I’ve owned the solid stick of Dirty twice now. I didn’t finish my first one, and threw it away. The second was bought for me.
Now, it was bought for me around Christmas time and I haven’t touched it.
Today I had no idea what to wear – I picked up the lids of a handful of my fragrances and gave them all a sniff in hope of being inspired. After a few moments, I just grabbed the Dirty stick and rubbed it over my wrists and neck.
On my way to work, I had a grin from ear to ear, and I realised… I absolutely LOVE this scent.
The last time I owned “The Dirty stick” (my partner reminded me) was late summer last year and I wore it solely when we went on holiday to Brussels. Something about this fragrance just makes me gleamingly happy, and I have only realised this today.
So…
Just to confirm, I’m reviewing the solid perfume… the spray which I have also tried is pretty much identical but I just wanted to clarify 
Dirty opens very herbal, completely refreshing, and a little bit spicy. I know I’m not being specific there sorry…
After a matter of seconds, this complicated stir of top notes settles down to something much more recognizable.
The main accord throughout Dirty, is that of a stale spearmint – some dried chewing gum that remains feeling damp and dense. It’s cooling, refreshing, and completely baffling. I choose the word baffling as once you’ve gotten your head around the mintiness, an ozonic sea breeze freshness supports it, along with some of the initial herbal green which I read in the Gorilla Perfume booklet to be thyme and tarragon. I don’t actually recognize it as thyme, but maybe that’s because it doesn’t smell like the cooking herb I’m slightly more familiar with, it’s much fresher and damp. The marine notes are perfect – a tiny bit salty, maybe even a little seaweedy with a spacial, airy feel.
There’s a tiny squelch of bitter oakmoss in the base that you can only just smell throughout the heart as it is completely smothered by the spearmint.
If I read this review without trying Dirty, I’d have left the page as soon as I read “spearmint”, the words “cooling and refreshing” would have made me run that little bit quicker. True that I have been intrigued by mint notes recently, but this one is my reference. This is everything that I should hate in a fragrance, but something about it is utterly compelling.
I really like this in stick form. Surprisingly it lasts me about 8 hours, with a good 2 hours projection just from some good rubs across the neck and wrists. I will get the spray for sure when it runs out though as I am desperate to lavishly splash it all over myself this summer!
Anyway! I’m getting ahead of myself.
The great thing about Dirty, is it manages to smell familiar, comfortable and yet completely unique. It is the most perfect summer fragrance I have come across and it makes a complete change from everything else in my wardrobe.
Back to the scent again, it remains pretty linear, what you smell at the beginning is how it will end, and it probably takes some time to fall for, it’s not an instant love that’s for sure. It is masculine, uplifting and completely non-cologney which is probably why I enjoy it so much.
So, sorry for the short review, but there really isn’t much more I can say about Dirty. The last thing I’ll add is, go to your local Lush store and give it a sniff!
Gorilla Perfume Dirty 30ml – £20 Lush
… BARGAIN
