L'Interdit

this is my first review here. L'interdit was my signature scent for years until it ran out of stock here in Finland. It is my all time favorite ever to exist. The original eau de parfum has not been available since the 80's. I have only had eau de toilettes since then. My last bottle of the original ran out before the year 2000. I have now gotten bottles of the Les Mythiques 2007 version on Ebay. The price and availability of that is also not good any more. So I am on a long and hard quest for something like this as a signature scent in the future. The best part of this for me is the wonderful old fashioned powderiness of the drydown. L'interdit is a subtle soft sensual scent on me. It never gives me a migraine. I love it at all times of the day and year. It is great for work, play and everything. The eau de toilette does not have a lot of staying power. That is its major con. If anyone suggest a new signature scent for a L'interdit lover I am open to suggestions. I also like the original Ferre by ferre but that feels a bit overpowering sometimes. And also a discontinued hard to find scent.

Enchanting. I sought out a sample of L'Interdit because of Audrey Hepburn, and I've been in love with it ever since. I am now fortunate enough to own a bottle and I consider this the gem of my tiny collection. Givenchy really has captured the essence of a stylish Hepburn, as this is elegant, graceful and feminine. I understand why she loved it so much. The opening is characterised by soft, soapy aldehydes, followed by the sweetest, most beautiful strawberry you can imagine. The strawberry in this perfume is my absolute favourite. The warmth of my skin then brings out a softly sweet peach, before the heart of a feather-weight floral powder, which is so incredibly delicate, and a beautiful, creamy sandalwood-amber dry-down to finish. I consider this the most perfect "posh hand cream scent" I've ever encountered. It settles very well on my skin, and is never too overwhelming, impeccably well-blended and quintessentially French. Soft to moderate sillage, longevity is for about 6 hours. Love.

French feminine wiles in iconic Givenchy style. Beautiful for spring with her powdery iris rose. Thus has a gentle soul. Not many perfumes can capture this delicacy. The parfum is a little tricky, too much you get nail polish. The lightest hand you get all her fabulous notes. Again back to her theme of gentleness and delicacy. The parfum has an oily quality about it for adherence. The edt is slightly lighter but the fragrance is similar to one another. The drydown with the powdery sandalwood is wonderful in the EDP. Not to be missed. L'interdit focuses around the fruity aldehyde opening, then revolves around a powdery violet/starchy orris and ylang ylang to give it body. Its probably the first :Lipstick: type of scent. The drydown is beautiful with the real mysore sandalwood. If you can find a bottle in relatively decent shape, go for it but my buying history with it is half of the aldyhydes have turned by now giving it that hairspray effect. Make sure to try to go after a sealed box.

An incredibly beautiful fragrance. I'm fortunate I guess, as I've never gotten any sort of nail polish scent from it, and the opening aldehydes that seem harsh to many younger reviewers make my heart beat faster. I have the parfum in the bright red presentation boxes and pre-barcode edts in the gold boxes with the flower stems on them. Very, very softly aldehydic - much, much less than Arpege, Chanel, Caleche. Well blended florals - I can think hard and pick things out but overall it's just the impression of lovely soft flowers to me. I don't get any dominant rose, iris or violet. The strawberry notes are lovely and strong, and there's some peach that dances through at times. Gorgeous creamy sandalwood, amber and orris make a powdery drydown to die for. While I believe that perfume has no gender L'Interdit feels so very feminine to me. This is one of the greats that I've replaced every time I've used up a bottle.

I purchased this about a week ago. The store had no cards to spray so I tried it on my wrist. Out of all the fragrances I tried on different areas of my arms, this was the one I kept going back to. I didn't read up on it before trying it because seeing woods puts me straight off. The sandalwood in this is just about bearable. It reminds me of Balenciaga Rumba which gives me a sick migraine every time I sniff it - although all I have to do these days is think of it and I feel queasy. Having said that, this works well with the florals. Along with strong sandalwood I get strong nose tickling aldehydes which I have to be in the mood for. On paper, I'd have walked straight past it but the pretty fruity florals persevere and are well worth the small negatives I've mentioned. On my wrist, the sandalwood and aldehydes are even more tolerable. This has challenged me and I love it for that.

Exquisite! I adore L'Interdit. I am the proud owner of a vintage bottle, like the one above in the picture. It's a gorgeous bottle. It's a gorgeous perfume. It's the most beautiful florals, and delectable fruits, and lovely gentle aldehydes. It's similar to Arpège, which I adore, but it's sweeter, bubblier and more powdery. It's totally divine. The beginning aldehydes, spices and fruit are completely captivating, and then the beautiful flowers - rose, lily-of-the-valley, iris, jasmine, violet, jonquil, yang-ylang (very Arpège-ish) and the most gorgeous dry-down with creamy sandalwood, vetiver, and wonderful vanillary benzoin, a little soft musk and tonka. It's such a lovely lovely beautiful sweet ladylike perfume - just exactly as beautiful, elegant, sweet, bubbly, adorable, innocent, ladylike, classy and fun as the exquisite woman it was made for. Audrey. Sublime.

I have a tiny vintage bottle of the edt from before the reformulations in the 2000s. I don't get much strawberry etc, so I think the top notes have faded over time, but it's still so soft and velvety from the iris and violet and the blend of other flowers, with the ambery sweetness of the benzion and tonka. This has the sweetness of flowers and amber, without any of the spun sugar of so many modern perfumes (because ethyl maltol is a cheap way to improve sillage and sweetness) I've now tried the modern version which is sugary sweet ethyl maltol or similar, with something vaguely citrus, and artificial smelling flowers. Rather cheap smelling. Not impressed with the modern one! I've now also tried the vintage eau de parfum, which is like a cross between the edt, and Chanel no 5, and is also lovely.

As close the Audrey Hepburn version as you are going to get today! I have a 7ml bottle as pictured above, in a little red water taffeta covered box. It's just divine and I am searching for a reasonably priced full sized bottle. This fragrance is something else! At first it resembles my vintage Shalimar, but after the initial blast of beautifully balanced spice, there are clear and strong facets which skewer the whole genre of early to mid century Diva scents into a more sophisticated and frankly beauteous entendre. I honestly don't even know how to describe the notes, L'Interdit is such a complex animal. If you can get your hands on l'original, only then will you know what I mean.

Today is Audrey Hepburn's birthday so I've put this on in her honour. I have a vintage parfum version like she wore. It starts out very powdery but as it dries down I get whiffs of the various flowers and fruits with each coming to the fore at different points in the dry down. That's quality. As it dries down further, the iris takes the lead. It's a polite, uplifting scent with no mystery but if you want a happy mood pickup, this does nicely. Sillage is moderate. Recommended for spring.

Au revoir Monsieur De Givenchy... Vous venez de rejoindre l'Olympe des grands créateurs(trices) français(es) des nectars parfumés du XXème siècle. Vous avez été très jeune, dès 17 ans, un visionnaire de la mode. Aujourd'hui 12 mars 2018 à 91 ans, vous êtes parti rejoindre Audrey pour la parer d'un Interdit encore plus glamour, encore plus poudré tel un nuage blanc dans un ciel bleu. Ici bas vous nous manquez déjà... Je vous aime Maître. Iris

I bought it a long time ago when I read that it was Audrey's favorite perfume. I really really liked it. To me it was very flowery but not in a bad way! It reminded me of spring and Easter time, of breezy sping evenings. I have a little bit left, but the bottle is at my parents house, so I can't sniff it...:-(

Smokey and deep. One feels a million dollars wearing this scent. Best for a gala, intimate, evening event, where you will be sitting close. Apply sparingly and let the perfume do the rest. It wafts and does not nag incessently like some modern perfumes.

L'Interdit (the original, conceived for Audrey Hepburn)is indefineable - like the woman who wears it. You only need a dab here and there - don't spray it on lavishly!

Aaaah, so beautiful, dont buy the version of this age, it is nothing like the original, sadly not available anymore

Has nothing in common with the current version! Except the name 📛 the original version was a true masterpiece 🏆❤️

I just found this and love it. The original is delightful, the new version is disgusting.

Let me start by addressing the elephant in the room - aldehydes. A make or breaker if ever I've known one. I am currently attempting to come to terms with this note, and the closest thing that I can compare this challenge to, is coaching some one who drinks sweet wine, to appreciate dry reds. Ultimately, you end up liking what you like, regardless of repetition or exposure. But every once in a while, there will be a light bulb moment, and then that will be the new preference, and the previous won't make sense any longer. I made that transition with the latter, and am still waiting for the former to illuminate something inside me. I only bring this up, because L'Interdit is so drenched in this chemical, that I stammer to find a way past it. I also believe this composition, like many others that boast heavy handedness with aldehydes, are also anointed with such sophistication and grace, that it would be negligence not to consider them for a moment, if nothing else, in an attempt at understanding. The method, so often associated with "vintage" scents requires a different tempo of application. They insist upon early decanting, and are really designed for the dry drown to be the apex of the show. When this achieves that state, something very special happens. Screaming synthetics begin to whisper and softer florals emerge. Powdery Iris and violet find their voice, and sing in harmony with the inherent soapiness of jasmine and lily of the valley. Brighter notes of benzoin and bergamot irradiate sweet fruity chords and creamy sandalwood. Cleansing and luminescent sums the total, and this state will last a bit of forever. If, like me, you are sensitive to the squeaking aldehydic nuances perfumes of yesteryear so boldly pronounce, L'Interdit provides an approachable introduction to vintage chic. On a personal note: This literally smells like my grandmother, and when I think about how much of a badass she was, in a time where women were expected to be silent and demure, I feel honored to smell like her! She was breaking glass ceilings in male dominant roles long before I began cutting my hands. So, when people say that this makes me smell like a grandma, I emphatically say "Thank You! I should be so lucky!".

I got my hands on a vintage edp that I bought blindly only on basis of notes and reviews. First I found the top a bit strange and almost unbalanced, so I had to give it a few tries before I begun to understand it. It is usually a good sign when I have to give a fragrance several tries. My crush for them seems to be both harder and deeper if I overcome the first hesitation. l'Interdit starts off a bit sour from the bergamot that mixes with a cold aldehydic wind. Then it suddenly gets warm from the spices and some sweetness from the peach and strawberrys joins in. Alltogether a quite interesting concoction that may be puzzling at first. But then the flowery heart reveals it's beauty and fulfils all hopes that I had from reading about its notes. Violet, powdery iris, sensual rose and jasmine plays along in such small doses each that the result is a warm, powdery, slightly sweet and innocently sexy air that rests on my wrist for hours and hours. I find the main theme both creamy and a little powdery but not in a milky baby powder way. The initial basenotes provides the flowery heart with character. Also, handful strawberries from the top dances around the heart in order to keep it young and happy. I find l'Interdit utterly feminine with an ooze of innocent sensuality in an almost teengirlish kind of way. Beeing one of the classics It also surprises me in two major ways. First: It is so soft... and second: the strawberry note so recognizable. Usually fruits and berries in classics are so much blended in to the scent that you only get fragments from it. But not here. The strawberry is natural and clear on top of all the other goodies. If you love classics you should really give original l'Interdit a try. It's such a lovley gem, yet with a modern twist eventhough it was created already in the 50's.

Cleaning and re-organizing my perfume cupboard today I found my little bottle of the parfum from the mid-80s. There was still a bit left of it. I put it on and the entire time I kept thinking "this reminds me of another fragrance, but which one? L'Aimant? And then it happened. I came across a vintage bottle of Avon Topaze. Avon was known in the day for duping or imitating French perfume. It's not a dupe of L'Interdit but more like it reminds me of L'Interdit. I did a little side by side comparison of all three and they are sisters. Vintage Avon Topaze fits somewhere between vintage L'Interdit and vintage L'Aimant. If you miss vintage L'Interdit, it may be worth your while to hunt down some vintage Topaze.

I think I might have the new version of this, after reading reviews. Mine is a 10ml bottle from a Christmas beauty advent calendar, so not something I would normally have purchased. This seems to have a lot going on in it and it’s hard to detect the top notes immediately, but after a while, iris is the leader on this one for me along with a spicy musk. It seems pretty generic on my skin and I’m sure I’ve smelled this a hundred times on me and others in different perfumes. It lasts pretty well, probably 6 hours on my skin. Nothing groundbreaking for me, so I won’t be reaching for it sadly.

The softest aldehyde I've encountered. I'm getting rose, LoV, iris...lots of iris. This is buttery, powdery soft, pretty, a little quirky. The sandalwood is nicely creamy. It's more Funny Face than Breakfast at Tiffany's. L'interdit definitely suits the Hepburn persona. The dry down becomes *quite* spice forward on my skin- not sweet spice, but actual heat in the sinuses when I sniff my wrists. Vetiver supports. And there's a touch of violet....and a huge dose of powder. Fluffy, puffy, mounds of it. Spunky, funky, not sweet. Not at all. Quirky, yes. Very soft. Very nice!

Legend has it this scent was created especially for Audrey Hepburn, and was worn exclusively by Ms. Hepburn for several years before Givenchy released it to the public. It is easy to see why Audrey Hepburn would have fallen for the scent -- its combination of flowers, fruit, and spices, anchored by a musky and resinous base, sits on the skin like a dream, and never hits a false note from start to finish. So, whether L'Interdit's origins are fantasy or fact, it is a scent that is as lovely and as graceful as Ms. Hepburn herself. Wear it and release "the Hepburn within."

I really thought this was a lot like Chanel No. 5 but the parfum, on the drydown is deeper with more amber and vanilla, something sweet and spicy. It's wonderful. I just wish the sillage was better, especially for a parfum, but it is vintage so it probably lost some oomph. Also I do not smell any citrus or light florals at the end, and barely any aldehydes. I may have to get a bigger bottle!

I am wearing the vintage. It vaguely reminds me of Shalimar. There is a lot of citrus in the opening. This is a very soft skin scent as many EDTs and colognes of the day were. They were meant for those who were close or the wearer. This is intimately powdery due to the iris. Then it deepens with a creamy orris, some violet, sandalwood, musk, ylang, narcissus, amber, tonka, benzoin.

I just received a tiny bottle of this from LittleMissCharming (thank you so much!!) This is soooo good! It's beautiful, classy, inoffensive, soft whispers of mossy powder projecting from my skin.. it's a cross between mitsouko and dioressence. This is going to be my next big bottle purchase for sure!

This is a soft powdery floral, and I didn't expect it to be so lovely (considering the original is from 1957 and most perfumes made before the 70s were stankkkk to my nose). Also according to other people, both Freddie and Audrey wore this so that is cool.!!

Sweet but not gourmand. Fruity and powdery. Youthful yet sophisticated. It smells floral, creamy and soft. It's also uplifting and has a slightly old fashioned essence to it. It's kind of vintage yet modern.

This was my mother's signature scent. I kept trying to find her another bottle but had no luck. Sadly she has passed but I will always remember her L'Interdit.

This is a pretty unique scent! It has both a strong and a feminine side. It's not very warm or cold. This could be a great signature scent!

I love the story and history of this scent, that it was made as a gift to Audrey Hepburn in 1955, and a few years later, after her initial refusal, she allowed it to be made and sold to the public, and she became the face of the perfume. It is a crisp, clean, floral perfume - using aldehydes to enhance the floral notes, as was popular at that time (Chanel No 5, Joy, etc). It is a tad old-fashioned, though perhaps "classic" is the more appropriate word. There are some mild warm woody notes and a hint of spice to hold the florals from becoming unbearing, and to keep some interest and intelligence in the accord. I like its light, uplifting beauty with a hint of glamour, though would like it to be a little more sexy and interesting. The musky woods and spice mean it can be worn by a man, but it is essentially a very feminine scent - a little bit girly perhaps, but not something that would be worn by a girl or a teen. This is a grown up perfume. I like it, though am not excited by it. It has a discrete projection, and remains on the skin for several hours. It's a summery scent which could be worn day and evening, but with its glamour notes and sense of champagne excitement, is probably best worn in the evening to a show. Not worn to seduce, just to sparkle.

Let me make this clear and say I have a very , very tiny bottle I found in my mother's stash- no idea how old it is. I actually think it's a very pleasant ,youthful ,floral, powdery smell. I have no idea how much different it is from the 2003 version, though. For a vintage scent this surprised me, i was worried it'd be cloying and cheap smelling but thankfully i was wrong here Sillage is embarrassing though and It poofs from the skin instantly. You can only pick this up if you shove your nose on the flesh. This could be because it is OLD or my skin doesn't work with this. I'd probably even love it if it was still being made and more potent. I probably won't look into the 03' release due to negative reception, lack of similarity and price. Shame.

I received a sample of this perfume from Neiman Marcus. When I sprayed it on I thought "I know this smell." Sampled it again and again (now I'm out of the sample) and I've figured it out. It smells like Giorgio Armani My Way 2020. At least that's how it performs on my skin.

smells vintage, sharp and also feels like an old cool lady not for young adults i think

I'm just not an aldehydes person- it does work sometimes, as in the case of the old Gucci 1. I got a sample of this from The Perfumed Court (the original/vintage version, not the re-issued current one), and I dabbed some on an hour or so ago. I can't comment on longevity, but sillage is soft to moderate. The perfume itself reminds me a lot of the inside of my mother's handbag, lipstick and money, and of perfumes like Red Door, which I don't really enjoy. I guess I might have liked the perfume if I was living back in the 50s or 60s. The notes that stand out the most on me are aldehydes (unfortunately) and heady jasmine. I can't really picture someone like a young Audrey Hepburn wearing this...

Bought a little vintage bottle of eau de toilette from Ebay and it is pretty nice. Since I'm very new to fragrances I don't have the knowledge and ability to describe it well at all in proper perfume terms, but it seems gentle, sweet but not cloying. It faded very quickly to a skin scent. It seems like a youthful, gardeny sort of scent, like I'm having a cup of tea with lemon on a early summer day. it's not a blaster. I like it, but it doesn't seem to send off any large bells in my olfactory senses somehow. However, my nose is undergoing an education. I'll try this again and see what happens.

I have tried several vintage decants of l'interdit, searching long and hard for the mystical strawberry note. Alas, on me, it's heady aldehydes that dry down powedery. Perhaps the strawberry didn't stand the test of time? In any case, I'm happily enjoying the accounts of others who have had the pleasure of experiencing the fruity note on this legend.

I nearly fell over from the scent--much too heavy, and as it dried down it seemed to smell like a perfume my mom used to wear called Blue Carnation. I would not buy this!

Let Me Take You Back In Time Via My Memories June the 11th, 1961 I met Audrey Hepburn when she was married to Mel Ferrer or rather, I met her at the very end of that marriage. I was a young operatic singer at the time, developing my soprano voice, but had not yet performed any leading roles. We were both sitting down at the same table during a small recital of a friend who was singing some bel canto arias by Donizetti & Bellini & at the Savoy Hotel where she was staying during production of a film. I suspected she had other business to attend to in London. Whatever the reason, there she was. I was not sure of what film it was at the time but later I found out it was THE CHILDREN'S HOUR which co-starred Shirley MacLaine & James Garner. She smelled of something I mistook for her make-up which was a dab of pinkish powder on her face and a little pink lipstick that looked like her natural mouth's color. She was lovely in a beige cream vanilla colored suit skirt. The recital was very successful and Audrey & Mel appeared to have enjoyed themselves. After this encounter, I never saw her again. There were times I would go back to the Savoy to see if I could run into her again or at least other Hollywood stars who frequented the hotel at the time - Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, Robert Taylor, Stuart Whitman, Rod Taylor, Alfred Hitchcock, Natalie Wood, Eva Marie Saint, Sean Connery, Marilyn Monroe, Doris Day and many others. I had heard of the fashion designer Hubert De Givenchy & his connection to Audrey but had not experienced any fragrance by that house. Before L'Interdit was launched, I don't believe Givenchy had even commercialized any fragrance. It's very possible Audrey Hepburn helped him to establish himself as a perfumer. As any Audrey Hepburn fan will tell you, and I can see that many of the reviewers on this page (Parfumee & Gigi The Fashionista) are indeed Audrey Hepburn fanatics, Givenchy became a good friend to Audrey when they first met when she went to him for help in choosing fashions to wear for her second American film SABRINA (and not Roman Holiday for which she wore costumes by Hollywood Oscar winning costumer Edith Head). After that initial meeting, they became life long friends & Audrey continually wore Givenchy couture. The fragrance L'interdit (Forbidden Fragrance) came about when Givenchy & Audrey made a special behind the scenes deal for her to wear a fragrance created for her by nose Francis Fabron (who formulated Femme by Rochas). For about 2 or 3 years Audrey wore the perfume and was the only woman on the planet wearing it. After the allotted time, Givenchy finally launched & commercialized the perfume. Not even an Oscar winning actress like Audrey Hepburn could keep a perfume all to herself! In the end business won over personal feelings. The vintage original bottle (launched in 1957) looks exactly as the Fragrantica page depicts it. It was a square shaped glass bottle with a mushroom shaped glass stopper. It was a miniature splash bottle. The color of the liquid was a sort of cognac color, reddish-brown and quite similar to the color of Coty's Sophia perfume. When I first purchased it from the Givenchy house, it was in a red miniature box and it was quite easy to carry around. One could even put it inside one's purse. This led me to believe that the fragrance was not a statement perfume for the time, not an Oriental, not a formal wear evening cologne, not a chypre, not terribly woodsy, aromatic or incensed. It was going to be quite an innovation. I braced myself. At the first whiff straight off the bottle, the aldehydes! Effervescent fizzy aldehydes, quite strong by today's context but for the milieu of the 1950's 1960's this was a very familiar aldehyde. It is fresh & fizzy, similar to the opening to Chanel No. 5, Chanel No. 22, Arpege, L'Aimant, Crepe de Chine, White Shoulders & any other aldehyde floral fragrance available at the time. Many perfumistas have compared this scent to Chanel No. 5. Well in my experience, the opening or top notes are as far as the similar notes go. There are aldehydes & a dash of citrus, and not even a bergamot, a sweet somewhat tart mandarin orange flavor. The first time I wore it the fruit was very sweet and densely concentrated, like a sort of strawberry jam or juice, fresh from aldehydes but eventually turning alcoholic and rummy, like a strawberry inside a champagne glass. There is also a boozy peach & delicious but cloying sugary strawberry, with the strawberry being the major note. Smells like strawberry scented baby pink lipstick. The lipstick scent is there from the start. At once, I was all but hit in the nose with a beauty salon smell. It smells of all the pleasant scents you get at a beauty parlor: fragrant hair spray, lipstick, rouge, powder, nail polish, toe nail polish, and eye make up. This fragrance is a 1950's beauty salon in a bottle. In her heightened femininity aura, with the beauty salon smell, the make-up, and the powder, devoid of musk, woods, green notes and civet secretions (which were staples of the original Chanel No. 5) L'Interdit is not at all like No. 5. Truthfully, orignal No. 5 is a musky, provocative, sexualized mature scent, whereas L'Interdit is youthful, sweet, playful, innocent and more girlish. Smells of Audrey Hepburn in the prime of her youth. The YOUNG Audrey Hepburn we remember in Roman Holiday, Sabrina & Funny Face. When dry, the fruit notes are gone & the floral notes & vanilla (courtesy of tonka bean) and vetiver plus benzoin are detectable. Still, it's a soft, and moderate scent. It never gets dark or too dry. It has a powder & vanilla dry down. There's plenty of orris, or iris & violet which are petals that are powdery like literal flower talc powder. The iris & violet, plus a pink rose, oh, such beautiful flowers. I wish they were more dewy & green but they are pretty fantasy flowers, like the smell of light flowers in the air. It is indeed suggestive of spring time & innocence, care-free youth & girls under eighteen. This is a fine intro, or rather, WAS a fine intro or first grown up perfume for a teenager in the 50's. She would have worn pink or baby blue poodle skirts or dancing dresses and smelled of this perfume with her hair made up stylishly and she was all set for her Prom Night. A young man gives her a corsage of carnation on her bosom and takes a whiff of this perfume & would have been overwhelmed by the extreme femininity. Audrey Hepburn is as feminine as the soul of femininity itself and this perfume does her justice. The perfume is quite easy to wear and such a delicious and loveable scent, not very complex, linear but hard to resist. This is a perfume that I wore when I was still young enough to wear perfumes like this, even when I was already wearing heavier Orientals like Shalimar or Habit Rouge. This perfume is such a delicious boozy fruit cocktail and make-up scent. I wore it mostly as day wear to luncheons, cocktails & summer get-away trips with my first husband Richard who loved this perfume on me. He was the love of my life & the father of my children. The perfume was a delight for him to smell especially after I was all dolled up & wearing make up. I think even today you can't go out wearing this perfume without first having been to the beauty salon. A most delicious & beautiful vintage classic For my Richard...I love you And for Audrey

Happy Birthday Audrey Hepburn (May 4 1929 to January 20 1993) L'Interdit (1957) By Francis Fabron Top Notes Aldehydes Mandarin Orange Bergamot Peach Strawberry Spices Middle Notes Iris Violet Rose Jasmine Narcissus Orris Root Ylang Ylang Lily of the Valley Base Notes Vetiver Sandalwood Amber Benzoin Vanilla Tonka Bean Musk Hubert de Givenchy the great French couturier first met Audrey Hepburn when she had already won her Oscar for Roman Holiday her American film debut and was seeking a designer to clothe her for her next picture Sabrina opposite William Holden and Humphrey Bogart. Costume designer Edith Head was the in-studio designer at Paramount but Audrey Hepburn, in her early to mid 20's at the time, was determined to wear only high fashion now that she had 'made it' in Hollywood. Givenchy was expecting to meet with Katharine Hepburn as he was unfamiliar with Audrey's work. When he laid eyes on her for the first time he was taken by surprise. This impossibly skinny and tall woman with a short pixie hair cut and a youthful somewhat gamin like air (and a flat chest) looked nothing like the more voluptuous and glamorous stars of the day: Marilyn Monroe Ava Gardner Elizabeth Taylor Sophia Loren Brigitte Bardot. She was the exact opposite. The styles Givenchy created for Audrey served her well and their friendship bloomed over the years. They remained friends until the end of his life. The genesis of the fragrance L'Interdit revolves around a sweet deal between Audrey and Givenchy. He commissioned nose Francis Fabron to create a fragrance just for Audrey. Not a problem. Fabron was a veteran nose by 1957. He had created L'Air du Temps in 1947, ten years earlier, and it is still one of the most iconic and beloved fragrances for women. For Audrey he created a fragrance to suit her sweet youth and womanhood, to compliment not the big movie star but the modest woman whom the world did not know about, the REAL AUDREY HEPBURN, and describe her through notes, to make her feel as beautiful off-camera as she was on-camera. This was her every day fragrance for about 2 years and she was the only woman who wore it in the whole world. Finally, as all good things come to an end, she had to agree to have Givenchy commercialize the fragrance, despite her initial plea: "L'interdit! I forbid you to commercialize this fragrance". Audrey Hepburn's perfume has been unfavorably compared to Chanel No. 5 and classified as an aldehyde floral and while one can argue that there are some notes shared by both fragrances including those aldehydes, it's unlikely that Audrey Hepburn was thinking "O my this is a Chanel No. 5 dupe!". No. This is it's very own unique fragrance. When it opens it has the softest, shyest, quietest most demure of aldehydes but they are distinctive. It feels powdery and soapy, like the feel of having your skin caressed by foamy soap bubbles in your bath tub. This was a fruity floral, a very early one, when very few fragrances had fruity openings. The mandarin orange and bergamot orange are as natural as they can be, with a sweet pulpy and deep juicy flavor. The citruses are not as powerful as the neroli and citrus combo in Chanel No. 5. The fruity sweetness of this perfume derives from the assistant strawberry and peach. A delicious strawberry note. Very rare for 1957 perfumery. It's like strawberry jam that one puts on pancakes or waffles. The sweet peach is also quite noticeable and the mandarin/orange zest is uplifted by the freshness of those aldehydes. The opening is very youthful when it smells only of fruits. The fruits don't truly fade but continue to blend in with the concoction. This is a balsamic natural kind of juice. The florals are heavenly iris and violet, rose, and white flowers consisting of jasmine, narcissus, lily of the valley and a yellow ylang ylang. The white florals used to be harder for me to detect but I can smell them more easily now. The strongest floral notes are the rose and iris, made powdery and delicate through roots of orris. The green touches of vetiver and the bright sandalwood and amber tree along with musk give the floral scent a lot of support. Because of the base notes this perfume has staying power and never turns into a short-lived fruity floral, but rather a more mature one without ever turning geriatric. A vanilla note courtesy of tonka bean is also very helpful in keeping this fragrance light sweet and young. This was a young girl's perfume at the time. It was possible older ladies wore it but it has a charm like that of Audrey Hepburn in her youth. This is Sabrina the chauffeur's daughter returning from Paris and ready to win the heart of the Larrabee family, this is Jo Stockton who has been transformed from an awkward and nerdy bookshop employee to a fashion model in Paris, photographed at the Louvre at the feet of Winged Victory crying out in her giddy excitement "Take the picture! Take the picture!". Audrey must have been in absolute Heaven wearing this perfume when she was the only woman wearing it. When anyone asked her what perfume are you wearing one can almost see her smiling a minx smile and saying sweetly "It's a secret". The fragrance was commercialized after 1957 and it came in a splash bottle which looked like ketchup. The glass bottle revealed the reddish liquid inside. It was kept in a red little box similar to the one from Coty's Sophia which was Sophia Loren's perfume. Like that fragrance, this is an aldehyde floral with powder notes and roses, jasmines, but Sophia is greener and mossier. This lacks moss and chypre ingredients. Instead it is all that is the spring time and all that is the innocence and beauty of a nice young girl, Audrey Hepburn, whose beauty was only surpassed by the beauty of her heart. She never became corrupted by Hollywood and instead chose to live a life of service to others. Her final years were spent with UNICEF helping the less fortunate, the starving victims of war and famine in third world countries. She was herself a victim of hunger and war having been a child during the Nazi siege of her home country of Belgium. Audrey's beauty can now be yours in the form of this perfume if you look for the vintage which can still be bought on ebay. "The best thing to hold onto in this life is each other" - Audrey Hepburn

I have a permanent memory trace of this fragrance in my soul; L’Interdit by Givenchy started my enthusiasm toward scents, and it’s very special for me. Not so much as in actual fact the scent vise, but more so like my personal emotional connect vise. I was 10-years-old when I was gifted this perfume as a Christmas present. L’Interdit was my first own perfume, and I felt myself so proud to having it. I treasured it in my room, in my jewel box among my precious hair accessories and jeweler. I didn’t even dare to wish for having any perfume for myself; those were expensive and adults’ luxury items only, not even all grownup women having many nor using those as an everyday necessity. At that time, many tend to think that Fragrances were for the special occasions only, and some might think that it’s way too inappropriate a little girl having one. My mum having a great sense of every kind of aesthetic, and she owned many perfumes. She also wore all those beautiful scents everyday like as an important part of her outfit, together with red lipstick, which was like a signature trademark of hers, and she was insightful enough to understand my unspoken secret-wish and choosing a just-right perfume for me, so The Santa Claus could fulfill one little girl’s dream. It could be some weaker-quality perfume or less sophisticated or not so perfectly ladylike perfume, and I’m sure I couldn’t care less, because that was my very first one and precious to me just because of that matter. However, it happened to be well-crafted, dreamlike, beautiful, full-bodied and finished composition of powder and flowers, mostly roses, iris and narcissus. I have to be grateful that my first touch to the world of perfumes was so exquisite; it raised the bar of the standards what I appreciate when testing perfumes even today. I think I got a very good start for understanding of what a quality means. This perfume has stood up to the ravages of time. It’s old-fashioned in its essence, but in the most beautiful way possible. I’m so happy that I found a small amount of it from “the barnyard of used and abandoned scents” and won the auction of it. I have it now, long after my childhood times, I cherish it just like I did as a child, but I never use it. I wanted to having it to the part of my collection just and only for sentimental values for me. I realized that L’Interdit resembles Chanel No 5 a lot, and that might be one reason among others why No 5 feels so cozy to me. As for the ending, one rhetoric question - Why the great perfume companies don’t give an effort and create such classy fragrances anymore? They should, indeed.

The Forbidden Fragrance of Audrey Hepburn In 1957, after three years after being the only woman on the planet who wore a perfume made exclusively for her to wear by French fashion designer and friend Hubert de Givenchy, Audrey Hepburn consented for her fragrance to be sold and commercialized in the mass fragrance market. The perfume was L'interdit which in French means "Forbidden". It was thus named because Audrey was reported to have been so enchanted by the fragrance that she said to Givenchy "I forbid you to commercialize this fragrance". They made a deal that Audrey would wear the fragrance for about 3 or 4 years and that it would not be sold to the public. She was the only woman wearing this between the years of 1954 and 1957. I have two versions of this fragrance, an old vintage one from about 1959 which still smells great and the current reformulation which is also very nice, but like a faint, soft skin scent eau de toilette version of the original eau de parfum. Notes in L'interdit: Head Notes: Aldehydes Spices Mandarin Orange Peach Bergamot Strawberry Heart Notes: Iris Violet Narcissus Orris Root Jasmine YlangYlang Lily of the Valley Rose Base Notes: Sandalwood Amber Musk Benzoin Vetiver Tonka Bean This is a richly layered composition for a perfume but it's really quite simplistic, innocent, youthful, sweet. It was like Givenchy compared Audrey Hepburn to spring time and flowers. The most dominant flower in this fragrance is of course the rose but I'm also getting a lot of iris and violet. The opening of aldehydes is soft and similar to either Arpege or Chanel No. 5. However, because of the rose in this perfume the pairing with aldehyde can turn into something that smells either powdery or like nail polish. If you don't mind that, it's not bad. I don't care for the nail polish scent but the old formula is more like rose powder which is very nice. Then you get a distinct strawberry note. It's sweet and girly. It dries down to a glowing amber and fragrant sandalwood, and the ever present rose. By the time the fragrance has dried down the rose is like crushed rose petals on your skin. It's surreal, like actual rose petals have penetrated your skin. It's soft, and sublime. I could totally wear this to bed. I love this fragrance a lot and it perfectly captures the feminine beauty, enchantment and charm of my favorite Hollywood star Audrey Hepburn, the most beautiful and good-hearted woman that has ever walked on planet earth. If you're a big Audrey Hepburn fan, this fragrance is as much a must-have perfume as Grace Kelly fans's favorite Fleurissimo by Creed.

Vintage L'Interdit is a very special perfume. I can most definitely imagine Audrey Hepburn wearing this fragrance, and I find it a much better pairing than Marilyn Monroe with Chanel No.5. I shelled out the money to smell the original formula, and I'm so glad I did. It's a very classic scent, powdery aldehydes inclusive, yet I find it far more complex than people give it credit for. L'Interdit EDT opens with a bright, sparkling burst of aldehydes, peach and strawberry. The powdery aspect is thankfully not overpowering, although dominant. The fruits give L'Interdit a beautiful, juicy and Spring-like feel. The scent itself is rather subtle which surprised me at first, however I much prefer it this way when I come to think of it. After the fruitiness subsides, the floral accords become much more pronounced, with a rather strong focus on powdery rose and iris. The way the heart settles brings a smile to my face as I picture Audrey Hepburn decked out in her expensive Givenchy gown with an elegant string of pearls setting off her slender neck. She was a woman that stunned the world with her beauty and style, yet it came so naturally to her. L'Interdit has managed to capture the essence of her in a bottle. In some ways, this fragrance is quite refined and elegant, although its delicacy hints at something a lot more intimate and sensual. The powderiness is somewhat similar in composition to the infamous Chanel No.5, however L'Interdit caters to a variety of tastes, throwing in an array of fruits and berries, and further developing into a spicy incense drydown. Unfortunately my skin chemistry has not done justice to this fragrance, turning the peach note into something a little too fizzy and bitter. I envy those who can maintain L'Interdit's smoothness on their skin with no rude interruptions. Audrey Hepburn must have been an amazing smelling woman in her day.

Iris and Dark Powder Bomb I find that L'Interdit is all iris, orris, powder, and dark woods. It belongs on the skin of women with lacquered hair, red nail polish, stockings, and white gloves. Not loud at all but reminiscent of older grooming products--powder, white bar soap, lipstick, hairspray on a style that was set at the beauty parlor yesterday, and a few drops of perfume, from a glass dabber bottle, pressed on pulse points. I'm sure that the 20 mls of L'Interdit that I have have started to turn--I cannot detect any strawberry/peach/bergamot/fruit note at all (too bad!) and for a few minutes the floral notes have nailpolish edges. But the aldehyde topnotes are of the old fashioned skanky variety, I do understand the comparison to Chanel no 5, because it smells just like those bottles--skanky, musky, kind of off putting, but interesting if you hang in there because it doesn't last long. I am sure that these notes have aged in themselves, but still, aldehydes don't smell like this today. This perfume really reminds me of Chanel Misia--it is so, so powdery, the violet is prominent, the iris and orris are very dark, and the other florals are faint whispers, and the sandalwood is STUNNING. Beautiful base. L'Interdit wears pretty close to the skin but has good longevity, 6+ hours.

Vintage miniature dab on bottle. A beautiful spring fragrance of innocence, charm and sweetness. This was made for Audrey Hepburn to wear and she wore it well. Unselfishly she allowed other women to experience this beauty and when it hit the fragrance market in the 50's and 60's it was immediately hailed as a successor to Chanel No. 5. It has a few things in common. This is a French perfume and it has aldehydes and roses but in my opinion it's sweeter, softer and more enjoyable. Also it lacks the musk in No. 5. This is just a lovely youthful perfume for girls. I smell the peach and strawberry fruity sweet concentrated fruit. Because of those aldehydes however and the big strawberry as well as the rose it becomes slightly like a beauty salon scent. It definitely does smell of nail polish. In fact I had my own red nail polish bottle open to smell it and then smelled L'Interdit to see if the scents matched up. They do but this is a softer sort of nail polish scent. I like nail polish though. The fragrance lasts a long time and softens as it dries down. It then becomes like soft rose powder and violets, iris. Then it turns into a light sandalwood. Classy, beautiful, timeless, soulful and sweet like Audrey Hepburn.

After learning that L'Interdit was Audrey Hepburn's signature fragrance (absolutely adore her!), I acquired a tiny 3mL vintage bottle, and wow, absolutely beautiful and stunning! I can definitely see why others compare it to Chanel No. 5 because of the strong aldehyde note, but where Chanel No. 5 seems reserved for someone who is a little more mature, L'Interdit is absolutely ageless. Without a doubt, I love Chanel No. 5, but I ended up giving away my bottle because as a twenty-six-year-old, I felt like a child in their mother's oversized pumps clumsily trapsing around when I wore it. L'Interdit in turn felt like having an inherited piece of jewelry from a grandmother. It is without a doubt not modern in the least, but it is more beautiful and unique because of that. And like an inherited vintage piece, L'Interdit is special to wear; it's special because of it's history and definitely not something that's thrown on for day to day use. It has an appropriateness and elegance the same way an old locket would have, and it's classy and sophisticated. Not provactive, yet alluring. It's easy to see why someone like Audrey would have loved it.

What to add to the growing number of good, detailed reviews of L'Interdit on this site? You will read the stories below, of Audrey's exclusive scent, and the vast folklore surrounding this beautiful perfume, so I won't repeat what has already been said, and will go straight to the nosey business. This is a review of the vintage parfum. L'Interdit has a burst of aldehydic citrus at the start and then blooms on your skin with a bouquet of real-life flowers much like petaly firework for your body. A scent of unimaginable class and much, much subtler than other, more in-your-face aldehydes like Chanel no. 5 or Arpėge. The aldehydes are not as strong and overwhelming in L'Interdit, and are modulated like the opening of a symphony recreate almost palpable, pastel coloured flowers next to a bowl of juicy fruits. Here the play between citrus and flowers lasts for ages and ages, a good four hours before gorgeous resins and vetiver start to kick in. This is classic French perfumery at its best. Get it as if your life depended on it.

My mother has a bottle of vintage L'Interdit by Givenchy that had belonged to my late grandmother. It was my grandmother's favourite perfume and, though there is almost nothing left in the bottle, the very faint scent that remains immediately evokes memories of her. L'Interdit, to me, is clean, pretty and comforting. I have a hard time isolating certain notes as there is so very little left in the bottle and I'm almost afraid that if I smell if too often, it will disappear, but it is a powdery, clean scent. It is very well balanced so that the florals aren't overpowering, but complementary to the other notes in the fragrance. I also believe there is a warm, mildly spicy, mildly herbal or aromatic note to it that really sets it apart from other perfumes. There are certain times when I feel really grateful for scent and its ability to bring back memories of happy times or to remind you of people you have lost. When I smell L'Interdit, I remember the feeling of being loved and cared for by someone very special to me.

I have a vintage EDT of this from the 70s that was my mother's. I don't know if this is the original version or if they reformulated it between the 50s and 70s but wow, it's beautiful! I get a blast of aldehydes at first spray (which I love; aldehydes make a perfume smell expensive and classic) and then sandalwood, rose, powdery iris with a hint of strawberry. It really is a tragedy that it isn't available anymore. I cannot for the life of me understand why Givenchy doesn't re-release this (as close to the vintage as possible or even slightly modernized by bringing down the aldehydes and musk slightly and focus on the flowers, benzoin, strawberry and the other fruits and tonka bean) and use Audrey Hepburn as it's model. It would sell like hotcakes! Audrey is HUGE, especially in Asia, where they could release an EDT version that's a bit lighter. People would pay a lot to smell like her! I think Givenchy has missed a golden opportunity. I hope they decide to re-release this in my lifetime. S’il vous plaît, Givenchy!

About 20 years ago in 2002, when L'Interdit was relaunched I went on a quest for the original. Ebay was still a baby and so I went to the local perfume stores and looked for it. What I got where were L 'interdit versions for the 80ties: a long rectangular bottle with a golden cap in a red box (not talking about the L'interdit 2). I was in such high spirits that I bought 5! 100ml bottles of this as well as two 7.5ml extrait bottles and got the tester for free. Honestly, after the Aldehydes have vanished it turns creamy, dusty and mild. A bit old lady. There is nothing edgy about it, nothing that could bother a nose. It is safe, polite, cozy. I don't get strawberry, but perhaps the strawberry in perfume has nothing to do with the real life ones. Now if someone is interested in one of those bottles please message me.

I'm testing the Les Mythiques 2007 version. It is definitely a classic-style aldehydic floral. However, the aldehydes are a softer version, a la No. 5 Eau Premiere, much pleasanter to modern sensibilities, and they are sweetened by just a hint of fruit in the topnotes. The florals are so well-blended that it is difficult to identify individual notes, although I do get quite a lot of what I think of as traditional Rose-Jasmine Accord, with some iris underpinning. Base notes are rich, elegant, and powdery. If you like the great classic perfumes - Chanel No. 5 and Joy - you will probably enjoy L'Interdit. I find both of those a shade on the too-powdery side for me, but I like and would happily wear L'Intedit. Classic, beautiful, appropriate for nearly any occasion.