Yves Saint Laurent
Yves Saint Laurent
529 votes
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
The eucalyptus and frankincense arrive with immediate clarity, almost sharp against the skin—a cool, resinous burst that feels vaguely pharmaceutical, as if you've just inhaled vapour from a cedarwood steam room. There's a bright, almost green quality here that prevents any heaviness.
As the spiced heart emerges, mace's pepper deepens the composition's character significantly, whilst Chinese cedar introduces a dry woodiness that sits atop the sweetness beneath. The fragrance becomes increasingly contemplative, less fresh and more introspective, with the spice-wood interaction creating an unexpectedly complex mid-stage presence.
Camphor wood and benzoin dominate, creating a smoky, almost resinous close that's simultaneously sweet and austere—like honey drizzled onto ash. The sweetness lingers longest, but it's always tempered by that persistent woody dryness, leaving a faint, understated impression on the skin.
Body Kouros unfolds as a deliberately austere fragrance, one that seems to have deliberately rejected conventional sensuality in favour of architectural clarity. Annick Ménardo's construction prioritises the interplay between cool, resinous elements and warming spice—eucalyptus and frankincense create an opening that feels almost medicinal in its brightness, before the heart's Chinese cedar and mace introduce a peppery sharpness that prevents any drift toward softness. This is not a fragrance that coddles; rather, it presents itself as a cerebral exercise in minimalism.
The amber and benzoin base provides sweetness, but it's the camphor wood that ultimately commands attention—a woody-smoky dryness that transforms what could have been a conventional amber composition into something genuinely distinctive. There's a quality of burnt herbs and temple incense here, with the spice accord threading through like smoke curling through cool air. The sweetness never becomes gourmand; instead, it exists as a counterpoint to the composition's inherent austerity.
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4.0/5 (179)