Fly Me to the Moon- Givenchy Pi

Four or five years ago I decided that I've had enough of smelling the Blond's favorite sillage monster, Givenchy Pi, and banished the bottle to one of the back cabinets, never to be used again until a couple of months ago, when I rescued it from oblivion.

The memory of what it had smelled like on my husband was still as sharp in my mind as its green opening notes, so I wasn't going to let him wear it. Instead, I tried it on my own skin, v-e-r-y carefully. After all, while the list of notes sounds just my thing (green herbs on top, vanilla, tonka, cedar and Benzoin at the base and somewhere in the middle there's a promise of anise, geranium and neroli), on the wrong man it is a powerhouse of sweet, powdery vanilla and a big (big!) amber-like drydown, of the kind that would earn its wearer a reputation as "the guy who bathes in cologne".

I like this so much better on my skin than on his. The top is still as loud and sharp as I remembered, but it tones down quickly into a sweet and warm wood-vanilla base that is nicely spiced with anise. It's a great cold weather scent that has both sexy and comforting qualities. It doesn't develop much from the moment the vanilla becomes prominent and on the scale that runs from "yummy" to "sophisticated" it's much closer to the yummy end. Still, it's a fun scent to explore and I enjoy wearing it. The staying power is amazing for an EdT, and I find that clothes must be washed to get rid of it. Otherwise it'd live in them for days (lesson learned the hard way with a dry-clean only sweater).

All the vanilla and powder action makes Pi very female-friendly. It's interesting that whoever makes marketing decision has chosen to declare it a masculine scent (with no girly version). Also of note are both the name, appealing to math geeks around the world (as well as to this retired math teacher) and the sci-fi ads. Pi in the sky? I'm not sure how this sweet, big scent goes with the image. Though that astronaut in the original 1998 ad sure is yummy...