn't take it. I even waited a few hours to see if the scent died down to a smoother floral scent I could deal with and it didn't. This one is going back!

I must admit it took me a long time to fall for diorella maybe because i also had le parfum de therese by F.Malle and comparing the two i felt more inclined to wear the second. But in reality Diorella is the archetypic classic and in my own opinion deliciously unisex.It starts sweet but cool at the same time, and it becomes even more juicy, with a green springy mildly fruity rose heart. Definitely the pinnacle of floral fruity abstraction. No note is easy to indetify but this give a mesmerizing effect of sunshine early in an Easter April day.As for the drydown it heads to more masculine territory with a strange but attractive mildew note.A poem wriiten in the past, defining the future!

This is where Dior always wins. Diorella remains one of the most exquisitely structured fragrances ever created. The heart is a wonderful honeysuckle, neither sickly nor overpowering, due to soft clean top notes and a base that is warm and subtle, deepening the presence of the flower without interfering with it.

It's strange how few perfumes seem to work well with the signature of honeysuckle, perhaps because it could easily overtake everything, but this perfume shows Roudnitska's skill; If anyone wonders what is meant by a well harmonised perfume, Diorella is the perfect example. I do not use the word 'classic' often nor do I automatically treat famous perfumes with respect (too often a case of 'The Emperor's new clothes' )but to my mind, Diorella remains one of the most delicate and memorable perfumes ever.

I just bought this for my girlfriends mother as a bd gift. I'm told she's be wearing it for over 30 years just thought I would check some reviews.

One of the best perfumes ever. Roudnitska said it was his best, proudest creation and I'm inclined to agree with him. So French, so fresh and vibrant! Beware of the recent reformulation. It destroyed much of Diorella's magic.

Green, citrus, flowers - honeysuckle is the main note - and definitely mossy. This is a flower perfume that is not romantic, but would appeal more to a chic businesswoman. With this, she will be noticed, she will be powerful, she will be classy.
I understand the F_A_ description of "mono-scent" in the way that the perfume changes very little from the top notes to the base notes, however do not be fooled, it does not lack in complexity!

Classical and beautiful-the most beautiful bergamot in the perfume world!
Suitable for warmer seasons, in winter you might feel cold wearing it.
Unfortunately, it's hard to find it in the stores, especially in my country.

It's a classic...when I smell this I remember my mum getting ready to go out to some special dinner...very intense and very femminine

I cant resist it, it is a dream, special in a greeny way

Strepitosa fragranza anni '70. Fresca, vivace, effervescente. Un classico per ogni momento della giornata. Ci sento il caprifoglio e il mughetto... ma quello che mi piace di piu' sono le note iniziali di limone e basilico... mettono il buon umore!!!