Reviews of Yatagan (1976)
by Caron

My skin eats up fragrance, so i typically hunt for heavy ones that stand a chance of lasting long enough for a drydown. I was intrigued by the reviews for Yatagan, so I bought a bottle and squirted it on. What a surprise. No horrid notes. Nothing overwhelming. Just a very nice herb/ wood/ leather scent. It was fairly linear in the drydown, leaning toward sweetness at the very end. I could see wearing this fairly often, even to the office.

In all fairness, Yatagan gets points for not tilting the smell-o-wheel too far toward the citrus fruits, iris flowers and potpourri spices imbuing the majority of its allegedly masculine co-horts. I can appreciate a fragrance that doesn't attempt to smother me in hot-house gardens, grapefruit juice and sandalwood, but dark, dirty, sweaty, smoky or scary, this is not. Just another classic masculine that a woman can easily wear. Ho-hum.

I find it strange: so many reviewers refer to this fragrance as wild, untamed, in-your-face, rough, unwearable, and so on.

On my skin, Yatagan tends to go winey, a little like the initial fermentation smell you get when grapes start to go manky in hot early autumn sun. Then it dries down to a fairly standard woody scent, with a hint of the smokiness of Gucci pour homme.

To my nose, this doesn't come across as wild and daring as people make out. Although, in 1976, I could imagine this being a bit outre. Someone said that Yatagan is wild and uncouth while Knize ten is a gentleman, or something along those lines, but to be honest, Knize 10 was the surprise package for me: a blast of raw leather that knocked my socks off, and not necessarily in a nice way.

I certainly don't mind it, but I don't crave it enough to want to buy a whole bottle.

I don’t understand what all the fuss is about, concerning Yatagan. Some call it a wonderful walk in the woods, others talk about its uncompromising sharp/masculine character or having some kind of esoteric initiation-ritual aspect. To me, this simply fits into the late 70’s/early 80’s old-school scents of Quorum, Trussardi Uomo, and Jules. It reminds me of those: powerful, spicy, intent on making a statement, torpedoes-be-damned. It has a very tangy, herbal spicy-green opening that is quite interesting. The middle is patchouli (tolerable, not excessively sweet) with only the very faintest hint of pine. The base is a fairly attractive spicy leather tone that reminds me a bit of Equipage or Chevalier D’Orsay. A cold-weather scent, and applied in micro-doses it is OK.

Especially in the opening I get a hint of something odd, dirty human or dirty dog. There's something similar in Histoires de Parfums Marquise de Sade so it might be the leather note. I'm a fan of really skanky musks so it doesn't bother me much and it's very subdued by the dry and fresh pine forest notes.
A breeze through a sunny pine forest when your hunting dog circles around your legs, wet from crossing a ditch, perhaps. You're a cleanly gentleman, but you're slightly sweaty from the hunt and smell vaguely of moist wool. Most of all the sharp freshness of pines, earth and greenery.
Almost too sharp, on my skin it develops a sour/sharp herbal quality common in many vintage perfumes. The dry, warm, comforting woodiness is what saves it. Interesting and evocative, but not of a kitschen, no celery to my nose. Not entirely pleasant though, and not decidedly a keeper due to that sour/sharp quality.

Celery and gunpwoder! My advice for those of you who love it would be to step out of the kitchen into the dining hall of the palace and take your rightfull place at the head of the table with Penhaligon's Blenheim Bouquet.

Nevertheless, one must grant this is a a most unusual frag. Perhaps I'll buy when I run out of Jacomo de Jacomo, my present sinus rocket.

It's a great thing, but be careful with it. One or two sprays will do.