Insolence Eau Glacée
Guerlain (2009)

Insolence Eau Glacée really does smell... heavenly. Clean, innocent and feminine, somehow it manages be both "cooling" and "warm", it's a scent that brings people closer to you because it pulls them in.

It opens with a citrus-y sparkle. It is a linear scent, with this bright sparkle of fresh citrus and fruity-fresh berries most prominent in the first few hours and fading continually into the drydown. It sweetens as it dries down, with mild violet and a whisper of iris. A little sophisticated but not pompous, living the high life but never forgetting her roots, head in the clouds but feet on the ground. Insolence Eau Glacée evokes nostalgia, like getting tucked into bed on a cold night. But the musk and pepper also make it feel lived in - you're cuddled up to someone special as well.

Truly calming. It smells like cleanness itself but not in a soapy, bubbly, overpowering way. I can, envision women like Natalie Portman or Taylor Swift wearing this.

A fuzzy, comforting cashmere sweater of a perfume, mostly clean white soap mixed with vanilla, lightly flavored with pepper, almond heliotrope, and an indistinct fruity floral brightness on top. I spent some time searching out the listed notes, but it's not worth the effort - the whole point of this is the comfortable soapy vanilla fuzz.

Pleasant, inoffensive, a bit short-lived, but cute and thoroughly huggable. Thumbs up.

Insolence Eau Glacee is nothing like its predecessor Insolence EDT, at least in my opinion. While I do love the smell of violets, the original had absolutely slaughtered the beautiful flower, turning it into a candied mess which had me saying "Why Guerlain, why?" Insolence Eau Glacee thankfully has not made the same mistake.

Insolence Eau Glacee opens with a rather aquatic burst, being a little similar to that of L'eau par Kenzo. It is initially very watery and fresh. As it settles, the violet emerges in all its soft prettiness with some additional crispness from the apple note.

I'll agree that this fragrance has an icy feel. It is particularly refreshing when worn in the Summer humidity which I am now experiencing as we speak. I'm surprised that this fragrance release never managed to reach our shores and I feel as if we're missing out on a lot of Insolence flankers for some unbeknownst reason.

Towards the heart, Insolence Eau Glacee takes on a rather clean and soothing, subtle, powdery violet scent, which is the only similarity between the original and this version that I have managed to detect. I guess in some ways it seems like a more diluted version, with less sugar and more violet.

The fresh airyness of Insolence Eau Glacee, is in my opinion, delightful and inoffensive. It's feminine and simplistic, however it's not a fragrance for everyone as unfortunately this fragrance does tend to turn sour on my skin.

The drydown happened to be a very pleasing musky violet and the lasting power wasn't actually that bad, at least five hours. I would like to thank Guusje for being so loving and generous as to send me a sample of this hard-to-find fragrance.