Givenchy
Givenchy
301 votes
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
A sharp burst of green mandarin collides with woody synthetics as nutmeg and pink pepper create immediate warmth and slight prickling sensation on skin. Birch leaf adds a fresh, almost soapy-green quality that lingers beneath the spiced citrus, creating a top note that feels simultaneously bright and slightly steely.
The spices gradually soften as cedar and patchouli emerge with dry, mineral characteristics, whilst vetiver adds a subtle earthiness that attempts cohesion. The woody base notes begin asserting themselves here, creating a subtle grounding effect, though the heart remains somewhat disconnected—a woody-green interval that feels more balanced than the opening but lacks true synergy.
Frankincense settles as a faint, smoky whisper atop an increasingly abstract woody-patchouli base, but both fade rapidly into skin-scent territory. What remains is mostly the structural woody synthetic accord—clean, slightly powdery, reminiscent of ambroxan—before the fragrance dissipates almost entirely into a barely-perceptible skin scent within 4-5 hours.
Gentlemen Only Givenchy announces itself with a peculiar contradiction: it's a fragrance that wants to be louder than its performance allows. Jean Jacques has constructed something inherently paradoxical—a composition caught between restraint and ambition, between the fresh citrus-green impulse of its opening and the smoky, resinous weight of frankincense in its base.
The interplay between birch leaf's slightly metallic greenness and green mandarin creates an almost herbal freshness, but it's the nutmeg and pink pepper that sabotage any notion of delicate sophistication. These spices (88% of the accord profile) introduce an aggressive warmth that feels slightly synthetic, slightly artificial—and therein lies its divided personality. The heart amplifies this tension: cedar, patchouli, and vetiver arrive as a woody triumvirate, all earth and shadow, yet their mineral dryness never quite integrates seamlessly with what came before.
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Guerlain
4.0/5 (626)