Yves Saint Laurent
Yves Saint Laurent
104 votes
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Aniseed erupts with a sharp, almost chewing-gum spice, immediately gentled by bergamot's citrus brightness. Pink pepper adds a peppery snap that feels distinctly herbal rather than merely spicy, establishing the fragrance's refusal to be straightforwardly sweet.
The honeyed warmth of immortelle absolute blooms forward, meeting myrrh's smoky complexity whilst opoponax adds a slightly woody, incense-like depth. The composition settles into a creamy, ambered sweetness that's neither floral nor gourmand but something more enigmatic—like smelling inside an old apothecary cabinet.
Styrax and vanilla create a soft, resinous base that clings close to the skin, with glycyrrhiza glabra maintaining that subtle liquorice undercurrent. The fragrance becomes almost entirely about amber and creamy warmth, the opening's spice now merely a memory, leaving a skin scent that smells vaguely of honey and old wood.
Vinyle arrives as a deliberate contradiction: a fragrance that smells simultaneously retro and contemporary, sweetly indulgent yet architecturally precise. Juliette Karagueuzoglou has constructed something that recalls the amber-soaked fragrances of the 1970s whilst maintaining an almost austere modernist edge. The aniseed in the opening provides a liquorice-tinged spice that prevents the composition from ever tipping into saccharine territory, whilst the bergamot sketches bright citrus lines through what would otherwise be a monolithic sweetness. This is where the true intelligence emerges: the immortelle absolute and opoponax in the heart create a honeyed, slightly medicinal character—almost pharmaceutical in its precision—that interacts with the myrrh to produce something warm yet slightly austere, like honey poured over incense smoke.
The styrax and vanilla base notes anchor everything in creamy, resinous comfort, but Karagueuzoglou has resisted making this a straightforward gourmand. Instead, the glycyrrhiza glabra (liquorice root) reinforces that anise thread, creating a subtle bitter-sweet dynamic that keeps the fragrance from ever feeling cloying. Vinyle is for the person who trusts their own taste: someone attracted to vintage sensibilities but unwilling to sacrifice modern clarity. It's equally at home on a gallery opening attendee or someone simply content with their own company on a winter evening. This is a scent for introspection, for leather jacket pockets and dark hallways.
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