Yves Saint Laurent
Yves Saint Laurent
79 votes
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Clementine bursts through with genuine citrus vitality, immediately softened by mimosa's honey-amber warmth and cyclamen's subtle peppery resistance. Within moments, the top notes feel less like an attack and more like a carefully composed tableau, each element holding its position with classical precision.
The florals—peony, amaryllis, and jasmine—coalesce into an unmistakably powdery, almost translucent floral bouquet that recalls iris-forward fragrances but softer, less structural. The composition settles into a creamy, slightly soapy territory; the citrus has receded entirely, and you're left with the genteel comfort of a powdered dressing room rather than a garden.
Bourbon vanilla and white musk emerge with glacial slowness, never truly dominating but providing a subtle sweetness and skin-like warmth. The fragrance becomes decidedly intimate here, a hushed second skin that hovers mere centimetres from the epidermis—almost felt rather than smelled.
Cinéma is a fragrance that whispers rather than declares—a softly powdered, distinctly feminine composition that feels more like a memory than a scent. The clementine opening arrives with genuine brightness, that particular citrus sharpness you'd find in fresh fruit rather than synthetic citral, but it's immediately tempered by mimosa's honeyed, almost dusty floral character. This is where the fragrance establishes its governing aesthetic: the cyclamen's peppery undertones prevent the sweetness from cloying, introducing a subtle structural tension that keeps the composition from dissolving into pure saccharine indulgence.
As it develops, the white peony and amaryllis create a distinctly powdery, almost talcum-adjacent heart—not in a dated sense, but in the way these particular flowers interact with the mimosa's persistent warmth. The jasmine, rather than adding its typical creamy sensuality, seems to enhance the powdery accord instead, lending a slightly soapy, clean quality that speaks to the fragrance's cinematic references: the powdered elegance of mid-century cinema, not modern sensuality.
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4.0/5 (129)