Fragrance Review | Clarins Eau Dynamisante

Clarins calls Eau Dynamisante a “treatment fragrance”. They say it’s invigorating, that it revitalises, hydrates and tones the skin. Suure…

It’s a fragrance. First ingredient alcohol, followed by water, then parfum. It perfumes skin. That’s all it is folks, a fragrance.

But a good one at that.

Eau Dynamisante is a gender neutral, clean smelling scent that leans towards something that you would smell on a skincare product rather than a classic perfume. When it comes to notes, on Clarins’ website, this fragrance is said to be formulated with citrus fruit, patchouli, bitter orange, rosemary, and white thyme.

A lot of people mention this has an herbal quality to it, but I honestly can’t sense it. To me, and on my skin in particular, rather than herbal, there is a familiar scent among its notes that stands out: saline solution. Yep, plain old saline solution, and I love it. I’ve always enjoyed that scent, and never thought I would see it captured in a fragrance bottle, so Eau Dynamisante was a nice surprise.

This is a fresh scent without being acidic, it’s masculine leaning (very cologne-like) without being woody, and it’s simple and inoffensive without being boring or generic. Salty, fresh, clean. There is no powder or musk to it, so it kind of deviates from my typical favourite notes, and yet, it kind of fits in at the same time, because “comforting” is still a great word to describe it, even though warm isn’t.

A common complaint I’ve read with this fragrance is longevity. I see a lot of people claiming it lasts just about two hours. I can’t say that is my experience – 6 hours in and it’s still as strong as it is after dry down, and after 10 hours I could still detect it on my wrists. To me, it’s not the longevity that’s bad, it’s that the sillage is very small. This is a scent more for you than others – if someone happens to sniff you, they’ll be pleased, but you won’t turn heads or likely get asked what are you wearing. It’s not a fault, in my opinion, it’s just what it is.

I just want to reinforce that silly claims aside, this is a fragrance, pure and simple. Don’t use it as skincare, do NOT apply it on the face. I don’t know what this is supposed to tone , I can tell you that my wrists don’t get saggy. It also says it’ll soften skin, but with this amount of alcohol in its formulation (like with any regular perfume) you’ll be seeing double sooner than you’ll be seeing soft skin. So, you know, don’t treat it as a moisturiser either.

Other than that, go nuts. It’s a really nice smell.

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2 Comments

  1. I never tried Eau Dynamisante, it sounds like a nice fragrance. I agree with you I can’t see a fragrance doing what skincare does. Maybe a fragrance can help to relax, to energize, to lift spirits, but other than that, I don’t think it can provide the benefits of actual skincare.

    1. Yes, anything psychological, sure, but “soften”and “tone” and, IMO, dangerous claims. There are a few softening ingredients in the formula, but with that amount of alcohol (which is normal for a fragrance!), expecting them to have an effect on skin is very farfetched.

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