The Dreamer (1996)
by Versace

The Dreamer needs to wake up and face reality. It is a weird, insipid little fragrance that seems to be a prelude to something good. In spite of its attractive bottle, this is a very weak contender because it has an odd, sweet and synthetic smell.
Put The Dreamer to sleep for good!

Talk about offensive :) In-your-face, bold, daring - the house of Versace should go back to their roots and try follow in the footsteps of their best offering called The Dreamer.

But then again...money talks.

The Dreamer by Versace is an amazing fragrance with character, performance, and appeal. I have often read reviews written on "The Dreamer" that cite its opening as being harsh, objectionable, and all-together inconsistent with the fragrance's further development. I personally find the top notes intense and sharp, but I do not think these notes are a large digression from the perfume's aim nor do I find them unattractive. It does take, perhaps, 10 minutes for the top notes to settle into a spicy, floral sweetness. This aroma, though it stays somewhat close to the skin, is potent and requires only a light breeze to be carried away into the nostrils of another. Therefore, over-applying will not get you the projection you desire, for it will only suffocate you. The key is to spray the fragrance in those key places on your skin that get exposure to local puffs of wind. This particular fragrance does not have much complexity or development other than the initial progression from the top notes, but the dry-down is comparable to Le Male by JPG in its sweet, powdery finish. Estimating the longevity to be around 8-10 hrs, I would say its staying power is very good. I would recommend this for daytime use, especially outdoors. I have found that it has the ability to come alive with some help from the outside air. I hope this helps.

Growing up in a Persian household, I was constantly surrounded by the scent of Persian spices simmering in the kitchen. There is one extremely popular spice, called sabzi, that incorporates parsley, leek, and fenugreek leaves, and sometimes a few other spices.

Well, Versace The Dreamer smells exactly like sabzi. I kid you not. It's as if I took a bottle of this spice, added water, shook it up, and sprayed it on myself. It's good to eat, but not to wear.

The opening spray smells nothing like the dry-down. It opens smelling as if you just sprayed gasoline on yourself. It's "chokingly" awful. It takes about 30 minutes or so for the base scent to develop (the sabzi smell). I have never come across a fragrance that transforms into something utterly and completely different from top to bottom like The Dreamer does.

I thought about purchasing this for my father or brother as a gag gift, just to hear them say "Why did you give me this? Why the hell would I want to walk around smelling like sabzi all day?" But alas, this is too expensive. :P

There is only one way to describe this scent:

SEX! SEX! SEX! SEX!

Sex in a bottle... Believe me, I speak from experience. Synthetic? Yes, but who does really want to smell exactly like tree bark, violets, or lemon here? Sometimes man-made can be a masterpiece, and this is exactly that.

This is Versace. At its best.

The top notes are too harsh and the drydown is very long lasting and good , but I was expecting much more from this.