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GFRova – :
Bought a little vintage bottle of eau de toilette from Ebay and it is pretty nice. Since I’m very new to fragrances I don’t have the knowledge and ability to describe it well at all in proper perfume terms, but it seems gentle, sweet but not cloying. It faded very quickly to a skin scent. It seems like a youthful, gardeny sort of scent, like I’m having a cup of tea with lemon on a early summer day. it’s not a blaster. I like it, but it doesn’t seem to send off any large bells in my olfactory senses somehow. However, my nose is undergoing an education. I’ll try this again and see what happens.
lev1105 – :
This fragrance is going to be vintage since a new version of L’Interdit is about to be launched in September 2018, like Givenchy did for Gentleman and Dior for Miss Dior.
Maybe they will keep this version and call it L’Interdit EDT Originale.
incred – :
I have a vintage EDT of this, and the current bottle/reformulation Les Mythiques. And for once– we have a reform that is a great modern twist on a classic oldie.
The current is brighter/lighter and lacks the dusty-skin smelling musk of the original. The current also lasts longer. BUT, I crave that old fashioned skin-musk-dust, so I’m very happy to have both versions of this classic.
Lighter and easier to wear than Chanel No. 5, but similar.
vint_ust – :
Interdit has a slightly old-fashioned style in the way that many aldehydic fragrances do. Even the staunchest supporter of aldehydic fragrances, Chanel, has gone the way of ultra-sellable fruity-florals. (Of course, fashions change and aldehydes will eventually make a grand comeback.)
My bottle of Interdit is vintage, likely from the 1970s. Vintage Interdit embraces its aldehydic top. It’s a true warm aldehyde, but it may not smell modern. Vintage lovers will likely adore it.
The top note isn’t my favorite, but with vintage bottles, that’s often corrupted by time. The dry down is absolutely lovely.
vepr999 – :
Au revoir Monsieur De Givenchy… Vous venez de rejoindre l’Olympe des grands créateurs(trices) français(es) des nectars parfumés du XXème siècle.
Vous avez été très jeune, dès 17 ans, un visionnaire de la mode.
Aujourd’hui 12 mars 2018 à 91 ans, vous êtes parti rejoindre Audrey pour la parer d’un Interdit encore plus glamour, encore plus poudré tel un nuage blanc dans un ciel bleu.
Ici bas vous nous manquez déjà…
Je vous aime Maître.
Iris
alex-amigos10 – :
I am wearing the vintage. It vaguely reminds me of Shalimar. There is a lot of citrus in the opening. This is a very soft skin scent as many EDTs and colognes of the day were. They were meant for those who were close or the wearer. This is intimately powdery due to the iris. Then it deepens with a creamy orris, some violet, sandalwood, musk, ylang, narcissus, amber, tonka, benzoin.
bleriergo – :
Let me make this clear and say I have a very , very tiny bottle I found in my mother’s stash- no idea how old it is.
I actually think it’s a very pleasant ,youthful ,floral, powdery smell. I have no idea how much different it is from the 2003
version, though.
For a vintage scent this surprised me, i was worried it’d be cloying and cheap smelling but thankfully i was wrong here
Sillage is embarrassing though and It poofs from the skin instantly. You can only pick this up if you shove your nose on the flesh. This could be because it is OLD or my skin doesn’t work with this.
I’d probably even love it if it was still being made and more potent. I probably won’t look into the 03′ release due to negative reception, lack of similarity and price. Shame.
uhouho – :
What to add to the growing number of good, detailed reviews of L’Interdit on this site? You will read the stories below, of Audrey’s exclusive scent, and the vast folklore surrounding this beautiful perfume, so I won’t repeat what has already been said, and will go straight to the nosey business.
This is a review of the vintage parfum.
L’Interdit has a burst of aldehydic citrus at the start and then blooms on your skin with a bouquet of real-life flowers much like petaly firework for your body. A scent of unimaginable class and much, much subtler than other, more in-your-face aldehydes like Chanel no. 5 or Arpėge.
The aldehydes are not as strong and overwhelming in L’Interdit, and are modulated like the opening of a symphony recreate almost palpable, pastel coloured flowers next to a bowl of juicy fruits. Here the play between citrus and flowers lasts for ages and ages, a good four hours before gorgeous resins and vetiver start to kick in.
This is classic French perfumery at its best. Get it as if your life depended on it.
JXAnthony – :
Does anyone in the UK has the vintage bottle to sell? If so, please PM me.
miha86_86 – :
I have a permanent memory trace of this fragrance in my soul; L’Interdit by Givenchy started my enthusiasm toward scents, and it’s very special for me. Not so much as in actual fact the scent vise, but more so like my personal emotional connect vise.
I was 10-years-old when I was gifted this perfume as a Christmas present. L’Interdit was my first own perfume, and I felt myself so proud to having it. I treasured it in my room, in my jewel box among my precious hair accessories and jeweler. I didn’t even dare to wish for having any perfume for myself; those were expensive and adults’ luxury items only, not even all grownup women having many nor using those as an everyday necessity. At that time, many tend to think that Fragrances were for the special occasions only, and some might think that it’s way too inappropriate a little girl having one. My mum having a great sense of every kind of aesthetic, and she owned many perfumes. She also wore all those beautiful scents everyday like as an important part of her outfit, together with red lipstick, which was like a signature trademark of hers, and she was insightful enough to understand my unspoken secret-wish and choosing a just-right perfume for me, so The Santa Claus could fulfill one little girl’s dream.
It could be some weaker-quality perfume or less sophisticated or not so perfectly ladylike perfume, and I’m sure I couldn’t care less, because that was my very first one and precious to me just because of that matter. However, it happened to be well-crafted, dreamlike, beautiful, full-bodied and finished composition of powder and flowers, mostly roses, iris and narcissus. I have to be grateful that my first touch to the world of perfumes was so exquisite; it raised the bar of the standards what I appreciate when testing perfumes even today. I think I got a very good start for understanding of what a quality means.
This perfume has stood up to the ravages of time. It’s old-fashioned in its essence, but in the most beautiful way possible. I’m so happy that I found a small amount of it from “the barnyard of used and abandoned scents” and won the auction of it. I have it now, long after my childhood times, I cherish it just like I did as a child, but I never use it. I wanted to having it to the part of my collection just and only for sentimental values for me. I realized that L’Interdit resembles Chanel No 5 a lot, and that might be one reason among others why No 5 feels so cozy to me.
As for the ending, one rhetoric question – Why the great perfume companies don’t give an effort and create such classy fragrances anymore? They should, indeed.
Husnekgzno – :
Exquisite! I adore L’Interdit. I am the proud owner of a vintage bottle, like the one above in the picture. It’s a gorgeous bottle. It’s a gorgeous perfume. It’s the most beautiful florals, and delectable fruits, and lovely gentle aldehydes. It’s similar to Arpège, which I adore, but it’s sweeter, bubblier and more powdery. It’s totally divine. The beginning aldehydes, spices and fruit are completely captivating, and then the beautiful flowers – rose, lily-of-the-valley, iris, jasmine, violet, jonquil, yang-ylang (very Arpège-ish) and the most gorgeous dry-down with creamy sandalwood, vetiver, and wonderful vanillary benzoin, a little soft musk and tonka.
It’s such a lovely lovely beautiful sweet ladylike perfume – just exactly as beautiful, elegant, sweet, bubbly, adorable, innocent, ladylike, classy and fun as the exquisite woman it was made for.
Audrey.
Sublime.
kodojiwp – :
Let Me Take You Back In Time Via My Memories
June the 11th, 1961
I met Audrey Hepburn when she was married to Mel Ferrer or rather, I met her at the very end of that marriage. I was a young operatic singer at the time, developing my soprano voice, but had not yet performed any leading roles. We were both sitting down at the same table during a small recital of a friend who was singing some bel canto arias by Donizetti & Bellini & at the Savoy Hotel where she was staying during production of a film. I suspected she had other business to attend to in London. Whatever the reason, there she was. I was not sure of what film it was at the time but later I found out it was THE CHILDREN’S HOUR which co-starred Shirley MacLaine & James Garner. She smelled of something I mistook for her make-up which was a dab of pinkish powder on her face and a little pink lipstick that looked like her natural mouth’s color. She was lovely in a beige cream vanilla colored suit skirt. The recital was very successful and Audrey & Mel appeared to have enjoyed themselves. After this encounter, I never saw her again. There were times I would go back to the Savoy to see if I could run into her again or at least other Hollywood stars who frequented the hotel at the time – Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, Robert Taylor, Stuart Whitman, Rod Taylor, Alfred Hitchcock, Natalie Wood, Eva Marie Saint, Sean Connery, Marilyn Monroe, Doris Day and many others.
I had heard of the fashion designer Hubert De Givenchy & his connection to Audrey but had not experienced any fragrance by that house. Before L’Interdit was launched, I don’t believe Givenchy had even commercialized any fragrance. It’s very possible Audrey Hepburn helped him to establish himself as a perfumer. As any Audrey Hepburn fan will tell you, and I can see that many of the reviewers on this page (Parfumee & Gigi The Fashionista) are indeed Audrey Hepburn fanatics, Givenchy became a good friend to Audrey when they first met when she went to him for help in choosing fashions to wear for her second American film SABRINA (and not Roman Holiday for which she wore costumes by Hollywood Oscar winning costumer Edith Head). After that initial meeting, they became life long friends & Audrey continually wore Givenchy couture. The fragrance L’interdit (Forbidden Fragrance) came about when Givenchy & Audrey made a special behind the scenes deal for her to wear a fragrance created for her by nose Francis Fabron (who formulated Femme by Rochas). For about 2 or 3 years Audrey wore the perfume and was the only woman on the planet wearing it. After the allotted time, Givenchy finally launched & commercialized the perfume. Not even an Oscar winning actress like Audrey Hepburn could keep a perfume all to herself! In the end business won over personal feelings.
The vintage original bottle (launched in 1957) looks exactly as the Fragrantica page depicts it. It was a square shaped glass bottle with a mushroom shaped glass stopper. It was a miniature splash bottle. The color of the liquid was a sort of cognac color, reddish-brown and quite similar to the color of Coty’s Sophia perfume. When I first purchased it from the Givenchy house, it was in a red miniature box and it was quite easy to carry around. One could even put it inside one’s purse.
This led me to believe that the fragrance was not a statement perfume for the time, not an Oriental, not a formal wear evening cologne, not a chypre, not terribly woodsy, aromatic or incensed. It was going to be quite an innovation. I braced myself. At the first whiff straight off the bottle, the aldehydes! Effervescent fizzy aldehydes, quite strong by today’s context but for the milieu of the 1950’s 1960’s this was a very familiar aldehyde.
It is fresh & fizzy, similar to the opening to Chanel No. 5, Chanel No. 22, Arpege, L’Aimant, Crepe de Chine, White Shoulders & any other aldehyde floral fragrance available at the time. Many perfumistas have compared this scent to Chanel No. 5. Well in my experience, the opening or top notes are as far as the similar notes go. There are aldehydes & a dash of citrus, and not even a bergamot, a sweet somewhat tart mandarin orange flavor. The first time I wore it the fruit was very sweet and densely concentrated, like a sort of strawberry jam or juice, fresh from aldehydes but eventually turning alcoholic and rummy, like a strawberry inside a champagne glass. There is also a boozy peach & delicious but cloying sugary strawberry, with the strawberry being the major note.
Smells like strawberry scented baby pink lipstick. The lipstick scent is there from the start. At once, I was all but hit in the nose with a beauty salon smell. It smells of all the pleasant scents you get at a beauty parlor: fragrant hair spray, lipstick, rouge, powder, nail polish, toe nail polish, and eye make up. This fragrance is a 1950’s beauty salon in a bottle. In her heightened femininity aura, with the beauty salon smell, the make-up, and the powder, devoid of musk, woods, green notes and civet secretions (which were staples of the original Chanel No. 5) L’Interdit is not at all like No. 5. Truthfully, orignal No. 5 is a musky, provocative, sexualized mature scent, whereas L’Interdit is youthful, sweet, playful, innocent and more girlish. Smells of Audrey Hepburn in the prime of her youth. The YOUNG Audrey Hepburn we remember in Roman Holiday, Sabrina & Funny Face.
When dry, the fruit notes are gone & the floral notes & vanilla (courtesy of tonka bean) and vetiver plus benzoin are detectable. Still, it’s a soft, and moderate scent. It never gets dark or too dry. It has a powder & vanilla dry down. There’s plenty of orris, or iris & violet which are petals that are powdery like literal flower talc powder. The iris & violet, plus a pink rose, oh, such beautiful flowers. I wish they were more dewy & green but they are pretty fantasy flowers, like the smell of light flowers in the air. It is indeed suggestive of spring time & innocence, care-free youth & girls under eighteen. This is a fine intro, or rather, WAS a fine intro or first grown up perfume for a teenager in the 50’s. She would have worn pink or baby blue poodle skirts or dancing dresses and smelled of this perfume with her hair made up stylishly and she was all set for her Prom Night. A young man gives her a corsage of carnation on her bosom and takes a whiff of this perfume & would have been overwhelmed by the extreme femininity. Audrey Hepburn is as feminine as the soul of femininity itself and this perfume does her justice.
The perfume is quite easy to wear and such a delicious and loveable scent, not very complex, linear but hard to resist. This is a perfume that I wore when I was still young enough to wear perfumes like this, even when I was already wearing heavier Orientals like Shalimar or Habit Rouge. This perfume is such a delicious boozy fruit cocktail and make-up scent. I wore it mostly as day wear to luncheons, cocktails & summer get-away trips with my first husband Richard who loved this perfume on me. He was the love of my life & the father of my children. The perfume was a delight for him to smell especially after I was all dolled up & wearing make up. I think even today you can’t go out wearing this perfume without first having been to the beauty salon.
A most delicious & beautiful vintage classic
For my Richard…I love you
And for Audrey
wro748Negeltzex – :
Iris and Dark Powder Bomb
I find that L’Interdit is all iris, orris, powder, and dark woods. It belongs on the skin of women with lacquered hair, red nail polish, stockings, and white gloves. Not loud at all but reminiscent of older grooming products–powder, white bar soap, lipstick, hairspray on a style that was set at the beauty parlor yesterday, and a few drops of perfume, from a glass dabber bottle, pressed on pulse points.
I’m sure that the 20 mls of L’Interdit that I have have started to turn–I cannot detect any strawberry/peach/bergamot/fruit note at all (too bad!) and for a few minutes the floral notes have nailpolish edges. But the aldehyde topnotes are of the old fashioned skanky variety, I do understand the comparison to Chanel no 5, because it smells just like those bottles–skanky, musky, kind of off putting, but interesting if you hang in there because it doesn’t last long. I am sure that these notes have aged in themselves, but still, aldehydes don’t smell like this today.
This perfume really reminds me of Chanel Misia–it is so, so powdery, the violet is prominent, the iris and orris are very dark, and the other florals are faint whispers, and the sandalwood is STUNNING. Beautiful base. L’Interdit wears pretty close to the skin but has good longevity, 6+ hours.
Xeroxqspar – :
L’INTERDIT
GIVENCHY
GROUP: FLORAL ALDEHYDE
NOTES: ALDEHYDES MANDARIN ORANGE BERGAMOT PEACH STRAWBERRY SPICES ROSE IRIS VIOLET NARCISSUS JASMINE YLANG YLANG LILY OF THE VALLEY SANDALWOOD MUSK BENZOIN AMBER VETIVER TONKA
SILLAGE: MODERATE RADIATES WITHIN ARM’S LENGTH
LONGEVITY: MODERATE 6 HOURS
REMINDS ME OF: CHANEL NO 5 ARPEGE LANVIN
This fragrance was inspired by Audrey Hepburn and created for her to wear exclusively. As far back as 1953, after Audrey Hepburn won the Oscar for Roman Holiday, she first met French fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy in Paris where she was fitted for a dress she would wear in the movie Sabrina. Givenchy was expecting his client to be none other than Katharine Hepburn and was disappointed when a skinny very little known actress came into his boutique. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Audrey Hepburn continually wore Givenchy fashions for other movies such as Love In The Afternoon, Funny Face, Charade, Paris When It Sizzles and How To Steal A Million. Outside of the movies, she wore Givenchy fashions because she loved them and found them to be tailor made for her slender figure. This is a fragrance that unites fashion, Old Hollywood, and a friendship between a movie star and a designer.
L’Interdit in French means “Forbidden”. According to the well-known story, Givenchy’s nose, Francis Fabron, who had created FEMME for Marcel Rochas, concocted this perfume because Audrey Hepburn had asked Givenchy to create a perfume for herself to wear. As soon as she smelled it, Audrey Hepburn was enchanted by it. “I forbid you to commercialize and sell this fragrance” she said to Givenchy. Naturally she wanted to be the only woman to wear such a high quality perfume, in order to stand out among other Hollywood actresses who were most likely wearing perfumes like Jolie Madame, Miss Dior, Vent Vert, Fracas and Chanel No. 5. This fragrance wears a tad like No. 5 but I’ll get into the differences later. Audrey got her wish. She was the only woman to wear this perfume for about 3 or 4 years. By 1957, probably at the insistence of Givenchy, Audrey consented for him to commercialize it. It helped that this fragrance was hers and only hers, but women of the late 50’s and early 60’s could now also experience and enjoy the fragrance.
L’Interdit has a soft barely detectable aldehyde opening. In this way it is a more powdery version of Chanel No. 5 and Arpege. Arpege is also powdery but L’Interdit beats it. There’s a sweet strawberry and mandarin orange scent mingling with a peach. The fruitiness however is not cloying, nor excessive. Almost immediately a rose, violet, iris, and ylang-ylang join the peach and strawberry scent. The effect, owing to the powder notes, is that of a nail polish, or that “pretty” feminine smell of a young woman fresh out of the hair salon/beauty salon. It’s also got a boudoir vibe. It smells like a young woman getting all dolled up in front of her vanity/dresser and boudoir. She’s applying make up, powder and lipstick. Her manicured nails are pink. She’s getting ready for the Senior Prom. It’s very youthful, girly. It matches up with the Audrey Hepburn we saw in Funny Face, Jo Stockton, as she wears beautiful designer gowns in Paris on photo shoots. “Take the picture! Take the picture!” she exclaims in a drop dead gorgeous red gown by Givenchy at the foot of the stairs at the Louvre in front of the Winged Victory Statue. She was totally wearing L’Interdit in that scene.
For some people, even vintage lovers, this might be a bit too much. The strawberry and peach are really jumping out at you, and the rose powder is perhaps too powdery. But I do tend to like this type of feminine perfume. It feels great when you’re getting dressed formally, you’re taking yourself very seriously and want to make an impression at an exclusive event or party. This is also a wedding perfume. Everything about it is womanly and feminine from her head to her toes. The sweet strawberry, the peach, the flowers of rose and ylang ylang, and that touch of spice as well as creamy benzoin and an amber.
Such a delicious perfume. I have the miniature dab on bottle which is the original vintage. This fragrance has been reformulated and comes as an spray bottle EDT. It’s even more fruitier and floral than the EDP vintage miniature. There is also a L’Interdit 2 which is the same exact scent as L’Interdit 1. Both fragrances are big on that strawberry, the powder, the rose and peach as well as amber. A beautiful perfume for the most beautiful woman ever: Audrey Hepburn. Her beauty was not just on the outside. On the inside she was a caring, compassionate, intelligent, warm, loving woman who championed the rights of the innocent, the downtrodden and the children she protected while working with UNICEF in the 80’s. She was a humanitarian first and foremost. She survived the hunger and siege of the 1940’s Nazi Occupation of her homeland in Belgium and even fought alongside the Allies/British Resistance by providing them with information as a spy with the cover as a ballerina. Her devotion to making the world a better place makes her one of the most beautiful women of the movies. Wearing this perfume is a way to honor her.
VVVIRGIUZZZ – :
Vintage miniature dab on bottle. A beautiful spring fragrance of innocence, charm and sweetness. This was made for Audrey Hepburn to wear and she wore it well. Unselfishly she allowed other women to experience this beauty and when it hit the fragrance market in the 50’s and 60’s it was immediately hailed as a successor to Chanel No. 5. It has a few things in common. This is a French perfume and it has aldehydes and roses but in my opinion it’s sweeter, softer and more enjoyable. Also it lacks the musk in No. 5. This is just a lovely youthful perfume for girls. I smell the peach and strawberry fruity sweet concentrated fruit. Because of those aldehydes however and the big strawberry as well as the rose it becomes slightly like a beauty salon scent. It definitely does smell of nail polish. In fact I had my own red nail polish bottle open to smell it and then smelled L’Interdit to see if the scents matched up. They do but this is a softer sort of nail polish scent. I like nail polish though. The fragrance lasts a long time and softens as it dries down. It then becomes like soft rose powder and violets, iris. Then it turns into a light sandalwood. Classy, beautiful, timeless, soulful and sweet like Audrey Hepburn.
cactagisp – :
Enchanting. I sought out a sample of L’Interdit because of Audrey Hepburn, and I’ve been in love with it ever since. I am now fortunate enough to own a bottle and I consider this the gem of my tiny collection. Givenchy really has captured the essence of a stylish Hepburn, as this is elegant, graceful and feminine. I understand why she loved it so much.
The opening is characterised by soft, soapy aldehydes, followed by the sweetest, most beautiful strawberry you can imagine. The strawberry in this perfume is my absolute favourite. The warmth of my skin then brings out a softly sweet peach, before the heart of a feather-weight floral powder, which is so incredibly delicate, and a beautiful, creamy sandalwood-amber dry-down to finish. I consider this the most perfect “posh hand cream scent” I’ve ever encountered. It settles very well on my skin, and is never too overwhelming, impeccably well-blended and quintessentially French. Soft to moderate sillage, longevity is for about 6 hours. Love.
Candypoeth5 – :
French feminine wiles in iconic Givenchy style.
Beautiful for spring with her powdery iris rose. Thus has a gentle soul. Not many perfumes can capture this delicacy.
The parfum is a little tricky, too much you get nail polish. The lightest hand you get all her fabulous notes. Again back to her theme of gentleness and delicacy. The parfum has an oily quality about it for adherence. The edt is slightly lighter but the fragrance is similar to one another. The drydown with the powdery sandalwood is wonderful in the EDP. Not to be missed.
L’interdit focuses around the fruity aldehyde opening, then revolves around a powdery violet/starchy orris and ylang ylang to give it body. Its probably the first :Lipstick: type of scent. The drydown is beautiful with the real mysore sandalwood. If you can find a bottle in relatively decent shape, go for it but my buying history with it is half of the aldyhydes have turned by now giving it that hairspray effect. Make sure to try to go after a sealed box.
xrumerrus – :
I have a small decant of the original L’Interdit and a full bottle of the re-issued Les Mythiques version. The difference on me is this: the modern version smells from the beginning like what the vintage arrives to after half an hour, and I much prefer it that way. In fact, the top of the vintage seizes up my nose and all I get in first half an hour is bitter almond (which is not even there supposedly, but that’s what it translates into in my brain).
zoyaD – :
An incredibly beautiful fragrance. I’m fortunate I guess, as I’ve never gotten any sort of nail polish scent from it, and the opening aldehydes that seem harsh to many younger reviewers make my heart beat faster. I have the parfum in the bright red presentation boxes and pre-barcode edts in the gold boxes with the flower stems on them. Very, very softly aldehydic – much, much less than Arpege, Chanel, Caleche. Well blended florals – I can think hard and pick things out but overall it’s just the impression of lovely soft flowers to me. I don’t get any dominant rose, iris or violet. The strawberry notes are lovely and strong, and there’s some peach that dances through at times. Gorgeous creamy sandalwood, amber and orris make a powdery drydown to die for. While I believe that perfume has no gender L’Interdit feels so very feminine to me. This is one of the greats that I’ve replaced every time I’ve used up a bottle.
werprofilmeyuq – :
The Forbidden Fragrance of Audrey Hepburn
In 1957, after three years after being the only woman on the planet who wore a perfume made exclusively for her to wear by French fashion designer and friend Hubert de Givenchy, Audrey Hepburn consented for her fragrance to be sold and commercialized in the mass fragrance market. The perfume was L’interdit which in French means “Forbidden”. It was thus named because Audrey was reported to have been so enchanted by the fragrance that she said to Givenchy “I forbid you to commercialize this fragrance”. They made a deal that Audrey would wear the fragrance for about 3 or 4 years and that it would not be sold to the public. She was the only woman wearing this between the years of 1954 and 1957. I have two versions of this fragrance, an old vintage one from about 1959 which still smells great and the current reformulation which is also very nice, but like a faint, soft skin scent eau de toilette version of the original eau de parfum.
Notes in L’interdit:
Head Notes: Aldehydes Spices Mandarin Orange Peach Bergamot Strawberry
Heart Notes: Iris Violet Narcissus Orris Root Jasmine YlangYlang Lily of the Valley Rose
Base Notes: Sandalwood Amber Musk Benzoin Vetiver Tonka Bean
This is a richly layered composition for a perfume but it’s really quite simplistic, innocent, youthful, sweet. It was like Givenchy compared Audrey Hepburn to spring time and flowers. The most dominant flower in this fragrance is of course the rose but I’m also getting a lot of iris and violet. The opening of aldehydes is soft and similar to either Arpege or Chanel No. 5. However, because of the rose in this perfume the pairing with aldehyde can turn into something that smells either powdery or like nail polish. If you don’t mind that, it’s not bad. I don’t care for the nail polish scent but the old formula is more like rose powder which is very nice. Then you get a distinct strawberry note. It’s sweet and girly. It dries down to a glowing amber and fragrant sandalwood, and the ever present rose. By the time the fragrance has dried down the rose is like crushed rose petals on your skin. It’s surreal, like actual rose petals have penetrated your skin. It’s soft, and sublime. I could totally wear this to bed. I love this fragrance a lot and it perfectly captures the feminine beauty, enchantment and charm of my favorite Hollywood star Audrey Hepburn, the most beautiful and good-hearted woman that has ever walked on planet earth. If you’re a big Audrey Hepburn fan, this fragrance is as much a must-have perfume as Grace Kelly fans’s favorite Fleurissimo by Creed.
rneesvixhxy – :
The softest aldehyde I’ve encountered. I’m getting rose, LoV, iris…lots of iris. This is buttery, powdery soft, pretty, a little quirky. The sandalwood is nicely creamy.
It’s more Funny Face than Breakfast at Tiffany’s. L’interdit definitely suits the Hepburn persona. The dry down becomes *quite* spice forward on my skin- not sweet spice, but actual heat in the sinuses when I sniff my wrists. Vetiver supports. And there’s a touch of violet….and a huge dose of powder. Fluffy, puffy, mounds of it.
Spunky, funky, not sweet. Not at all. Quirky, yes. Very soft. Very nice!
ershka – :
I have a vintage EDT of this from the 70s that was my mother’s. I don’t know if this is the original version or if they reformulated it between the 50s and 70s but wow, it’s beautiful! I get a blast of aldehydes at first spray (which I love; aldehydes make a perfume smell expensive and classic) and then sandalwood, rose, powdery iris with a hint of strawberry.
It really is a tragedy that it isn’t available anymore. I cannot for the life of me understand why Givenchy doesn’t re-release this (as close to the vintage as possible or even slightly modernized by bringing down the aldehydes and musk slightly and focus on the flowers, benzoin, strawberry and the other fruits and tonka bean) and use Audrey Hepburn as it’s model. It would sell like hotcakes! Audrey is HUGE, especially in Asia, where they could release an EDT version that’s a bit lighter. People would pay a lot to smell like her! I think Givenchy has missed a golden opportunity. I hope they decide to re-release this in my lifetime. S’il vous plaît, Givenchy!
2006настя – :
Vintage L’Interdit, have a little sample in its little display case. Bought as part of an incomplete Givenchy set that has been well looked after.
They do not make perfume like this anymore (maybe they do?!).Strong aldehyde and citrus opening with powdery amber and slightly floral (the notes come and go so nicely) ending. It is so strong that I used the tiniest amount on my wrist and it is such a pretty, classic scent. I thought I would not like the strong soapy, sandalwood type scents as Chanel number 5 has never been on my to have list…but I am older now and this has such a depth to it, it is hard to explain. I might have to revisit some of the classics that many go on about, just to find one I like and that is me. This one is a soft floral and soft oriental mix/hybrid.
This scen