Insense Givenchy for men

this is a fantastic spring frag. floral yet grounded somewhere between fougere & chypre country. green & herbal with the elegance of magnolia & muguet: a bit dandyish but truly life-affirmingly good. a blind buy that really delivered. i lucked out on a vinatge bottle, so can't say anything about the re-issue.

I've only tried the original version, first doing a dab sampling and then a regular one. This is quite floral, almost like a florist's shop! In fact, I was thinking that Tumulte Pour Femme is like the cold weather version of this one. The strong florals last quite a while, at least an hour, and then continue for another couple at a lower volume. The resinous/citrus quality comes forward and after a while is at least as strong as the florals, which persist for a long time. There is a bit of a fruit juice quality to this, but it's not sweet. It's certainly unique in the "masculine" scent world and deserves its name (which has nothing to do with incense), because this combination of notes doesn't make any sense to me. I don't really find this especially pleasant, complex, or interesting (since I've got several "women's" scents with strong florals that I prefer), so I think it will either "hit the spot" for you just right or you won't like it. At this point, I am leaning towards swapping off my bottle.

I love the smell of it and have been wearing it for more than a decade but I havent been able to find it in stores. Where can I find it?

This is one of those where I need to wait out the top notes before I can enjoy it. On first application it reminds me of this flowery-soapy bubble bath my mom had when I was a kid. Once it dries down it's a warm, linear affair that I find pleasant, but not particularly wonderful.

A must have, imo, for every serious collector...one of the latest remaining kings of flower-aromatic kingdom. Strong, bitter citruses floating around a smooth yellow flowers field, finding peace in a deep forest, that radiate confidence and calm in the same time.
It's somehow funny and surprising for me to discover that the more I try new fragrances the less I care about them and always return to the Golden Age frags, when perfumery was more an art than pure chemistry strongly marketed. My humble rank 8.0/10. This is Not for the 1 Million/Fuel for life fans though...

This is one helluva fragrance and my favourite floral by far. Impressive longevity and projection.

I have a tester bottle and the text says on the back:

FLORAL-WOODY-AMBERED

Basil
Mandarin
Lily of the valley
Iris
Magnolia
Balsam Fir
Vetiver

A masterpiece!

This is the smell of hot bright sunshine on a cloudless blue-sky day in the still slightly chilly and crisp early days of spring...

I love this fragrance. It is floral and soapy. I am also picking up a little smoky incense. Extremely nice and clean. Definitely reminds me of the soaps from the '90s. Very sad it is discontinued, but I did manage to buy a 50 mL bottle today from my favorite shop.

I can only concur with "KRMARICH" review.

I am proud owner of a won ebay bid of one of the 2nd release phased (ugly bottle) ones that I have received just today at work.

Nothing can beat an olfactory time-warp of a scent you have missed for so long (I have not smelled it in over 10 years) and sniffing the first sharp, sour, aldehydic whiff immediately catapulted me back to the early to mid 90ies clubbing days, when life was young and fun!

This is eternal youth in a bottle, a never ending fountain of crisp cold water, drunk on white morning flowers, that ooze their juices and scents into the ether yearning to let loose like wild horses.

I love the soapy, sour, peppery, floral tang. Ironically it is not a sweet fragrance, or just when you are about to smell a sweet floral that sour note catches you away and throws you like a "jongleur" into the air, confusing you like a Harlekin-Caspar, laughing, as you are now smelling sour, soapy, peppery something so unique!!

Best for use in winter turning to spring (when the weather is crazy).

A TRUE MASTERPIECE (and arguably the male answer to AMARIGE)

This was the most sublime and perfect release from Givenchy for all time. So what if it was a commercial failure? Fragrance is not a popularity contest. Its a catch 22. If you sell too much, everyone will smell the same. If sales are poor, no demand and the product is relegated to a niche market. Insense is definity a niche fragrance. Its perhaps the first and only floriental for men.

I grabbed up a bottle at a closeout store and felt it was my signature forever. I used it sparingly and wisely. Its composition was superb-aldehydes, citric accords, lavender, magnolia, pistachio flower(no joke!), iris and lily of the valley all wrapped in a dry cedar-gum mastic package that cannot really be described. It was romantic, clean and intelligent. Nothing has ever ventured in this territory again. Its pure light that shimmers off of your skin.

Then came the flankers that failed to capture its brilliance. Ultimately Givenchy removed it from the market and offered it in a deformulated ugly bottle. Judging from the comments below, it is much loved. I will add my love and only hope it gets relaunched as it was. This time call it "Radiance".

The best men's fragrance of all time! I use it for more than 19 years. I realy loved it. And I'm really sad because he is no longer sold.
"Such a shame it's been discontinued.
GIVENCHY, PLEASE BRING IT BACK!" by blueberry

Es el mejor perfume masculino de todos los tiempos!! Lo uso a mas de 19 anos. Yo realmente amaba este perfume. Estoy realmente triste porque no lo venden mas.
" Es una vergüenza no ser mas fabricado.
POR FAVOR GIVENCHY, TRAGA-LO DE VUELTA!" por blueberry

E o melhor perfume masculino de todos os tempos! Eu uso ele a mais de 19 anos. Eu realmente amava esse perfume. Estou realmente triste porque nao o vendem mais.
"E uma vergonha na ser mais fabricado.
POR FAVOR GIVENCHY, TRAZ ELE DE VOLTA." por blueberry

I lucked onto this one. I’d read Luca Turin’s thoughts on Givenchy’s Insensé and was intrigued though I’d never tried it. While visiting San Francisco I found it in a tiny kiosk-sized perfume shop.

Smitten. This is my favorite perfume.

One slice of Insensé’s beauty is that I can smell the constituent parts even as I take in the whole picture with a clarity unlike any other fragrance. It’s floral, aldeydic, ambery, woody, herbal. I can smell its fougère shape. I can put together the bergamot, amber and moss and see the chypre. I can isolate the cedar. It’s not the new-style cedar that was about to become the Lutens signature. It smells like cedar essential oil, a high-pitched timber along with a sharp oiliness that reminds me of the sound of an oboe. The layering in Insensé is spectacular. High to low: galbanum & aldehyde, lily of the valley and basil, amber and cedar.

But forget the bad attempt at description. The perfume you love sweeps you up, captivates you. This one grabbed me by the balls. Not my sole barometer of fragrance quality, but certainly telling.

Here's my hypothesis about Insensé. Yes, a masculine floral is doomed to failure. But it would never have existed at all as a feminine release. It would have been less handsome. Odd notes like an oily cedar and a bracing basil would never have been included. The reach of the florals would have been curtailed. Maybe it didn’t fail because it was a floral for men, but because it was the best of classical perfumery (disparate elements, focused complexity, beauty greater than one-note prettiness) launched at the point in men’s fragrance where cool met sport.

A note on reformulation. I believe there have been at least two versions. The first, in the Amarige bottle, is everything I’ve just described. Flawless. The second, in the rounded rectangular bottle, is lovely as well, but they clearly tried to butch it up a bit. Less aldehyde, less muguet, more amber. Still spectacular.

This is possibly one of the most under-rated male fragrance (along with Feeling Man by Jil Sander) of all time. Launched at a time when fresh aquatic scents crowded the shelves, Insense was deemed to fail with its loud yellow box, odd surfboard looking bottle and further crippled by a man laughing in a field of yellow flowers campaign. Unable to set a tone that men can relate to, its marketing was a complete fiasco.

The scent itself is unconventional (and still is) and amazing on skin - a combination of sharp citrus, basil and floral aldehydes. Sadly, back in the 90's, men were not prepared to smell like this. It bombed miserably, and quickly ended up in bargain bins selling at dismal prices within a few years.

Fast forward to the 2000's, it became available again (in Switzerland of all places), in the same yellow box, but in a flat retangular shaped medicine bottle with a simple black round cap (taking cues from Chanel). It is undoubtedly a reformulation with less herbal intensity and projection, but still fairly close to the wonderful original nevertheless. Again, the 2000 edition came and went as nobody seems to care for it.

Now comes the Mythical edition, which is tweaked and diluted yet again. Nice fancy bottle but more like a pale hommage to the original.

In conclusion, think of the original as the eau de parfum (winter wear), the 2000 edition as the eau de toilette (spring and warm autumn) and the Mythical edition as eau de cologne (summer fragrance). Personally, I own multiples of all 3, since I know it will disappear again in the near future.

I love it to bits - always have and always will. It is an unloved hidden gem that is so unique, yet still way ahead of its time.

INSENSE is indeed a rare beauty.
A perfect Sunday fragrance - suitable for church and spiritual moods. This is a very true rendition of the insense mixture that you can smell during church piety. It does not contain the "incense" note per se, ad despite its name it's not "nonsensical" at all, but a perfectly blended composition to produce the church incense aroma in which herbs play a major role.
Absolutely UNISEX in my book.
I would perceive it even as floral chypre, cause I am pretty sure I can detect oakmoss in it.
Fantastic longevity and sillage.
Such a shame it's been discontinued.
GIVENCHY, PLEASE BRING IT BACK!

Found this in a lot of perfumes at an antique store, my new delightful hobby. No "homme" on it, so my jaw dropped indeed finding that this is a male fragrance. Yes, women can rock this scent. Intense at first, but such a wonderful range of scent notes. I may not have the nose descriptions you all have, but recently I put a couple of drops on the hanky I wipe the sweat from my face at work as a nursing assistant, and it is wonderfully... oh my. Uplifting. Renewing. I encourage any strong woman to try this, and other subtle, well blended male scents. Guess I'll be cherishing this one much more now, seeing how rare it is.

Those were the days when these funny yellow boxes/bottles were everywhere, even in the kiosks on the street (and I was much younger :) !

The box was funny-colored but its content was very serious. Aldehyde-flowery (still masculine), clean-fresh, sensuous and uplifting scent of Insensé was different from any other and far-far ahead of its time!!
In the 90's Insensé was my first real perfume and absolutely the favourite for many years. Unfortunately around the 2nd Millenium it was discontinued in my country.

The new "mythical edition" from 2007 is a little bit different.
2 months ago I've got the Mythical relaunch from U.K. and I was so excited that I can't tell you.
Now I have both version, I have a lighter Splash (oblique shaped) and 2 bottles of edt from this yellow boxed (rectangular shaped with black cap).
The first sniff from the newest Mythical version was a little bit suprising...
The new Insensé more herbal (and still lighter than the original) although it stayed strongly flowery and different from any other.
Either of them you choose you'll be noticed and asked what this pleasant,unusual scent is ;-)

After so long, I used Insensé Givenchy and I must say that in the midst of new fragrances, it's always a great figure.Al first spray it is captured by notes of aldehydes and the roar of citrus, I do not know if it's the lavender or currants black but at times seems to feel the characteristic smell of Fahrenheit: Insensé even if it has something of sandy and grassy, its color is yellow with spring summer that his time would also be suitable to wear this fragrance boasts royalty , and magnificence.
Very good, to try ...

the idea behind this fragrance is great . make a male floral . when i think about this , i imagine a gentle scent , delicate , yet masculine , fresh , green , little sweet....something like happy heart from clinique or romance(female) by ralph lauren. the idea was so good . but the doing was a disaster . a floral , in my humble opinion , can't be agressive like insense . the aldehydes are like a knife cutting your nostril . very,very acrid . reminds me something alcoholic,like a cognac or alike . after the "friendly" opening , insense turns into a very linear green sharp scent which tires the nose quickly .

Insensè (original)

Insensè is beautiful. An incredibly compelling and quite complex masculine floral that's so well executed and perfect to always leave me stunned whenever I smell it / wear it. It's a shame that they discontinued it but I understand why. In fact this was one of the most niche-like perfumes in the mass market / designer range and it didn't have the commercial feedback it surely deserved. Unique, complex, refined and sophisticated yet not affected. In my opinion Insensè represents a sort of apotheosis of the floral masculines with it's tremendous balance between mystery and cleanness, depth and lightness, elegance and versality. Clean and soft florals and aldehydes on a misterious resinous/balsamic base. One of the best drydown ever. A perfect composition and possibly one of the best masculine floral around together with Caron's Le Troisieme Homme.

Recently reformulated and reissued.

Rating: 10/10

According to Givenchy, the notes are as follows-

TOP: black currant, mandarin, basil
HEART: magnolia, muguet, iris, lentiscus
BASE: Fir balsam resin

It was released as a male conterpart to Amarige, and was a bit unusual for the time as it was mostly floral.

Being a big fan of this House, I was quite happy when a friend gave me a 7.5 ml mini of this (likely from the late 90s) that he thought had "turned"; luckily for me, it had not. One of the things I have noticed about "vintages" and older scents is aldehydes can often smell almost sour in the bottle, or even bitingly bitter; but after the juice hits the skin, the aldehydes disapate and all you have left is absolute lovliness...

The opening is very aldehydic, but immediately transforms (in under a minute) to something tart and sweet and warmly green. Almost edible in its deliciousness, Insense transforms from something interesting to something divine when the flowers appear. Subtly sweet magnolia and cool iris and sheer green lily of the valley create a lovely floral green accord that becomes uniquely gorgeous when the lentiscus appears. Lentiscus is another name for mastic gum, an aromatic resin from an evergreen tree in the pistachio family. It was used as everything from medicine, to a breath freshener (when chewed) and (A Ha!) incense. An amazingly resinous sweet and non-camphorous resin...it really catches the idea of incense and smokiness without the heat of "burning". On me, the mastic note runs over the flowers, but you don't hear me complaining...this is AWESOME! The drydown stays resiny and gets a bit more aromatic and heavy with the balsam fir resin, but does NOT smell sappy or sticky; just aromatic. Amazing!!

Sillage: very good
Longevity: excellent
Overall: 4.75/5

Givenchy always does things nicely, but this (along with many of their older perfumes) resonates quality, class and depth. Unlike anything on the market today, THIS is worth searching out, and investing in, for sure! Exceptional...

It's taken me a long time to post this review because I really think this is a scent you have to warm to!

This is really a very sharp masculine floral, but it's got a certain warmth that softens the sharpness down to a dull roar!

Seriously though, this does take some getting used to. It's not your standard masculine fragrance at all! Very, very floral fresh in the opening, but it does calm down to a very beautiful herbal drydown.

Very, very beautiful masculine smell! Floral, herbal, fresh fragrance.

This has over time, become one of my most cherished fragrances. Not just because you cant find it anymore, but because it's quite beautiful!

Boy, amazing fragrance !
I had one and I used it for 10 years ! Could not find it again, as I was said it is not produced any more !
BIG mistake!
but...
I found 2 bottles on AMAZON and I will get them at beginning of February. I am soooo exited I will have it again !

Adorable flowers for men! One of the best florals ever made for man. Must have for a male perfume collector. The staying power is great, the linear flower and fir notes keep you uplifted all day long, especially in a rainy autumn day.

confesso que fiquei meio decepcionado com o insensé . a espera foi longa , e a decepção na mesma medida . achei delicado demais . é muito "mulherzinha" . esperava uma fragrância mais aberta , ou exótica como o insensé ultramarine . sem falar que muitos desodorantes copiam . não é ruim . tem seu charme , mas faltou o além . faltou ser mais givenchy . comparando com femininos , eu ficaria com o romance ou o lauren , ambos da ralph lauren . têm mais personalidade , além de serem excelentes. mesmo assim , os colecionadores de plantão devem prová-lo e usá-lo .

o insensé voltou a ser vendido pela givenchy . agora ,juntamente com outras fragrâncias , estrategicamente chamadas de mitícas , este floral delicado , leve e incomum é vendido apenas em frascos de 1ooml , padronizados e muito bonitos. numa era uniforme na perfumaria masculina , é uma excelente fuga do banal.

i think that its stupid to cut such a wonderfull perfume
i hope it will return back to market

Amazing scent, very unforgetable and sparkling back in the days. Sweet, sharp at first then blend in nicely with body tone. Would want to buy if these were produce again, just to unite with vintage men's perfume.

I used to have this wonderful cologne, nicely smelling, long lasting and really amazing..it has a note of Jasmine, althought not mentioned. 2 bad things about it, first my skin was a bit alergic to it (which only relates to me!) and it was sorrowfully discontinued. A real treasured to be missed

I love this men's fragrance. In life, along these years, I am fascinated by some men's perfume. Fahrenheit by Dior, Bvlgari Pour Homme, Terre by Hermes, Comme Des Garcons 2 and this perfume. Insense by Givenchy brings back some memories. First love story back then in 1993. Sadly this perfume is discontinued in my country. Lucky I still got the miniature. It's only half bottle left. It's ok, I sniffed it sometimes...and the memory lingers. Such a refreshing but yet an elegant scent.

for the lovers of this spectacular fragrancy you can still buy it on a very serious ebay member called jf1528.i have buy more than 10 items and all of them were impecable send to me.he got some botles of insense.It is not on is portfolio but he nows were to get it.send him a email

Beautiful,salty,breezy and different. I want it again I ran out of it!

A floral nightmare making me feel cloyed and chocked.

I gave it a try on a full wear, but I could not stand it. Base notes were not that bad, but I did not feel comfortable at all.

I think it is good as a curiosity, or maybe for those enjoying floral masculine scents.

Top notes are horrible. Acrid. But after 10 minutes, it transform into a floral for men. Strong sillage, longevity is also good (around 5 hours). I was actually imagined I was taking a nap under a shady tree beyond the yellow meadow field; when wearing this. Freaking Insense. Ohh ya... insense means foolish in French.

no puedo creer que esta maravilla de la perfumería no se fabrique más. Lejos, lo mejor de Givenchy aunque pelea cuerpo a cuerpo con Xeryous Rouge (otro perfume espectacular)
Lamento realmente que no lo fabriquen más.

Insense is absolutely brilliant, like nothing I've ever smelled before in men's perfumery. It's got the sharp dryness in its top notes like a fougere (I smell lavender and wood), but a floral heart. Think of it as Paco Rabanne blended with Chanel No. 5. Some guys might think it's too feminine for a guy to wear. Baloney. The floral notes are very prominent, but it's blended with some nice wood notes, which makes it very abstract and elegant. Its longevity (about 8 hours on my skin) and radiance (prominent buy never loud) are perfect. I hear that Insense didn't sell well at all back in the 1990's when it was released. I'm really glad Givenchy decided to reissue this masterpiece, and hope they keep it in their lineup.

I agree! I love this scent! My bottle was stolen off of a moving truck and I cannot stand it still, lol. I bought another but it had to be an impostor! Why can't the just bring this back as it was WAY ahead of it's time. It would do so well in a market where every men's scent smells the same as the next.

The best man's floral and sweet scent.
It is incredible for the romantic spring weekends. Same that it can't be found in stores any more.