Guerlain Insolence Eau De Toilette > Reviews (10)

Guerlain are one of the oldest French perfume houses, founded in 1828. They are very proud of their heritage and you can tell it is something they continue to live by. You can actually take a guided tour of the House of Guerlain in Levaillos-Perret, which I would absolutely love to visit one day, but that's by the by.

Back onto the review. I first smelt Insolence when there was a sample stuck to a page of a magazine about 6 years ago, and I absolutely fell in love with it. I've had a bottle ever since.

It was the first "proper" perfume I ever bought, I remember using my holiday money to buy it at the tender age of 15 in the Isle of Wight (exotic!). I bought the 30ml bottle of the EDT, which would have lasted me for ages if I didn't think back then that if I coul no longer smell a perfume on me nobody else could. You can also buy it in a 50ml bottle and also the EDP (more on that later).

The perfume comes in a lilacy silver box with the name of the perfume and company printed on it. The box is of a good wuality and wrapped in cellophane as is the norm with perfumes. The bottle itself is absolutely beautiful; it's a half sphere in clear glass, which holds the light pink liquid. The lid is an atomiser, with the pretty Guerlain "G" embossed on top of it. The lid itself is two more half spheres, a smaller one kind of in a bigger one (this is so hard to explain, just look at a picture!). The bottle looks lovely on a dressing table, but I always regret carrying it around in my bag because the lid is an odd shape so falls off, and then my whole bag ends up smelling of this, which isn't in itself a bad thing, but I have had a horrible experience in the past where I was carrying a sachet of porridge in my bag, and it had managed to seep through, which I didn't realise unitl I was eating a bowl of violet and golden syrup flavour oats. Not nice.

When you first smell this it smells mainly of violets in my opinion, and is quite a sweet smell. As the topnote dies down, however, it develops into a gorgeous, multi-faceted fragrance. It's still very fresh and very very floral, but the vanilla in it warms it up slightly and makes it more subtle and powdery. It is a strong fragrance, and not suited to everyone. I have only known one person other than myself to use this, and she hated it after two weeks and gave it to me. It's probably not worth even trying if you don't like heavily floral scents. It doesn't sound it, but this is a very, very distinctive perfume; I've never smelt anything quite like it.

As I said, this doesn't last for a hugely long time on me as far as I'm aware, but when I've asked people if they can still smell it on my skin after a few hours of wear they've said that they can, so it's probably just me getting used to it.
Prices vary from £30-£60 depending on bottle size and where you buy it from, although I have in the past picked up a gift box from Boots around Christmas which contains the 30ml EDT and a bottle of moisturiser for around £30 which is a bargain, and then £15 in the January sales, so keep an eye out!

The EDP is quite different, it's a lot stronger and very potent, whenever I spray it in the office my colleagues shout at me and make me open a window. Once on though, it does smell very similar.

-This review is also posted on Dooyoo under the username littledirty