Hot Couture

Givenchy classes the eau de toilette among the floral fruity fragrances and gives it a three-tier pyramid: a raspberry accord at the top, a magnolia accord at the heart, and Damask rose essence from Bulgaria and Turkey at the base.

Top

The raspberry accord opens the perfume on sparkling notes. Jessica, of Now Smell This, smells a raspberry paired with vanilla, sweet and pulpy, that reminds her more of the late 1980s than of 1950s couture.

Heart

The magnolia accord brings the floral bouquet. The raspberry never entirely disappears, Jessica notes, and a sweet white flower slips a little later into the amber of the base, which softens the liveliness of the opening.

Base

The house builds the whole on the freshness and romance of Damask rose essence from Bulgaria and Turkey. Jessica mostly perceives a woody amber, edged with a honeyed tobacco note, in a perfume she finds fairly linear.

The eau de parfum

The eau de parfum has its own pyramid: raspberry nectar at the top, magnolia at the heart, amber vetiver at the base, for a fruity oriental. Pepper, caramel, ambergris and white musks, sometimes attributed to Hot Couture, appear in no current description from the house.

What the label declares

The ingredient list of the eau de toilette names no natural material. After alcohol, fragrance and water, it carries a UV filter, butyl methoxydibenzoylmethane, and two colorants, CI 17200 and CI 47005, a red and a yellow, that tint the juice.

The rest is the allergen declaration: limonene, citronellol, benzyl benzoate, linalool, geraniol, farnesol, citral, eugenol and isoeugenol. No lilial or lyral. The Damask rose essence announced by the house falls under the term fragrance.