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Ser4ey – :
I bought this for my partner, but I can imagine I will be sneaking a little for myself on a cold evening to read by the fire. I hesitate to call a scent ‘sexy’ (as if a scent can magically do that, or as if that’s the only reason we wear them), but I genuinely find this very sexy, warm and an intriguingly complex scent. This is for a person who has their shit together and knows what they’re about. There is no screaming for attention; it’s just pure class all the way to the dry-down.
Rich, bitter cocoa is clearly detectable in the top, along with pepper and star anise, which comes across a little bit like liquorice. This scent already had me at that point, but the dry-down just gets better and better. The patchouli deepens with that typical Guerlain sweet complexity, and the smoke and sandalwood become more apparent. This is definitely fitting the ‘masculine’ scent profile in terms of spicy, woody, smoky notes, but it is softened by the cocoa and subtle florals. There is a scent almost of clay mixed in with the dry-down that I really love and that gives it the feel of a very expensive spa.
Not too strong – sillage is moderate and longevity is very good. It’s complex, subtle, smells expensive and it draws you in. This is one classy gentleman.
max311097 – :
I had previously tested l’Instant EDT on paper, and the numerous positive reviews of the EDP convinced me to blind buy it.
It’s a gourmand frag, with a strong dominant note of powdered cocoa.
I like gourmand frags, and I like this one, but it is surprisingly not love at first smell.
I may need time to tame it, but for now it is slightly too sweet for my tastes, nearly feminine.
I may want to try again L’instant EDT on my skin. The slightly fresher note may balance the sweetness more in line with my personal taste. Still, L’Instant EDP is a great gourmand fragrance, of the same caliber as Dior Homme Intense, but more linear and that targets slightly more mature crowds.
Fall/winter evenings, 30+.
erurlertyq – :
L’Instant deserve much more attention and hype ( more than ( for example ) Creed’s Aventus ). I am not saying it’s best from the best however definitely extremly good perfume. Ok, sillage could be a bit better but on clothes lasts for a days.
Scent : Cocoa makes it powdery sweet, patchouly woody greeny, citruses give it sour kick + Guerlain DNA. Very pleasant to wear. I mean this is soooo good .
Scent : 10 /10
bidfile – :
@lechapelierfou
No, I have never dared to wear this in warm weather. Probably because it is quite a loud and sweet fragrance. I remember last winter spraying this on (two sprays), when I was in attic and five minutes later I could hear my mother on the ground floor complain that I should stop dousing myself in this juice.
Thanks for the tip. Maybe I will try it out in warmer weather, when I am not going out of the house. 😉
Dellgodocheed – :
@Tyriel Have you ever tested this perfume in 26C? Do it, this isn’t only a winter/autumn scent. This works in the spring and summer nights as well. Believe me, when your skin starts to heat up, that patchouli goes crazy and smells even better.
This one is a chameleon, it morphs. More citrus in the warm weather, more cacao and patchouli in the colder weather.
AVA – :
Powdered cocoa dream. This is what a sophisticated, masculine, well-read, gentlemen should smell like.
I have owned over 100 fragrances and tested three times that amount. This is the #3 fragrance of all the fragrances I have smelled, only to be topped by the (only two fragrances I have tested of the) Dior Privée line. I am by no means an expert, but for me this is heaven.
It even outscores LIDGE on Fragrantica? Wow.
VERY close to vintage LIDGE in terms of scent. This one is a tad sweeter and less dry. LIDGE is marginally better in terms of performance.
Not recommended for teens or guys in their early 20’s.
Scent: 11/10 (Addictive)
Projection: 8/10 (Projects for a good 3 hours)
Sillage: 10/10
Longevity: 10/10 (12h+)
Versatility 6/10 (Cold autumn days and winter only)
Uniqueness: 10/10
Price-performance: 9/10 (Cheaper and higher quality than other designer fragrance)
Total: 9.5
агент911 – :
A drier, less overtly citrusy version of the EDT without it being subdued. The main notes come from the patchouli, cocoa, and anise star. The effect of this blend is a leathery skin that forms by boiling hot cocoa. Longevity is good. I would say it’s the the mature cousin of A*men by Mugler and that this Guerlain has stood the test of time best. The new presentation, away with the art deco, is nevertheless no nonsense classy.
СаNя – :
First 30 minutes is a very bizarre powdery menthol accord. If you can get past that, it settles into a beautiful sweet fragrance.
Vicci – :
No no no no nonnnnnnooo why why whyyyyyyyy why did u do that????? L’instant de guerlain EDP is tge best ever, why did mess with that superstar, how can u mess this up!!? This smells like cheap replica pf eau extreme they change the top notes and they add more citrus and they skip out that cozy, rouphy, harsh spices and Woods that i absolutley in love with, i hate reformulation, it will gonna be LINDG in the market anymore, it will be MESSY LINSTANT DE GUERLAIN
ok-8888 – :
This is pretty much the same scent as Guerlain L’Instant de Guerlain pour Homme Eau Extreme but there are differences. The scent is not exactly the same. The new edp is lighter and feels fresher than the old scent. This means that the projection is weaker but still better than many new fragrances. Also the longevity is moderate but above the average which I like. It’s heavy on cacao, there is a distinctive anise note and there is mild smoke which was absent in the old LIDGE.
When my bottle finishes, I won’t replace it with this new version despite the fact that I like it and still worth buying it. The older the better IMO.
Read the reviews of
ropb2982
websterdaniel
Very good descriptions.
SilveRveL – :
I blind bought this, excited when the package arrived. Guerlain is one of my top favorite Houses, and I was interested in a cacao scent from them. Got home from work late, eager to try it out. I heard this takes awhile to develop, so I didn’t want to expose my ultra-picky wife to the opening. I sprayed three sprays on a business card outside. Wow, the opening is really strong, not particularly pleasant, pepper losing a war to anise. I can’t really detect much citrus to speak of beneath the spicy, licorice noise, unlike the clear lime of Homme Intense.
30 minutes into it: the pepper and anise are still going at it, but things have settled a bit. Patchouli is rising in the background. Better, but not a big fan so far.
60 minutes into it: Patchouli has taken over and brokered a peace deal between the spice and anise. If I try to smell it I can detect the cacao. Much better: classy, but very vintage. The smoke kind of reads like a musk. I was talking to a retired Judge earlier in the day, and this would be what he could wear: a sophisticated, grey-haired man of power. Sean Connery in a tuxedo. There is something of an amber to it as well. This smells like it could have come out in 1966.
100 minutes: Wow, this is one of the greatest things I’ve ever smelled! The cacao is definitely here with a great balance between the patchouli, spice, and cacao. It is almost like the cacao is a prominent base note if that makes sense. This is just lovely. I wish it did not take an hour and a half to get here, but it was worth the wait.
200 minutes: I came into the room where the card is and I can clearly, strongly smell the spice from over a yard away. It’s good, not as divine, but still really good. I’m a bit wary though. I fear that an unsophisticated nose might not put the work into figuring it out, and so wearing it around the general public might mean a lot of people don’t appreciate it. I suppose it wouldn’t matter if you’re the CEO of the company though.
15 hours later: Still smells on the card. I asked my wife what she thought and it passed the test. I was relieved because she is tough to please with frags.
It’s been about 27 hours now and I can still smell it on the card from a few inches away. Wow, that’s crazy longevity. It smells stronger on the card after 27 hours than most frags do after an hour on a card.
At some point, after LIDG EDP has settled down, it reminds me A LOT of Terre d’Hermes, another one of my top favs, after TdH has settled. The spice, patchouli, wood, and a bit of earthiness. They aren’t twins but definitely related, at least to my nose. I look forward to experimenting with LIDG EDP some more, in different seasons and climates.
Next month I am going to Tosca. The opera starts at 8 PM. I’m thinking I’ll take a shower around 5 PM and give myself ONE spray of LIDG EDP before I start dressing up. That should give enough lead time for things to develop and settle down before my arrival at the opera house.
paulaner – :
I like this, but do not love it…but that is not a bad thing 😉 I almost exclusively wear Oriental or Gourmand scents, so this is a departure from my usual scent loves. But…this is a very beautiful fragrance. On me, the initial spray is lemon Shalimar meets men’s aftershave. Once it settles, the dry down is a masculine light patchouli with some remaining citrus/lemon. I think if a woman wanted to wear this, it would be fine (but I hate labeling male or female for fragrances! Wear whatever you want!! 🙂 Longevity on me is 4-5 hours, but towards the end it is a skin scent. Like with almost all Guerlain (besides Samsara, which is dreadful and strong on me), this L’Instant is gentle, fresh, soft, clean and safe (in a good way). The bottle, especially the new/current one is elegant, timeless and looks lovely on one’s vanity!
sova – :
I did an A/B of this (the 2016 EDP version) and the classic L’Instant de Guerlain pour Homme Eau Extreme and noted some differences –
(1) Citrus opening – There’s a more citrusy opening in the classic LIDGE – this has a more cacao/anise based opening with, at best, a faint citrus.
(2) The smokiness – After about 12-14 hours on a scent strip this difference became very apparent. As evidenced by the note breakdown, this has a smoke note and that’s something I don’t get from the old LIDGE.
(3) Performance – Not a huge difference but the old LIDGE projected a bit better. Longevity wise, they’re both equally long-lasting.
accutane – :
I was a little concerned over longevity when I received this, however, today has proved that my fears were unfounded. I sprayed 4 sprays of this at 7 am this morning. While speaking to a client at work today at 3.30 pm, she stopped me and asked me to write down the name of my aftershave because she said it smelt amazing and she wanted to buy her husband some. One of my colleagues was in the vacinity and agreed with the client. I guess I won’t worry about the longevity of this in the future.
tremasov – :
Başyapıt. Kesinlikle koleksiyonunuzda olmalı.
MASTERPIECE!!!
nester111 – :
First of all this Smells almost identical to the EDT vesrion but it is much more concentrated and with slightly less citruses in the opening. I own both and honestly speaking they have the same notes and same components.
The EDP jumps much more quickly to the amazing sophisticated cocoa patchouli drydown.
The projection of the EDT is wider while the longevity and the sillage are better in the EDP.
The price difference between the EDT and the EDP is so huge but the scent is 90% the same so make up your mind.
striptiZer – :
This scent is a very nice scent! I have an old rectangle bottle of the old juice! And NO, its not for sale. Anyway, this bottle here on this webpage seems a little lighter, softer. But, it’s still a nice scent. More of an evening wear. Longevity could be better though.
gogo30 – :
Having found this for an absolute bargain, and being a big fan of Nasomatto’s ‘Pardon’ I snapped this up……and what a disappointment!
I have read that the new rectangle bottle has NOT been reformulated – if that is really the case then perhaps I need to seek medical attention because to my nose, I am not getting any 2 sprays lasts for days beast mode performance here. It’s literally gone from my skin within 2 hrs.
How can this be an eau de parfum? Performance is utterly pathetic!
Another surprise with this acclaimed scent is that I actually get a lot of citrus, less than the EDT, but much more than I expected. The cocoa note, reminiscent of ‘Pardon’, is there – but for me, what this fragrance is seemingly aiming to do Pardon just does much better. Deeper and darker. The citrus makes this almost a Pardon ‘sport’ – LIDG is not as unwearable in warm weather as I was led to believe. Pardon is much woodier/oudier and a certified cold weather scent – LIDG(E) is actually quite fresh!
Similarly, although overall very different, the citrus used in this is clearly the same (albeit toned down) as that found in Guerlain ‘Homme Intense’ – not sure if that is Guerlain’s signature DNA like the way Armani fragrances share a common note. This could also be a GHI flanker!
This is nice, I do like it – but a masterpiece it is not. I do remember smelling the ‘black rimmed’ bottle last October in a shop – and it definitely seemed darker, dirtier with much more patchouli – I actually cannot detect patchouli in this.
I give LIDG a big thumbs down – with the amount I’d have to spray to get anything out of this ‘Pardon’ will actually be better value – I have 95mls left – I am happy to swap/sell this if anyone is interested..
bekoma – :
Re longevity I cannot give this one a high rating.
The smell is quite nice and pleasant, classic. But after testing this I can’t say the longevity impresses me to any degree.
I’d say… 4 hours? Someone with oily skin perhaps 6-7 or so I’d reckon.
If longevity doesn’t matter to you, this one is a very classic scent, worth a try. If it does, then I gotta tell you that it is not up to requirements. At all.
Mark
azon555 – :
Incredibly good aroma for men! I’m spraying in the morning, and smells all day, more than 12 hours!
Imant – :
I recently ran out of LIDGE and I was dubious about replacing it with one but I need not have been…the differences between the two are really very subtle, performance is also on par, I think LIDGE is a bit rougher around the edges and is ever so slightly more citrusy at the top, this one is smoother, calmer and any citrus is fleeting…it’s in the heart and base that l’instant in all its variations is most beautiful and this is no exception…so I say to those who are unsure about this version, don’t be…
sdail – :
I was able to try the EdT and it was very different from the original; the sourness is completely gone (with very little spice), just really soft and indistinctive.
vi_kkktor – :
Any reviews on this new bottle? Seems they have done away with the extreme.
I am particular interested in the longevity.
If anyone has tried it please share your comments on it’s longevity and projection against the extreme please.
qwerty982 – :
How does this one smell compare to the Eau Extreme? I find the new bottle quite chic 🙂
kerbut – :
Niche quality for much less! Now it is classic and the only perfume I bought more then 2 bottles, will buy it forever because it never gets bored also I like it in warmer seasons better because it opens more beautifully then in colder!