BORNTOSTANDOUT
Dirty Rainbow

2024

PERFUMER
ALEX LEE

BLUE LAVENDER
RED SAFFRON
ORANGE BLOSSOM
PURPLE VIOLET
GREEN IVY
YELLOW PEACH

‘Inspired by the six colors of the Pride rainbow, this fragrance is a celebration in a bottle. Six colors, one powerful fragrance. A burst of yellow peach and red saffron leads, a joyful rebellion. Blue lavender, violet, and orange blossom— classic scents, made new, made bold. Earthy green ivy grounds the fragrance, adding depth and complexity. This isn’t just perfume; it’s a celebration of Pride, a symbol of courage and love. One spritz, and you’re wearing the rainbow, a reminder that you are beautiful, you are powerful, and you are not alone. (…) We are committed to using our voice to champion equality. To that end, 100% of the proceeds from this limited-edition release will be donated to organizations dedicated to advancing LGBTQ+ rights and awareness.’ – BornToStandOut

Dirty Rainbow sets off as an interesting fragrance, albeit not one that I would enjoy wearing. It kind of feels like random notes thrown together on my skin for the first minutes.

A saffron suede type scent is the key element here. Suede underpins the whole composition from start to finish in my testing.

Suede with an added fruitiness is not unusual in perfumery and there is a part of Dirty Rainbow that smells familiar. However, Dirty Rainbow doubles down on a more pungent, prominent fruity mix. Violet sticks out only in the beginning for me, a green vine-like quality and a nondescript fruit smoothie clash for space alongside the saffron.

This isn’t made better by its sweetness. As the wear progresses, there’s a strong sugary sweet quality to it. Highly unnatural sweet saffron and the fruity aspects fade away in an hour. Leaving me with a cheap smelling maltol-like sweetness and powdery suede drydown that I’ve smelled before and that’s too cloying to be wearable for me.

I was intrigued by it at first, but it ended up in a place that doesn’t work out.