Category: Perfume Reviews

Created with Audrey Hepburn in mind back in 1957, L’Interdit was created by Francis Fabron for his friend and famous fashion designer, Hubert de Givenchy. The scent was subsequently taken off the shelves in the U.S in 1990 and allowed to remain in stores throughout Europe. Givenchy decided to restore it in 2002, after it has been reformulated in order to make it more palatable to a new generation of perfume buyers. The result of these efforts as a quite interesting scent, L’Interdit is delightfully fruity and floral, well-rounded, and attractive though not earth-shatteringly new.
The original L’Interdit, combined chic and fun and this has been preserved to a certain degree. It opens with aldehydes and bergamot, which soften considerably as it dries and allow a gentle sun-kissed peach and strawberry aroma to waft away from the skin. Behind these you’ll find rose, jasmine and iris. The florals however are not separate, but rather mix and meld swirling together, their edges blurring. But just above these floral eddies you’ll find a refined spicy carnation more and honey warmth. Matte amber and earthy vetiver come in at the close, taking the senses with them as they fade to a veiled powdery finish.

Launched back in 1980, Eau de Givenchy was on everybody’s Christmas list, it seemed like everybody had a bottle on their dresser back then. With three decades having elapsed since I first discovered it I was interested to find out what I would make of it today. The notes, for those who need reminding of that evocative blend, are composed of the following: bergamot, mint, Tagetes, green, fruit, honeysuckle, jasmine, lily of the valley, tuberose, rose, cyclamen, orris, musk, Cedarwood, sandalwood and moss.
The perfume opens with notes of sharp citrus green and a slight bit of mint. Although labeled as a fruity floral any fruits that do exist in there seem to be dominated by the strong citrus. As a result it is not really a sweet scent and as it dries on the skin lily of the valley and  Jasmine, come into full effect. At the bottom gentle notes of wood and musk round the whole thing off very nicely.
Eau de Givenchy smells clean, fresh and delightfully light. It still evokes a sense of sophistication and chic all these years on and will go the rounds with any new floral scent on the market. It does, in fact come across as strikingly modern and is completely in line with current trends towards clean and fresh light floral fragrances. It doesn’t at all smell like the thick heavy eighties fragrances that decade seems to immediately call to mind
To top it all off, as clean and light as it is, it still has a quite astonishing staying power, a feat quite tricky to pull of in practice.