Reviews of Y (1964)
by Yves Saint Laurent

My favorite scent of all time! I've been wearing this since 1970 and recently found the parfum on ebay. Unbelievable! A dry chypre that gets more compliments than anything else I've ever worn.

If Rochas Femme is the Mae West of chypres, then Y is the Audrey Hepburn, worldly but still refined.

Y is a well-balanced light green / floral / fruity / mossy chypre. To me it seems to be musky with a sensual animal component among the green, fruit, florals, and moss. The lightness and refinement of the mixture are quite remarkable and Y comes off to me as a lighter version of the classic chypres… intelligent and beautiful but with a plucky sensuality. For top notes I get mainly green (galbanum?) with a touch of peach; of the florals of the middle I can identify rose and gardenia with some softer more delicate florals along with them. The base gives me primarily the moss and animal notes with a nice touch of amber along with it. I know that when this fragrance was made, these were considered feminine accords. The way it responds on my skin, I could very well see Y as unisex. Except for the first few seconds, there is not much in it that I find very feminine. It does seem, however, to be the kind of fragrance whose intricacy and soft sensuality would allow it to respond in many different ways to different skin types. 183

I loved Y on my very first testing and cannot believe that I am only just now smelling it for the first time. I have seen it in the stores for ages and am not sure why I always passed it by. Definitely my loss!

Y starts off as a beautiful light chypre fragrance and dries down into a lovely light white floral scent with decent sillage. Lovers of 31 rue Cambon, Ma Griffe, Ivoire, Diorella and/or Caleche would be well pleased with this. Y is sexy in an elegant way and very classy. I would be pleased to own a bottle of it one day.

I love Y. It is walking on a woodland path and finding a section lined in honeysuckle. There is a freshness in the air, a stickyness in the humidity, and a heat that brings up the tanginess of the earth and woods. Brilliant.

This is the most delicious, thrilling fragrance I own. I am totally addicted to it. It smells like a moderately strong floral aldehyde. I would take it intraveinously if I could. It can be had for a song now, and it is so much nicer than fragrances costing ten times more.

Is this a masculine scent disguised as a feminine one? If we go with conventionalisms I mean…
It certainly felt like that…this very intense (even in edt) very green chypre has a sharp galbanum top note that won’t let go and a heady dose of a sharper ylang that feels elegant, but not too “womanly”.
In general, the ylangs seem to be creamier and sweeter, this is not the case here. The oakmoss here is similar to the oakmoss found in reformulations: rather austere and very dry, lacking a great deal of freshness. Didn’t strike me as a sunny scent, given by all the gold and white of the bottle and box, but more of a grey-green with blue undertones on a northern city. Very wearable. It’s a classy lady looking out the window on a drizzly afternoon , having a scotch, straight up. She likes barbershop scents as well.
It’s also a man, that bought this one for himself, recommended by a pushy, clueless SA that thought and swore on her mother’s life it was a man’s scent. He wears it occasionally, and nobody knows what it is that makes him smell so good.

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the chypriest chypre of all? Well, Y is pretty darn close. Some nose-tickling, powdery aldehydes over lots of oakmoss and a cuminy hint of animalic notes and hardly any florals. Dense and heavy and dark green. I can definitely see how many might find this musty and old-fashioned (I certainly would not long ago) but I just love the juice.

Not bad. Strict yet flowery but inoffensive. Haven't decided if it's for me but it could be very fitting for the right woman, type Stephane Audran.

YSL's first fragrance release, Y is like many other classics in that the House which released it virtually ignores it. And what a shame, too. Y is a gorgeously wearable green-fruity chypre. It's all delightful greens and mosses with some subtle fruity top notes. The older I get, the more I gravitate towards the green chypres; I find them easy to wear on those days when my "ick" factor is rather high. I read on a blog that Tom Ford ordered the surgeon's knife to re-orch Y. I've never smelled the vintage juice, but the modern version is just fine. Top notes include greens, gardenia, peach and honeysuckle. Mid notes include rose, jasmine, orris, hyacinth and ylang-ylang, plus some well-mannered tuberose. Base notes include oakmoss, amber, patch, vetiver and styrax. Y is a true classic, as beautiful and timeless as a karyatid.

Sunny in the South, I concur. It IS worth hunting for. I am able to find it out of the U.S, but sadly only on eBay in the U.S. The body lotion is a little more feminine, less of the woodsy cyphre that may seem masculine to some. It's very nice for office wear if not over done. I am very curious to know the composition of this fragrance.

This is my favorite cologne of all time! I can only find it on the Internet here in the U.S., but it is worth hunting for. This is the only cologne I've ever worn that has made men literally follow me down the street and stop me to ask me what I'm wearing. YSL Beaute, if you're reading this, I beg you, NEVER STOP MAKING THIS COLOGNE!!!!! 5 stars and 2 thumbs up!

Y is an understated, elegant, "outdoorsy" fruity Chypre smelling like a walk in the woods on a crisp, sunny autumn day. There are bright, tart fruit notes (peach & plum) and earthy moss and wood notes. Simply wonderful.