YSL L'Homme Eau de Parfum

So, while I didn't get this perfume for myself it will always have a most special place in my heart since I got it from a very dear and close friend of mine kind of as a parting gift before he moved away to the other side of the world, basically so that meeting each other again will happen rarely to never. And the reason he got me this perfume was that he thought it was "my" scent, somehow, bottled, like the IDEA of what he thought I'd smell like when he thought of me as a person. And as it turns out a kinda funny thing happened like a year later, when another acquaintance, almost a generation younger than the friend who gifted me this perfume, had had a Palmolive shower gel that had reminded him of me, and so I got it, and t it turns out that they KINDA smell the same, so I guess this IDEA of me is the same with different people. Interestingly enough, comparing the notes of this perfume and that shower gel shows no ACTUAL similarities, this one being oak, cognac and bergamot, the shower gel being amber and black pepper, but I guess that in my Escentric Molecules obsession, there's a lot of both amber in the EM02, PINK pepper at least in E01, and the woody and vetiver notes of the perfume in several of the EM line. So while not exactly comparable, there's a certain je ne sais quoi there that does add up to a sum of my scent parts.

There isn't a significant difference at first between this scent and Calvin Klein "Eternity for Men," which as we all know is on the shelves at every pharmacy in America, every dad and younger brother gets a bottle at Christmas from one of the lazier shoppers in the family, so Eternity doesn't have a lot of cache, which I think is in part why the Eternity, though a good fragrance, has a 3.79 rating. But after the initial opening there is a distinct difference in this scent's spiciness that started to win me over, as it was no longer playing with the same notes and from the same sheet music as the Eternity. Ten minutes in, the difference was substantial. I went out for a walk around the lake. It was not super hot, but hot for May 2nd around here. I was expecting, as happens with all freshie focused scents, that it would be gone in half hour in the sun, even though I certainly wasn't sweating. But it held up better than expected. So I wavered between "Ok" and "Like", and chose "Like." But my sensitivity to synthetic bergamot oil is gonna win out on this and it won't be a bottle buy for me. Otherwise it would be a definite yes.

Beautiful twist in the original EDT DNA. It opens dark, woody, and with a bitter citrus before transitioning into a very similar scent profile to the original. Wears thin and airy like the EDT with only moderately better performance. It's a beautiful, well crafted scent let down by performance that I would classify on the lower end of average. Once the top notes fade, it is extremely similar to the EDT, so I would say it's safe for all of the same use cases with additional bonus of being a little better in the cold. It's a real shame that the Parfum Intense was discontinued in favor of this.

So… I picked this up at Ulta for 50% off; $60-something after taxes. What a great find, I’ve had samples of LNDL and always liked it, was perusing the YSL section and tried this. It’s such a good combo, the airy citrus, wood, and dark booze play off each other in such a way to make a nice Old-fashion cocktail scent, perfect for dates, going out at night in the cool summer and slots right into my MUST WEAR for 2025 fall/winter, I’m gonna run through this 2.0oz bottle and have to get another by new years no doubt about it. Not a safe blind buy but if this profile is up your alley GET IT.

ive never really felt super attracted to a men's cologne scent before, i often feel that most smell the same but this...this is just so good!! its very woodsy and mature, but not generic. the vetiver complements the fragrance really nicely as well as the cognac, giving it a slightly boozy trail that lingers and settles into the musky oak & cedar woods. its just sexy, everything about it makes me think of wearing a big fur coat, before my husband & i leave our tuscan mansion to attend a cocktail party i get a whiff of his cologne, its yves saint laurent's l'homme eau de parfum.