Pi (1999)
by Givenchy

It smells like ambiguous vanilla chemicals. Not *completely* unpleasant: there a few aspects that I appreciate. It isn't syrupy sweet like a bakery; it's actually a rather dry, ambery vanilla note, I guess because it's actually benzoin. It seems like there's this beautiful soft powdery drydown, gorgoeus by itself - that's exists side-by-side with that chemical note. It's just very very unrefined, and not something I want to smell like all day. The smell seems like it should be emitted from a Glade Plugin.

I am a fan of powdery sweet scents but I found GIVENCHY PI to be too synthetic for my taste. Perhaps it was too difficult to achieve just the right balance with the benzoin crystals, resulting in a blend that is creamy but somewhat bland. And there really is no vanilla in here. Vanilla to me is always vibrant yet this element is noticeably missing from Pi. Still I can appreciate how easily the sweetness could have been misconstrued. And as pretty as the bottle may be, Pi simply has no chance of displacing Arpege pour Homme from my wardrobe.

Pi is a very sweet fragrance, but I don't find it overly so; I've tried far sweeter (A*men comes to mind). It also has acquired somewhat of a reputation for being a vanilla overload, but I also don't believe this to be the case. Vanilla is prominently featured, but I think the pyramid describes Pi fairly accurately; it starts out with a blast of citrus over the vanilla, and as the fragrance dries down, wood takes the place of the citrus notes and complements the vanilla. Pi is excellent in cold weather; admittedly, it does seem a bit on the synthetic side, and far better vanilla scents (Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille, etc.) exist. However, for the price range it's in, I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a much better vanilla-based fragrance.

This was once of my first fragances i bought. And I got it mostly by other people's good experiences from it (I don't know whether it was from this site or not).
When i smelled it in the store it smelled OK to me. But right now it is the fragance I wear the least.

I really agree with the people here saying it is very synthetic.... because it is. Altough I'm a beginner when it comes to fragances I really can't pick out the different notes in there, it just smells like a crazy chemical mixture which has the outcome of smelling like vanilla, which isn't even in there.

Did anyone here get positive reaction from women here? It just gives me a headache right now.

Might work as an air freshener or range of scented candles but does not impress me as a men's EDT. I do not want to smell like vanilla ice cream dipped in alcohol. Not one to wear in summer when all the insects are flying around, looking for a sweet treat.

overly sweet and synthetic !
a shame