Givenchy ~ Amarige Mariage and Ange ou Démon
You know what the Givenchy house really needs to shake things up? More spin-offs of fucking Amarige.
Feel the pulse
and vibration
and the
rumbling
force
Somebody
is out there
beating
the dead horse.”- Bob Dylan “Man in the Long Black Coat”
Amarige Mariage is flipping Diet Nirmala (current), which is itself like a foofy Fat-Free Angel. Fruits, florals, patchouli, vanilla, bleh. Wake me when it’s over. Another review of Mariage is located over at Victoria’s Own. I’m lacking motivation to write anything else about it.
I was really anticipating Ange ou Démon, on the basis of the notes. And because of the name. I know, I know, the name shouldn’t be a factor. But it’s a great one. “Ange ou Démon” implies something almost mythical, like those old dead demigods who could act both sublimely wicked and supremely benevolent in their stories.
I do rather like this creamy little fruity-floral, but it’s nothing that blows me away. Nothing mythical here. I keep reading the official notes in disbelief. On me, this fragrance is like an herbal version of Flowerbomb Extreme, with a touch of what I perceive as a berry-like intonation, and a clean shower-fresh feel. That alone wouldn’t recommend it to me, but on the drydown I sense a little bit of something burnt. The burnt perversely redeems it for me. I won’t rush out to buy Ange, but if I got it as a gift I wouldn’t thumb my nose at it. It’s a winner… I guess. However, this does nothing smell-wise to put some prestige or leadership back into the Givenchy Parfums line. You can read some other lukewarmly approving reviews at both Victoria’s Own and Legerdenez.
I write this open letter out of love. Someone needs to tell you these things, and perhaps it is best if it comes from a friend: your perfume house’s energies are misdirected, and you’re getting hung up on all the wrong things. In the past, you were capable of brilliant efforts, with classics like L’Interdit, Monsieur de Givenchy, Eau de Givenchy, Amarige, even the newish Organza Indecence and Pi, just to name a few. And yet, these past few years have seen you especially wasting away your efforts on marketing. Don’t get me wrong. The marketing is usually beautiful and excellently done, filled with smart advertising images aimed at a bourgeois public that wants to pretend it’s rich.
But is that all you’re going to settle for? A sale, with little to no regard for quality of product?
Givenchy Parfums once used to be those that implied “if I stand on my tippy-toes, I might just be able to reach it” luxury, and even, dare I say it… good taste. Then your perfume house settled comfortably into affordable luxury, and you know, that was okay, too. I’m old enough to remember when Givenchy used to mean cool. Now Givenchy means nothing more than just another brand name. It appears as if your perfume house is bending itself to only represent the bland cult of logo, filled with mall shoppers who care more about buying the right names rather than quality. You certainly flirted heavily with that in the yuppiedom of the 80s, but this is different. It almost smacks of desperation (which I suppose is understandable in these economically weird times for the perfume industry.) However. Sometimes if you bend something too far it eventually breaks; your strategy may currently pay off financially, but it spells out trouble in the long term.
Your reputation is being shoddily pissed away, with perfumes that smell not just like a compromise, but that reek of a committee table. Very Irresistible? C’mon! You’ve been bested by Stella, which has an equally shallow aromatic message. At least Stella conveys that message with some of the charm you wish Liv Tyler and her infernal hat possessed. And it does it by smell, not slick ads. Even your Very Irresisible for Men, which I quite like (but don’t love-love), does little to add to the spent cache of chic Hubert de Givenchy worked so hard to establish in the first place. It’s been traded in for the false chic of cash. Your perfume house is seemingly being run in middle-managerial mode: make a lot of noise to make it seem like you’re doing something, enact whatever surface promotion it takes to get the counter sales up, and generally just polish and shine the shinola so us dumb folks don’t know the difference. Hubert once said in an interview, “Business in fashion is fine, but you cannot get so big that you are unable to protect your quality, your name.”
Now you’re rolling out Ange ou Demon with lovely ads, but not an entirely awe-inspiring fragrance. Amarige Mariage? Pfft. I pity the poor perfumer stuck with what I am sure was an avalanche of sales-minded, not quality-minded, notes. You almost got the cool affordable luxury snowball rolling again with your Millesime releases. One of them was simply fan-freaking-tastic. But now we’re back to the suck. And the suck is hardest on a Givenchy fan like me.
The reason I care so passionately, and am speaking so harshly is that I believe the best of your fragrances are louder than love. They are messy and big and a little wild… yet somehow remain elegant. They give credit to the person who wears them as having an equally big personality and beauty. That? Is awesome. Your greatest perfumes say you don’t need to compete with the unique creations of the niche houses because you’re freaking Givenchy. But the general trend blandward is… it’s so Wal-Mart of you. It’s as if you think you can compete best by simply capitalizing on (the L is really for Leviathan) LVMH ad-blitz tactics. Obviously that works, but for how long?
Hubert said of his own work, “I want to create something that will not disappear with me, but outlive me for fifty, or maybe even one hundred years!” None of the most recent spate of perfume releases appreciates his vision. ¡Qué lástima! Yet I think you, as a house, Givenchy, are nevertheless still capable of that sort of achievment. And I’m desperately rooting for you to do so. My hopes aren’t exactly high at the moment.
Prove me wrong! Please prove me wrong!
Your devoted and disappointed fan,
Scentzilla!
You’ve said it all, and said it well, Katie.
Anya
4 Aug 06 at 4:13 pm
Thanks, Anya.
Scentzilla!
4 Aug 06 at 4:33 pm
Katie,
Well done. A forthright message to Givenchy was overdue.
You will do well to advice them to begin their resurrection with a relaunch of Givenchy’s Vetiver, quite simply the finest Vetiver I have ever smelled, better even than the justly famous Guerlain, and indeed everything else currently out there.
A couple of mails to Givenchy resulted in little more than the customary PR nonsense. You see I chanced upon an almost empty bottle while emptying the residence of a deceased relative, and being a lover of Vetiver could not resist a whiff. Within the next 10 minutes everyone there had requested a trial and that was the end of a magical encounter.
If you can get the other scent bloggers to take the cause up, you’ll be doing all scent lovers a big service.
Best,
Saloner.
Saloner
4 Aug 06 at 7:27 pm
Update to my previous post:
Katie,
“advice” is a mistype, it should be advise; I regret the error.
And it might interest you to know that Givenchy vetiver was Hubert’s signature scent.
Saloner
4 Aug 06 at 7:37 pm
Saloner, oh lucky, lucky you! I’ve been dying for years to try the Givenchy Vetyver. I’ve never gotten ahold of it, though. I didn’t know it was Hubert’s signature scent - neat, thanks for that detail! What was their vetiver scent like, if I might ask?
Scentzilla!
4 Aug 06 at 7:48 pm
Well Katie,
Unlucky, unlucky me really; Everytime I pick my Guerlain up my mind craves the even more refined Givenchy. I curse my luck at that bottle being almost empty; had it been amply full, I’d most certainly have put the “finders keepers” clause into play and stored it, ungenerously, for strictly personal use.
How did it smell? very simple: Tranquil.
A sense of grounded serenity completely enveloped me, and stayed, thanks to the outstanding longevity, right through the day. Vetiver has, as you might well know, a reputation in the far east for its ability to soothe, and no other vetiver scent, to me, has captured this trait better than the Givenchy.
The citrus and mildly spicy opening is not sharp at all; just fresh enough to clear the mind and the nose up for what follows: a most wonderful vetiver mated, to my mind, with a muted sandal accord. The effect, in one word, is Zen. Never has a scent, before or since, brought me such a sense of imperturbability, rootedness and calm. The basenotes, Cedar laced with a suggestion of tobacco, to my mind again, just anchor the vetiver without interfering with it. The Grassiness of the Guerlain is completely absent, and one is left with a vetiver whose zest is toned down by the tobacco laced woods, leaving the tranquil heart intact.
It is the scent of a man/woman of refinement, character and maturity.
I unreservedly regard it as a Masterpiece, a masterclass in how Vetiver should be blended, the last word as it were.
Hope that helps.
The memory of it haunts me fleeting though the encounter was; Such was the strength of its impression. May they revive it!
Saloner
4 Aug 06 at 9:06 pm
Can I sign your letter too? Also, we could change names and quotes and use it to address other perfume houses. Dear Guerlain…Dear Dior…
If I may add to the list of Givenchy’s greatest: Le De, Givenchy III and even, to me, Oblique RWD…
Marina
5 Aug 06 at 4:24 am
Saloner - “Unlucky, unlucky me really” Hehe! That’s hilarious. But I feel you on that point. I feel the same way about Toujours Moi, knowing what it had been and then comparing it to the current state it exists in now. Good lord, now I REALLY want that Vetyver! It sounds simply mind-blowing. I can only hope and keep my fingers crossed that I stumble across it someday. Thank you so much for the description, and curses to you for making it sound so irresistible ;-P It sounds to die for! Wow.
Marina, oh yes, I do suppose that letter could be transposed to apply to other houses as well. But Givenchy is the house I have the strangely strongest draw towards (for whatever reason), so I guess I’m the most cross with them, at the moment :( I’ve not tried the Le De or III, but I know they have many admirers to say the least… I know I have a sample of the Oblique Rwd somewhere around here… somewhere…
Scentzilla!
5 Aug 06 at 10:22 am
Brill Katie–simply brill! Please tell me that you mailed this to their HQ.
FWIW–I kinda like Ange Demon or whatever it is called.
monkeyposh
5 Aug 06 at 1:22 pm
J - ach, why bother, you know? I’m just a customer, not a suit with a business plan and a power point presentation to lay it out. I do kind of like the Ange, too, but it’s not love. It’s pleasant enough.
Scentzilla!
6 Aug 06 at 2:42 pm
Your SFT (sorta fragrance twin) checking in here. I DIDN’T get the burnt note in Angie Demon, just the glum accord without the stripper, and am disappointed. The Mariage is utter crap, and I say that as one of the fellow lovers of Amarige. The poor SA at Sephora saw my bitter, twisted sneer and asked me tentatively if I was okay. Sigh. If I spend too many more years sniffing boring spinoff frags, do you think my face will stick like that?
marchlion
6 Aug 06 at 2:48 pm
March, I’m sorry - you know, in all honesty, it looks like I may well be the ONLY one sensing a wee bit of burnt at the bottom, so I’m sure I’m just crazy and imagining it. I really just don’t get the reason Mariage exists, or least smell-wise why it exists. Sheesh. Poor Amarige. It’s being slowly flayed to death. Except for the Millesime version, which I loved, and you did, too, so we’ll make and exception for that one ;)
Scentzilla!
7 Aug 06 at 3:48 pm
You’re spot-on about the Very Irresistible for men, it’s not really irresistible after all, is it? I wanted sth mindblowing and was that much disappointed. I’ll second Marina in her demand to please undiscontinue Oblique RWD. Can I say *undiscontinue*? :-)
Dusan
8 Aug 06 at 11:25 am
I think the VI for Men was nice, and I honestly recommend sampling it to others, but I didn’t exactly fall head over heels for it either… I guess I wished it was a little more, feh, I don’t know, just more “more.” You recommend the Oblique Rwd, too?? Shoot, I’ve got to dig around and figure out where on earth my wee sample ran off to!
Scentzilla!
8 Aug 06 at 6:13 pm
Diet Nirmala - brilliant!!!! Yes exactly!
I was thinking Prada wannabe, but you nailed it.
Victoria O
9 Aug 06 at 1:20 pm
Thanks V :)
Scentzilla!
9 Aug 06 at 4:06 pm
Buon luogo, congratulazioni, il mio amico!
Azzurra
4 Nov 06 at 4:05 pm
Regarding Amarige Mariage: This is my type of fragrance–I have been wearing my sample this week and while I like it, I know something is missing. Because of your comment, I’d like to test Nirmala (I’m not personally fond of Flowerbomb or Angel). Are there two versions of Nirmala, one current and one past? Thanks
czarinasix
16 May 07 at 9:28 am
Great letter to Givenchy — here here! About 15 years ago I purchased my first bottle of Eau de Givenchy and fell in love, about five years later I was perusing fragrances at Burlington coat factory and discovered Le De, didn’t purchase but its beauty was cemented in my brain and I vowed to return when I had the funds. Sad to say it was gone when I returned, but they still had some vintage Givenchy III which I grabbed thank goodness. These two beauties made me into a serious Givenchy fan until a couple of years ago when I purchased the reissue of L’Interdit after reading Jan Moran’s rave reviews. What a mistake, it starts out nice, sort of similar to Fleurissimo, but the drydown is pure Desenex foot ointment. If Chanel 5 can stick around this long, what’w wrong with Givenchy? The L’Interdit/Audrey Hepburn story is way more interesting than any Chanel buzz. Don’t they know Audrey is a real icon for young 25 to 35ish women. And for those of us who are older, all they had to do was make it a real substantial fragrance that follows through on its deceptively lovely top note. Good marketing Givenchy, I bought it :(
liz
4 May 08 at 1:08 pm
Great letter to Givenchy — here here! About 15 years ago I purchased my first bottle of Eau de Givenchy and fell in love, about five years later I was perusing fragrances at Burlington coat factory and discovered Le De, didn’t purchase but its beauty was cemented in my brain and I vowed to return when I had the funds. Sad to say it was gone when I returned, but they still had some vintage Givenchy III which I grabbed thank goodness. These two beauties made me into a serious Givenchy fan until a couple of years ago when I purchased the reissue of L’Interdit after reading Jan Moran’s rave reviews. What a mistake, it starts out nice, sort of similar to Fleurissimo, but the drydown is pure Desenex foot ointment. If Chanel 5 can stick around this long, what’w wrong with Givenchy? The L’Interdit/Audrey Hepburn story is way more interesting than any Chanel buzz. Don’t they know Audrey is a real icon for young 25 to 35ish women. And for those of us who are older, all they had to do was make it a real substantial fragrance that follows through on its deceptively lovely top note. Good marketing Givenchy, I bought it :(
liz
4 May 08 at 1:08 pm