Reviews of L'Interdit Intense by Givenchy
This was originally a blind buy by my mom, she didn’t like it, so I ended up with it. To her, it smelled heavily of licorice or anise. I’m assuming it’s the “black sesame”, but to my nose, it’s really a note that’s hovering somewhere between being nutty, and licorice. It’s not fully either one to me, but I do enjoy the hints it gives me in both of those directions. This flanker has the dna of the original (not the true original, but the one that came out in 2018 I think), but has added creaminess, and a quality that makes this one more of a night time choice. I really enjoy it a lot. I feel this way about the whole line that I’ve tried (l'interdit, rouge, and intense).
The new L'Interdit Intense 2020 is definitely a musky fragrance founded on a musky/vanillic connection of orange blossoms, ylang-ylang and balmy tuberose. The latter (playing throughout a role of absolute protagonist) smells super smooth and powdery, while the fragrance itself kind of lipstick, sultry-synth (a la Elie Saab Le Parfum) and creamy-orangy (with a tad of fruity - peachy/orangy -acidity). This new creation preserves a part of the classic foundation (musk, ylang-ylang, vanilla, fruitiness etc) deriving from its olfactory ancestor - the original L'Interdit or the Givenchy top sellers Organza and Amarige- with its tad of hesperidic acidity, peachiness and greenness (which is however "purified" from the "vintage" hesperidic articulation, its mossy-animalic mould, its tad of rootiness and the floral ambery "baroquisme") which is in this case cleaned up, polished, intensified and simplified with a more contemporary powdery musky "easier" (somewhat monolitic) olfactory touch. Black sesame? I have no idea what it smells about. Synth black vanillic patchouli represents the dark sultry side of the floral soapy accord. This juice is definitely darker and easier to wear (more crowd pleasing and versatile) with its semi-oriental (kind of glamour chic) synth musky aura but even surely lacking real complex structure and classic french grandeur.