Extravagance d’Amarige by Givenchy

What a dream fragrance, like a fresh breeze caressing the skin; the name does not fit, for me it should have been called subtlety. Extravagance is of clean lines, enchanting, measured and gentle. Upon spraying, it transports you to a spring morning walking through a lush garden where the flowers greet you, with damp green grass and wet earth from the mist. It encloses all that in its glass bottle. It opens with crisp, lively green notes, joined to varied flowers with clean, refreshing nuances, and effervescent fruity bursts. It is full of textures, life and light; it is a ‘happy’ perfume. A pity that such artistic fragrances are discontinued. Longevity of 8 to 10 hours, moderate to soft sillage.

This does not smell anything like the original Amarige. Extravagance is floral, but it smells like a walk in the park on a sunny day: luminous, cheerful, and carefree. I detect no distinct notes; it is all wild flowers and greenery with a little sting and astringency. As a good nineties perfume, it has good longevity and its sillage is present all the time. Although it is not my style, it is gorgeous and unique: a perfect feminine floral for informal daytime spring occasions, but usable all year round. What a pity it has been discontinued! Pleasant: 8/10, Interesting: 8/10, Versatile: 7/10, Original: 8/10.

The one in the new bottle is not Extravagance; when it appeared with the surname Amarige and the liquid in yellow with a red box, it was no longer the ‘true’ one. For me, it is the best Givenchy perfume by far. I used it in the nineties when I was very young, I went from Escape to this and then to Amarige because I could no longer find the original. The original bottle had texture, it was more stylised, and its aroma…! God, it was glory. Green without being masculine, fresh, without obvious flowers, luminous, sexy, and of breathtaking elegance. Nothing I have felt so far resembles it. That almost twenty-two years later I remember an aroma is a product of magic. I lived in different countries, I searched for Extravagance, your flankers do not touch your light.

What a beautiful fragrance! I have always loved Amarige but hadn’t tried this flanker. It surprised me with its personality: nothing like the floral and yellow Amarige; here there is a green and floral blend, crisp, not sunny. It opens astringent with flowers over a rough, herbal base. Then I detect dry, aromatic grass, like the Pravia Hay cologne, with fine flowers and a spicy touch. I identify the clove note from the mix of pink pepper and carnation, until the rest of the family appears and it ends in a countryside scent. Twenty years later, I find it modern and luminous. Extravagance is a gem that flies free; the original’s campaign detracts from it. It is not a city or gala perfume, it is outdoors, countryside, Mediterranean and jovial, yet seductive. It blends seventies lines with nineties classics, a hybrid that puts me in a good mood. Sometimes fabulous perfumes disappear due to poor design campaigns. Extravagance is one of those cases.

I used it without restraint, this delight adorned and enveloped me, making me feel illuminated by a warm, feminine olfactory aura. More youthful and deconstructed than Amarige, Extravagance was irrepeatable. When I wanted to restock it, it was no longer available. A fragrance I would love to feel again.

It was my mother’s favourite perfume in the late nineties. I feel immense affection for this perfume since it initiated my passion for fragrances alongside Pivoine and Clea from Yves Rocher as well as Amarige from Givenchy. It transports me to my childhood, to my mother’s hugs, to the feeling of protection, love, and security felt when being by her side. I remember that she kept her perfumes in the top part of her wardrobe and I used to climb secretly to smell them. It is the perfume that marked my tastes when choosing a fragrance: floral, vibrant/sparkling, fresh, elegant. I have only one word for Extravagance: unforgettable.

It is the reunion. I found it after many years, I have ordered it and I cannot wait to have it again. This wonderful perfume is a poem of love, joy, spring, and happiness made into perfume. It is sparkling, majestic, extraordinary, eccentric, only for well-defined and authentic women; its notes of jasmine, amber, pepper, and green mandarin are a brilliant explosion that leaves a wonderful sillage of exquisite sharpness, with an endless strength of projection and longevity.

I had the opportunity to acquire this fragrance about 15 years ago, I was impacted by its intensity and originality, it did not resemble anything I had smelled before. It had truly monstrous sillage and longevity and I think it is very close to niche perfumes. Unfortunately at that time I was very young to appreciate it or it did not go well with my skin as it was too intense and I gave it to my mother. She thought it was gorgeous and adored it, people stopped her in the street to ask her what perfume she was wearing. When it ran out she wanted to search for it and could not find it anymore, they told her it was discontinued. Even now she wants it back; yesterday I found by chance a bottle of the new reformulated version and I bought it immediately without smelling it to give it to her for Mother’s Day, but today I decided to try it to see if it was the same and! oh disappointment! It is only a shadow of the original, I do not know if my mother will like it. They have simplified the formula too much to make it more bearable and to the taste of more people. It is true that the aroma resembles, but it has lost its old intensity, now even I can use it, but I think that by ‘domesticating’ it they also took away its heart. I am going to take the open bottle to my mother so she can try it and decide if she keeps it or prefers to keep only her memory. I am also going to review the reformulation to mention the changes it presents. I pay homage to another fragrance fallen in the battle of reformulation.

This perfume was extraordinary, its longevity was unique, and all my friends wanted to smell it. I bought it several times until it was discontinued; every perfumer tells me the same thing, what a pity…

I tried it when I was a teenager and was blown away, but as I haven’t seen it since, I don’t know what I would feel today. I have learned that with time the nose becomes more demanding; what once seemed exquisite to me is not so much anymore, and besides, I get tired of certain scents.