Givenchy kicks rears - Page 2

Gentleman is one of my go-to scents. It's refined and sexy.

I'm reviving this thread after a month of dormancy.

I just picked up Givenchy Vetyver at Nordstrom this week for $65 plus tax. I think they
dropped the price recently. I had finally made peace with the $85 price tag and went to
buy this fine scent. When I got to the register, it rang up as $65 so that was a pleasant
surprise. I still think the longevity is lacking, but I'm going to give it a proper full wearing
very soon and I hope it gives at least a half day of noticeable scent. If so, that's good enough.
I have never been disappointed in the scent, just concerned with the longevity.

As I was preparing for the purchase I also applied Monsieur de Givenchy from the newest
bottle. Excellent scent. A lightly floral citrus, very classy. Maybe I'll get it someday. Don't know
if the new bottle's juice matches the old or not. Probably does, but if all reformulations were this
good, we'd have less to discuss on this board.

A good house, willing to innovate and take risks, but still retaining classics for decades.
Two thumbs up.

It's a good thing you did. It reminded me I need to try Givenchy Vetiver sometime soon .

i've always loved Givenchy stuff....but after ordering a blind buy of Greenergy which i've found very dissappointing.....i've slightly lost a bit of faith.....

will have to get something else by Givenchy to regain my longstanding faith in the brand....

Because I was reading this Thread again I decided to try a few Givenchy's.I already owned Monsieur wich one I use a lot this summer;I find it one of the best citrus scents;yes,even better then many great others.
A few days ago I tested Gentleman and Xeryus; well;yesterday i bought them both;2x100 ml.bottles of this beautiful stuff !! So you see;sometimes its good to revisit some threads wich visits sometimes lead us to high quality scents !

Have a good day everybody !

I've been wearing Monsieur de Givenchy all summer. It is absolutely fantastic. At times it seems to be a citrus scent; at others, a lavender water. The musk and sandalwood in the drydown are lovely and not oversweet. The fragrance evolves with the day, waking you in the morning with its brightness and then seducing others come evening with its sexy skin scent. Damn good.

I've recently added Gentleman to the collection, too, but it's a bit warm and humid here for that right now.

I picked up Givenchy Vetyver at Nordstoms last week also (I had a gift certificate to use). This is one of my favorite vetivers! IMO, I think the longevity is very good. I highly recommend this to everyone, especially vetiver lovers.

I recently picked up Monsieur de Givenchy also. It's a classic and great for the warm weather months.

GG is tops, I need to give MdG and Insense a try now.

A long while ago to quote from but yes, Givenchy did make Michael Kors for Men. A new division was created in 1999 called American Designer Fragrances. The division also created the first fragrances for Kenneth Cole and Marc Jacobs (both now Coty, Kors is now Lauder)

If I recall correctly, the Givenchy-made fragrances were:

• Kors
• Michael
• Michael Sheer
• Michael for Men
• Notes from Michael - Glenplaid
• Notes from Michael - Hounds-Tooth
• Notes from Michael - Tattersall
• Kenneth Cole New York Men
• Kenneth Cole New York Women
• Marc
• Marc Jacobs
• Marc Jacobs for Men
  

Two things:

1. Do you wear Gentlemen in a business context, or only for casual?

2. What about the new reissues like Givenchy Vetiver,or is it Vetyver?

I don't have Gentlemen, but I do own Vetyver and wear it to work (business casual environment).

So far, Xeryus is my favorite Givenchy. It seems minimalistic and simple, but in a good way. Gentleman was too soapy for me. I don't like Pi because i'm not a huge vanilla fan. I liked the opening of Monsieur, but I practically have to bathe in it to be able to smell it. VI was nice, but I got tired of it well before it wore off.

To be fair, I haven't worn Gentleman on the skin yet, so I may do a turnaround on that one.

great post! i have the pour homme (love it!! ) and gentleman (wow!) and am very curious bout the rest! definitely a keeper and a well respected house in my book. ..i never realised it was an underrated house...

There was also a Kors For Men that was announced, but never released prior to the license sale to Lauder.

That being said, a friend of mine "in the business" who worked as a rep for Parfums Givenchy at the time said that they were run horribly. (I think he works for Shiseido now, IIRC.) There were botched product launches, followups that never came about (Hot Couture was supposed to be followed up by other Couture scents, but that never happened), and the sudden sale of the American Designer Fragrances licenses while unit sales were skyrocketing as a result of the Kenneth Cole launch. Think of how big the Kenneth Cole brand could have been for Parfums Givenchy if they kept and nurtured it... probably as big as it is for Coty, if not more!

Still, hindsight is 20/20, and I hope for the best for Givenchy in the future. Hopefully the buzz surrounding the new Givenchy Play with Justin Timberlake will help them in the US market.

Givenchy got me started on cologne love many years ago, so the brand finds a warm spot in my heart. I have ancient bottles of Gentleman, but I just don't love it anymore for daily wear - mostly just as a fragrance memory. However, I like the Pour Homme ("The Gentleman is Back"? Hardly!), which is a completely different beast, but enjoyable nonetheless. I think that Incense may be the one I need to get.

I just tested the Very Irresistible Pour Homme Summer Cocktail 2008 (or whatever they call it) and I loved it - cool and light, perfect for summer. I liked it much better than the other VIs. I may get a bottle. And while I'm "over" Pi, I used to wear it quite a bit. Pi Neo, with the 4-D math/sci advertising theme, could intrigue me if the scent is modern enough to live up to the imagery. So I'm still very interested in whatever Givenchy is selling, and will go out of my way to test it.

Just an aside on wearing Gentleman for business - if you do (in America, that is), I recommend erring on the side of very light application. It's a powerhouse frag, IMHO. I applied it "lightly" and was almost embarrassed enough to come home and shower!

What an excellent post mate! You have good tastes, there is no denying that.

I love Gentleman and Xeyrus Rouge at the moment. Gentleman is not a modern scent by any means, and a lot of people I meet don't seem to enjoy it (too used to Cool Water and Polo Blue I guess), but that doesn't concern me at all. Those who matter to me appreciate in on me, but even that doesn't sway me too much.

I like fragrances in a purely selfish manner mostly, and Gentleman appeals to me greatly with its unabashed offering of an era of bold expression and class that is all but gone.

Sorry for coming back on this, but it reminds me of quite revealing experience of my life. his thread reminded me, in fact, of a discussion I had, quite a while ago with a very good-looking, distinguished and well-dressed perfume saleswoman in a fragrance-store. I asked her, although I have my own perfume knowledge and trivia, to recommend me, yet another (I lost track how many I either bought or tested) formal and classic evening scent for men, and I told her "It better be good and it better be a living legend, the most elegant male scent still available." Okay, her taste must be subjective, I admit , and maybe I made things difficult for her, by giving her such a challenging task and expected a quick, yet correct answer. You know what she said? Radical and nearly monosyllabic, she replied decidedly: "Givenchy Gentleman!". She could have let her commercial instincts run free and try to persuade me into buying something much more expensive. She could have also directed me to a variety of designer and even some niche frags. But no, her answer was direct and only permitted one name, of one frag. And that, in turn, must be saying something...

Yes, there is a lot of truth in her opinion.

I haven't tried Vetiver or Insense. The only one I find myself desiring once in a while is Xeryus Rouge, and that's when I feel the synthetic quality of it won't bother me. For me, there's just something not right in the others (and I can see how XR would be too synthetic for many), though most are close to being frags that would be FBW for me. I'll guess that it's just not balanced right for me. One note or accord is too strong and becomes irritating after a while. I only sampled Monsieur once, so I have to give that a full wearing one of these days. Michael for Men, on the other hand, I find to be just right, though some might not like the top notes in particular.

What a great thread I missed the first time around. I am a huge fan of Givenchy fragrances especially Monsieur and Vetyver ( a real classic).

I also had the exact same experience with Xeryus as DustB and Mike. It was a fragrance I knew well from college but I hadn't smelled it in awhile. When I received it as an extra in a sample purchase (thank you AromiErotici) I remembered exactly what it smelled like before I sprayed it - (strange how some fragrances can stay in your subconscious like that) . It's a good classic that I have fond memories of.

Anyone looking for Monsiuer or Xeryus (or some of the feminine ones from the mythical line) might want to try imagination perfume. There is a 20% discount code (see discount/coupon thread) and I just picked up Xeryus for about $28 + shipping. I haven't ordered from them before but the deal was too good to pass up.

Great thread Chris!

Let's not forget Givenchy III while we're at it! (Yes, it's marketed to women - all you guys who get your panties into knots about such things can stop reading here.) I think it's one of the best chypres out there right now, and the only one I'd even consider placing near Mitsouko for sheer quality. I think it actually kicks Gentleman's rear. Green, woody, mossy - it's like a walk in the damp forest.

Like several others here, I think Givenchy's new Vetyver is one of the best on the market, right up there with Sycomore, Encre Noir and Route du Vétiver. I like and admire Insensé, but I concur with Chris that Paco Rabanne's Ténéré takes the masculine floral one step further. Of course, Ténéré is no longer with us, and Insené is back among the living, so the point may moot.

The funny thing is I was warming up to the same conclusion you were
I guess its only a matter of time before I try them all
I even have TWO vintage bottles of gentleman and think it is AMAZING

It's posts like this that get me to buy YET ANOTHER old school bottle of juice.

Technically, Monsieur was the first scent I fall in love with. Since it was impossible to find it locally, I decided to keep MG's empty bottle and smell the nozzle just for nostalgia's sake. Finally, 25 years after running up of MG, I was able to buy a new bottle.

At that time, I considered Gentleman to be a cheap-smelling concoction. Funny thing the way one's tastes change. Today, I stil like Monsieur, but I consider it being so tame that wearing it is like a declaration of terms on the sense of discretion. On the other hand, I realized I love pachouli, so now I like Gentleman in it sold and new formulation, the old one being stronger and less politically correct, and the new one being far more classy.

Pi: tried iti and I felt like a desert made of vanilla.

Xeryus: Never had the chance of trying Xeryus, but would love to.

Xeryus Red: It is widely available, so it is part of the homework to be done.

Insensé... I just can't make up my mind about that. Flowers galore, guess it would be the right scent when in a "flower power" demonstration. I had the chance of picking what was left of a bottle belonging to my father in law, a very conservative and traditional man. I never could understand how he liked it so much, but he did. Still, my wife gave the bottle away to a relative, something I realy regretted. So I am thinking of getting a new bottle, a ridiculous thing to do if you don't know if you like it or not. Thus, I have to admit it is, by far, an extremely original concoction.

Insensé Ultramarine: see below.

Givenchy pour Homme: I don't like acquatics - this meaning calone and / or bergamot and / or melonol top notes.

Greenergy: impossible to find, but I saw it in a perfume store. They did not have a tester... I really regreted this.

Very Irresistible: I don't like gourmands - the idea of mixing vetiver + chocolate is indeed good, but chocolate notes reminded me of one of Axe's / Lynx's hits.

So, as you can see, I like Givenchy as long as we refer to their old creations. In that sense, Chanel and YSL win.

OK, after finally trying Insense & Vetyver and securing vintage Gentleman, I must say these are beautiful scents. Why does Givenchy practically do everything in their power to limit but not discontinue these great frags and promote mediocrity like Play(do) on every street corner?

Insense had me at first sniff, and it's a shame that it is now so hard to find.

Yes, Play does seem contrived with its marketing, and the Web site face of Play is Justin Timberlake...touted as the modern dandy. No surprise for a company started by a real French count. (Yes, it's Comte Hubert de Givenchy...)

Givenchy is simply the best.

The only Givenchy fragenaces I ever liked were Pi and Pi Fraiche.

I am a long-time fan of MdG. It was one of my first fragrance purchases and have had it in my wardrobe ever since. Just this week I purchased Vetyver and it is terrific! Also have Insense and Greenergy. These two are not my faves but I wear them intermitantly and find them enjoyable.