DIOR HOMME INTENSE 2007-2013 : 9 BATCHES BlindTest.

(UPDATE: in this article you will read the "years 2007-2013" review: if you are interested in the "year 2014" updated review, then go HERE )

Dior Homme Intense is not a perfume, it's a rollercoaster ride. After the mid-year 2011 reformulation, we saw a U-turn back to origins, during year 2013. A pleasant news, since in 2013 it appeared exactly as in 2007. That's all right? Unfortunately not.
Suddenly, during last months of 2013, the scent appeared to be reformulated again, with a change in color, less intense, less "ambery", and almost "transparent". Another change in formula?
Let's go and see what happened.
(about batch numbers, you can read here: "how to recognize Christian Dior perfumes")
For this blind test we got nine different batches: in some case samples are bottles already used during previous test  ( here ), plus new bottles, and a 1ml sample, mostly provided by generous friends.

Here is the complete list of "players" (batch number):
7H01
8V01
9Y02
0V01
2N01
2U01 ( it's a 1ml sample)
3V01
3X02
3Y01

A very early bottle produced in 2007 (left, batch 7H01),
confronting a year 2008 bottle.
First bottles missed the word "vaporisateur" on the front side.

Four "Vintage" bottles.
All bottles sport the same "doors design" on the front of the box.

a small sample batched 2U01 = July 2012

        

Confronting old and new design:

9Y02 = November 2009

3V01 = August 2013

8V01 = August 2008
2N01 = January 2012

Dior Homme Intense (batch 3X02, on left),
confronting with a DH bottle (on right)
note the color, very light and pale

DH (left) batch 3R01, DHI (right) batch 3X02

again, note the color, very light and pale

DHI on left, DH on right

DHI latest bottle available, 3Y01= November 2013

RESULTS: 

Batches from 2007 to 2010 are really identical each other, with a crisp and beautiful vanilla-iris-chocolate accord, along with the best DHI tradition.

Batches 2N01 and 2U01 are different from others: the chocolate seems less solid, so the iris take the advantage. Thes batches appears more Iris-centered. It's a paradox: if you love mainly the Iris note, you should seek year 2012 batches. Rarely I found a strongest Iris note. However, it's still DHI, although reformulated: no doubt. It could be considered almost a DHI "flanker".

Year 2013:  this is the pivotal point. The strangest thing is that.... all three batches smell the same, and all three are pretty similar, if not identical, to the "Vintage" ones. Nonetheless, if you look at the juice of the last two batches (3X02 and 3Y01), it's appear almost "transparent".  Apparently, another reformulation occurred during last months of year 2013, but it seems not to have changed -luckily- the smell. Until now. 

CONCLUSION:

All "year 2013" DHI batches are solid. If you like DHI, buy any year 2013 batch: juice color apart, you will be not disappointed. 

But the question is : how long? It seems Dior is going on a rollercoaster ride, in an attempt to preserve DHI integrity.

I would add a personal anecdote: some time ago, I smelled two old bottles of "Eau Sauvage" by Christian Dior, dated, respectively, mid Seventies and Nineties.Well, smell was identical. During good, old times -after an almost 15 years span- perfumes were still identical. Of course, reformulations occurred in old ages, too; but perfumes remained the same.

Now, we have to test batches every 3-4 months to verify "reformulations". It's pure absurdity.

Two years ago DHI formula changed; today DHI color changes ...and tomorrow?

I'm glad to see Dior to have maintained intact DHI until now, but, I repeat: how long?