Guerlain My Insolence

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Seems the Insolence family is working up to its name, or something because everyone seems to have a polarized opinion of each of them. My Insolence is Insolence’s less confused daughter. She knows she’s typical, mass marketed, a little confused, and not one bit special. And she’s just okay with that. My Insolence

In Bottle: Fruity, sweet raspberry top note with a very typical jasmine wafting up from the regions of mid-stage fragrance world. My Insolence, unlike the original that it flanks is a clearly defined fruity floral fragrance that could pretty much smell like any other recent release out there. So you’re at least guaranteed that she smells nice.

Applied: Sweet and fruity raspberry with a nice almond note thrown in there to give the blend some more sweetness and a little bit of nuttiness. I do detect a little early entry of the patchouli in this giving My Insolence a nice sharp, clean quality. There’s the jasmine coming up after the opener to give this a nice white floral edge as the fragrance settles on a pleasant and warm raspberry, almond near-gourmand fragrance. The dry down is equally pleasant with a touch more complexity than one would expect with patchouli cleaning up the joint and giving it a slight bitterness as vanilla ushers out My Insolence on a creamy, mild note.

Extra: Nothing much I can really say for or against My Insolence except that it’s highly wearable, very inoffensive and kind of typical. Not at all what I expected of the house that made Jicky and Mitsouko. But then as Guerlain themselves admitted, they needed to appeal to the younger market and My Insolence is about as appealing as a modern fragrance needs to be. I just wonder if the target audience is wearing it.

Design: My Insolence is packaged in much the same way as Insolence was. In that hard to hold, interesting to look at flower and flower pot bottle. At least that flower and flower pot concept is what I got from this.

Fragrance Family: Fruity

Notes: Raspberry, almond blossom, jasmine, patchouli, vanilla, tonka bean.

I’m somewhat sad that Insolence itself hit it off badly with me but My Insolence is a nice enough contender with an almost gourmand reach with that vanilla and almond treatment. If you tried Insolence looking for a young Guerlain and didn’t like it, give My Insolence a chance.

Reviewed in This Post: My Insolence, 2009, Eau de Parfum.

Guerlain Insolence

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Insolence is one of those modern Guerlains that was a hit or a miss. It seems to have more hits than misses than say–Champs-Elysees–but it has more interesting character to it taking it beyond the safe zone that Guerlain seems to have been skirting since its purchase by LVMH. Insolence

In Bottle: Yeah, definitely unique. The violet in this is a strange, uncertain floral that’s sweet for sure but lacks anything else to it. There’s something spicy in this too like anise or cinnamon along with the weird sugary, raisin scent in the back.

Applied: Sweet and bright with the red raspberry note coming up first and fading first leaving me with a dense, syrupy raisin-like fragrance with that persistent anise note that I wish I didn’t feel crazy for smelling.  Something in this reminds me of the classic Guerlains. I’m thinking it’s that anise or clove or whatever the heck that is which reminds me a bit of one of L’Huere Bleue’s many layers. But at the same time it’s clear Insolence is an updated fragrance meant for a young consumer as it’s trying to pull in a fresher audience. Unfortunately, I’m not sure if they really hit the mark as Insolence is not clearly defined as anything and at the end of the day, does smell like a bit of a fruity, floral, spicy and sweet mess to me. I’m sure a lot of women can love this fragrance but it is very polarized in terms of taste. You can either love it or hate it. Once Insolence does calm down, which takes quite a while, the fragrance is less sweet but it does retain some of that syrupy treatment all the way into the dry down where it gets darker, creamier, and more vanillic with a very nice red raspberry note to it. I had thought the raspberry had disappeared but it was just hiding behind the spicy flowers. As for whether I hate or love this? I could go either way but I feel like Insolence is a bit too loud and sweet and a little too clingy.

Extra: Word has it that this smells a bit like Apres L’Ondee, one of the Guerlains I have yet to try. I do get the familiarity of this to L’Huere Bleue so something in here is working that classic machine. I just think this is a bit removed from that era though.

Design: Insolence’s half-circle, flower and flower pot type design was by Serge Mansau a man famous for creating bottles for some of the most well known fashion and fragrance houses since the 60s. I gotta give the man credit for making this a nice looking bottle that’s interesting to look at. I just can’t get on board with how hard it is to hold this thing. It’s an awkward shape, making you have to hold it awkwardly, pinched between your fingers as you hope to avoid dropping it. Nice idea, interesting shape. I just can’t get on board with how hard it is to hold.

Fragrance Family: Spicy Sweet Oriental

Notes: Violet, raspberry, rose, orange blossom, raisins, balsam, iris, tonka bean.

You’re probably wondering what kind of fragrance family cop-out I’m doing with that spicy sweet thing. Well, it’s the only way I can really describe Insolence because, to my nose, it’s like a candy rolled in anise. It tries to be fruity, it tries to be gourmand, but it lands in the middle where it’s neither and the only place it even fits is in two vague categories.

Reviewed in This Post: Insolence, 2010, Eau de Parfum.