Givenchy L'Interdit Elixir sample: a 3ml wear test and 4 originals to try next

What L'Interdit Élixir smells of

The catalogue credits Anne Flipo, Dominique Ropion and Meabh McCurtin with this perfume, listed for women and launched in 2026. The pyramid is short. Black cherry is the only listed top note, rum is the only heart note, and oak and vanilla make up the base. Read from top to bottom, it moves from dark fruit through a boozy middle to a woody, sweet finish.

That list sits inside a white-floral family, and the accords reflect it. White floral comes first, followed by cherry, tuberose and almond. Woody, sweet, vanilla, fruity, nutty and rum complete the list. Tuberose is an accord here, not a listed note, so do not expect it to be spelled out in the pyramid. If you already know the range, the question a sample answers is how the cherry and rum change the white-flower character you recognise.

Community votes help you picture the setting. On longevity they lean "long lasting", with "eternal" next, and on sillage they lean "strong", with "enormous" next. Winter and autumn top the season votes. For the hour of day, voters choose evening and night. All of that comes from wearers rather than from 10ML, so treat it as colour, not a guarantee.

The L'Interdit line has more than one version, and the table compares what the catalogue lists for three of the versions 10ML stocks.

If the word rum is what draws you in, our page on the rum note explains how it is used in perfume, and the vanilla note does the same for the sweet end of the base.

Absolu and Intense compared with Élixir

The two other L'Interdit versions in the table take different routes.

L'Interdit Absolu is the one to sample if you want rum without fruit on top. It opens with lavender, neroli and Guatemalan cardamom, and its heart holds Indian tuberose, jasmine sambac and orange blossom. Tobacco, rum, patchouli and Haitian vetiver form the base. Anne Flipo, Dominique Ropion and Fanny Bal are its credited perfumers. Longevity votes favour "long lasting", then "moderate"; sillage votes favour "moderate", then "strong". Its listed occasion is work.

L'Interdit Eau de Parfum Intense is the earliest of these three, from 2020. It starts with black pepper and has tuberose, sesame and orange blossom in the heart. Madagascar vanilla, vetiver and patchouli sit underneath. The longevity vote sits at "long lasting", then "moderate", and the sillage vote at "moderate", then "strong". Its listed occasion is going out, which agrees with its night vote.

So the useful distinction is not which one sounds the darkest. Absolu suits lavender, tobacco and rum around white flowers, while Intense suits pepper, sesame and vanilla. Only Absolu lists rum among these two.

A five-day wear test with 3ml decants

A quick spray on paper tells you almost nothing about a perfume with this much going on. Wear it on skin for several days, in the same conditions, before deciding. A 3ml decant holds around 60 sprays, which is enough to repeat the exercise rather than relying on a single morning.

1. Day one: the 2026 original alone. Use two or three sprays on clean, unscented skin in the morning. Do not rub your wrists. Write down the opening straight away, then come back after an hour. By then the black cherry opening has had time to settle, so the hour mark is a fairer moment to judge than the first minute.
2. Day two: the same again, on the same spot. Repeat the same number of sprays at the same time of day. Repeating it shows you which impressions are consistent and which depended on the weather, your mood or what you ate. Note the oak and vanilla stage in the evening.
3. Day three: Absolu or Intense. Swap in the version you are weighing against it, again with the same number of sprays on the same skin. Look for the tuberose and orange blossom in the heart, and for tobacco in Absolu or sesame in Intense.
4. Day four: your favourite, in real life. Wear whichever you preferred in the setting you would actually use it, whether that is the office, dinner or a cold evening. Community votes point towards winter and autumn evenings for this one, but your own routine is the better guide.
5. Day five: decide. Read your notes. The perfume you were glad to put on again is a better answer than the one with the most striking first minute.

Spraying two perfumes on two wrists is convenient, but separate days stop one scent from muddying your reading of the other. If you do compare on both wrists, use the same number of sprays, wait before judging, and do not draw conclusions from the first few minutes.

What a 3ml and a 10ml give you

The 3ml decant is the one for comparing versions. Its roughly 60 sprays cover the five-day test, a second look at your leader and the chance to rule out a combination you dislike. It answers a single question: does this belong in your rotation?

Once the answer is yes, step up to a 10ml decant. Expect around 200 sprays from it. That is weeks of daily wear, long enough to learn whether the cherry and rum still please you after the first dozen outings. The 3ml costs 8,37 € and the 10ml 25,74 €, which works out at 2,79 €/ml and 2,57 €/ml respectively.

The perfume samples page shows the sizes available, and what a perfume decant is explains the format. For the wider Givenchy range, see our Givenchy page.

Two originals from other houses to sample next

Lost Cherry by Tom Ford

Lost Cherry takes cherry in a liqueur-soaked, spiced direction. Louise Turner's 2018 Eau de Parfum opens with bitter almond, black cherry and cherry liqueur. Sour cherry, plum, jasmine sambac and Turkish rose form the heart, and vanilla, tonka bean, cinnamon and Peru balsam lead the base, with sandalwood, benzoin, cloves, cedar, patchouli and vetiver beneath.

Its black cherry is the shared thread, while the sour cherry, plum and rose give it a different heart. Longevity votes lean "moderate", then "long lasting". On sillage, most community voters say "moderate". Winter and autumn lead its season votes, night leads the time of day, and the catalogue lists work as an occasion. Try it when cherry is the part you like best and you want to see how cherry wears over a spicier, balsamic base. Our guide to cherry perfumes groups more of them by the kind of cherry they smell of.

Love Delight by Amouage

Love Delight keeps the rum and goes towards spice and cacao. Pascal Gaurin created this 2024 Eau de Parfum, which opens with ginger, mandarin orange, cinnamon and rose water. Heliotrope, jasmine and rose form the heart, and vanilla, cacao, rum and cypriol oil or nagarmotha make up the base.

Its accords are vanilla, powdery, warm spicy and citrus, followed by white floral, fresh spicy, cacao, cinnamon, floral and almond. Spring is the season voters choose, and day and evening are their time-of-day picks, while longevity votes lean "long lasting" and sillage votes lean "moderate". Going by those votes, it is a lighter-footed route to rum and vanilla if a boozy, fruit-led perfume feels too heavy for your wardrobe. For more ways into the sweet side of the base, our guide to vanilla perfumes maps the options by the kind of vanilla you enjoy.

Which L'Interdit sample to choose first

• Start with the 2026 original if black cherry, rum, oak and vanilla are the combination you want to wear. Its votes point to winter and autumn evenings.
• Add Absolu if you would prefer rum in a tobacco and white-flower setting, with lavender and cardamom on top.
• Try Intense if black pepper, sesame and Madagascar vanilla sound more appealing than a cherry-led opening.
• Reach for Lost Cherry or Love Delight when you want to learn which part appeals most: the cherry or the rum.

There is no need to settle the whole range at once. Take the 2026 original and one rival in 3ml, spend a few days with each, then buy a 10ml decant of the one you keep choosing. 10ML is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Givenchy.