There are five Dior fragrances called Sauvage you can buy on Amazon right now — an Eau de Toilette, an Eau de Parfum, a Parfum, an Elixir and the alcohol-free Eau Forte — and most people assume they are one scent at five strengths. They are not. The EDT and EDP are close relatives, the Parfum is a smoother cousin, and the Elixir and Eau Forte are different fragrances that happen to share a name. Buying the wrong one is an expensive way to find that out.
The short answer
Buy the EDT if this is your first Sauvage, or if you want the version everyone means when they say the name: bright, peppery, clean and easy to wear most of the year. Buy the EDP if you like the EDT but want it warmer and a little sweeter for cold weather. Buy the Elixir if you want the best-performing and most distinctive bottle in the family and are happy with a heavy, spicy, cold-weather fragrance. Buy the Parfum if you want Sauvage smoother and quieter, for an office. Skip Eau Forte unless an alcohol-free formula is the specific thing you are after.
How we ranked them
The criteria come first, because "the best Sauvage" means nothing without them. We weighed four things, in this order:
- Versatility. How many seasons, rooms and occasions the version works in. A bottle you can wear most days beats one you reach for twice a winter.
- What owners actually report. Community scent, longevity and sillage scores from Parfumo and overall ratings from Fragrantica, along with how many votes sit behind each — thousands for the older versions, a few hundred for the newest.
- Cost per milliliter. Worked out from live Amazon prices in the table further down, because Sauvage is sold in very different bottle sizes.
- How far it drifts from Sauvage. If it is the Sauvage smell you are paying for, a version that smells like something else is a risk, however good it is.
We did not run a lab test and we have not worn every batch. The scores on the cards below are judgments from this compiled research, as our how we review page explains, and where a claim came from someone else we name them.
The five versions at a glance
Dior's own US Sauvage collection page puts an intensity score on each version. The archived copy we read, from August 2026, scores the EDT 2, the EDP 3, the Parfum 4 and the Elixir 5 out of 5, and Dior's product labels call Eau Forte "very strong". The owner scores are Parfumo community averages out of 10.
| Version | Launched | Dior intensity | Headline notes | Owner longevity / sillage |
|---|
| EDT | 2015 | 2 of 5 | Calabrian bergamot, Sichuan pepper, lavender, ambroxan | 7.8 / 7.7 |
| EDP | 2018 | 3 of 5 | Bergamot, star anise, nutmeg, ambroxan, vanilla | 8.0 / 7.8 |
| Parfum | 2019 | 4 of 5 | Mandarin, bergamot, sandalwood, tonka, vanilla | 7.9 / 7.4 |
| Elixir | 2021 | 5 of 5 | Nutmeg, cinnamon, cardamom, lavender, licorice, patchouli, vetiver | 9.1 / 8.8 |
| Eau Forte | 2024 | "Very strong" | Spices, elemi, lavender, musk, woods | 6.6 / 5.9 |
| Extrait (not ranked) | 2026 | 5 of 5 | Lavender, ambroxan, oud, cedar, vetiver, patchouli | 9.1 / 8.8 |
Two caveats on that table. Fragrantica and Parfumo do not list identical notes for any Sauvage, so we have shown the notes both databases agree on — except for Extrait, which comes from Fragrantica alone. And the number of owners behind each score varies enormously: roughly 6,200 longevity ratings for the EDT, about 4,000 for the Elixir, 3,100 for the EDP, just under 1,000 for the Parfum, and fewer than 400 each for Eau Forte and the new Extrait. Treat those last two as early readings.
Sauvage EDT: the reference point
The 2015 original, composed by François Demachy, is the Sauvage everything else gets measured against — including every clone on our Sauvage dupes page. Dior describes a "strong gust of citrus" anchored by "the ambery nobleness of ambroxan, resinous elemi and woods". In practice that means juicy bergamot and a peppery bite over a big, clean, radiant base that projects hard for the first few hours.
Dior calls the EDT "the original and lightest interpretation" of the collection and says it typically lasts six to eight hours on skin, which matches the owner consensus in our full Dior Sauvage review. "Lightest" is relative, though: Parfumo owners score its sillage a hair below the EDP's (7.7 against 7.8) and above the Parfum's (7.4). What the EDT lacks is warmth rather than strength, and warmth is exactly what the next versions add. With more than 34,000 votes it is also by far the most-rated Sauvage on Fragrantica — and, at 3.85 out of 5, the lowest-rated of the four classic versions. Popularity and enthusiasm are not the same thing.
Sauvage EDP: warmer, and not as much louder as the label suggests
The 2018 Eau de Parfum keeps the bergamot and the ambroxan and adds, in Fragrantica's words, "warm, oriental tones of star anise, nutmeg and papua vanilla". Dior's own copy leans on a "Papua New Guinean vanilla extract accord". The result is the same Sauvage with the sharp edges sanded down: rounder, sweeter and cozier, and a more natural fit for fall and winter evenings.
Whether it lasts meaningfully longer is where the sources split. Dior calls the EDP "stronger, more sensual and longer-lasting" than the EDT. Parfumo's owners barely separate the two — 8.0 for longevity against the EDT's 7.8. And Fragrantica's reviewer Dr. Marlen Elliot Harrison wrote that after the first hour the EDP "seems a little quieter than the original EDT." Buy it for the warmer character, not on the assumption that it will double your wear time. Plenty of people do simply prefer the smell: the Fragrantica community rates it 4.21 out of 5, well above the EDT.
Sauvage Parfum: the smooth one
The 2019 Parfum is where Sauvage gets polished. Dior describes "the fervent freshness of spicy mandarin" and "the smooth trail of tonka bean and creamy sandalwood", and that swap — mandarin and sandalwood in place of the EDT's sharper pepper-and-ambroxan signature — is the whole story. It is the least aggressive Sauvage and the one least likely to announce itself as Sauvage from across a room.
That smoothness has a cost the label hides. Dior scores the Parfum a 4 on its intensity scale, above the EDP, yet Parfumo owners give it the lowest sillage of the four classic versions, and its longevity score (7.9) sits with the EDT and EDP rather than above them. If you bought it expecting the loudest Sauvage after the Elixir, you would be disappointed. If you want a Sauvage for meetings and close quarters, it is the most refined answer, and the men's style site Man For Himself points out that its "brighter, orange opening" also makes it work as a more summery fragrance.
Sauvage Elixir: a different fragrance with the same name
The 2021 Elixir is the version that breaks from the family. Where the EDT is fresh and peppery, the Elixir opens on nutmeg, cinnamon, cardamom and grapefruit, settles on a heart of lavender, and dries down to licorice, patchouli, amber and vetiver. The UK blog Michael 84 summed up the shift: while the EDT is fresh spicy, "Sauvage Elixir is more of a warm spicy style of scent." Fragrantica contributor Eddie Bulliqi called it "an altogether bolder and more distinctive project, delivering on both performance and innovation."
It is also the best performer in the line on every number we could find. Parfumo owners score its longevity 9.1 and its sillage 8.8, from close to 4,000 ratings each — well clear of the EDP's 8.0 and 7.8. It is the highest-rated Sauvage on Fragrantica, at 4.30 out of 5 from more than 19,000 votes, and Parfumo records that it won the Fragrance Foundation's 2022 "Fragrance of the Year – Men's Luxury" award. The Michael 84 review reports still smelling it more than ten hours after applying.
The catches are real. It comes in smaller bottles, and among the full bottles on this page it was the most expensive per milliliter when we checked. At least one Fragrantica owner review warns that it "will be cloying in heat", and several owners there complain that recent batches feel weaker than early ones — a claim we cannot verify, but one worth knowing before you pay full price. If you want to find out whether it suits you first, the 7.5 ml mini in the price table below is the low-commitment way in.
Sauvage Eau Forte: the alcohol-free experiment
Eau Forte, launched in 2024, was composed by Francis Kurkdjian rather than François Demachy, who made the four versions above, and it contains no alcohol at all. Dior's product copy, as carried by Ulta, calls it "water-based and alcohol-free" and credits "innovative nano-emulsion technology exclusive to Dior" for a "highly concentrated fragrance with a unique milky composition." Fragrantica quotes Kurkdjian directly: "I abandoned the traditional citrus notes of lemon and bergamot and used cold spices." What you get is lavender, elemi and spice over musky woods, sprayed as a thicker, milky mist.
It is also the most divisive thing Dior has done with the name. Owners are unkind: 2.44 out of 5 on Fragrantica from nearly 3,000 votes, and on Parfumo 5.8 for scent, 6.6 for longevity, 5.9 for sillage and 4.5 for value — the lowest in the family on every count. Critics split. Bulliqi found it "very strong and enjoyable" and wrote, "I smell Sauvage mashed up with Fahrenheit." Fragrantica's Miguel Matos found "almost nothing of the original Sauvage inside," while adding that longevity "was good on my skin, despite many comments of our readers that say it is short-lived." It earns its place here as an honest fifth: interesting, genuinely different, and the one to skip unless the formula itself is the point.
What about Sauvage Extrait?
Dior added a sixth version in 2026. V Magazine reported Sauvage Extrait as "the first Extrait de Parfum in the Sauvage collection", again by Kurkdjian, and Fragrantica lists lavender, ambroxan and bergamot over Vietnamese oud, two cedars, vetiver and patchouli. Dior's own page calls it a "denser and more woody interpretation of Sauvage". Its early Parfumo scores match the Elixir for longevity and sillage, from a few hundred ratings. We have not ranked it because we could not find an Amazon listing for it when we checked in September 2026, and we only rank bottles you can actually buy through the links on this page.
Price per milliliter
Sauvage is sold in very different bottle sizes, which makes sticker prices misleading: the EDP listing below is a 200 ml bottle, while the Elixir comes in 60 ml. The per-milliliter column is the fair comparison. The last column is our call on how close each version smells to the original EDT, which matters if it is the Sauvage smell you are paying for.
| Bottle | Size | Price | Per ml | Close to the EDT? |
|---|
| Dior Sauvage EDT — the originalBright, peppery and ambroxan-led. Listed here in the 100 ml size. | 100 ml | $133.34 | $1.33 | The reference |
| Dior Sauvage EDPThe same skeleton with vanilla and spice. Listed in the 200 ml size, which flatters its per-ml cost. | 200 ml | $215.98 | $1.08 | Close, but warmer |
| Dior Sauvage ParfumMandarin and sandalwood soften the signature. Quieter than its label suggests. | 100 ml | $159.99 | $1.60 | Related, smoother |
| Dior Sauvage ElixirWarm spice, lavender and licorice. The best performer in the family, in a 60 ml bottle. | 60 ml | $167.24 | $2.79 | A different scent |
| Dior Sauvage Elixir 7.5 ml MiniThe same Elixir in 7.5 ml. Expensive per ml, cheap to try. | 7.5 ml | $42.65 | $5.69 | A different scent |
| Dior Sauvage Eau ForteAlcohol-free lavender and musk. The lowest-rated version among owners. | 100 ml | $138.91 | $1.39 | Barely related |
#ad · Prices are live from the Amazon Product API, as of Sep 15, 2026, and per-milliliter is calculated from them. Where we have no verified live price we show a dash rather than a number that has rotted. Closeness calls are our editorial judgment, not lab measurements.
How Sauvage compares with the rest of Dior's men's line
A question people ask a lot is how Sauvage stacks up for intensity and boldness against Dior's other men's fragrances. Dior answers part of it itself. On the product labels in its US store (archived copies from 2026), the Sauvage EDT is rated "Medium" — the same as Eau Sauvage and Dior Homme Sport — while the Sauvage EDP and Dior Homme Intense are both "Strong" and Dior Homme Cologne is "Low". The Sauvage Parfum and Eau Forte are labeled "Very strong", and the Elixir sits at the top of Dior's scale. So by the house's own measure, the EDT everyone wears is the middle of the range, not the bold end of it.
Owner data tells a similar story. On Parfumo, Dior Homme Intense scores 8.2 for longevity and 7.9 for sillage, and Fahrenheit 7.9 and 7.7 — both level with or slightly ahead of the Sauvage EDT's 7.8 and 7.7. The 2020 Dior Homme is softer, at 7.2 and 6.8, and the 1966 Eau Sauvage — a separate fragrance from a different collection, despite the name — is the gentlest of the lot at 6.5 and 6.3. Only Sauvage Elixir and the new Extrait, at 9.1 and 8.8, clearly out-perform every other Dior men's fragrance we looked at. Boldness is not only volume, though: Fahrenheit's smoky leather is a far more unusual smell than any Sauvage, and Homme Intense's powdery iris is more polarizing.
The woody note, version by version
The other common question is how the woody side of Sauvage compares with Dior's woody fragrances. The honest answer is that Sauvage is not a woody fragrance in the way Dior Homme or Fahrenheit are. In the EDT the wood is mostly an impression carried by ambroxan — Dior's own phrase is "the raw trail of ambery marine wood" — with cedar and labdanum in Fragrantica's base notes and vetiver and patchouli further up. Fragrantica lists no woods at all in the EDP's base, just ambroxan and vanilla. The woods get more literal as you climb: the Parfum brings in sandalwood (plus cedar, per Parfumo), the Elixir licorice, patchouli, Haitian vetiver and, per Fragrantica, sandalwood, and the new Extrait two cedars, vetiver, patchouli and oud.
Dior's dedicated woody fragrances are doing something different. Dior Homme Intense puts powdery iris over what Dior calls "a precious warm cedarwood base". The 2020 Dior Homme is described as "the strength of Atlas cedar" mingling "with warm Haitian vetiver", and reads fresher and drier. Fahrenheit, from 1988, is "a surprising blend of masculine Wood and Leather notes" with a smoky character no Sauvage shares. If it is the wood in Sauvage you like, the Parfum or Elixir gets you more of it; if you want wood to be the main event, Dior Homme or Homme Intense is the better bottle.
