Poison is a perfume for women introduced by

Parfums Christian Dior Parfums Christian Dior is the perfumery and cosmetics (makeup and skincare) line of the French fashion house, Christian Dior SE. However, the line belongs to the perfumes and cosmetics portfolio of the world's largest luxury group, the LVMH Group. ...

in 1985. The popularity of the scent made it become a brand in its own right and resulted in the subsequent release of five flanker fragrances: Tendre Poison, Hypnotic Poison, Pure Poison, Midnight Poison, and Poison Girl.

Concept

By 1980,

Dior Christian Dior SE (), commonly known as Dior (stylized DIOR), is a French Luxury goods, luxury fashion house controlled and chaired by French businessman Bernard Arnault, who also heads LVMH, the world's largest luxury group. Dior itself holds ...

was enjoying robust product sales in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. At the time, the company was one of the top two cosmetics companies in the region. However, they were not able to achieve the same level of success in the

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

cosmetics market, as they were ranked as the twentieth best selling cosmetics company in United States. In order to close the gap between

's sales on both sides of the Atlantic, the company's president Maurice Roger commissioned a blockbuster fragrance that would dominate the American market. Dior invested heavily in meticulous research and development. Dior developed a savvy marketing strategy based on the controversial name of Yves Saint Laurent's top-selling fragrance,

Opium Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which i ...

. The company wanted a name for the new fragrance that would generate massive publicity and, in turn, sales. In 1983, Dior licensed the name Poison.

The scent

After testing approximately 800 scents created by independent perfumers,

selected a bombastic fragrance created by perfumier Edouard Flechier. It was a scent unlike any other with notes of wild berries, sandalwood, musk, jasmine, orange blossom, coriander,

vetiver ''Chrysopogon zizanioides'', commonly known as vetiver and khus, is a perennial bunchgrass of the family Poaceae. Vetiver is most closely related to ''Sorghum'' but shares many morphological characteristics with other fragrant grasses, such as ...

, pepper, cedar, cinnamon, rosewood, plum, heliotrope,

tuberose ''Agave amica'', formerly ''Polianthes tuberosa'', the tuberose, is a perennial plant in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Agavoideae, extracts of which are used as a note in perfumery. Now widely grown as an ornamental plant, the species was or ...

, vanilla, rose de mai absolute, cistus labdanum and opopanax.

Bottle design

The bottle was researched in depth. A unique bottle was crafted for Poison and designed to look like

forbidden fruit Forbidden fruit is a name given to the fruit growing in the Garden of Eden which God commands mankind not to eat. In the biblical story, Adam and Eve eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and are exiled from Eden. As a ...

. The color of the apple shaped bottle is a deep shade of

amethyst Amethyst is a violet variety of quartz. The name comes from the Koine Greek αμέθυστος ''amethystos'' from α- ''a-'', "not" and μεθύσκω (Ancient Greek) / μεθώ (Modern Greek), "intoxicate", a reference to the belief that t ...

, and the neck is gold with a crystal stopper.

Marketing

On its 1985 release, the brand ambassador for the fragrance was French actor

Isabelle Adjani Isabelle Yasmina Adjani ; born 27 June 1955) is a French actress and singer of Algerian and German descent. She is the only performer in history to win five César Awards for acting; she won the Best Actress award for ''Possession'' (1981), ''O ...

. She remained the face of the advertising campaign for several years.

Awards

Poison won a

FiFi Award The FiFi Awards are an annual event sponsored by The Fragrance Foundation which honor the fragrance industry's creative achievements. Known as the "Oscars of the fragrance industry", the awards ceremony was conceived by the former president of ...

in 1987.

Variants of Poison

Tendre Poison

In 1994, Flechier created a follow-up fragrance called Tendre Poison which he designed for a more youthful demographic. The spokesmodels were

Paul Sculfor Paul Sculfor (born 1 February 1971) is a British male model as well as a TV and film actor. Background Between the ages of eight to ten, Sculfor studied gymnastics, and when he was 10, he joined the Dagenham Boxing Club. He had one competit ...

and Laurence Vanhaeverbeke.

Hypnotic Poison

Hypnotic Poison Poison is a perfume for women introduced by Parfums Christian Dior in 1985. The popularity of the scent made it become a brand in its own right and resulted in the subsequent release of five flanker fragrances: Tendre Poison, Hypnotic Poison, P ...

was created launched in 1998. Created by perfumer Annick Menardo the fragrance is an oriental vanilla scent. The top notes are

plum A plum is a fruit of some species in ''Prunus'' subg. ''Prunus'.'' Dried plums are called prunes. History Plums may have been one of the first fruits domesticated by humans. Three of the most abundantly cultivated species are not found i ...

apricot An apricot (, ) is a fruit, or the tree that bears the fruit, of several species in the genus ''Prunus''. Usually, an apricot is from the species '' P. armeniaca'', but the fruits of the other species in ''Prunus'' sect. ''Armeniaca'' are also ...

and

coconut The coconut tree (''Cocos nucifera'') is a member of the palm tree family ( Arecaceae) and the only living species of the genus ''Cocos''. The term "coconut" (or the archaic "cocoanut") can refer to the whole coconut palm, the seed, or the ...

with

jasmine Jasmine ( taxonomic name: ''Jasminum''; , ) is a genus of shrubs and vines in the olive family (Oleaceae). It contains around 200 species native to tropical and warm temperate regions of Eurasia, Africa, and Oceania. Jasmines are widely cultiva ...

rose A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...

caraway Caraway, also known as meridian fennel and Persian cumin (''Carum carvi''), is a biennial plant in the family Apiaceae, native to western Asia, Europe, and North Africa. Etymology The etymology of "caraway" is unclear. Caraway has been ...

and

lily of the valley Lily of the valley (''Convallaria majalis'' (), sometimes written lily-of-the-valley, is a woodland flowering plant with sweetly scented, pendent, bell-shaped white flowers borne in sprays in spring. It is native throughout the cool temperate No ...

middle notes. The base notes are

musk Musk (Persian: مشک, ''Mushk'') is a class of aromatic substances commonly used as base notes in perfumery. They include glandular secretions from animals such as the musk deer, numerous plants emitting similar fragrances, and artificial sub ...

vanilla Vanilla is a spice derived from orchids of the genus ''Vanilla (genus), Vanilla'', primarily obtained from pods of the Mexican species, flat-leaved vanilla (''Vanilla planifolia, V. planifolia''). Pollination is required to make the p ...

sandalwood Sandalwood is a class of woods from trees in the genus ''Santalum''. The woods are heavy, yellow, and fine-grained, and, unlike many other aromatic woods, they retain their fragrance for decades. Sandalwood oil is extracted from the woods for us ...

and

almond The almond (''Prunus amygdalus'', syn. ''Prunus dulcis'') is a species of tree native to Iran and surrounding countries, including the Levant. The almond is also the name of the edible and widely cultivated seed of this tree. Within the genus ...

. Spokesmodels for the fragrance include actors

Monica Bellucci Monica Anna Maria Bellucci (; born 30 September 1964) is an Italian actress and model. She began her career as a fashion model, modelling for Dolce & Gabbana and Dior, before making a transition to Italian films and later American and French ...

and

Milla Jovovich Milica Bogdanovna Jovovich; sr-Latn, Milica Bogdanovna Jovović; russian: Милица Богдановна Йовович; uk, Милиця Богданoвна Йовович ( ; born December 17, 1975), known professionally as Milla Jovo ...

. Most recently French actor

Mélanie Laurent Mélanie Laurent (; born 21 February 1983) is a French actress, filmmaker, and singer. The recipient of two César Awards and a Lumières Award, she is an accomplished actress in the French film industry. Globally, she is best known for her role ...

appeared in a commercial directed by

David Lynch David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946) is an American filmmaker, visual artist and actor. A recipient of an Academy Honorary Award in 2019, Lynch has received three Academy Award nominations for Best Director, and the César Award for Be ...

Pure Poison

Pure Poison Poison is a perfume for women introduced by Parfums Christian Dior in 1985. The popularity of the scent made it become a brand in its own right and resulted in the subsequent release of five flanker fragrances: Tendre Poison, Hypnotic Poison, Pu ...

was created by Carlos Benaim, Dominique Ropion and Olivier Polge in 2004. The fragrance is bergamot,

orange blossom Orange Blossom is a French band that plays a mix of electronic and world music. The band was formed in Nantes in 1993 with Pierre-Jean Chabot (known as ''PJ Chabot'') on violin and Jean-Christophe Waechter (known as ''Jay C.'') on percussions ...

white musk Synthetic musks are a class of synthetic aroma compounds to emulate the scent of deer musk and other animal musks (castoreum and civet). Synthetic musks have a clean, smooth and sweet scent lacking the fecal notes of animal musks. They are used a ...

and

amber Amber is fossilized tree resin that has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects."Amber" (2004). In Ma ...

. In 2006, Dior released ''Pure Poison Elixir'', an updated version of the fragrance, in a spray bulb

mother of pearl Nacre ( , ), also known as mother of pearl, is an organicinorganic composite material produced by some molluscs as an inner shell layer; it is also the material of which pearls are composed. It is strong, resilient, and iridescent. Nacre is ...

bottle. The scent became more nuanced with the addition of cocoa bean absolute. The spokesmodel was Letícia Birkheuer.

Midnight Poison

In 2007, with

John Galliano John Charles Galliano (born 28 November 1960) is a British fashion designer from Gibraltar. He was the creative director of his eponymous label John Galliano and French fashion houses Givenchy and Dior. Since 2014, Galliano has been the creat ...

at the helm of the House of Dior, a fifth fragrance was added to the series. ''Midnight Poison'' was contained in a sapphire blue bottle. The scent was created by Jacques Cavallier, Olivier Cresp and François Demanchy. The top note are

and bergamot. The middle notes are

. The base notes are

patchouli PatchouliAlso spelled ''patchouly'' or ''pachouli''. (; ''Pogostemon cablin'') is a species of flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae, commonly called the mint or deadnettle family. The plant grows as a bushy perennial herb, with erect stems r ...

and

. The spokesmodel for the fragrance is actor

Eva Green Eva Gaëlle Green (, ; born ) is a French actress and model. The daughter of actress Marlène Jobert, she began her career in theatre before making her film debut in Bernardo Bertolucci's '' The Dreamers'' (2003). She achieved international reco ...

Poison Girl

In 2016, Dior released another variant of the original ''Poison'' perfume called Poison Girl. Created by perfumer François Demachy, the fragrance comes in a clear, pink bottle. It has a top note of bitter orange, a Grasse and Damascus Rose heart note, and a base note of Venezuelan tonka bean. The scent also has sandalwood, tolu balm, almond, and vanilla. The spokesmodel for the fragrance is

Camille Rowe Camille Chrystal Pourcheresse, known professionally as Camille Rowe, is a French-American model and actress who appeared on the cover of ''Playboy'' in 2016. Early life Rowe was born in Paris to an American mother, who was a model and dancer ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Poison (Perfume) Perfumes Products introduced in 1985