Insolence Eau de Parfum by Guerlain

A while ago I posted a review talking about how much I longed to have Insolence and how I started my small collection because of Insolence. After having it for almost two years I let it go. Maybe my almost teenage nose registered it very differently from how I perceive it now (almost 20 years later) or maybe it was the reformulation, I don’t know… But I remember Insolence as a perfume of sweetish violets with a prominent wood that gave it depth and a touch of darkness contrasting with the innocence of the sweet violets; now I don’t find that… I too (as some comments below say) perceive it as sharp and almost with no touch of sweetness, similar to a cleaning product (sadly), I wore it on many occasions and that didn’t change, I didn’t enjoy wearing it, so it is no longer part of my collection. I had the great opportunity of a friend gifting me decants of the first formulation (round bottle) of Insolence EDP and EDT and I must say that in my opinion the smell doesn’t change much from the current version, so maybe my olfactory memory was always wrong or I simply changed. As always I recommend trying it on skin, hopefully with a decant, both the EDP version and the EDT, if you’re looking for perfumes with the violet note I also recommend trying: Purple Glow (sugared violets), LVEB L’Elixir, LVEB Very Cherry, maybe Celeste (although to my nose it’s complex) and Mallow (although I still have it pending myself). There are perfumes that are for you and others that aren’t, I wanted Insolence for a long time, but it wasn’t for me.

It reminds me of the hand soap at my mother-in-law’s house. It’s not unpleasant, it’s kind of soapy. It smells a bit like a cleaning product. I don’t know if I like it.

I bought it blind based on a review on this page and knowing that it has iris among its flowers, which I love! The opening note that lingers is violet, and it’s also the note that makes people come up to you and tell you it has a soft, powdery scent. Orange blossom and strawberry appear lightly and tonka bean (slightly sweet and toasted) and violets linger, a light sandalwood scent, fortunately the vanilla doesn’t feel overpowering. It leaves skin scented for several hours, with a comfortable scent to wear without being cloying or extremely powdery. A perfect fall perfume, to rotate for everyday wear and to relax comfortably.

It’s a work of art and it’s among my 5 favorite perfumes. It smells of sweet violets (between flowers and candies) with very subtle red berry touches wrapped in a very powdery feeling that gives it an air of mysticism and elegance at the same time. It has so much personality that it’s to wear if you feel identified with its scent and what it conveys, and not so much to pigeonhole it into an occasion or situation. For me it’s evocative and has the power to make me feel good just by spraying it and enjoying its notes and its magical evolution.

I kept seeing reviews of this perfume, I looked for it in dupe stores and nobody carries it.. I got super obsessed for a while watching reviews on TikTok lol but I was afraid to buy the original for fear I wouldn’t like it.. and I said well, whatever! No risk, no reward.. and so I bought it and guess what?? I didn’t like it at all! I mean it’s not that bad.. it just reminded me of a grandma’s closet :S when opening it, I get a smell like mint with flowers, I don’t know it’s something strange but a clean smell.. I think I’m going to sell it, it’s not for every nose, I suggest smelling it before buying it because it’s a somewhat strange scent

Beautiful and extremely powerful. I have a very sensitive nose, so I don’t usually use more than three sprays of any perfume. However, with this perfume I’ve had to use the spray-and-walk-through technique, since my coworkers can smell it from ten feet away if I spray it on my neck and wrists (let alone on clothes). It’s a very peculiar perfume that not everyone likes, so I don’t recommend it for daily wear if you don’t want to attract attention. I love its smell but I don’t always dare to wear it because it’s so striking. You have to be a bit insolent to wear it.

At first it has a scent with notes that, to me, don’t blend well, and it doesn’t quite convince me. It’s somewhat intense. After an hour it changes completely and those notes soften, and it reminds me quite a lot of Infusion d’Iris by Prada, which I do like a lot. I guess it’s because of the iris. I like it much more in this phase. Try before you buy and keep in mind that it changes a lot after an hour. The violet then becomes very subtle and better blended to my taste, but if you want to notice it more, keep in mind that note doesn’t last long.

What a gorgeous fragrance, it’s really going to become one of my favorites, it’s such a rich, powdery, feminine, delicious fragrance, I really doubt anyone would be bothered by smelling something this delicious, I don’t know why it reminds me of Classic by Jean Paul Gaultier, it only shares four notes with that fragrance, but it’s really so delicious, it’s totally worth it, I would buy it again

I have loved discovering this perfume, I got carried away by recommendations from other violet lovers and ended up buying it on impulse. And I have to say that I am, while in love, also sad to see comments from other users saying that the previous formula was more intense and long-lasting. Because that very thing, the sillage and longevity, is the only thing that disappointed me a little, as I was expecting a bomb of violets, iris and vanilla, with the final result being much more muted and discreet. If I try to be positive, the latter in my opinion can help make the fragrance more wearable all year round, right now it’s spring and I’m enjoying it like a freshly made violet candy, but I do feel sad not to be able to enjoy that power that so many admired in its previous version. Anyway if you like sweet and floral scents equally with a magical touch I think you’ll enjoy it as much as I do, even if you have to touch up from time to time 😉

It smells like violet candy dusted with sugar, those that came in metal tins. It’s a delicious scent, very pleasant although quite heavy, I would wear it in cold weather. It’s more of a personal-taste perfume, cozy, that accompanies without invading as long as we are cautious with the sprays. As always the house of Guerlain is for tastes that go beyond the imposed norm. It smells classic and refined. Very feminine.

The first time I smelled Insolence I was in college and it had its original round bottle presentation back around 2008, I never forgot it. I was impressed that a soft scent (that’s how I perceived the smell of violets) could be so strong at the same time, it evoked a powerful and sexy aura for me, I loved it, but at 18 I could not have worn it. At 35 I decided to get it and it was quite an experience; At first I felt disappointment, not because the perfume is less potent and dark (which it is) but because in the first sprays it smelled only of makeup powder, but I had done a little research and learned about maceration, that was the magic. After a month of maceration Insolence was back to the DNA I remembered, not as potent, not with that tender and dark combination from before, but equally beautiful. I love having it, it still makes me feel empowered, although it is a more softly feminine scent, which if you think about it has its advantage as it also makes it more versatile. The smell of Insolence, as has been much commented, is of lightly powdered violet candies, but nothing childish. The sillage on me is moderate and the longevity about 4-5 hours, maybe more, while testing it again. To keep in mind, my skin is dry and that can influence longevity. Now my big dilemma is: When do I wear it? because although I love it, in my mind remains a memory of that sexy and powerful perfume made for unique occasions, so a part of me refuses to use it for everyday wear.

This perfume smells like those heart-shaped pastel-colored scented sugar candies, I don’t consider it youthful but not old-fashioned either, it highlights the floral and powdery but without being the typical grandma smell, I tried it yesterday and I would say it has moderate sillage and even after the shower you can still feel it close to the skin. I have to mention that at first (the first hour) I perceived almost no smell, but suddenly it was there and definitely not subtle.

I know all three versions, the original was a creation of a dark, sweet and dry violet, very mature and overwhelmingly powerful, the second one in the bee bottle had already been toned down a bit, it was more powdery, or rather mostly powdery, they had raised the iris a lot, but it was still very respectable, this latest one is a sweet violet soap, on my nose it is much cleaner, less powdery, more floral and much weaker. I can’t stand this endless exercise of reformulating good creations and in the attempt to “modernize” them they only water them down and make them more commercial.

My favorite note is violet. They are super powdery, delicious violets. Like a rich little girl in the Belle Epoque. If you like violets from start to finish, very feminine, innocent and elegant perfumes (the elegance of shabby chic style) I recommend you try it. Lasts about 6 hours with projection for the first hour. Afterwards it stays in a pleasant closeness that anyone who comes near you always notices. A perfume I will never tire of repurchasing

Guerlain has, or had, an incredible ability to create fragrances that gave the wearer a sense of old-world luxury and elegance. The fragrances could still feel current, like Shalimar, or feel locked in the vanity of a lady from one hundred or one hundred fifty years ago. But all of them, without exception, conveyed that status, that elegance, that distinction so hard to find today. From the quality of the box, to the advertising and the aesthetic of the perfumes, and of course the beauty of the scents, everything made you think that what you had spent on a Guerlain, which was never small change, had been worth it, or at least had been worth the price. I could not say at what moment, between the creation of the original Insolence (2006) and the launch of Mon Guerlain (2017), this changed. At least the house has tried, with varying degrees of success, to revive its classic fragrances in its Les Légendaires collection, taking into account new ingredient and raw material restrictions. They did not manage to revive the exact fragrances of that time, which is why snobs did not hesitate to say Guerlain had deformed, disfigured, destroyed this or that fragrance, without stopping to think that of course it would smell different. Nothing stays the same, no matter how much we want it to. What matters is that the house sought to replicate the spirit, the essence, the base of all its legendary fragrances, as the collection name says, and I would say they succeeded. At least they have managed to bring back that aura of something well made, of something that spoke not only of money because of the price tag but also of quality, that you felt when buying a Guerlain, while still capturing the soul of each fragrance, even if they are not identical. Insolence EDP takes me to the dressing table of an English young lady from the Regency or perhaps the early Victorian years. Not French, because France in those years went from Napoleon to Napoleon, with no time for young ladies to enjoy the stability to retire to the countryside. Because that is what this Insolence makes me think of, a young lady, no longer a girl but not yet a woman, walking through her family’s lands, in a loose, light-colored dress, too informal and casual to wear at court or in the capital. The sun, shy after the previous night’s downpour that revitalized the earth and released deep mysterious aromas from the soil, reflects in the girl’s hair, where she has pinned a small bunch of fragrant violets she found along the way. She smiles when she finds wild strawberries and picks all she can, eating on the spot the ones she cannot carry. Insolence has that certain old-fashioned touch from iris and violet, the two notes that drag the others in their wake. It has an optimistic and cheerful character thanks to strawberry and orange blossom, and a creamy and slightly sweet base from sandalwood and the Guerlinade. It is a romantic perfume, though not as we would say today, but as the Romantic movement was in its time, in which emotions prevailed over reason, though melancholy prevailed over the rest, and joy was used to accent moments of happy memories, because according to the Romantics all good things had already passed, nothing good could come. Those things, nostalgia for the past, joy in remembering, are what Insolence evokes for me. I see it for spring and fall above all, although a humid and cool summer day would suit it perfectly, or perhaps worn all year in cities with a constant, cool rainy climate, like Bogota, to name one. It is too floral for winter, and unbearable in heat, because violet reacts by turning sweeter and almost sticky in high temperatures, and it often gives headaches. I would only recommend it to someone who already knows they like the violet note, and powdery violet. If you are not sure about your preference for this note I would recommend holding back, because there is so much here that it is not for half measures. It has more longevity than sillage, which is always welcome in fragrances with such invasive notes.