Desire Extreme
Dunhill (2017)

Dunhill Desire Extreme borders on disgusting for me. It smells nothing like Desire, and almost like an experiment gone wrong. The opening smells quite floral to me, but behind it, a nauseating nutty quality, like a mix of amber and nutmeg. Sort of reminds me of Halston Amber, but a bad version of it. There's no part of this scent that I liked, and I had to get it off my skin asap.

Smells a bit like Polo Red mixed with MB Homme Exceptionnel. It's dry, sweet, fruity. Has a nice, soft, leather base but the star note for me is the saffron from start to finish. It's a pleasant saffron and really compliments the sweetness.

I cannot complain about the performance. The projection is adequate without being loud and it lasts and evolves throughout most of the day.

Surprisingly heavy on clary sage and cypress, presented is a persistent herbal middle that defies ordinary hand washing and showering. Persistent, and completely unlike the red candy effect I enjoyed briefly up front.

Strikes me as a kind of strange reverse, but it's not unpleasant. If you want more bold RED scent at good prices, spring for a bottle of Bogart Story Red. The aforementioned Ralph Lauren reds are more in the candy red realm, which frankly, I was disappointed to see in such low representation here.

Still, the herbal drydown mellows into a fairly pleasant, weirdly plasticky base. Fun for a few hours. Warrants a good scrub after that.

An amazing turbo-charge of the original Dunhill Desire! Just as Ralph Lauren took things to the "extreme" by intensifying its Polo Red scent one step higher, Dunhill Desire Extreme achieves a near-parallel result here!

The dna of the original Desire Red is here. Desire Extreme is thick, pungent, dry and powdery; the original Red has a much more "wet" sensation, but with quite the similar tanginess.

I see the red orange, saffron (a Polo Red staple note), and leather in the base cling to each other synergistically creating a heavy fruity punch, rounded out subtly by the sage and cypress deep within. Patchouli's inherent sweet nature paints the picture of this one having coffee or chocolate, though neither are in the mix.

I can't help but think that I'm wearing Polo Red Intense / Extreme when trying out Desire Extreme. Perceptually, this flanker is in between the Polo flankers...like a Polo Red Intense-and-a-half or three-quarters-Polo Red Extreme.

At any rate, I happen to have full bottles of both Polo Red Intense and Extreme, as well as a decant of Polo Red Rush. Time will tell if I believe that getting Dunhill Desire Extreme would make sense in light of what I already own of those other two. Nonetheless, Desire Extreme is AWESOME and has attitude that I really love!!