givenchy

Live Irresistible EDP by Givenchy

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I’m still making my way through a lot of women’s perfume samples, and so, the reviews will be coming for the foreseeable future. Today’s entry is a scent from Givenchy, Live Irresistible. This original release of the series, came out back in 2015. How does this one smell? What’s the performance like? Is it worth a try?

What does Live Irresistible Smell Like?

Notes include: rose, amber, pineapple, vanilla, praline, passion fruit, pepper, musk, and patchouli

Click here to try: Live Irresistible by Givenchy Eau De Parfum Spray 2.5 oz for Women  

My Full Wear Review

Before we get into my own review of this perfume, let’s see how Givenchy describes it: Your Motto: We only live once. Your perfume: A fruity floral, fizzy and spicy. Your mood: Happy & Irresistible!

Live Irresistible opens up with a blend of citrus and pineapple, with a very noticeable rose, lurking underneath. It’s a very sweet and fruity perfume with a rose.

The praline note, provides a chocolate-like sweetness, which will come in more later on. Up top, it’s there and gives the scent a somewhat baked goods kind of smell. A warm sweetness, which is only enhanced by the earthy patchouli note.

As it moves along, it initially gives off a spiciness with some further floral development, wrapped up in a warm amber.  Pepper and patchouli bring the spice and take away some of the tart sharpness provided by the pineapple note.

Finally, I’m left with a fruity chocolate fragrance, with amber, rose and patchouli floating around the edges of this perfume.

Sillage, Longevity, and Versatility

Live Irresistible starts off with a pretty strong ability to project. Later on, the sillage settles down, but it’s never a weak fragrance. It’s solid and you’ll know it’s there for the duration.

On the whole, I say that it’s well above average with how it projects and leaves a scent trail versus the baseline perfume out there. It just doesn’t have that cloying heaviness, since this is a fresher and fruitier fragrance with those heavier gourmand notes not bogging it down.

On my skin, this Givenchy perfume, gave about 9 hours of wear. It’s somewhere in that range, as I lost the exact track of time, but there aren’t any performance issue here at all.

Climate wise, I think it’s best for mild to warmer weather. The fruity and floral blend, definitely gives this a spring/summer feel. It’s nice and really worked well outside, in the sunlight, right after a few sprays.

It’s got an energetic and uplifting aroma, that makes it great as a casual or daily wear. Not something that is super sexy or one built for the nightlife.

Overall Impression of Live Irresistible

Do I like this perfume? Somewhat. I’m not too sold on the first part of the wear. There’s a lot going on and some of the notes clash, in my opinion. Fruity, chocolate, spice, rose…pick a lane.

Later, this scent does get better, and it’s a nice aroma. I like the sweetness of the whole thing, it’s not amazing, but Live Irresistible is still attractive and has a fun energy. On the plus side, the performance here is solid.

So, if you do enjoy the scent itself, you’ll get your money’s worth. Overall, it’s a good, though not great fragrance. If you can get it at a discount, and it sounds interesting to you, I’d say go for it.

Play by Givenchy

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Another one of the recent samples, I’ve received is Play by Givenchy. It came out almost ten years ago and they describe it as a fresh woody scent. I’d actually put it more into the citrus/spice category, though. In this post, I want to give an overview of how it smells, how Play performs, and whether or not this Givenchy cologne is a buy.

What does Play by Givenchy Smell Like?

Notes include: bergamot, bitter orange, grapefruit, coffee flower accord, amyris wood, vetiver

Click here to try: Givenchy Play for Men by Givenchy 3.3 oz 100 ml EDT Spray

My Full Wear Review

The opening of Givenchy Play is a blend of citrus, mainly dominated by grapefruit, and a spicy pepper note. I am immediately struck by how this smells exactly like Hugo Red, if you replaced the metallic note in Red with a coffee note in Play.

Seriously, these two are almost dead ringers for one another. Since I like wearing Hugo Red in the summer; I like Givenchy Play. As Play develops more, the coffee note becomes more noticeable which give it an interesting richness, that gives it that slight difference from Red.

That’s for the opening act, it becomes more distinct from the Boss scent, after that.

Moving along, Play continues its freshness with the variety of citrus notes, and the oncoming base woodsy notes. Amyris wood? That’s the note, not sure I’ve encountered it though. Pretty generic wood smell.

Vetiver has some prominence here, though, it doesn’t strike me as powerful. Citrus with a clean spice and a fresh earthy/woods aroma.

So, mostly citrus and spice. The coffee note isn’t as strong, as it is in Play Intense. It’s not too complicated, however, a fun wear.

Sillage, Longevity, and Versatility

Projection wise, Play is pretty moderate, and might even be slightly weaker than Hugo Red. The sillage isn’t going to go beyond a few feet, except upon the initial spray. Definitely not a powerhouse, by any stretch.

It’s longevity is pretty decent, around 6-7 hours of solid performance. Pretty standard. Many citrus colognes like this one, don’t last very long. This is actually decent, in this category, as some fade after 2-3 hours.

To me, this is a spring/summer type of scent that is good for casual everyday wear. You could wear this in semi-formal situations or out at night, also. Still, I mainly wore the sample around town, when it was warm and sunny out.

Overall Impressions of Play

Overall, is Play a buy? It’s a very nice fragrance but it smells like Hugo Red and you can get a larger bottle of that for cheaper. Update: Givenchy Play came out in 2008. Nowadays, you’ll probably have to pony up a lot of money to get a bottle. Paying a few hundred for this stuff is absurd. For cheap, it’s worth a try.

However, if you were looking into Givenchy Play Intense as well, it would make sense to grab Hugo Red and a bottle of Play Intense too.

The Intense version is much more of a gourmand scent for the cooler months of the year and has way less of the citrus and more of the coffee and a tonka bean note.

I really like the citrus here and the light coffee. I dig summertime citrus colognes and I enjoyed wearing Play. Not my favorite, but was a solid example from the last decades.