Byredo Slow Dance Perfume Review

I’m sure for those who have been engaged in beauty blogs and videos for as long as I have, may have also had owning Byredo perfume on their beauty bucket list for as long as they can remember if they haven’t already. Byredo is a brand that I’ve gazed after for a long time, but living pretty rurally, there have been no places on my doorstep to really investigate the brand, and at their price point, it’s definitely the type of fragrance I would have wanted to have tried multiple times before pulling the trigger, however I recently did just that with Byredo Slow Dance Perfume, and was finally able to add one bottle onto my perfume shelf.

In 2020, I treated myself to the Cult Beauty Advent Calendar, and inside was the Byredo Slow Dance hand cream. Having coveted the brand for such a long time, I was ecstatic to finally own something to try. I adored it, I savoured the last few uses and squeezed out every last drop from the tube. I’ve had buying the actual fragrance on my radar ever since, and I’ve been letting my Liberty Beauty Box monthly credit build up knowing exactly what I’d be buying when I’d reached the point where it would cost me a mere additional few pounds.

I feel like as I’ve got older, I’ve really honed in on what my favourite fragrance type is. I like rich gourmands that aren’t sickly sweet and preferably with a bit of an interesting twist, and I feel like Slow Dance is the epitome of a more sophisticated gourmand scent. This has become my go-to special occasion perfume and I bought the more travel-friendly 50ml size so it would be easier to take away for those special occasions.

Byredo fragrances sit at a more luxury price point with their EDPs costing £127 for a 50ml and £184 for a 100ml. I wasn’t actually sure what to expect from Byredo’s outer packaging but I do have to say it is what I’d expect, the brand is completely black and white and the liquid inside mostly clear. The fonts and bottles are the same throughout the brand and has that uniform feel, similar to the likes of Jo Malone or Diptique, simple and chic, and this echos onto the outer boxes. The box is a little larger than they need to be, but, that does add to that more luxurious effect, with a nice soft effect to the cardboard.

The bottle features a black heavy plastic cap in a domed shape, revealing a simple mister underneath featuring a touch of detail of the “B” emblazoned on the cap. Whilst I don’t believe that fragrance is necessarily Masculine or Feminine – I found it interesting that this is listed as unisex. I don’t usually feel myself drawn to fragrances marketed that way and find this one quite sweet. My partner on me has loved this fragrance since I first opened the hand cream, but when I asked him recently, would you wear it he also found it to lean feminine.

The top notes of this fragrance are Opoponax and Cognac – both warm, rich notes with an almost smokey note to both. Mid notes of Labdanum, Violet and Geranium offer a soft floral tone as the perfume when it starts to settle and create a balance within the perfume without being too prominent. With warm sweeter base notes of vanilla, coupled with patchouli and incense.

The floral notes are very subtle in this mix for me with the rich, spicy and vanilla notes being the most obvious. The dry down on Byredo Slow Dance is warm and soft. It’s a warm and sultry fragrance that I lean towards using most in the evening and as winter has come around it has been one that I’ve also been using more through the day too.

The wear time on this is really good and I find that it lasts 12 hours with quite distinctive prominence throughout the day and good scent throw. The notes left lingering at the end of the day on my skin are amber and vanilla, and I can still smell the fragrance on soft knits such as scarves in the days after application, a sign of a great perfume.

I found it interesting on reading up on the notes for my Byredo Slow Dance review, that Fragrantica seems to find this fragrance quite divisive, it seems to be a love or hate kind of fragrance depending on what notes are most prominent to your nose. So whilst I’ve firmly been in the love camp for this fragrance, maybe it is one that you need decide to smell before you buy. I recently bought the Gypsy Water Shower Gel from Byredo which is one of their most popular scents, and for me whilst I’m enjoying it in shower gel form as a treat – I would never buy that one as a perfume.

I’ve seen this compared to Byredo 1996 and I really want to go and try that one out now. I really have been loving this fragrance and I think this will be a firm favourite throughout winter for me and is everything I’d hoped my first Byredo fragrance would be.