There are few fragrances as widely loved and ridiculed as Dior Sauvage. The woody, peppery scent, which swaggered onto the market in a midnight blue bottle back in 2015, sells at a rate of roughly one bottle every 30 seconds. That’s around 12 million bottles per year, making it the number one scent among all fragrances – men’s and women's combined. Yet, despite its intense appeal, Sauvage wearers have somehow garnered a reputation that, frankly, stinks.
“F***boy” and “red flag”: when influencers from the Gen Z and Millennial-focused lifestyle brand Eliza took to the streets of London with a hoodie spritzed with Sauvage and asked pedestrians to blind review the cologne for TikTok, the results were definitive. “It reminds me of a young questionable man,” one woman said warily. “I wouldn’t want to judge a man off of his perfume, but I’ve met too many who wear Dior Sauvage.”
“I would run,” another man added. “I don’t think I’d even be on this date in the first place.” Meanwhile, a second woman admitted the fragrance “gives me PTSD” because it smells like “every boyfriend” she’s ever had. Although she quite likes it, she knows she shouldn’t. The Calabrian bergamot and pepper top notes act as a primal warning to many to flee.
Notably, illicitencounters.com polled 2,000 women who had all been cheated on and found 25 per cent said the men who’d been unfaithful to them had all worn Dior Sauvage.
@_andreea.mads 🥴 dior sauvage man #sauvage #fyp #diorsauvage
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Before Sauvage in 2015, came Eau Sauvage in 1966, created by perfumer Edmond Roudnitska who wanted to appeal to career men who saw themselves as being refined and sophisticated at a time of carefree hippy freedom. “It really set itself out to be for the ‘classic man’,” says fragrance expert Aamna Lone. “The man who gets up and wears a suit and goes to work. If you walk around [London’s business hub] Farringdon now, you can still smell it,” she adds of the citrus-first fresh scent.
Powerful men today still associate themselves with the smell, to mixed reviews. Upon the release of Prince Harry’s tell-all memoir Spare, the world learned that King Charles would “slather the stuff on his cheeks, his neck, his shirt” and struggled to smell much else over his own waft.
Meanwhile, last Spring, French president Emmanuel Macron’s former aide claimed that the politician makes his presence known by dousing himself in “industrial amounts” of the cologne “at all hours of the day”. “It’s not subtle, but it’s fast,” they said. “It means: ‘watch out, here I come!’” Swindlers in the city, perhaps, plump for the same effect.
Then came 2015’s Sauvage, which was developed by François Demachy and aimed at younger men instead with a scent anchored in ambroxan and cedar to give it a warm, woody aroma. Véronique Courtois, chief executive officer of Parfums Christian Dior, has attributed its overwhelming success to its “vision of masculinity” that was “far away from all the stereotypes that existed on the market”. She told Women’s Wear Daily: “It encapsulated something bigger than us.”
The masculinity’s poster boy? Johnny Depp, who was accused of domestic abuse towards his former partner Amber Heard. Depp strongly denies the allegations. He unsuccessfully sued The Sun newspaper in London for describing him as a “wife beater”, after a judge concluded in 2020 that the description was “substantially true”. But he later sued Heard personally for describing herself as “representing domestic abuse”. In 2022, a Virginia jury found Heard's claim was false and defamed Depp, who they awarded $10m compensatory damages.
Dior reportedly renewed his contract in 2023 for a whopping $20m. “He’s always been free,” Courtois said. “Even though he was a super Hollywood star.” Or, perhaps, exactly because of it.
“Sauvage: a decade of a global phenomenon. Powerful, yet noble. Wild at heart,” LVMH Moët Hennessy celebrated on social media on the scent’s 10th anniversary in September, alongside a video of Depp in a poncho.
Number one fragrance in the world with these associations? It’s hard to understand who’d want to be in the club. “It’s an incredibly accessible luxury fragrance,” says Experimental Perfume Club’s Head of Experience, Noor Khan, of the 60ml bottle of Sauvage that bobs around the £65 mark.
“A lot of younger guys love it,” he explains. “They’re going through a phase where they want girls to be attracted to them and are going on nights out and want to smell their best. They want a fragrance that’s a bit powerful. These guys are outgoing and see themselves as an alpha male.”
While women have slammed Sauvage on social media, many TikToks on the topic are actually of women sneaking into department stores to get a quick fix regardless. “[When] you haven’t smelt a liar and a manipulator in a while,” one post reads. “Unfortunately, I am addicted to this smell. It smells soooo good to me,” another woman laments in the comments.
The reason for this? The ambroxane. “It’s a synthetic ingredient that’s highly addictive,” explains Khan of the strong musk-like smell. “Sometimes, brands will use ambroxane as a ‘pheromone’ fragrance because it’s so enticing.” Herein lies the pick-up artist’s superpower.
While humankind has evolved to understand this alluring scent to be more of a warning you’re about to have your heart broken than an invitation to go weak at the knees, there is another way it has begun to backfire: overconsumption. Not only is the whole world wearing it, but buyers are also spraying it on with increasing intensity and leaving innocent bystanders’ nostrils burning in the streets.
“This fragrance is not office-friendly,” Khan makes clear. “These guys have no idea that there’s a specific time of day they should be wearing Sauvage. They’ll put loads of it on in the morning and expect it to last all day. It should only be two spritzes on your pulse points: one behind each ear, or on each wrist, then one behind the ankles or knees.”
Plus, although Macron and men like him might be stinking the place out, they don’t experience it like those around them. “It’s part anosmia, which is where you get accustomed to a fragrance and can no longer smell it on yourself,” explains Khan. Dior is prepared for this, offering Sauvage in varying degrees of strength from the original eau de toilette up to the elixir. “You’re getting the same fragrance family, but it’s getting stronger each time,” says Khan. “It’s very much still there.” Don’t we know it.
#NotAllMen who wear Dior Sauvage are “toxic” or “red flags”. That being said, the ones who aren’t may still find those who smell it on them ending up running a mile, thanks to the connotations. Khan and Lone quickly recommend a whole host of alternative scents, including Blue Talisman by Ex Nihilo, By the Fireplace by Maison Margiela, Amoral by Pernoire and Penhaligon's Halfeti. The point is, more is out there.
Sauvage, like the potential situationships women on social media fear it’s spritzed on, has hypnotised us for over a decade. For better, or for worse. “There are a lot of fragrance snobs who think Sauvage is basic,” says Khan. “There’s a lot of backlash about it. But it’s a fragrance with mass appeal – that doesn’t happen by accident. Creating something that works on millions in different climates and cultures is very difficult. So, what they’ve done is fantastic.” That depends who you’re talking to.
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