Insolence Eau de Toilette (2006)
by Guerlain

Tolerable fruit. Perfume-y fruit. Good fruit. Just the right balance of citrus and berry. Of these fruit notes bergamot seems to take the spotlight. This is definitely a modern-smelling Guerlain. If I'd blind-tested this I would not have recognized this as a Guerlain perfume.

The delicate notes of orange blossom and violet follow, in the heart. Feminine and youthful. I get the faintest reminder of vanilla. Rose does not appear strong here.

Iris begins milling around, climbing up from the base to make friends with the orange blossom & violet. A glorious kinship this!

I believe the musk, resins, and Tonka are what tricked my nose into believing the existence of vanilla. (Sometimes, they do that to me).

Where the top notes seemed juicy, the middle notes seem dry. Slightly cooler, too. I use the word "powdery" too often when describing perfumes. But, it is appropriate here. Insolence is soft, and airy, overall. The iris and sandalwood remain hours later.

For something that smells so light, this performs really well on my wife's skin. Projection is strong and lasts for hours.

The smell is pleasant but nothing special. Reminds me of children's soap or shampoo.

It starts off perfumey and after a while Insolence does smell more Mugler than Guerlain. Iris, bergamot, incense and spices. Germolene and Dettol. I think I only smell the violet because I know it's there. I like it: it's unexpected.

Now it's dried down some more I realise it reminds me of 24, Faubourg. I checked the notes for this and find they are by the same perfumer, Maurice Roucel.

I bought this blind because I was searching for a nice violet scent, and this seemed to be receiving good reviews. I ended up giving away almost the entire bottle because all I could smell when I wore it was bitter grapefruit and no violet at all. A sad lesson in testing a fragrance before buying.

I absolutely love this violet perfume. It's violet but it's mature. I love it, can't get enough of it.