Givenchy
Givenchy
247 votes
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Kumquat hits with immediate brightness, its candied citrus character mingling with a green, almost herbaceous cactus note that keeps the fruit from becoming jammy. Within moments, red pepper announces itself—genuine black pepper spice, not the sweet kind—creating a peppery-fruity tension that's genuinely distinctive and briefly quite arresting.
The pepper softens slightly as cedarwood emerges, its dry, slightly cool character reining in the sweeter accords that want to bloom. For perhaps ninety minutes, this is genuinely pleasant—a spicy-woody scent with fruity whispers and amber sweetness providing subtle depth without sentimentality. It feels almost austere in the best way.
By the fourth hour, you're essentially sniffing your skin. The cedarwood clings weakly, perhaps with traces of that amber accord, but everything else has dissipated into invisibility. By six hours, it's a ghost, a faint woody shadow that requires your nose directly against your wrist to detect.
Xeryus Rouge is a fragrance that arrives with ambitions toward spicy-woody sophistication but stumbles at the finish line—a sprinter who pulls up lame before the tape. Annick Ménardo has crafted something genuinely arresting in its concept: kumquat and green cactus create an unexpected citrus-herbal tension in the opening, tart and slightly prickly, before red pepper barges into the conversation with genuine heat. This isn't the polite warmth of pink peppercorn; it's a legitimate spice accord that makes your nose perk up with attention.
The woody base—lean, dry cedarwood rather than creamy—should theoretically anchor everything into something austere and compelling. And for a brief window, it almost works. The interplay between the kumquat's candied undertones, the pepper's aggressive bite, and the cedarwood's structural dryness creates a character that feels vaguely androgynous, slightly severe. There's something almost green about it despite the fruity sweetness lurking at 76%; it never cloyes.
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