I bought one of these and noticed that it smelled very strongly of alcohol, more than typical perfumes and previous bottles I'd purchased on this scent before. I saw some reviews on here also noting the same issue and wondering if this product had been mishandled or even counterfeit. So I decided to order a second bottle from reputable, major beauty retailer to compare to the bottle I got off Amazon.
I can now safely say that the scent being overpowered by alcohol and weaker upon dry down than old bottles seems to be the way the product is and has nothing to do with the Amazon seller. Both of my bottles had this issue. Either the product is more heavily alcohol based than it used to be, or the perfume becomes more concentrated due to evaporation and exposure the longer it is out of packaging, leaving us with the impression that the newer bottles are inferior in scent by the time we replace our old bottles. I'm not sure which is the case, but I do know my last bottle seemed stronger and thicker when it came close to needing a replacement.
With that being said, this is one of my favorite perfumes. Like everyone else, I've sniffed hundreds of perfumes and most of them are completely unmemorable. I'm going to be 30 next month and still remember where I was the first time I smelled Dead Sexy at 19 and the impression it left on me. It was so sharp at first that I found it mildly offensive, so I didn't buy it (also I was broke lol). But I couldn't stop thinking about it. I occasionally pick up a bottle since those (almost) 11 years, and have even shared the scent with my husband as it's actually a very unisex scent.
This isn't for everyone- I've seen the smell described as plastic, burned, polish, etc. In my opinion, the sharpness is more "medicinal", but it's the bit of kick at the beginning that makes the scent memorable and prevents it from being just a standard warm vanilla scent. Most of my perfumes are very feminine, so I think this one is pretty unique to be so unisex but still able to capture my attention. When I wear this I feel a bit more powerful.