Scentzilla!

Imagine if honeysuckle was Napoleon, leading a powerful army of vanilla behind it. That all sounds well and good at first,

That, unfortunately, is how I wear Givenchy Organza. (Organza is credited to Sophie Labbe, via Basenotes, because Givenchy’s website is useless.) No matter how many chances I give Organza, it ends up meeting its Waterloo, in the loo, under running water from the faucet. I am sick with envy over those who carry it off well. On some folks, it smells airy and sweet - divine, even. A touch of incense is present on my skin, which would possibly provide some relief, but it’s buried under a pile of sugary florals, vanilla, and ambery woods. On others this touch of spicy incense smells seductive. On me? About as happy as cannon wheels stuck and sinking in mud. Sure, it technically can go off, but it doesn’t work so well when it encounters my skin.

I was encouraged by Givenchy’s earlier limited edition release of their Amarige Millesime 2005 (an excellent blend of extra mimosa into original Amarige) that I might fare better with the new Organza Millesime. Perhaps this Millesime version, a blend of a specific jasmine crop from India into the original formula, might win me over.

The Organza Millesime sadly is not nearly as successful as the Amarige 2005. The promised jasmine is indeed featured prominently, and quite loudly so in the first half hour of wear. To me, many jasmine notes begin (and end, too) clean like laundry detergent. In this fragrance, I have to wait until the laundry’s done before I can perceive the other notes. Ahhh, there it is, Organza, lurking in the dry down finally, but it’s ligher and certainly less sugary than the original. Perhaps the addition of jasmine is Organza’s land war in Russia: it’s not defeated, but weakened and thinned out by the effort. As a result, I think the Millesime version would be a nice choice for those who would like Organza original if only it didn’t wear so heavy and oppressive on them. It also might prove interesting to those who are already fans of the fragrance and would welcome a summer-appropriate twist on it. However, if you love that deep sweetness of Organza, I think this version will come as a disappointment.

The price of this LE doesn’t bite too hard, because like the Amarige Millesime, it is only nominally more expensive than a bottle of the regular stuff. I’ve yet to see it on store shelves, but it is available online via Sephora.com.

Images poorly “photoshopped” by me. Honeysuckle bit comes from thegardenhelper.com, Napoleon paintings from pk.ac.th and fuenterrebollo.com, respectively.