Usually, when I first spray a perfume, I smell the alcohol and am unable to really detect the top notes in the fragrance. But for Hypnotic Poison, I was surprised to smell some of the woody, warmness upon first spritz. I remember standing in Sephora, trying to put my finger on what the scent smelled like. Root beer! And I liked it! However, I'm reluctant to actually purchase something that smells like sugary drink. The spicy warmness makes this scent pretty unique and great for the fall and winter months. It reminds me of the cinnamon and cider scents of that time of year. I don't like the packaging, however. The bottle looks like a lumpy apple, which is not nearly as sophisticated as Dior's other fragrance bottle designs.

i smelled this in sephora when i was looking for my signature scent. i fell in love with it immediately. i love the deep, vanilla, musky scents! this one is very strong at first but it does fade a little after a while. it's long lasting which is very good. i recommend using it in fall/winter since it's so heavy. also it's a very mature scent - not old, but it's not something for a middle schooler and not for everyday in high school either. i use this mostly for special occasions. i don't like that it has a chemical smell to it...i got one of the sample size spray ones and it didn't smell chemically in that so i think it's the bottle that does it. it's disappointing because i love it so much and it was expensive!

This is one of my three "go to" scents. I love it, and when I wear it I almost always get the "you smell so good...what are you wearing" comment. It never fails to make me smile :)

It's a deeper scent but does not stay strong forever. I find that I have to apply a little more than many of the other perfumes which only take one spray strategically placed to do their thing, but it's worth it.

I also love the smell of me when I wear it! It makes me smile :)

This is one of my go to scents. A toss up between Viva La Juicy. The trend is that they are both rich, sexy and vanilla based. I understand it's not everyone's cup of tea, but they dry down on me guaranteed a comment on how good I smell. A personal favourite for a long time to come!

What is with this perfume?? I sprayed the EDT on in Sephora, and immediately got hit with the star anise, which I actually really enjoyed. It settled down into a nice sweet scent that stayed sweet on me until I washed it off. So, I bought a bottle of it. Tried it again, and this time, no star anise, and the drydown turned into something rather unpleasant that I don't know how to describe. I went so far as to purchase decants of the EDP and Elixir versions, but the same thing happened. I don't know why it only smelled so good the first time, but I have daydreams about going back to that Sephora and paying them for that display bottle. I have kept my own bottle because I think the red apple bottle is cute, and maybe some day it will work on me again.

I first smelt this about 7-8 years ago at Superdrug's London. It was potent and very long lasting in the edt form of the typical matt plastic looking red bottle. I liked it more as it dried down and lingered after a good few hours. The initial phase was knock out for me and so i could never wear this.

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Then last year i re-visited Hypnotic Poison and noticed there was also an edp version (which i no longer see) and the elixir. I tried the edp but it was too musky for me and the elixir, too sharp with the almond and instantly made me feel dizzy. Both of these bottles were shiny unlike the typical plastic looking bottle. Then when i tried the edt i loved it but it made me have terrible headaches so that was the end of the road.

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See picuture with box for newer bottle:

This month, a few weeks ago I recieved a decant of Hypnotic Poison in a swap and i sprayed it on and was obsessed since. I couldn't work out why it didnt give me a headache and thought may be i was able to tolerate it better this time. In my experience once a perfume makes me dizzy it will happen again. So i eventually found out that the swapper had a shiny bottle of the edt version. When i went to the shops i realized that the bottle style had changed here in the UK. In fact i noticed the change late last year.

Anyway when i sprayed the edt in the new bottle i found no headaches/dizziness. It smelt lovely somewhat less potent and cosier from what i first remember, but still long lasting. In addition the scent really worked on my skin than before. With more investigation (i naturally was obsessed at this point!) i managed to track down a matt bottle as a tester in a store (but they were actually selling the newer one as the packaging has also changed - see pic with bottle and box above). The matt bottle one definately had an almond note that was more pronounced by a side by side comparison on my wrists of the older edt versus the newer one. The newer one's notes all blend in together well. The dry down of both was similar on my skin and both appeared to last equally as long. Worth trying out the newer version which i believe has been reformulated and is still sexy but innocent.

I bought myself the 30ml bottle for £35.40 at The Perfume Shop and am very happy.

Update 27.03.11-down graded to four lips as this is suddenly feeling too strong maybe due to weather change as it has warmed up here.

I got a sampler of this a few months ago and fell in love with this scent right away - it's a warm sexy scent, for women rather than for girls. At least I'd think this might be too heavy on a girl. It's seductive, men love this stuff, if you're the type for it - a bit crazy, sensous, a bit on the dark side, but not too much.

It's too heavy for summer I think, but perfect for the dark winter-months. I finally gave in a bought a fullsize-bottle of it 2 weeks ago. For the summer, I love Lancome Hypnose, but for now, this is my HG.

I've been using this perfume for nearly 15 years, it's my staple special occasion perfume! It is definitely an evening perfume and a little more suited to cooler weather, I find that if I stick to 'short' wears in cooler weather then the scent doesn't become overwhelming as some people mention (when worn during the day you kind of want to shower after 3-4 hours to get a break!).


A work mate was given a bottle of this a few months ago and slathers herself in it daily, euch! Definitely reminds me that this not an appropriate scent for a long day in the office when I'm with her... Fortunately it hasn't put me off it :)


A sample bottle will last a couple of months as you only need the smallest amount, so while it's pricey you sure get your money out of it :) I recently decanted some of mine into a small roller which has been awesome, as even though I love the bottle, I like to keep it safely hidden in a dark drawer to make sure it doesn't go off too quickly, because 1 bottle lasts me years and I mean years.


A truly lovely occasion perfume, I just don't recommend it for everyday wear.

I bought this based on what it smelled like in a magazine. BIG MISTAKE. That was five years ago and I'm revisiting it now to give it another chance. Now I'm not saying it's a bad scent, it's quite nice actually, especially with my chemistry. I can't stop sniffing my wrists. For the thirty seconds that it lasts, that is. I'm not exagerating, it literally does not last for more than a minute, and I've never had a problem with lasting before. The lightest fragrances have lasted hours on me but this one is pretty heavy and does not last at all. It does last on clothing for a very long time, but the smell on clothing is not the same. It's too vannillic and foody on clothing, you can really get sick of it after a while. On skin however, it's a beautiful spicy jasmine. Oh well, not really my cup of tea anyways, as I normally like fresher scents.

UPDATE: This is something you can get tired of really fast. I guess the lasting power is unecessary, because all in five minutes I remembered why this got put away to begin with. This fragrance is a love at first sniff type of thing, pure infatuation. And then you get bored, really bored. And then the boredom turns to pure irritation and you can't bare to smell it on anyone. I guess the reason behind that is because it's achingly simple. Vanilla, bitter almond, and jasmine. That's it.

my favourite perfume! on to my 3rd bottle. first recieved it as a sample for christmas and have been hooked for a few years now! its definitely strong but I find this very hypnotic smell addictive hahaha