Faux Semblant

Faux Semblant Givenchy Lovely Simplistically Made Bottle. Got attracted to by the notes breakdown. Found a bottle for a good price (made a lower bargain offer and buyer accepted after 2 weeks). Blind bought. On first test 2-3 sprays. I get the quality of the juice. Something tickles my nose a little with a sneeze or two, unsure what, wasn't bothered. Can feel good projection and good silage as I'm getting it strong. Today 7am full wear. Dare not overspray. Still a good amount, forehand, wrist, inner and outer arm, both sides of neck, back and front neck and clothes and pants. This is a Very Rich and Luxurious scent. Opening has incense but it's more than a support note. Angelica also support note. The prominent note is the intensive smelling orange blossom absolute. Don't go sniffing that too close as it tickles the nose buds. You definitely can get the honeyed note alongside the orange blossom. Incense+Angelica+morrocan orange blossom absolute+provencal honey. What does it gets you. A very rich luxury mature scent. May be challenging for less experienced noses. Kinda dirty, funky, earthy, seems like there's also patchouli in it. On drydown or as the heart shows itself, you get the Malayan oud and Australian white sandalwood coming in. Making this scent a polarizing scent, nice development. Initial thoughts on something with similar vibe is Jub25 but it's different. This is much more aromatic and quality. A very well made, luxury scent for a mature man looking for both formal and informal settings. I'm already liking this alot and will definitely wear this alot more

A remarkable - and challenging - scent. It's a sort of skanky floral. It opens with a burst of neroli/orange blossom, but other white flowers too, I'd say. It's initial behaviour reminded me of the aldehydic, floral joy of applying Lanvin Arpège (6'3",200lb guy here). I wasn't expecting that at all. It's not like the neroli found in countless men's classics, like 4711 or AdP Colonia (and its modern developments...). So...a slightly "femme" play on a trad "masc" scent which shocked at first, then satisfied. Then comes the big amber "fug", of incense, patchouli, leather (labdanum, I presume). This part of the scent behaves a bit like a vintage animalic, with real skank to it - which is 100% a compliment, by the way. It doesn't smell strictly alike any of these scents, but it's behaviour reminded me of Givenchy Gentleman (the still-in-production 1974 legend, not the modern iris bombs), Bal à Versailles, or Antaeus. I absolutely love it, but I can see that it might be a bit much for someone unfamiliar with vintage. Alternatively, it could be a doorway for them into perfume history... The nose for this is not listed, but it feels very "authored". It definitely was NOT the product of a marketing focus group.

My second favorite Amber. First being Dubai Amber. Don’t let the notes fool you, this is perhaps one of the most COMPLEX fragrance I’ve smelled. Whoever did this, DID this. All the notes are harmoniously blended to a point where no one note is doing the heavy lifting here. If i had to pick 4 notes that make me appreciate this the most, i would say: labdanum, honey, oud and sandalwood. That’s not to say the angelica and orange blossom and all the others aren’t front and center either. Those 4 are just what makes me appreciate this. Out of the ones I’ve smelled from this line, this is my favorite. What made me purchase this is i was looking for a more opulent and upscale version of Jasmin Exclusif. And although i see the link that made some concur that this smells similar to it (powerful white floral, patch, labdanum, oud, sandalwood...), this is TOTALLY unique. Although, i appreciate them both. That’s my two cents.

A follow up to my review below... I bought the Perfume Parlour dupe of this to have a small travel bottle. It's a very good copy! It is more straightforwardly wearable than the original - I think I might even prefer it. The PP version is less thick, heavy, sticky somehow, and thereby becomes more of an obvious "easy pleasure" to wear. This takes nothing away from the original, which is really an artwork of perfumery.

Wow! This perfume is crazy! There's a lot happening here. It's bold and you can certainly smell the floral aspects, but then theres everything else on top of it. I LOVE it, but it's not for everyone. Givenchy knows what they are doing and they are good at it.

This is just top the honey coming through after 12 hours ago and still going on this Givenchy collection gives u value for the money u spend

This is some very odd stuff, and it does smell excellent at the same time. Its like a middle eastern mystery unravelling in front of your nose. It hits you from a lot of angles. True niche stuff here in fact, this has a semi-animalic orange blossom and honey, and the incense hits you right away, next to the green angelica. This is dark, it requires a black suit and a black tie for sure, no doubt. Oud along with the amber gives you a dark, resinous base...man this just takes over you i swear. Its massive, almost gives me the feeling of when i first smelled Amouage's Interlude Man, or Chanel's Le Lion. If this was an image, imagine Tisci's rottweiler for Givenchy. Its dark, aggressive and uber-classy, yet complex...

This is absolutely divine, it's quite feminine leaning (I'm male) but I simply adore this. To me this has a strong rose not/accord in here, and almost feels like a rose/oud combo, however I think the honey is giving the sweetness and is absolutely lush. I've used this to layer with some other fragrances, like Amber Desire by Carolina Herrera and it works so well, and as a standalone is amazing as well, but it is so easy to layer. This the 4th I have from the line, and apart from Sans Merci, I think they are lovely, alongside the older line that is discontinued.

Not an easy perfume whatsoever. I'm intrigued by Faux Semblant but I do think I'm going to have to wash it off and switch to something else later in the day when I leave the house for some meetings/in-person work. I'm a huge admirer of the orange blossom coming through, which will always remind me of being in Marrakech, and the honey is surprisingly distinct here, too. The anamalic and oud notes are bold and dirty; not for everyday wear, but I'd love having this on while all dressed up in a dimly lit, expensive West Village restaurant on a very cold night

For starters I was obsessed with the notes on this and was about to blind buy it at that hefty 350+ price tag. It was just too much to pull that trigger, it was almost impossible to find in real life, but I finally found it in ATL! I happily sprayed it on with the hope that my gut was right..however my nose was accosted by one of the worst scents I have ever tried. I've seen other reviews saying this is a smoky dirty Orange Blossom...on me it was like a decaying zombified Orange Blossom, enveloped in motor oil. Now my body chemistry works frustratingly well with most fragrances (except Black Orchid, that smells like hot funky orchid death on me), the opening was green and bitter with a hint of smoke, (it wasn't amazing but I was intrigued) going into the mid that Spanish labdanum came out swinging with over the top leather that quickly became almost like inky motor oil on me (it was so bad I was gagging), slowly the patchouli emerged, followed by the honey, Orange Blossom and amber, then into a drydown that was absolutely lovely (the drydown was a beautiful but faint smoky Orange Blossom cream Sandalwood mix) It took about 4hrs to get to that drydown. The drydown was everything I wanted, but I am unwilling to suffer through the opening and mid. For those who say it is reminiscent of Kilian CSLY, while they have similar notes, CSLY pushes the Orange Blossom into the spotlight, and ends honey vanilla sweet and quickly might I add, it could've used another complex element, but it didn't make me gag and is quite fun to layer other fragrances with. So this was so long..it's just a hard fragrance to find in the states. This is definitely not a blind buy fragrance.

Complex, beautiful and difficult. Like some of the best things in life. This is a dense, sweet neroli and angelica scent with heavy dose of incense/Olibanum. The oud is there but is not skanky, it is very subdued, it feels like part of the "woody smoke" surrounding the heady florals. I think this has some myrrh somewhere. It starts very heavy but evolves into a smooth very wearable scent. Elegant, expensive smelling. I guess it's unisex but it feels a little bit masculine in the drydown.

Honeyed orange blossom dusted in sandalwood shavings, engulfed in a cloud of frankincense. I can detect the herbaceous etherealness of angelica with a very hushed oud, while patchouli is not detectable at all. A pleasant, but unusual blend I find similar to Amouage Lineage, only less dense and with the presence of flowers. A dirty orange blossom indeed.

This perfume is truly one of a kind and exudes a captivating, gothic elegance, perfect for a candlelit black tie event. It's one of the standout fragrances from Givenchy in this range. As a limited release, it's difficult to find outside of Europe. My local Givenchy store only had the 100ml bottle available, though I had hoped to purchase the 200ml.

A fragrance that hasn't even been released yet as far as I know and people are already on its case, 2.75/5 HOW ???!!!! where do you people get to sample unreleased fragrances to even come to a conclusion that it's already that bad ?????

Store Test Short Review: Intense indolic white florals and dirty woods combo, beautiful but is too intense with the honey that makes it quite mature.

I'd love this for Halloween. A smoky dirty orange blossom. As if someone wore an ambery orange blossom perfume and was smoking. Daring and strong.

Nice smooth ambery orange Reminds me of the OG Jubilation with that woody orange ambery honey combo. Or a less feminine PDM Safanad