The Holiday season is one of those times of the year where it seems like the time between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day is a never-ending whirl of social events. As hectic as it is the festive season is as much about sharing and enjoying our friends and family as it is about gifts. Another part of the season are yearly traditions. Many of them are personal but there is at least one fragrant one which is shared amongst perfume lovers. Perfumer Dawn Spencer Hurwitz releases a Holiday perfume every year under her DSH Perfumes label, and this year is the fourteenth of these releases called Vanilla Bourbon Intense.
If there is a common scent to the holidays it would probably be a toss-up between pine and vanilla. Vanilla is the underpinning to so many of the Holiday sweets that it always seems to be in the air. I have a number of vanilla perfumes I wear during this time of year because I love the smell so much. Ms. Hurwitz has done more than just give us a vanilla forward perfume in Vanilla Bourbon Intense; she has given us the smell of a Holiday house party. When I first sniffed Vanilla Bourbon Intense it evoked that moment I take my winter coat off and the mixture of smells of a good party come towards me. Baked goods, wine, whiskey, candles burning, a fine cigar wafting in from outside. All of this is made even a little stuffy and claustrophobic as the notes tend to pile on top of each other as they socialize with each other during the development.
Dawn Spencer Hurwitz
As I remove my coat the first smell to hit me is that vanilla. Ms. Hurwitz used a “double dose” and it shows. This is rich chewy decadent vanilla. Vanilla can be such a common note but when it is from a good source and used in overdose it achieves a depth that makes it hard to ignore. That is how the early vanilla in Vanilla Bourbon Intense sets up. I walk towards the bar to get a drink and along with the vanilla I get the smell of whiskey and wine. The two forms of alcohol mix very well and the vanilla intersperses itself at the bar quite nicely. The finishing touch comes with a touch of blond tobacco and a bit of smoky amber. This kind of resinous narcotic accord is a fitting foundation for all the previous notes to rest upon.
Vanilla Bourbon Intense has 8-10 hour longevity and moderate sillage.
Ms. Hurwitz’s Holiday releases always have the effect of adding to my happy seasonal mood. This year she has delivered an entire celebration in a bottle.
Disclosure: This review was based on a sample provided by DSH Perfumes.
–Mark Behnke
