L'Enfant Terrible

A new and expensive semi-blind buy. Will I ever learn? I wasn't expecting to pick up a full bottle of anything but I checked out the Collection Particulière at the Givenchy stand at my local Palacio de Hierro, caved in and bought a 100 ml bottle for retail. L'Enfant Terrible is undoubtedly adjacent to Imagination and the myriad of clones that exist of it, but unlike Imagination this is completely devoid of any soapiness. I own a bottle of Full House from Jo Milano's Game of Spades line, which I consider a more citrusy and less soapy version of the Imagination DNA, and L'Enfant Terrible isn't too different from Full House to my nose but I'll definitely have to make a side by side test to compare both. What I can say is that the tea note from L'Enfant Terrible doesn't go an inch over the edge into a very, very mildly spicy side like Full House does in my opinion. This unfortunately uses Amber Xtreme but I understand it has to in order to achieve a decent longevity, and unlike other fragrances that use this molecule (Enclave, Lustre, Luna Rossa Ocean Le Parfum, etc.) L'Enfant Terrible doesn't dry down to smell like just Amber Xtreme and nothing more, there's still some tea and ginger in there, and for that I'll be lenient towards this fragrance (as well as the fact I can't return it even if it was still sealed). Surprisingly once the Amber Xtreme fades the tea and ginger are still there but already pretty weak, I don't suspect it'll last much longer. This makes my Full House beyond redundant so I'll be selling that bottle now. Performance is alright, nothing insane for a freshie but thankfully it's not short lived either. I thought projection was moderate leaning to intimate at first but once my skin got warmed up from being in the car this started to bloom and projection improved, leaning more towards the strong side. Sillage also became more dense as a result, this is a somewhat dense fragrance during the opening hour, then lighter during the second, then down to occasional whiffs every now and then. Longevity is almost 7 hours, still detectable on skin. (UPDATE: Spray this on more heavily and it'll last 12 hours with ease and project rather strongly, although sillage won't be super dense, this is no Amouage). The saleswoman was kind enough to gift me samples of the new release Inséparables as well as making me samples of Sans Merci, Équivoque, Garçon Manqué and Trouble-Fête, so I'll be trying out more fragrances from the Collection Particulière soon.

I'm going to start off by admitting that this will be a pretty biased review as this was the fragrance I bought in Japan to associate memories of my first trip there. Chose this over Soie Malaquais (lowkey regret not copping) as I had to account for AFTER the trip and this frag is just much more versatile and suitable for the heat of Southeast Asia. Scent: For those saying that it's very similar to Imagination... I mean I guess I can kind of see it but it's just way less soapy and more of this citrusy, zingy tea frag that soothes the nerves. Smells uber high quality for how almost basic this fragrance comes off but it just gets the job or basically any job done. Would prefer more depth for it to be perfect but oh well, it dries down into this nice ginger tea-like muskiness where the spice gets mostly muted which is the way I like it. Performance: For a freshie I was pretty surprised how long this lasted on me, basically lasted me most of the days out in Japan even though it pulls back at around the 6 hour mark and just becomes a musky skin scent. Not beast mode but it does outpunch many others in this category. Versatility: VERSATILE MONSTER. Want to smell clean? Done. Don't want to think about which frag to use as your SOTD? Just rock L'Enfant Terrible. Any occasion, any weather, you will simply smell ready and well put together. Isn't that all we're truly trying to achieve? Scent: 9.5/10 Performance: 7/10 Versatility: 10/10 Personal Score: 9.5/10 As much as I'd love to give my Japan scent a 10/10, it simply just lacks a little depth to it for me to think that this was a masterpiece of a purchase especially at that steep price Givenchy charges for their private lines. Still, it's an amazing dumb reach and high quality fragrance that you can literally smell in the air.

Review #200. Hard to believe it’s been that many reviews, but here we are taking a look at a very hyped, popular discussion around L’enfant Terrible. I love Imagination, so I naturally got excited when I heard and saw the discussions around this resembling that fragrance. The opening of this is fairly tea, ginger and bergamot forward. More zing from the bergamot than the others, which is a different characteristic than original imagination. However the mid takes on more of the ginger and tea and without a doubt starts to resemble the imagination. However there are slight differences in feel and character. The tea note feels almost more amped up here. I have to say, this smells freaking amazing. It’s moving off of my hand from the little dabble I dropped on it. I got this from the 10ml givenchy discovery set and I know I’ll burn through this in no time. A nice twist on a nice dna right now.

Solid soapy/ginger/tea fragrance. I get the correlation between this and Imagination, but to me, L’Enfant Terrible has much stronger tea and ginger notes that stay in the forefront while the soapiness plays as the supporting role. I’m not sure if I’m going nose blind or what but I can only smell this on my skin for about 3-5 hours. On clothes it’ll go for about 5-6 before almost becoming unnoticeable. This aspect of the fragrance is quite upsetting considering the price tag ($345 for 100ml) and scent profile seeing as I quite enjoy the way it smells. I’m going to let it sit for a couple weeks to a month and see how well it performs at a later date while also getting some outside opinions to check and make sure I’m not just going nose blind. Overall a solid fragrance but as of now it sits at a 8.2/10 due to performance and price tag. If it performed better, this could easily be a 9.2-9.6

I’ve had this a few days now in 100ml and worn everyday for a review. Now I haven’t smelt LV imagination but I have purchased Al Haramain Aqua Dubai and worn it as a daily for gym/work as a cheap easy everyday reach. On the opening I literally thought it’s a 1 for 1 on Aqua Dubai so must be like imagination... citrus / soapy... But after 5-10 mins on the dry down things change between the two. The clone stays soapy while L’Enfant goes fresh spicy... black tea and ginger comes through. It’s not the loudest or has the greatest sillage moderate in both ends. It’s definitely inspired by LV imagination with its own blend of perfumery which I give a thumbs up too. So personally I love it... not groundbreaking new scent but a alternative... Il let it sit for few weeks to see if turns up a little and update.