Best Givenchy Perfumes in the UAE

Original	Line	UAE price	MOJ version	From (AED)
L'Interdit Eau de Parfum Rouge	L'Interdit	AED 526 / 50ml	L Interdit	32
L'Interdit Eau de Parfum	L'Interdit	AED 526 / 50ml	-	-
Gentleman Eau de Parfum	Gentleman	AED 416 / 60ml	Gentleman	57
Gentleman Reserve Privee	Gentleman	AED 416 / 60ml	-	-
Gentleman Society	Gentleman	AED 442 / 60ml	-	-
Garcon Manque	La Collection Particuliere	AED 827 / 50ml	Garcon Manque	48
Ange ou Etrange	-	AED 721 / 100ml	-	-

Hubert de Givenchy opened his couture house in 1952 and established Parfums Givenchy in 1957, and the fragrance arm has stayed inside the family business ever since: today Givenchy Parfums is an LVMH house within the group's Perfumes and Cosmetics division. That sounds like corporate trivia until you compare it with the neighbours. Hugo Boss and Calvin Klein both license their fragrance to Coty, which is why those ranges lurch between concepts and why flankers appear and vanish. Givenchy's range moves more slowly and more deliberately, and the two pillars it has kept building on for decades are the reason this guide is short on flankers and long on lines. Most of what MOJ makes from this house sits in the designer inspired perfumes collection.

Two things to settle before the list. First, Givenchy has no fragrance counter in its own UAE stores: the boutiques in Dubai Mall and Mall of the Emirates list ready to wear, bags, shoes and accessories only. Fragrance reaches the country through the brand's own UAE web store plus Bloomingdale's, Ounass and Faces. Second, prices below come from the official UAE store's own product data rather than from a category page, because several older Givenchy lines are currently discounted and a grid figure would go stale. Where a price is a list price we say so.

The Best Givenchy Perfumes and the MOJ Version

1. L'Interdit Eau de Parfum Rouge

The Rouge is the flanker that took L'Interdit somewhere hotter. Blood orange and ginger replace the pear and sour cherry of the standard version, the white floral heart of tuberose and jasmine picks up pimento leaf, and the base stays on sandalwood, patchouli and vetiver. Givenchy's own line for it is a carnal flower inflamed with a spicy red accord, which for once is fair description rather than copy: the pimento leaf gives it a dry heat that the original does not have. AED 526 for 50ml and AED 820 for 125ml on the brand's UAE store, and Faces carries it too.

• Top: Ginger, Blood Orange
• Heart: Tuberose, Jasmine, Pimento Leaf
• Base: Sandalwood, Patchouli, Vetiver

The MOJ version starts at AED 32, the lowest entry price in our women's range, and its tuberose heart puts it next to the picks in our tuberose perfumes guide. There is also an L'Interdit Rouge Ultime, which is a different product again, so check the bottle before you compare.

2. L'Interdit: Two Fragrances, One Name

This is where most guides go wrong. The L'Interdit of 1957 and the L'Interdit of 2018 are not the same perfume and are not even the same idea. The 1957, by Francis Fabron, is an aldehydic floral: galbanum, pepper and clove over rose, jasmine and jonquil, resting on sandalwood, iris and benzoin. It was reformulated in 2002 into something fruitier, reissued briefly, and is now off the market entirely. Nobody in the UAE can sell it to you.

The 2018, by Dominique Ropion, Anne Flipo and Fanny Bal, is a tuberose and orange blossom heart driven across patchouli, vetiver, ambroxan and caramel, opening on bergamot, pear and sour cherry. Givenchy describes it as a white flower crossed by a dark woody accord. AED 526 for 50ml and AED 820 for 125ml, and it is the most widely stocked Givenchy in the country, carried by all three approved retailers plus the brand's own store. The rest of our women's range sits in the perfumes for women collection.

As for the story that Hubert de Givenchy made the first one for Audrey Hepburn and named it after her saying she forbade him from selling it: LVMH's own wording is only that it was created as a tribute to her. The forbidding anecdote is repeated everywhere, has been contradicted elsewhere, and is not something we will print as fact. What is fair to say is that Hepburn fronting the campaign is widely credited as the first time a film star was the face of a perfume.

3. Gentleman Eau de Parfum

The modern Gentleman is a pepper and lavender opening over an iris heart with clove and cinnamon, landing on black vanilla husk, tolu balsam, tonka bean, benzoin and patchouli. Givenchy's own summary is a powerful iris with spicy black pepper and deep vanilla wood, and the iris is what makes it: most men's vanillas are gourmand, and this one is powdery and dry instead. AED 416 for 60ml and AED 557 for 100ml. It is the one to try first if you have never worn iris.

• Top: Black Pepper, Lavender, Bergamot
• Heart: Orris, Cloves, Cinnamon
• Base: Black Vanilla Husk, Tolu Balsam, Tonka Bean, Benzoin, Patchouli

The MOJ version starts at AED 57. The rest of the men's range is in our perfumes for men collection.

4. The Rest of the Gentleman Family

There have been two entirely separate fragrances called Gentleman. The first, from 1974, is a patchouli, leather and civet animalic with honey and cinnamon on top, and it is nothing like what carries the name now. Anyone expecting the modern iris will get a shock. It is not sold in the UAE.

Gentleman Boisee keeps the pepper opening but swaps the heart for iris and cacao pod over cedar, which Givenchy frames as burning wood meeting noble iris. AED 416 for 60ml. Gentleman Reserve Privee is the most interesting of the set on paper: its official note list includes a whisky absolute crafted in Grasse from Scottish distillery barley, alongside bergamot, chestnut, orris concrete and Haitian vetiver. Givenchy names no distillery, so neither will we. AED 416 for 60ml and AED 557 for 100ml.

Gentleman Society, from 2023, is the one worth a detour. Karine Dubreuil-Sereni and Maia Lernout built it around French narcissus absolute with Haitian and Madagascan vetiver, over cardamom and sage, finishing on vanilla, palo santo and cedar. Narcissus as the heart of a mainstream men's pillar is rare, because it is expensive and difficult and most houses reach for iris instead. AED 442 for 60ml and AED 592 for 100ml, with Extreme, Ambree and Sport versions alongside it. We make no version of any of these four.

5. Garcon Manque

Garcon Manque comes from La Collection Particuliere, Givenchy's high end line, and it is the most expensive thing in this guide by a wide margin: AED 827 for 50ml, AED 1,221 for 100ml and AED 1,706 for 200ml, available from the brand's own UAE store and nowhere else on the approved list. Its official notes are Somalian frankincense essence, an osmanthus infusion and absolute from China with Grasse leather, then styrax resin from Honduras and Russian birch essence. That is a leather built on osmanthus rather than on smoke, which is why it reads suede rather than biker jacket, and Givenchy credits no perfumer for it.

The MOJ version starts at AED 48. The apricot and leather idea it works from is the same one running through our leather perfumes guide.

6. Ange ou Etrange

Here is something you can check for yourself in two browser tabs. Givenchy's own UAE store sells a 2006 fragrance by Jean-Pierre Bethouart and Olivier Cresp under the name Ange ou Etrange, while its product description on that same page still calls the fragrance Ange ou Demon. Bloomingdale's UAE lists the identical perfume as Ange ou Demon. Both names are on sale in this country simultaneously, at two different retailers, for the same juice.

The fragrance itself is saffron, thyme and mandarin over lily, ylang ylang and orchid, on vanilla, tonka and Brazilian rosewood. Roughly AED 721 at list price for 100ml on the brand's UAE store, currently discounted. Why the alternate name exists has never been explained publicly by Givenchy, and we are not going to guess at the reason, but the practical point stands: if you searched one name and found nothing, search the other.

7. The Heritage Bottles

Four older Givenchys are worth knowing even though most are hard to buy here. Ysatis from 1984 and Amarige from 1991 are both Dominique Ropion compositions, which is a useful thing to know about a perfumer most people associate with modern releases. Ysatis is a big aldehydic floral with civet and rum in it; Amarige is a tuberose and mimosa bomb. Amarige is still sold as an eau de toilette on the brand's UAE store at AED 555 for 100ml. Ysatis is not carried here at all, though its 1986 men's counterpart Xeryus lives on: Xeryus Rouge is AED 462 for 100ml.

Organza from 1996, a nutmeg and tuberose floral in a bottle shaped like a Greek column, is on the brand's UAE store at roughly AED 721 list. Pi from 1998, Alberto Morillas's vanilla and almond aromatic, is carried by no approved UAE retailer, so treat it as a fragrance to smell rather than to shop for.

Where Givenchy Fragrance Is Sold in the UAE

The brand's own UAE web store is the deepest source by far, running to more than two hundred products, and it is the only approved place to buy Garcon Manque or anything else from La Collection Particuliere. Faces carries a solid mid range selection: L'Interdit and its flankers, Gentleman Boisee, Reserve Privee and Society, and Gentleman Eau de Toilette Intense. Ounass runs a narrower Givenchy Beauty edit built around L'Interdit and Gentleman. Bloomingdale's UAE carries around twenty two fragrance lines including the Ange ou Demon listing mentioned above.

Two practical notes. Irresistible is currently buyable in 50ml only on the brand's store, with the two larger sizes unavailable, so do not plan around the 80ml. And several older lines, Ange ou Etrange and Organza among them, are running at reduced prices at the time of writing, which is worth knowing if you have been putting one off.

Original or Inspired: How to Decide

Givenchy's pricing splits cleanly. Gentleman at AED 416 is fair for what it is and the house does not pad its formulas, so if you want the bottle and the iris exactly as Givenchy built it, the brand's UAE store will sort you out. Garcon Manque is a different conversation: AED 827 for 50ml is a serious commitment to a leather you may or may not get on with. What MOJ offers is the shape of all three at AED 32 to AED 57, in 30ml, 50ml and 100ml, which is the difference between owning one and knowing whether you actually want it. Our inspired perfumes explainer sets out exactly what a version does and does not promise.