A few searches have come through about whether Unforgivable smells better than I AM KING. In my opinion, Unforgivable falls short. I don’t particularly enjoy I AM KING either, but I think that’s due to my personal aversion to ‘fresh’ aquatic scents. I will add from personal sales experience that women love the smell of this stuff though, if that’s why you wear fragrance.
Unforgivable straight away smells of orange squash (cordial) – very weak orange squash, when there are dregs at the bottom of the bottle and you don’t have enough left to make it up to proper strength. Then a watery aquatic accord is present, without anything briny whatsoever – completely devoid of saltiness (read: interest). The citrus notes are prominent, and there is something with an astringent quality in the background.
In the heart, there is a musk note with a huge dose of melon and a very sharp apple-y note. It reminds me of DKNY Be Delicious (the male).
The drydown is a stronger musk with a slightly salty, aquatic moss note. The whole fragrance is really quiet and has poor longevity on my skin.
Top: Sicilian Lemon, Champagne Accord, Morrocan Tangerine
Middle: Mediterranean Air, Iris, Clary Sage, Lavender
Base: Cashmere Wood, Sea Moss, Amber, Tonka Bean
The scent opens with Orange peel. It’s not just orange though, there is Tangerine as well! It smells convincing for roughly 10 seconds then smells like a “faked” and oddly synthetic Mandarin. If you are looking for an Orange scent, then Hermes has got that covered with the much more effective and convincing Concentrée and Eau D’Orange Verte. I don’t get any of the listed ‘Berry’, Imperial French (what?) or otherwise.