L'Interdit (2018 version)
Givenchy (2018)

Upon first wear, my husband immediately complimented me on it. That is rare for him. Lots has been said already. To add my two cents: There is an interesting balance of light/bright with rich/dark. I was skeptical based in the differences in opinion, but my own personal opinion is that this is a unique addition to my scent wardrobe. Top notes are Pear and Bergamot; middle notes are Tuberose, Orange Blossom and Jasmine Sambac; base notes are Patchouli, Vanilla, Ambroxan and Vetiver. Very nice. I am surprised to find that I like it as much as I do. And since my husband likes it, it is a win.

Even though this is a feminine fragrance, I kind of dig it. Starts out as a sweet candy type fragrance. I personally would not wear this, but I think it would smell great on a woman. Calms down to a sweet woody fragrance.

I seem to be in the minority here but I love this frag. It is sharp and spicy and warm, it does not read as saccharine or sweet to me at all, though I definitely detect some vanilla. I am a fan.

I read the notes and hit the buy button. Big mistake. I sprayed ONE SPRAY on my inner forearm and that was enough to trigger a massive headache. I was suffocating in sweetness… and I like sweet! I like tuberose… I like orange blossom! I’m not sure what went wrong here but this is the thickest, heaviest, syrupy sweet, sickening fragrance I can remember putting on in the longest time. It was like every cell in my body rejected it. I was nauseous and sweating from the pain in my head. I had to wash it off and it took lathering up 4 separate times to make a dent in it enough for me to function like a normal human again. This took all the things I love and magnified them to the point where they all became poison. This is the type of tuberose that I think gives tuberose a bad name to so many people. This is a very challenging fragrance to me and I think only those who appreciate the thick and heavy tuberose would like this. Proceed with extreme caution, definitely not a safe blind buy in my book… even if like me, you enjoy all the notes present in other fragrances.

Update: I ended up keeping this one and returning to it to try again, and it’s growing on me. I still think it’s way more powerful than most of my perfumes (strike that, more powerful than ALL my perfumes), but with an extremely light hand in spraying… I did actually enjoy this one. It’s still very intense, but I think both my nose and the bottle needed to sit for a while on this one.

Getting the author of Carnal Flower and Vétiver Extraordinaire to write a fruchouli
is like telling Michelangelo to leave off the Sistine chapel and do a manga cartoon.
I wish he would stop wasting his time and turn out another masterpiece.

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