FAHRENHEIT: a 10-batches REVIEW

FAHRENHEIT by Christian Dior, is one of those scents that needs no introduction, being immensely popular worldwide, and still in production (since 1988). 
Fahrenheit was probably the first "conceptual" scent: this means the whole structure is turning around the feeling of something "burning". 
It happened due to a violet-leather accord, resulting in a sort of "gasoline" or "petroleum" top notes (the beginning of fire), concluding with a sort of "burnt woods smell" drydown (the ending of fire). Even the bottle reminds of a fire in the night. with a bottom colored in red-yellow, slowly changing in black in the upper part.
This "conceptual" view was, in fact, one of the most appreciate, discussed and controversial aspects at the time of launch.

"Woods Burning"
(thanks to Cornellpines.blogspot.com)

Obviously reformulations occurred in a such complex scent, during a 25-years span.
So, in this review, we collected our Fahrenheit bottles and did a comparative work. 
How did Fahrenheit change during the years? 
Follow us and discover it!
(For the "Fahrenheit visual guide", bottle-by-bottle, year-by-year, see HERE)


We are considering only the "classic" Fahrenheit perfume (during decades a lot of "flankers" appeared, Fahrenheit Absolute, Fahrenheit Summer, Fahrenheit Aqua, etc... but we are not considering them now)
We collected a total of 10 different EDT bottles during years 1993-2014

Here are the samples used:

Year 1993

Year 1995

Year 1996

                         Year 2001 (a 2ml sample)

Year 2004

Year 2007

Year 2011

Year 2012

Year 2013

Year 2014

The last three bottles were testers, kindly provided by our shop-owner friend, who lent us the back room for tests. Here are the bottles (for decoding "Christian Dior" batch-codes go here )

Batch 3608N = year 1993

Batch 5N103 = year 1995

Batch 6W183 = year 1996
(note the batch code printed on the cellophane. 
when you remove the cellophane, you lose the batchcode)

Batch 4L01 = year 2004
(note the short ingredients list "alcohol-fragrance-water", 
used until 2004-2005)

Batch 7H02 = year 2007
(there is the long ingredient-list on the side of the box) 

Batch 1Z01 = year 2011

Batch 2R01 = year 2012

Batch 3T02 = year 2013

Batch 4Q01 = year 2014

RESULTS

10 samples blind test

10-batches blind test

Basically there are 3 different versions coming out from the test. 

The first one dates until 2001 and it's the "strongest" of all, with clearly defined "gasoline" or "petroleum" notes, great "burnt woods" effect in the drydown, and greater longevity. All samples from 1993 until 2001 are pretty identical, so you could assume all Fahrenheit bottles between 1988 and 2001 are the same.

The second one could date roughly from 2004 until 2012  (no info available about years 2002 and 2003) and appears a bit watered-down. The gasoline/petroleum note is still present, but it (and the whole scent) appears weakened. Someone affirmed that there was a reformulation around year 2005 (during 2005 the box had minor changes). However, in my opinion all samples from 2004 until 2012 are pretty similar. Maybe (I repeat *maybe*) older samples have a bit more depth and richness, than newer ones; i.e.year 2004 sample appear a bit stronger and richer than the year 2012 one, but there are not so many differences. 

In a nutshell, year 2004-2012 Fahrenheit is the same perfume (if we compare it to the previous version), but appears to be weakened in depth and strenght.

The third one is "since 2013". it could be called "the Vanilla Fahrenheit". Since year 2013 Fahrenheit smells heavily different than before. There is a sort of  sweet, "vanilla" note. Personally I like it, but this is not the "classic" Fahrenheit anymore. The gasoline note disappeared almost completely, and, actually, it's more similar to another Fahrenheit "flanker". 

Interestingly, the batches produced during year 2013 and 2014 appear to be more similar (shifting towards) to the "Fahrenheit Parfum" version. 

Modern Fahrenheit is still a good scent, but we are considering an almost different scent retaining the same old name.

(please note: no bottles for sale. All bottles shown in this article come from private collections)

Original "vintage" Fahrenheit ,
with the "Red Planet" (or the "Burning Planet") box,
years 1988-2001

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ADDENDUM

During the first half of the Nineties, Missoni perfumes launched "Olympios", 

a scent that received plenty of critics because it appeared as "a Fahrenheit clone". 

Actually, Olympios is very similar -not identical- to vintage Fahrenheit. Olympios wasn't a huge success and today (2014) a few bottles can be found at cheap price. 

If you want to try something similar to "vintage Fahrenheit" but can't afford the high prices asked, you can give "Olympios" a try.  

On Basenotes you can find a few "Olympios" reviews written by customers, and everyone point out the similarity between the two scents.

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(September 2014 Update)

Following a few requests by “Fahrenheit” enthusiasts, another experiment was carried out.

How does the (vintage) After-Shave compare with the (vintage) Eau de Toilette?

In this experiment, vintage After-Shave (A-S, year 1997) and vintage Eau de Toilette (EdT, year 1993) were analyzed side-by-side, both on paper and skin.

Initially and for the first 20 minutes, on paper, both A-S and EdT show the same strength and intensity (oddly enough). It was almost impossible to distinguish between  EdT and A-S during first minutes.

Then After-Shave starts fading away, while the EdT continues to hold steadily.

A-S slowly contues to fade away after 2,4,6 hours.

After 8 hours, A-S is barely detectable on paper strip.

After 10 hours, A-S paper strip is “empty”. 

On the contrary, EdT, although faded, is still recognizable after 10 hours.

Of course, performances on skin are a different question, and you should “divide in half" times.

So, you can recognize both A-S and EdT (on your skin) as “identical” for just ten minutes; then A-S will disappear almost completely on your skin within 4 hours.

Keep in mind Fahrenheit is mainly a winter scent, so, during summer or in hot weather, you could miss the experience and find it disappointing.

There is a big difference between A-S and EdT in longevity, but if you want try the vintage “Fahrenheit experience” (gasoline, fires, burning woods, for at least 10 minutes!) well, you could try to find a vintage After-Shave bottle, since it's cheaper than an EdT one.

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