Invictus Victory Elixir by Paco Rabanne

Invictus Victory Elixir is a 2023 release, coming off of the heels of the popular Invictus Victory. I received a small sample of this along with my order of 1 Million Royal. I was curious to try this one out, as I did enjoy Victory. How does Elixir smell? Does it last long? Is it actually worth a try?

What does Invictus Victory Elixir Smell Like?

Notes include: cardamom, black pepper, bergamot oil, lavender, incense, patchouli, vanilla, amber, and tonka bean

My Full Review

Here’s how Paco Rabanne describes it: Discover Invictus Victory Elixir, the pinnacle of intensity from Invictus, the new powerful fragrance for men by Paco Rabanne. A potent elixir made to push victory beyond limits. the time has come to embrace your moment of immortality. A rich, powerful, long-lasting nectar blending spicy woods and biting freshness, for the epic achiever. It’s the ultimate expression of victory. never stop winning.

So, right away this strikes me as being a much more concentrated version of Invictus Victory. That scent had a lot in common with the Pure XS colognes from Paco Rabanne, but Elixir sort of strips that away to a more focused point.

Victory had the pink pepper and lemon notes up top. Elixir kicks off with a warm, resinous, and vanilla blend. Black pepper is exchanged for the pink variety, but it only lasted a few minutes tops.

The amber accord provides some spice along with the resinous qualities, but it doesn’t hit you in the face with it. There is a light cardamom, but not too much of it.

The incense note, is also in Victory. However, I will say that I can’t detect much of it at all in Elixir. It was very present on my skin with Victory.

Very smooth with how warm it is and the creaminess of the vanilla note. I’m glad the vanilla is heavier in the weighting versus the tonka bean, as I think that it has a more enjoyable scent this way.

A few minutes in, this one starts to feel much sweeter. The way everything combines, it has almost a coconut finish to it. Nothing crazy or overwhelming, but it is there. More like dry coconut flakes than a watery fruit juice.

The dry down lightens up on that sweet/coconut aroma. I get more tonka bean, an increase in the amber, and a lavender note becoming fairly distinct. It was always in the mix, I think, but really wasn’t clear on its own until the middle of the wear. It sort of sits underneath everything else, until fading in the tail end.

That tail end? Pretty much a vanilla, tonka bean, amber, and general freshness. Warm, sort of sweet, but not a complete sweet and creamy mess. It’s nice, pretty basic, at this point.

Sillage, Longevity, and Versatility

The sillage here is nice and powerful. Definitely one to leave a scent trail in your wake. The projection off of the skin is great and could be nuclear with a full bottle. I did only have that tiny sample sprayer, but even with that, I can tell this one is going to be a beast.

The longevity also just keeps going. 9 hours at least. Maybe up to 11 or so, on my skin. I did eventually shower, but it was still very noticeably immediately prior to that. I’d have to test Elixir again to see exactly how long it lasts.

Nonetheless, expect a strong and long lasting performance out of this Invictus flanker.

Seasonally, this would be best in autumn and winter. Not strictly cold weather, but it’s probably best to avoid the heat. Kind of too thick and loud, to not be cloying in the middle of summer. Go with something else, then.

This is more of a casual or nightlife wear for younger guys. Not just teenagers, but it does have a youthful vibe, while still being one of the more well put together Invictus colognes.

Elixir is probably going to be pretty popular and has that very mass appealing sort of style. I can see this one being worn at bars and nightclubs around the world, in the next few years. Not super sexy, but it has its appeal.

Overall Impressions of Invictus Victory Elixir

Overall, do I like Victory Elixir? I do. Based on this one try, I’m not sure that I prefer it to the original Victory, however. Currently, I rate the smell as being equally enjoyable. I’ll see as I update this, if that changes or not.

Victory Elixir is for sure the better performer between them.

Like some of the other Paco Rabanne scents, this can have a bit of an annoying synthetic quality to it. Not too much of a problem here, but at times I can get tired of a fragrance like this. 1 Million Lucky and the original Invictus a bigger culprits, in this regard.

The aroma is pretty similar to Le Beau Le Parfum from JPG. However, this is better. It has the illusion of coconut, the amber, and tonka bean as the overlap between them. Elixir is a more pleasant and well done experience, in my opinion.

All in all, if you’re a fan of this series, you’ll almost certainly like this one. It’s among the best of them to me, even after this one try. It’s definitely worth trying out, at the very least.

Best Men's Colognes

Best Men’s Colognes started back in 2013, as a way to share my learning experiences with different fragrances, as I dove head first into the hobby. Since then, I have written hundreds of reviews and other pages about perfumes and colognes.