Insensé Ultramarine (Eau de Toilette) by Givenchy

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Insensé Ultramarine Givenchy 1994 Eau de Toilette

7.0 / 10 134 Ratings

A perfume by Givenchy for men, released in 1994. The scent is aquatic-fresh. It is being marketed by LVMH.
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Main accords

Aquatic

Fresh

Fruity

Spicy

Synthetic

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes

Watermelon

Blackcurrant

Bergamot

Galbanum

Heart Notes

Lily of the valley Iris

Iris

Carnation

Magnolia

Mint

Base Notes

Sage

Tobacco

Cardamom

Perfumers

Christian Mathieu, Takasago / 高砂

Ratings

Scent

7.0134 Ratings

Longevity

6.8114 Ratings

Sillage

6.1109 Ratings

Bottle

6.4125 Ratings

Value for money

6.946 Ratings

Submitted by DonVanVliet · last update on 02/02/2026.

Source-backed & verified

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to

Insensé Ultramarine After Shave

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Azure Lime

Aqua Allegoria Rosa Rossa

Foconero Extrait de Parfum

For Him Bleu Noir Eau de Parfum

Reviews

9 in-depth fragrance descriptions

01/16/2021

5.5Scent 7Longevity 6Sillage

Smellavision
205 Reviews

Smellavision

2

Casual synthetic berry aquatic...

This could be a product from Paco Rabanne. The most fitting situation I could picture would be a beach night club in the summertime. A mess of too many notes, which actually makes it too complex for me somehow. To describe it is hard, the closest I can say is a sweet, peachy, berry, fruit cocktail with watermelon, a little tobacco and floral notes. It smells very chemical and slightly oily with a touch of salty melon. I dunno.. a fruity floral with sweet freshness? - I'm talking saccharine and lots of calone.

BTW, it actually somehow reminds me of Creeds Millesime Imperial without the ambergris, so if you're a fan of that, this is a much cheaper alternative.

06/19/2025

Intersport
120 Reviews

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Intersport

Top Review 20

Abstraction in Ultramarine

Around 1993 and '94, the shop windows of perfumeries were decorated with advertisements for Insensé (1993). However, this had the opposite effect on me: I didn't want to get to know the scent at all. The slightly dusty aftertaste that the brand had on me back then - combined with the obnoxiously cheerful (insensé = foolish, nonsensical, sinful) gentleman in a suit (today I would call that passive-aggressive) - just didn't work for me. Bootlegs of the television commercials from that time still circulate on YouTube - equally passive-aggressive...

I finally got to know Insensé many years later - and was proven wrong. Don’t judge a scent by its advert. The fragrance turned out to be a floral-balsamic composition from a time when the industry was already heavily leaning towards aquatic freshness. Insensé effortlessly combined the traditionally feminine lily of the valley note with soapiness and fir balsam - so refined that Insensé (if it were still available) would probably be passed around on a golden platter among various niche and neo-retro tastes today, receiving high praise. However: in 1993, I would not have appreciated or 'understood' this scent.

Was this kind of innovation perhaps simply too much for a traditional brand like Givenchy? The following year, in 1994, Insensé Ultramarine was released - also by Christian Mathieu (1946-2020), the perfumer who had laid a deeply successful blueprint with Kenzo pour Homme (1991).

1.
Insensé Ultramarine is an early representative of those flankers that stray far from the original. Over the years, Insensé Ultramarine received a total of nine (!) flankers. Matvey Yudov's article "Original vs. Flankers: Givenchy Insensé" provides a helpful overview of this.

2.
Insensé Ultramarine was so strange and idiosyncratic that I wonder to what extent Givenchy's hope for an "Aquatic Hit" was fulfilled. I suspect: quite a bit, if only because the fragrance was still available for quite a while even after Givenchy was integrated into the LVMH conglomerate. Today, prices oscillate - as is often the case with recently discontinued scents - between low-budget and speculative three-digit sums. You never know...

Here, a reference to external sources is worthwhile: Christos’ blog Memory of Scent - a goldmine of critical-subjective scent analyses - goes into detail about the impressively unnatural turquoise-blue color of the fragrance. His description captures the essence quite well:
“It seems as if the people responsible for this (because Insensé Ultramarine was not officially signed by a perfumer, unlike the original Insensé) took a trip to the household cleaning aisle and added equal amounts of any detergent available to the original composition.” (https://memoryofscent.wordpress.com/2012/10/05/givenchy-insense-falling-through-genres/)

The mixture of piercing, chlorine-like aldehydic aquatic notes, melon-like Calone streaks, and a distinctly perceivable cassis note (blackcurrant) is central to Ultramarine. This fruitiness - combined with ozonic, aromatic-herb notes and a synthetic lightness - was relatively new in this form. For instance, Jean-François Laporte relied on a similarly prominent cassis note with Route du Vétiver (1988).

Matvey Yudov goes even further into detail in his analysis. He writes:
“To the block of citruses, formed by several natural essential oils, they added the then already classic accord of dehydromycenol/allyl amyl glycolate - ambroxan (say hi to the aforementioned Cool Water). The fruitiness is enhanced by damascene, the floral block is mainly built on the base of hedione, hydroxycitronellal and lilial, adorned by rose odorants and plenty of other details. The aquatic accord consists of a generous dose of calone with an addition of empetal, helional and other similar substances. In the base we find a woody-musk accord on the basis of sandalwood and cedar materials.”  (https://www.fragrantica.com/news/Original-vs-Flankers-Givenchy-Insense-11455.html)

I do not see similarities in the effect of dehydromycenol with the lavender-sage combination as in Cool Water; nor can I see the scent profile of Insensé Ultramarine directly connected to other early so-called aquatic perfumes. With one exception: as with the first versions of Christian Mathieu's Kenzo pour Homme, the corresponding versions of Insensé Ultramarine still clearly reveal the building blocks of the base - yes, they also show slight overlaps and provide an earthy counterbalance to the then still novel synthetic fragrance compounds. The newer version - easily identifiable by its packaging, typography, and color scheme - is overall brighter, more chlorinated, and less deep, less dense in the dry down. Surprisingly, this exactly suits the fragrance: it makes it seem even a bit more artificial and quirky than before. Good unnatural stuff.

Updated on 06/19/2025

12/27/2018

8Scent 7Longevity 7Sillage

Basti87
1267 Reviews

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Basti87

Very helpful Review 11

Typical 90s Fresh Scent

After having the Givenchy Insense Ultramarine on my radar and wish list for a long time, I treated myself to it this year. Actually, the old releases are not really my thing. However, the fresh scents from the 90s definitely have their charm and come across as very likable. Just like CK Escape, which was released a year earlier. This Givenchy is almost 25 years old as well. Even though I don't necessarily like this old-school factor, there are some exceptions. They shouldn't be too outdated, as I am absolutely not a vintage fan.
Givenchy is a brand that I appreciate. Some releases I find less exciting, but in terms of quality, they are almost all in good condition.

The bottle is also very 90s, but I like it. Very simple with a nice cap and azure-blue content. The color of the fragrance is quite fitting, as it is a fresh aquatic scent.
The fragrance doesn't start off to my liking. Aggressive and something piercingly annoying is present in the top note, which fortunately settles down after a few minutes. Overall, it is a scent that changes little and is hard to categorize into top-heart-base. Moreover, one shouldn't stick too closely to the pyramid. Some notes are easily perceivable, while others are not at all. Melon and blackcurrant are present, along with a very pleasant aquatic background that comes across as very maritime. Sage is also present and offers a nice freshness. Additionally, there are subtly spicy and fresh citrus notes that are not too strong. Overall, it is very balanced and has a bit of many facets. For me, it is also quite masculine.
When smelled too closely, it is not as pleasant. It scores better at a certain distance and lingers nicely in the air. It has that typical 90s fresh charm. Absolutely suitable for everyday wear, for sports, and in leisure time. Moreover, despite its freshness, it is a year-round scent that also works well when it's not too warm.
The performance is quite good for a fresh scent. Not spectacular, but satisfactory, especially in leisure time. The sillage is medium, not great but still noticeable beyond skin contact. You can definitely spray a bit more.

Overall, a great balanced fragrance that pleasantly accompanies you in the simple situations of life.

10/15/2010

1Scent 5Longevity

Apicius
1328 Reviews

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Apicius

Very helpful Review 10

A Fake!

It's terrible what Givenchy is putting us through here. Insensé Ultramarin was launched in the mid-90s as a particularly floral-fresh variant of Insensé. Ultramarin stood in the best tradition of power fragrances that were occasionally released after the success of Joop Homme at that time.

It was a perfume with overwhelming floral notes sitting on a bright, soapy base. Ultramarin was the exaggerated and extreme embodiment of a bright, summery gentleman's scent. As such, it caused raised eyebrows, even for me, and that's why I never bought it. But it was great!

Today I sprayed Ultramarin at Rossmann; it is still available or has returned. I should have been warned. I was already appalled by what has become of the famous Givenchy Gentleman, but Ultramarin takes the cake.

Givenchy takes the liberty of offering a completely different perfume under this name, with unchanged packaging and the same bottle. I find that unfair and really annoying. I can understand that Ultramarin, which was already a controversial scent in its time, does not conform to today's trends. I begrudgingly accept when a perfume is buried for this reason or due to the unacceptability of certain ingredients. But this is simply fraud! Just recently, I referenced Insensé Ultramarin - I meant the original - as a benchmark fragrance in a comment about Yachting - sorry!

Today's Ultramarin starts with a scratchy, indefinable scent chaos. After about half an hour, a soft, musky note becomes noticeable. Floral notes are hardly present anymore. A certain bitter and synthetic note remains present throughout the entire, not overly long fragrance development. Once a style-defining scent, Insensé Ultramarin today can hardly be categorized into a specific fragrance direction. It's simply nothing!

Just a year or two ago, I found the original Ultramarin somewhere and tested it. The fake must have been created recently.

At Givenchy, it seems that consideration for the customers is not deemed necessary. I sincerely hope that such behavior does not pay off in the long run.

09/03/2015

8Scent 5Longevity 5Sillage

Cappellusman
358 Reviews

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Cappellusman

6

This will be a brief comment...

... as the scent notes and development have already been described in detail and very accurately by previous commentators. Since today, I am the owner of an OF of the unreformulated version. How do I know this? A glance at the packaging provides the answer. Unlike in the lower images, on the "Original," the logo is printed above the fragrance name. The same applies, by the way, to the "Insensé," where the bottle was also changed during the reformulation.

Fresh and pleasant, with a very nice watermelon note. There are far worse aquatics, but also better ones, so it ends up being very solid, but not outstanding, at 80%. Longevity and sillage are unfortunately only average for me.

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