Play Intense was launched by Givenchy in September 2008, alongside Play, with Justin Timberlake as its face. Composed by Lucas Sieuzac and Émilie Coppermann around Caribbean amyris wood, this fuller-bodied eau de toilette adds tonka bean and labdanum to coffee flower, pink pepper, vetiver, and patchouli.
Kevin (Now Smell This) preferred Play Intense to Play in 2009: a richer fragrance, almost edible as it develops, which he did not find polarizing; Serge Mansau’s bottles reminded him of Avon’s gadget bottles.
Olfastory’s review
Kevin, Now Smell This
In August 2009, Kevin finds Play Intense richer than Play and free of what bothered him in its elder: the heart strikes him as almost edible, like a vanilla nougat. He does not judge it polarizing, contrary to what the house announced, and prefers it to Play.
The bottles, designed by Serge Mansau after portable music players, seem to him gadget-like objects in the manner of Avon’s bottles of yore, neither pretty nor very original. In the end, he admits he found Justin Timberlake more interesting than either fragrance.