Amouage Dia Woman, photo courtesy of the brand©

Rappelle-toi Barbara
Il pleuvait sans cesse sur Brest ce jour-là
Et tu marchais souriante
Épanouie ravie ruisselante
Sous la pluie
Rappelle-toi Barbara
Il pleuvait sans cesse sur Brest
Et je t’ai croisée rue de Siam
Tu souriais
Et moi je souriais de même
Rappelle-toi Barbara
Toi que je ne connaissais pas
Toi qui ne me connaissais pas
Rappelle-toi
Rappelle-toi quand même ce jour-là
N’oublie pas

— Barbara by Jacques Prevert

Amouage Dia Woman, photo courtesy of the brand©

In Jacques Prevert’s great poem, Barbara, the narrator recalls a woman he saw for just a moment in pre-War Brest. It was pouring rain and a man calls out “Barbara!”  from a porch where he shelters. She runs to greet him, “Épanouie ravie ruisselante” – radiant, rapturous, soaking wet. Years later, after the war, Brest lies in ruins, and the narrator wonders what has become of Barbara and her lover. While the second half of the poem is a meditation on the pointless destructiveness of war, its first stanzas are amongst the most ruefully romantic in modern literature. With its dewy, ingenue rose, incense and orange blossom heart, sprays of aldehydes and rainy dabs of violet and orris, Dia is the soul of romanticism, with a vintage sheen that seems to come from that time. It makes me think of Barbara, drenched and dizzy with love.

Les Amoureux de l’Opéra, 1950 by Robert Doisneau

Enchanting Dia Woman, little sister to Gold Woman, was intended to be a daytime version of her glamorous sibling, and is more ephemeral and lighter to wear than its sister. Created by the peerless Jean-Claude Ellena, Dia Woman is a spirited, soapy-powdery floral with touches of fruit and herbs that has both a timeless quality and an old soul. Ellena keeps Gold Woman’s rose-orange blossom-frankincense fulcrum but riffs on the florals, taking Dia Woman into different territory. The metallic note that is such a hallmark of Amouage Gold Woman is replaced by garlands of early spring flowers. A huge, dewy peony in the opening and additions of powdery, sulky violet and orris give Dia a drizzly, sun-peeking through clouds romanticism. Where Gold Woman glitters like champagne and slinks in a sequined, poured-on gown of animalics and lush florals, Dia Woman laughs and flutters like a hummingbird among tree blossoms. It is exceedingly pretty, with a very French elegance.

Jean-Claude Ellena courtesy of the perfumer©

The first spray is spring in La Muette in Paris circa 1950; peonies drooping under the weight of their blooms along rain-spattered street cobbles, old-fashioned rose and rice powder on women whose heels syncopate a jazz tune on the pavement, bergamot and orange blossom vying for attention with the bubbly aldehydes that bounce through the air like ebullient honeybees. Dia’s grassy, fruity touches give it a more youthful feeling than Gold Woman, but do not turn teenage, and soapy white musk and orange blossom provide the sudsy, face powder aspects that suggest vintage. But the composition is so cohesively woven that it is not always clear exactly which note I am smelling at a given moment. Tarragon, for instance, plays an intrinsic role in Amouage Dia Woman, adding a grassy, bitter counterbalance to the bright florals of the top. But in contrast to Schiaparelli Shocking, where it parries memorably with honey downstage, tarragon’s licorice aroma is subtle here. Sage likewise doesn’t fully reveal itself, but the two herbs together create a dark, herbal seam that threads through the composition, keeping Dia from falling too far into milled soap and face powder.

Photo, creative commons

At its heart, Dia Woman is textured and complex. Violet leaf and orris add a drizzly, cool quality, while silky lipstick rose feels as if it came straight from a soubrette’s dressing room. Stepping back a moment to breathe in the fragrance again, there’s a lot going on: vanilla, purple flowers, some drippy, sweet fruitiness from fig and peach. Throughout Dia’s development, notes make brief appearances then quickly merge into each other, creating quiet interplays of bright and shadow, of brilliance and cloud. Amouage’s signature frankincense drifts forward in the center of the fragrance, a smoky, sensual ribbon that ties everything together. The sensuality of the incense, as it curls around the rose, orange blossom, violet, and orris, reminds me that this is no teenager’s perfume, but the sensual, sophisticated scent of a woman who is alive to love instead of dreaming of it. Vintage is again referenced in the base, where sandalwood and guaiac lend Amouage Dia Woman a smooth patina, while cedar provides its customary warmth and somberness.

An hour later, Amouage Dia Woman shimmers on my wrist softly like fading sunlight across pale satin. If that sounds a bit romanticized, it is because that is Dia’s effect on me; when I wear it, Doisneau photographs, jazz piano and grey springtime Paris run through my mind. And I see Barbara, running forever to her lover, enraptured, in the rain.

Notes: Fig, cyclamen, bergamot, tarragon, sage, violet leaves, bush peach blossoms, rose oil, orange flower, peony, orris, white musk, incense, vanilla, heliotrope, cedarwood, sandalwood, guaiac wood.

Disclaimer: Bottle of Amouage Dia Woman generously gifted me by Europerfumes, U.S. distributor for Amouage. My opinions, as always, are my own.

Lauryn Beer, Senior Editor

Amouage Dia Woman was composed in 2002 by Jean-Claude Ellena

Available to test or buy at Parfumerie Nasreen

Bottle of Amouage Dia Woman, photo by Lauryn

Thanks to the generosity of Europerfumes, U.S. distributor for Amouage, we have a 100 ml tester bottle of Amouage Dia Woman for one registered reader in the U.S. To be eligible, please leave a comment saying what appeals to you about Amouage Dia Woman based on Lauryn’s review and if you would like to see this as an exceptional extrait sometime in the future. Draw closes 1/28/2022.

Please read Lauryn’s review of Gold Woman here and Gold Man here.

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