Givenchy Insense is as pretty an incense fragrance as you’re likely to find without straying entirely afield from the meditative purpose for which incense was developed.
Opening on more a sweet powder premise than warm amber, the musks make a demure appearance an hour or so into the script, whereupon the whole machine then gently starts to wind down to a nice enough, if rather unsurprising, conclusion of dusty cedar, light sage and faint powdery florals.
Patty over at Perfume Posse considers it masculine (and “not terribly entertaining”) while I find it vaguely feminized, so I suppose that means it swings both ways for the right dance partner.
Luca Turin gave it high praise in The Guide, and I can see how someone who awarded the floral frankincense of L’Artisan’s Timbuktu five stars (out of five) would also really like Givenchy Insense . . .
Absolutely inoffensive, and if I smelled this on a passing breeze, I might lift my head and look for its source, which, I suppose, is the point of the exercise to begin with, but I prefer the blacker smokes of Greyland.
UPDATE (05/26/09):
An anonymous reader decided to write in and tell me that this review for Givenchy Insense is “misleading” because it isn’t incense — though he/she made no effort to clarify what he/she defines as incense. Of course.
Just so we’re clear, “incense” is a latin word meaning “to burn” — it is not one specific material (the Frankincense tree is named after the word “incense” and not the other way around); in fact, incense materials vary from culture to culture, so what constitutes incense in the Middle East will be completely different from the incense used in a spiritual ceremony in Japan, or, say, a New Age gathering in Sedona, Arizona.
Wikipedia lists 44 different materials that are, and have been, used in incense rituals throughout the world: Agarwood, Cedar, Sandalwood, Cypress, Juniper, Cassia, Coriander, Harmala, Juniper, Nutmeg, Star anise, Vanilla, Bdellium, Benzoin, Copal, Frankincense, Myrrh, Labdanum, Dragon’s blood, Storax, Galbanum, Elemi, Camphor, Sandarac, Guggul, Opoponax, Tolu balsam, Patchouli, Sage, Bay, Tea, Balsa, Vetiver, Orris, Calamus, Spikenard, Galangal, Couch Grass, Clove, Lavender, Saffron, Ambergris, Musk and Operculum.
Givenchy InSense is the kind of scent you would smell in a college girl’s dorm room after she sets alight a stick/cone of what she would call “incense” — a kind of pretty, floral sandalwood/white musk mix. Exactly the type of “incense” one would find in the racks at a natural foods store in the U.S. — making it, in a sense (InSense), incense.
I delete anonymous comments as a general rule (anonymous commenters are the worst kind, often being rude and/or wrong — in this case, he/she was both), but I felt that mainstream confusion regarding the “incense” definition was an important one to address.
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Perhaps I’m confused – I thought the Givenchy perfume was Insense, does he also have an Incense scent??
Nathan Replies:
No, Tara, you’re not confused — it was me (and The Perfumed Court, who labeled my decant “Givenchy Incense” so that I was thrown off my game). I’ve corrected the title and spelling in the post. Thank you for calling it to my attention.