Yves Saint Laurent
Yves Saint Laurent
374 votes
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
A juicy, almost jammy burst of strawberry and raspberry, bright with bergamot's citric snap, arrives with genuine vibrancy. Within minutes, the fruit begins its retreat, revealing the heavier floral machinery underneath—you catch the first whiff of datura's green, almost medicinal undertones.
The peony and dual jasmine notes solidify into a soft, soapy, vaguely powdery florality that sits heavily on skin. The datura adds a quietly unsettling dampness, whilst the patchouli attempts to provide grounding, though it's perpetually struggling against the white musk's synthetic thinness. This phase lasts perhaps ninety minutes before everything begins its steady fade.
A ghostly smear of white musk and Ambrox lingers, increasingly abstract and synthetic-smelling, resembling a fragrance memory rather than the fragrance itself. By the fourth hour, you're largely reliant on intimate proximity to detect anything remains—this is a skin scent that's abandoned the skin.
Mon Paris is a fragrance caught between whispered intentions and unfulfilled promises. Olivier Cresp has crafted something that reads as a *concept* of romance rather than its realisation—a scent that arrives with genuine charm but dissipates before it can leave a lasting impression.
The composition pivots on the tension between its berry-forward sweetness and a surprisingly muscular floral core. The strawberry and raspberry open with genuine fruit-forward character, not the plastic-tinged candy you'd expect from a 2016 YSL release. Calabrian bergamot lends brightness, though it serves more as a supporting player than a structural element. As the fruit settles, the jasmine trio—Chinese jasmine, Sambac absolute, and the unusual datura—emerges with palpable weightiness. These aren't delicate florals; they're dense, almost soapy in their presentation, with datura adding a slightly damp, almost narcotic quality that prevents the heart from becoming entirely wholesome.
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3.3/5 (142)