Date Added: 06/10/2012
My signature scent long before collecting perfume samples or learning anything about them, I'll always have a soft spot for Dunhill Desire. I've still never smelled anything else like it.
Honestly, it's a little dumb, a distinct mix of cinnamon gum and clove and fake apple and generic red "froot" smell under an umbrella of piquant lavender. Somehow, it has a roundness that reminds me of tea, even though the overall smell is closer to the smell of that red candy coating they put on candy apples. The lavender gives it just enough of a "perfumey" edge that it doesn't completely smell like candy or a Christmas candle (another horror that can often come from mixing candied cinnamon and cloves), but it's still very very sweet.
It doesn't really change much over the course of the day, simply losing some of the lavender brightness while a dim vanilla comes in beneath the candy apple tea smell.
Overall, I'm probably giving Desire a bit too much credit because its smell has a lot of memories attached for me personally, but I do find its mix of candy and tea to be novel and not nearly as bad as many of today's candy scents, which often rely on that horrible marshmallow smell or end up smelling like an artificial flavor. Desire may be awfully sweet, but it never smells like a Skittle flavor...
by Regalito