SOTD: Dunhill Icon Racing Blue · Brotherhood Of Scent

Nov '25 (edited) • SOTD 🍊

SOTD: Dunhill Icon Racing Blue

Good morming brothers!

Finished going through my sample of Dunhill Icon Racing Blue.

Ok, this was a funny one. I had no interest on this one, nor had taken a look much into Dunhill fragrances, even though I wanted but was not a priority. But I needed an extra decant to unlock the next tier order-discount on perfuum, and this one was on Clearance sale for like $1.60, so added it.

Dunhill fragrances have a special meaning for me, as my fathers last signature fragrance was Dunhill Desire Blue.

As it was a random decant I added, I hadn't even researched anything on it. Looking at the note breakdown, the fragrance came out nowehere near to what I expected. It took me 5 seconds to immediately tell what I was picking up: D&G The One DNA. A rather big twist to it, but to me, unmistakable. That's when I started looking into the fragrance online, and found plenty of reports that it came out like that. Good, I'm not crazy yet. And now, I started seeing several notes being shared between the two, just being declared somewhere different.

However, it's a considerably fresher The One for me. A somewhat more citrusy, marine version of The One. On the opening, I feel the citrus more clearly over The One, instead of the more cardamom forward take. The lemon and bergamot shine more compared to the grapefruit. There's already a hint of a saltiness there as well.

On the mid and as it dries down, it's where it turns into even more The One. Both have cardamom, Racing declares nerolli instead of orange blossom, and the Coriander The One declares in the opening, is found in the mid in the Dunhill. As it dries down, it's even more evident that it can be seen as a marine, fresher The One.

As it finishes drying down, they do start differing to one another, but not by that much. The ambery and tobacco notes are of course non-existent on the Dunhill, instead drying up as a salty, woody but slightly greener fragrance, but still somewhat reminiscent of The One.

Performance on Icon Racing Blue is solid enough. During the first hour, I feel it projects very well, with a nice sillage. As it starts drying down, it tones down rather considerably into a more, not full-blown skin scent. The thing is, even after 6-7 hours, I still pick it up from me clearly enough. Ambroxan also declared on Icon, so maybe that's it's trick.

My problem with The One EDP, as many others, is the performance. Love it, but it's just too short-lived on me. Icon Racing Blue fixes that rather well enough on me.

So, a fresher, marin-er The One, with measurably better performance? Costing half as much (at time of writting, $29.99 for 100ml at Jomashop, and can be found cheaper)? Oh boy.

Note, it seems Dunhill has discontinued their fragrance line, so anything Dunhill fragrance may start becoming more difficult to find.

Conclusion:

Do I like it? Loved it.

Did I enjoy the decant? Absolutely.

Full bottle worthy, for me? The impact D&G The One had is undeniable. This comes out as a version of it that much better suits my preferences. I'd always still recommend sampling, but for me, full bottle-worthy. Mine is almost here.

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