Insense by Givenchy

A beautiful, uncataloged masculine floral that will be etched in my memory forever.

Finally, I got my hands on the legendary Insensé, and here’s my take: For me, this perfume boils down to a trio of blackcurrant, basil, and balsamic fir. The opening felt very strong and herbal (basil-lavender), but the dry-down is sweet, very sweet, though not like candy or vanilla; it’s more like blackcurrant syrup (think Marie Brizard’s Cassis) mixed with something very resinous (the fir). I don’t detect much floral (with some imagination, maybe a faint touch of white flowers, but almost imperceptible). In my opinion, what drove away the 90s crowd might have been that concentrated sweetness. As for projection, it’s great for the first two hours, then it stays in a bubble until it fades around six hours. To sum it up, rating it as a fougère is spot on; it smells like shaving cream infused with blackcurrant syrup. P.S.: I’m not sure about the floral notes; anything with flowers in the pyramid gets labeled floral (which would make all perfumes floral, but whatever).

It was okay, but many budget-friendly scents from the 90s gave this three to one. It was very heavy, matronly, extremely sweet and floral, with a ureic touch that projected like nuclear waste. It was unique and interesting; for those who enjoyed this type of smell, it became a defining fragrance of the era. I wore it for years, and on public transport, people either killed me with their looks or outright tried to vomit; I don’t blame them—I sprayed this as if I were being gifted it. At some point in my crazy youth, I thought I could use it to kill cockroaches in the kitchen. Anyway, for the 90s and when I was young, it was an excellent option to claim territory, show style, and grab attention. Not today; today it would be like walking down the street dressed as The Fresh Prince.

Hey guys!!! Those of us lucky enough to have owned and used it at some point… know that: It’s the Holy Grail of perfumes! Best regards.

The best men’s perfume I smelled in the 90s, a gem I’ll never forget. I have the memory of that scent captivating me, and today no perfume compares to it.

I picked this up in ’94 and haven’t seen it since; only the Ultramarine version remains, which loses the original soul. I have incredible memories of that year—using it right after school and during my first year of university. The scent is etched into my memory, and nothing compares to it. EDIT: I forgot to mention what it smells like; it’s a very green floral. At first, you get basil and white flowers; as it dries down, it becomes a coniferous wood, not sure if cypress or fir.

I don’t have much appreciation for masculine florals in general, but this one is fantastic. Alongside Le 3ème Homme de Caron, Insensé stands out in the genre, and for good reason. Mine is an original 1993 bottle, not the 2007 reissue by Les Parfums Mythiques (also discontinued). It’s a clean, complex fougère that blends bright aldehydes, green florals, and citrus on top, with dark fruits, animalic notes, and crunchy, somber coniferous woods at the base. It’s an exceptional mood-lifter and surprisingly radiant: you feel a solar aura on the skin, as if a Vivaldi choir were ascending to the heavens. Gloria in excelsis Deo!

My first bottle was a gift from a girlfriend I had back in the ’90s, and it was love at first sniff. I became obsessed with this fragrance, which quickly turned into my signature; the feeling was indescribable—all I remember is feeling unique, powerful, and very masculine despite it being a floral. I’m still obsessed today, searching for something to replace or resemble it, but the search has been in vain. Needless to say, for me, it’s the best perfume I’ve ever had and a true masterpiece. The only current fragrance that gives me a similar vibe is Encre Noir Al’extreme, but let’s be clear: they don’t play in the same league. If anyone finds it at a good price, grab it—it’s perfumery history.

I was 11 when this marvel launched. Then came Ultramarine. I had the fortune and privilege of having a very close maternal uncle who worked in a cosmetics and perfumery importer, and he gifted me both. I used them between ages 12 and 17, simply spectacular. Nothing to envy from fragrances like AdG, Sauvage, or other famous, mass-market scents, but infinitely more elegant than them. I’ve searched for it across sky, sea, and land without success. At this point, I don’t even remember its scent. My apologies for sharing these emotional memories here. But that’s the magic of fragrances—they’re not mere superficiality; they hold beautiful memories of what we’ve lived through. It’s inexplicable that they discontinued it.

One of the best fragrances I’ve ever had in my life. Intensely floral, perfectly crafted. Truly exquisite. It’s a shame it was discontinued from the main line. I understand it’s sold under the exclusive line at an exorbitant price. A real pity.

The best men’s floral perfume that has ever existed. Probably my favorite from Givenchy, even surpassing the vintage Gentleman.

I’m a woman, and all I can say, and that’s a lot, is that no perfume has ever been as seductive to me as this one. A 20-year-old boy or an 80-year-old man could wear it, and I needed to smell it. I followed his trail like a zombie. If it existed today, I’m sure I’d buy it just to smell it at home.

It was a fragrance with harmony. Aldehydes with muguet flowers gave it an ambiguous and strong character. It smells very similar to the Nino Cerruti perfume (which I wore for years…), older but not outdated for that reason. Both stand out in their podium of masterpieces in memory. It’s French, for a dandy who wants to stand out at formal gatherings. For an older man who is still young, because… because he enjoys velvety and floral fragrances without losing his masculinity. It wasn’t fresh and suited cold weather for personal enjoyment. I loved wearing it back in the day. It reminded me so much of the Nino Cerruti one.

This Insensé (the name fits perfectly) was the first bold aromatic aldehydic floral that didn’t have a drop of the sweat from certain male beasts of that era like Animale, Shiseido Basala, Egoiste Platinum, XS, and some of the many derivatives of the most macho of the bunch: Kouros. It has a unique and irrepetible formula of cranberries, mandarin, the best natural basil, and flowers: magnolia, lily of the valley, iris, aldehydes, and balsam fir as the final note (imagine the freshness of pine resins and woods during Christmas). The myth says that not only did the combination of notes fail, but its graphic advertising did too: a prototype of masculinity bordering on metrosexuality that would explode without a sound in the new millennium. Unforgivable in 1993. And the model’s pose? Not hard-core male, of course. And the flower-covered background of the photo? For the creatives, just the answer to the graphics of its female counterpart, Amarige (we could say it was the praying mantis that devoured its male in record time and still enjoys an enviable health). Years and years of dreaming awake to get it back only resulted in the launch of the Les parfums mythiques collection, which never reached this hemisphere. It was the true end of the kid’s dream. The perfume industry kept spinning and reproducing geometrically, but nothing could save Insensé from its destiny and condemnation to oblivion simply for trying to break structures. An irreverence that still today elevates it to myth for those who had the fortune to enjoy it. A few months ago, I managed to get that original juice in splash version, which, as you can imagine, I cherish with my life. The arrival of Hysteria relieves quite a bit of the relentless countdown that each use represented. I always feel like I’m coming home when I wear it. I might not have it in sight, but imagining myself in it automatically makes me happy. That is this oldie beast for me. Long live Kings Insensé/Hysteria.

Like in so many other things, I arrived late here too; they’ve already said everything, luckily. Fresh, floral, soapy, almost unisex but no, thanks to an acidic basil, the ideal fir (with ideal referring to the fir born from the idea of the perfect fir), it was all that and yet, it was soft. A Masterpiece. P.S.: I’ll never understand why it was discontinued and why those derivatives didn’t suffer that fate; they are, in my opinion, very inferior.