Dunhill Icon is definitely more than just a pretty flaçon. Contained within the exceptionally heavy and cool textured steel-jacketed bottle, which resembles one of their vintage Deco or Mid-Century table lighters, is a very fine modern take on the classic fougére.
Described by the house as a “woody-aromatic” what comes across on first sniff is more like a new riff on Dior’s original Eau Sauvage, with a less sweet but still fizzy neroli/bergamot combo exhilarating the senses while a nice black pepper note plays against this enticing semi-fruity opening. The orange-pepper vibe also brings to mind (or nose) Terre d’Hermes, though Icon is no where near as earthy as that influential composition. And the spicy pepper in Icon works just as well as it does in Chanel’s more grapefruit-oriented Bleu, undergirding the composition beautifully to let the citric notes, especially the very orangey neroli, do their thing in pleasantly bright and naturalistic fashion.
Where Dunhill falls short of Bleu de Chanel and my other favorite classy modern crowd pleaser, Acqua di Gio Profumo, is in its lackluster performance. Officially classified as an Eau de Perfum, this moniker can only be referring to the quality of the ingredients and the concentration of natural oils in the juice because it certainly doesn’t project or last like a Parfum. More like an Eau de Cologne or, in fact, like the utterly pleasant but notoriously weak Eau Savage EDT.
While the note pyramid is almost comically overstuffed with wishful thinking ingredients like oakmoss, leather and the ubiquitous note du jour, oud, I get little to none of these. Yes, there’s a bit of lavender and juniper that come through once that very bright top has burned off and maybe a hint of something woody/cedary behind the pepper. But in about three hours the whole experience has faded out to a faint skin scent in any case so that the point of note detection has long since passed.
So Icon is a short trip, which is a pity because it really is a beautiful masculine scent. I’m looking forward to trying it in the warmer months where perhaps its longevity will be enhanced by heat & humidity. It makes a damn fine morning cologne as is and is certainly a worthy successor to Dunhill’s two standout old school offerings, the original 1934 Dunhill for Men and the excellent 1980’s Edition as far as evoking an overall timeless manly quality. It’s a nearly perfect day/office/casual scent and certainly symbolized an encouraging new direction for the house since its launch in 2015 after a disheartening series of cologne misfires and has led to several flankers due to its success. But I can’t help but feel that Icon is a bit of a missed opportunity by famed nose Albert Benaim, creator of much of the Polo line, including the legendary green original. Its quality is very, very good, the scent is relentlessly pleasing and the bottle is display worthy. But if it had more of the purported basenotes of leather, oud and oakmoss and the performance of a true Eau du Parfum Icon could have been an all-time great.
