Yves Saint Laurent
Yves Saint Laurent
104 votes
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Mint and grapefruit collide in sharp, almost bracing fashion—the mint dominates immediately, lending a cooling astringency that feels closer to toothpaste than citrus confection. Within moments, the brightness curdles slightly, revealing a faint green undertone that suggests celery leaf rather than sunny fruit.
Coriander cuts through the citrus like a knife, joined by that peculiar rhubarb leaf note which transforms the composition into something distinctly savoury and slightly soapy. The fragrance becomes almost austere here, losing what little sweetness it possessed, settling into a spiced, herbal territory that's altogether challenging and cerebral.
Cedar emerges faintly, amber adds tentative warmth, and vanilla traces a ghost across the skin—but the overall effect remains skeletal. The composition retreats into itself, the mint fading first, leaving behind a diluted memory of green spice and wood. By the final hours, it's barely perceptible, a fragrance that seems actively reluctant to linger.
Live Jazz arrives as a deliberately restrained proposition—a fragrance that whispers rather than announces, built on the principle that sophistication dwells in understatement. Pierre Bourdon has constructed something genuinely peculiar here: a citrus that refuses to sparkle, instead channelling grapefruit through a cooling mint lens that feels almost pharmaceutical. This isn't the effervescent grapefruit of the Creed school; it's austere, green-tinged, like peeling the fruit under fluorescent light.
The heart reveals the fragrance's most interesting gambit. Coriander arrives not as the warm, almost vanilla-adjacent spice you might expect, but as something sharper—it mingles with an unusual rhubarb leaf note that brings a tart, almost herbal cattiness to proceedings. This combination creates a distinctly savoury character, almost soapy in its clean, spiced geometry. It's profoundly unseasonal, lacking the comfort most fragrances peddle. There's something faintly architectural about it—all clean lines and deliberate spacing.
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3.5/5 (84)