Insensé Givenchy 1993 Eau de Toilette

Bottle Design:
Pierre Dinand

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8.4 / 10 207 Ratings

A popular perfume by Givenchy for men, released in 1993. The scent is floral-green. It was last marketed by LVMH.
Pronunciation

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Main accords

Floral

Green

Spicy

Fresh

Woody

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes

Mandarin orange Basil

Basil

Blackcurrant

Heart Notes

Lily of the valley

Magnolia

Mastic

Iris

Base Notes

Fir balsam

Perfumer

Daniel Molière

Ratings

Scent

8.4207 Ratings

Longevity

7.8176 Ratings

Sillage

7.2163 Ratings

Bottle

7.1161 Ratings

Value for money

8.032 Ratings

Submitted by DonVanVliet, last update on 04/22/2025.

Interesting Facts

The fragrance was re-released in 2007 as part of the collection "Les Parfums Mythiques".

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to

Insensé After Shave

Nino Cerruti pour Homme Eau de Toilette

Niagara Eau de Toilette

1988

Neutron Eau de Parfum

Hysteria

Reviews

18 in-depth fragrance descriptions

05/06/2013

9
Scent

Ysbrand
84 Reviews

Ysbrand

Very helpful Review 14

Gives me butterflies!

Spring is definitely here to stay. It might rain again eventually, but at this point, it would only be a summery rain. Its just monday, i have a trillion things to do, there is not, indeed, any particular reason to be happy but still i cannot but smile to the sunny day and i feel light, flirty and silly. The Insensé season is officially open.

Insensé became part of my life when i was 15 years old and it has been a beloved spring/summer constant ever since. If i own a fragance that is crazy, fun, romantic and extravagant, it is Insensé, like something a maniac scientist would create by mistake.

Take a big fat bouquet of spring flowers: magnolia, sheer iris, a touch of hyacinth maybe and the more dominant muget, wrapped in the shinny cellophane of aldehydes. A spark of bright citrus amplifies the heady effect of aldehydes; the refreshing touch of cool basil rounds this exhilarating opening, and you feel like high on infatuation.

So far, this could have perfectly been a ladylike fresh-green floral, but then, the cornerstone of Insensé is an odd but comforting balsam fir, that veers the fragance into the realms of the mysterious and reassuring. Curiouser and curiouser. Insensé cannot be understood without this ingredient that is both sweet and fresh. So, lets say, that healthy dose of spring flowers and aromatic herbs, comes through the sweet/balsamic notes of conifers and lentiscus, reminiscent of the night stroll in the woods of Nuit Etoilée, creating daring unsmelled accords.Happy,insolent, masculine, glorious!

05/15/2015

ColinM
516 Reviews

ColinM

Very helpful Review 11

Masterpiece!

Insensé is one of the many fragrances I shamefully underrated for a long time, I guess for my lack of experience and proper taste. I always misjudged this in the past, always trying it quickly from samples or decants, and always ending up in considering it only a really nice albeit a bit boring and kind of heavy sort of “overly feminine fougère”; I am really glad I grabbed a deal recently and got a small 30 ml bottle of this some days ago, so that I had the chance to wear this at its fullest and give it a proper chance. And I got, as they say, a true “epiphany” about this – from mild enthusiasm to sudden devoted worshipping. It is indeed the hyped masterpiece many rave about, and the hype is fully justified. Actually, no, it even gets way less hype than it should. For me, Insensé has now jumped straight on top of the – however limited – chart of the best floral fragrances for men ever made, because it is hands down one of the best, if not the best one ever. And easily among the best masculine offerings in general ever made. Luca Turin once mentioned two key features of this, which perfectly reflect what I also strongly felt while full wearing this the first time: “melancholy and mystery”. It is exactly how I also view Insensé: this a dramatically romantic, rich and slightly decadent scent which stunningly blends decades of masculine and feminine perfumery in an enigmatic, completely new, clever, breathtakingly creative and above all, irresistibly good unisex floral blend. Which indeed smells mysteriously “different” from anything else. Like a prism, it reflects echoes of perfumes ranging from Cristalle, to Diorella, to Caron’s 3rd Man.

The smell is complex but seamlessly beautiful: there is a rich heart symphony of green herbs and flowers refreshed by a subtle fruit-pine breeze, contrasting a deeply dark, smoky base accord of woods and aldehydes which provide “weight” and baroque gloominess to flowers and herbs. The overall feel is soapy, smoky, lightly waxy, aldehydic to the bone, floating between a nostalgic green-chypre powderiness and a fresher, more austere balsamic-woody feel of many classic fougères. Not simply a juxtaposition of different styles, just a true rewriting using selected key notes and accords from all those inspirations. It may sound simple or boring, it’s definitely not: as I said it’s truly a sort of triumphant gathering of decades of perfumery blending together to compose this incredibly handsome, unique mosaic. Distinctive, bracing and sophisticated in a quite peculiar, decadent way to say the least, probably also quite “gothic” to a certain extent: surely “not for the faint of heart”. Totally worthy the high prices. Leave that shitty niche boutique and save your money for this.

10/10

07/26/2015

7.5
Bottle 7.5
Sillage 7.5
Longevity 9
Scent

GothicHeart
86 Reviews

GothicHeart

Very helpful Review 9

Freeze!...

There was a very famous bank robber in Greece during the '70s, who used to enter the robbed-to-be bank with a sawed-off unloaded shotgun hidden inside a posy of sword lillies. And yes, bank robbers can achieve rock star status, cause banks, directed by vampires in expensive suits, are not exactly the most popular establishments. He also used to give the flowers to the ladies working in the bank, before running away with the money.
He got caught, escaped prison, flew to another continent, got caught again, and during his deportation flight he gifted fragrances bought in the duty-free shop to every hostess on board, leaving them wondering whether he was a shipowner or an oilman. Or both.
He died at the age of 35, following the "live fast, die young" motto to a tee.
Every time I spray some of this short-lived quirky little gem on me, I feel like I'm ready to enter a bank along with him and run with the money.
And on a sunny, yet frigid January morning some years ago, vintage Insensé on a paper strip was one of the two best things I've ever smelled in my life.
Having the guts to do something just because you can, will always be a solid example of insolence yelled in the face of norms and poise. Insensé came and went unnoticed, scorned by the defenders of uber masculine fragrances, for it smelled like walking in a forest in early spring or late winter, while holding a bunch of blue flowers in one hand. The fact that a rifle was in the other didn't seem to be in its favour. All the more that it was not there for hunting.
A brave little soul, which left its gentle mark by the pen, in a world echoing with the clang of swords and the roar of faddish waves. And despite its failure to smoothly conquer it, it will always be acknowledged for its gallantry and whim.
For it did. And they didn't...

02/05/2013

LovingTheAlien
9 Reviews

LovingTheAlien

Very helpful Review 11

Truly deserving of its praise.

When I first obtained my bottle of Insense, I was expecting a floral assault of a fragrance. What I got confounded me - a green oriental? A salty pine-pastry? Must De Cartier over Anais-Anais?

Well I can say I understand it now. I'm wearing it on a beautiful, cool, and dry day and it is enveloping me with its lovely aura. This is an aromatic fougere taken into abstract territory. Lily, galbanum, and a very intense Iris play nicely with the lavender and bouquet garni. This is a sunny miracle of fragrance. It's not so beloved because it is daring and pretentious - this is lovely because it is so carefree and beautiful. It's complex, but its beauty lies in the whole picture, not the details. This is the scent of masculine youth. Clean, innocent, and virile, in stark contrast to Kouros's unashamed sexuality.

This is truly a singular study in perfumery. Nothing else even comes close. Everyone should try this before it's all gone.

07/15/2012

jtd
484 Reviews

jtd

Very helpful Review 7

A kitchen-sink perfume that works. Green, ambery, sharp, tropical, chilly at any given moment.

I lucked onto this one. I’d read Luca Turin’s thoughts on Givenchy’s Insensé and was intrigued though I’d never tried it. While visiting San Francisco I found it in a tiny kiosk-sized perfume shop.

Smitten. This is my favorite perfume.

One slice of Insensé’s beauty is that I can smell the constituent parts even as I take in the whole picture with a clarity unlike any other fragrance. It’s floral, aldeydic, ambery, woody, herbal. I can smell its fougère shape. I can put together the bergamot, amber and moss and see the chypre. I can isolate the cedar. It’s not the new-style cedar that was about to become the Lutens signature. It smells like cedar essential oil, a high-pitched timber along with a sharp oiliness that reminds me of the sound of an oboe. The layering in Insensé is spectacular. High to low: galbanum & aldehyde, lily of the valley and basil, amber and cedar.

But forget the bad attempt at description. The perfume you love sweeps you up, captivates you. This one grabbed me by the balls. Not my sole barometer of fragrance quality, but certainly telling.

Here's my hypothesis about Insensé. Yes, a masculine floral is doomed to failure. But it would never have existed at all as a feminine release. It would have been less handsome. Odd notes like an oily cedar and a bracing basil would never have been included. The reach of the florals would have been curtailed. Maybe it didn’t fail because it was a floral for men, but because it was the best of classical perfumery (disparate elements, focused complexity, beauty greater than one-note prettiness) launched at the point in men’s fragrance where cool met sport.

A note on reformulation. I believe there have been at least two versions. The first, in the Amarige bottle, is everything I’ve just described. Flawless. The second, in the rounded rectangular bottle, is lovely as well, but they clearly tried to butch it up a bit. Less aldehyde, less muguet, more amber. Still spectacular.

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