Review of Dries Van Noten by Frederic Malle

I bought a bottle of this from Barney's, so it's brand-spanking-new. I suspect it was reformulated. I have read other online reviews that speak of the intense cloves and all the other strong notes. Sounds like a perfume that is not Dries Van Noten, not in its current incarnation, anyway. 

From what I remember, this house was fairly recently purchased by Estee Lauder, so perhaps reformulations have indeed taken place.

Dries Van Noten is a pleasant perfume, but IMHO it's not worthy of its price point. It's a synthetic milky woody vanilla with low sillage. It smells a lot like Wheaties, like when you open a new box and there is the scent of the wheat cereal plus cardboard. 

I find Dame's Mexican Vanilla and Carner's Palo Santo to both be in the same vein as this, and I'd suggest trying them if you end up finding the sillage of this to be as poor as it is on me. Carner's perfume is more milky, boozy, gourmand, and quite a bit sweeter, so be prepared for that. Dame's vanilla is less woody and you actually can smell the nutmeg that is supposed to be in Dries.

I will be doing my best to return this to Barneys.