L'Interdit returns in 2018, sixty-one years after the perfume created for Audrey Hepburn, in an entirely new formula signed by Dominique Ropion, Anne Flipo and Fanny Bal. Givenchy sets a bouquet of white flowers — tuberose, orange blossom, sambac jasmine — against a base of patchouli, vetiver and ambroxan, with Rooney Mara as the face of the campaign.
Two reviews, two verdicts: Thomas Dunckley sees a very successful modern floral, while Despina Veneti sees a skillful blend with nothing forbidden about it.
Olfastory’s review
The Candy Perfume Boy, January 28, 2019
Thomas Dunckley starts from bubblegum: the opening has its freshness and sweetness, without the cheap side one might expect. He finds it transparent, light, almost luxurious, and notes that the white bouquet echoes the opulence of the 1980s without reproducing it.
The contrast, to his nose, rests on a clean patchouli and a green vetiver that give a discreet mossy effect. He refuses to hear the promised dark notes in it, too clean for that, and concludes on a modern floral, very well made, which he defends without reservation.
ÇaFleureBon, October 6, 2018
Despina Veneti judges the 2018 version pleasant and easy to wear, but linear, and finds nothing distinctive about it: a skillful blend of the best-selling trends of the moment, which will divide its audience.
She describes a sweet accumulation — candied cherry, pear, caramel, vanilla — that clashes with the bergamot and the richness of the white bouquet, and says she does not smell the promised dark notes. Her title sums up her verdict: a walk on the safe side.