Insense

Update: This has been in my top 5 for a few years now. I wrote about the florals and fruity accord. I want to say this is rich and woody also, with the amber and pine notes. That's what makes it so versatile, and nice any time of the year. It has weight and is very masculine. In my opinion is the #1 mens floral woody of the past 50 years. The Basil note is much stronger than shown in fragrantica pyramid. My two vintage (tester) bottles say Ambered. A wonderful chord is struck here, the earthy warmth of Basil and Amber, with the bright and realistic Lilly of the valley. My Mom was a florist and as kids she asked us to go in the woods and pick Lilly of the valley for her wedding personal bouquets. As kids we thought the Lilly of the valley flowers were the best smelling of them all. What I can say about the floral scent has not been said. I used to go with my Mom to the flower wholesalers in down town Manhattan. What you smelled inside were the green stems of the flowers as well as the floral smell, 50/50%. That's what Insense smells like mostly green floral notes, like the stems of cut flowers. Lush realistic florals with an undertone of a mossy/ basil accord. Pungently delicious. One reviewer discribed it as a blend of Paco Rabanne pour homme (vintage) and Chanel No 5. My first impression was, that description is quite accurate. I find it less feminine as many have discribed and more green than I expected from the reviews. The 4 flower notes used, give a more green floral scent, than traditional feminine florals. The olfactory floral arrangement is uniquely pleasant, just perfect. The black currant note is not so fruity but ammoniac like note, but with the mandarin orange and aldehydes make for a bright and pleasant fruity accord. There is a gloomy aldehydic tart/ greeness with a fruity, piney, lilly of the valley breez permiating. There is an important note here not listed, but in basenotes. It is the white resin from the mediteranian Lentiscus shrub. ( piney) Wearing this, I feel I'm on a nostalgic journey to a wonderfull place in a time gone by. "A tremendous balance between cleanness and mystery", alfarom. A classic masterpiece of perfumery, never feels dated in a negative way. Like a classic Porsche, with timeless lines. I was on a bike trip through the woods last week to York PA. Miles of honey suckle bushes just filling the air with wild flowers and greeness, it smelled so good and reminded me of " Insense'". Rating: 10/10. 1993 + 2000 editions. ( vintage) God bless you. John 3:16

I shit you not, my entire 6th grade class in middle school were each given bottles of this as a sort of "Growing up" starter pack by one of the kids' parents. I had no idea what Givenchy was until I brought it home and my mother told me. I had no idea what any sort of categories of fragrances were, notes, etc. I thought things just smelled like "cologne". Growing up I sprayed this on myself in middle/high school every now and then and identified *this* scent as my benchmark of what men's fragrances smelled like. I never used it much, but it was an indelible part of my scent memory. Fast forward to when I finally had more than a basic designer offering interest in fragrances and I went back to my parents' house to grab this out of the cupboard in my old bathroom. Needless to say I was shocked to read the modern opinions of this fragrance, its scarcity, and its desirability; and here I was with a 90% full bottle. The initial blast of citrus notes isn't long lived, rather it quickly gets into the aldehydes and the lily of the valley to me, with the fir playing a sharp undertone to the whole fragrance. I don't get much of the fir in the projection of it, but when you get close it is there, and it is pungent. The lavender softens things a little bit, but not to a large degree. I get decent projection, and better than average staying power - with the fragrance staying at least detectable on skin past 8 hours. To those who grew up with more classic oakmoss forward fougeres or chypres defining masculine fragrances, this was what defined it for me as I grew from an adolescent into a young adult. I thought this was what all older men smelled like when they put on "cologne" - so when I really got into fragrances and was told the 70s/80s idea of "masculine" fragrances was quite different, it was a bit of a shock to me and something I didn't quite understand as I smelled all of the classic fougeres of that time period which had nothing, or very little, to do with Insense. I only wish Insense's style caught on somewhere, because after this bottle is gone, I doubt I'll see something quite similar to it again.

Looking at Givenchy's current masculines, it's hard to believe that the same house gave us Insensé (fr. "insane"), one of the most creative and acclaimed perfumes of all time. Hell, I don't even particularly like how Insensé smells, but I can easily see why it is considered one of the best masculines ever made. People often describe it as "medieval", which is spot-on: A truly other-worldly concoction, constructed from modern synthetics, but following a recipe handed down from King Arthur's times. You could spend hours marvelling at how the alchemist shifted the boundaries of fougère and chypre, combining familiar elements into something unique and unsettling we haven't seen before or since. Insensé isn't just a towering creative accomplishment, but also a fascinating historical artifact. Its commercial failure is an indictment of how men relate to fragrance and, by extension, to their own masculinity. Givenchy's advertisers admirably tried to challenge the stupidity of conventional fragrance ads, but they failed to consider a central character trait of men: Insecurity. Insensé's ads featured a lovestruck young man running around in a gale of flower petals, a bouquet in his hand. No submissive bimbos gyrating in the background, no hunky guys fixating viewers with looks of anger and repressed constipation. Men's response was apprehensive: Flowers? Love? Chivalry? What kind of insane woman would want that from a man? Unsurprisingly, it flopped. Insensé, together with the equally brilliant Feu d'Issey, was the swan song of mainstream perfumery, handing the creative reins over to the emerging niche firms. There have been other novel mainstream fragrances since, but none have come even remotely close to Insensé's audacity. It's getting harder and harder to find the original edition at a reasonable price, but should you be so lucky, do yourself a favour and just buy it. Even if you end up disliking Insensé - smelling it will make you wiser, more open, and a better human being.

According to Givenchy, the notes are as follows- TOP: black currant, mandarin, basil HEART: magnolia, muguet, iris, lentiscus BASE: Fir balsam resin It was released as a male conterpart to Amarige, and was a bit unusual for the time as it was mostly floral. Being a big fan of this House, I was quite happy when a friend gave me a 7.5 ml mini of this (likely from the late 90s) that he thought had "turned"; luckily for me, it had not. One of the things I have noticed about "vintages" and older scents is aldehydes can often smell almost sour in the bottle, or even bitingly bitter; but after the juice hits the skin, the aldehydes disapate and all you have left is absolute lovliness... The opening is very aldehydic, but immediately transforms (in under a minute) to something tart and sweet and warmly green. Almost edible in its deliciousness, Insense transforms from something interesting to something divine when the flowers appear. Subtly sweet magnolia and cool iris and sheer green lily of the valley create a lovely floral green accord that becomes uniquely gorgeous when the lentiscus appears. Lentiscus is another name for mastic gum, an aromatic resin from an evergreen tree in the pistachio family. It was used as everything from medicine, to a breath freshener (when chewed) and (A Ha!) incense. An amazingly resinous sweet and non-camphorous resin...it really catches the idea of incense and smokiness without the heat of "burning". On me, the mastic note runs over the flowers, but you don't hear me complaining...this is AWESOME! The drydown stays resiny and gets a bit more aromatic and heavy with the balsam fir resin, but does NOT smell sappy or sticky; just aromatic. Amazing!! Sillage: very good Longevity: excellent Overall: 4.75/5 Givenchy always does things nicely, but this (along with many of their older perfumes) resonates quality, class and depth. Unlike anything on the market today, THIS is worth searching out, and investing in, for sure! Exceptional...

I wore this way back in 1993/1994, it was a christmas or a birthday gift (both are preaty close to each other). I was 16 going to 17. I start enjoying perfums because of my father. I ́m turning 49 next month and I ́m lucky to still have him with me. Never paid much attention to the fact brands discontinue perfums, because I think never a perfume reminded me so much of a time that I ́d like to return to and start my life all over again from there and undo so many things and do others so much more. Not even the great Photo by Lagerfeld, or all those that Aramis stop selling, not Fahrenheit 32 or Fahrenheit Absolute by Dior, not Jazz or Rive Gauche by YSL, not V from Valentino, nor Solo Absoluto from Loewe or T by Tommy Hilfiger and so many, many others. Today? Well, flankers, flankers and more flankers and elixirs. Poor in longevity and sillage. Dog crap, the lot of them. Perfums that I wouldn't with a barge pole. I was able to buy again Insensé. A guy (THANKS!!!!) read my previous comment and tip me off about a spanish site that still carries it. I bought a 50ml, paid almost € 100, but f.....it. Thank Lord I can afford it. I sprayed a little bit in my hand and right way the olfactory memory kicked in: floral, citrus, spicy. Heaven. Remarkable how the olfactory memory works. I think I ́m going to save this and I ́m only going the put the one time. Yes, I ́m going just to use one time and then I ́m going to put it way and wait another 30 years or so and when I ́m in my 80 ́s i can remember the lost opportunities, the missed chances, the fuck ups and think how wrong I was for being that guy. Be kind, be gentil, live well and but do live goddam! I ́m almost 49 and I missed out so much in my life because I was affraid, insecure and took refuge in a build up personality just to hide my insecurities. From Ferris Bueller's Day Off : "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it". So true, goddam!