Reviews of Yerbamate (2001)
by Lorenzo Villoresi

wow :) one of my favorites from this line. easily one of the best herbal, hay, tomato, tea and mate based scent. if these notes doesn’t interest you, then steer away kind sir! This ones powdery green with touch of hay and green tea leaves and mate..the rawness of tomato leaves can be used as reference in this scent. this one stays pwdery right out of the spritzer till the end. overall. a lovely scent which is grossly underrated and easily one of the finest out there. two thumbs up.

incomparable.

irritating, sharp, fresh, sour, unpleasant, unique, cloying, crazy, citrusy, soft, powdery...

a must have.

I've yet to come across a scent, from this house, that blows me away and this one's no exception. Although Yerbamate mainly consists of baby powder and green (or herbal) notes, there's also a sharp wax accord that compels me to scrub it off my wrist as quickly as possible.

[Original submission date: 10 April 2008]

I recently became hooked on a variation of the actual drink yerbamate made by a local tea company Honest Tea. It has fast become one of my favorite drinks. Their Yerbamate has a small bit of limeade in it, which perhaps makes it so appealing, and deliciously sweet (without being bad for you, they're an awesome company) and this cologne is in many ways very, very similar.

Very pretty, I would love to smell this on girls my age (nineteen). The opening is nice and sharp, and being raised with a father who wears Guerlain Vetiver, I find myself very fond of somewhat sharp(ish) green openings. This is sweeter than it is sharp but is certainly green, but in a somewhat dry kind of way, like grass and hay, which most certainly agrees with the notes shown above. Powdery and slightly feminine it is a great gentle scent that is more meadow than chunk of grass and earth. I sense a "whiteness" about it, maybe the powder, but it is very fresh and I can agree with ludwigslady, there is a slight creamy cooked sugar/vanilla lurking somewhere in the background to my nose that kinda does remind me of creme brulee. Maybe the overall effect really is a sweetened yerba-mate drink.

Very nice, any girl or a guy with a nice tan could pull this off.

A super blast of powder soon gives way to a magnificent blend of hay, woods, yerba mate, and incense. I'm sure it's not for everyone, but it's certainly original and unique. My only complaint is the longevity, which on my skin is only a couple of hours at best. So it's not going to the top of my "to buy" list, but I can see a day when I'll break down and decide that I want to be able to smell like this at will.

Wow! I'm 9 years old again and sitting in the barberchair at Bill's Barbershop. He's just finished my buzz cut, unwrapped the paper collar, and swept the hair off my neck.

This is without any doubt whatsoever what I think of when people say "barbershop smell".

I don't care what ingredients are in this or what the notes are supposed to be, all I get is powder (not baby powder though), clean, some sweetness, and dry hair.

Not bad at all, complex, surprisingly good sillage. But not one for me. I really don't need to go back to Bill's Barbershop too often.

There is only one true master of sillage - she is a mistress - Mother Nature herself. When you pass by an aged orange tree in full bloom, brush against scented geraniums as you weed your garden or open a window surrounded by honeysuckle flowers. Those are the memories I carry as I hunt for fragrances...the way the air carries a scent to you.

Yerbamate is the closest to Mother Nature's sillage I have found from a bottle. It has that quality of earth, sun, grass, herb, flower, smoke and sugar wafting on air. How does Villoresi do it?

On my skin, it stars with moderate hay, lavendar and green notes. The citrus is light and momentary. A slight, clean smoke emerges and swirls in with the herbs for awhile. My drydown isn't powdery as described, but it is herbal with a hint of burnt sugar, like you would have on the top of a creme brulee.

I love this fragrance. Mother Nature in a beautiful green elixir.

# 1. Simply perfect. It's so complex and blends incomparably opposites like fresh cool herbal notes with the powdey soapy scents in the drydown. Cool, warm, bittersweet. It's old fashion and very modern at the same time. It's a cup of Earl Grey, fresh tomato leaves, hay (any kind of), vetiver, heliotrope. Light years above the standardized commercial scents of today. Girls (and I) go nuts when they smell this on me!

Green, herbal with a warm hay note that brings back memories of my grandfathers farm - walking through the barn and bringing the cows home. I really love this scent. It is especially moving in the spring and early summer. The blending is so well done that it has the ability to transport you to another place and time. The garden, the barn, grass, hay - yes - BUT - the drydown is very powdery. The powder is the only flaw in my opinion to an otherwise great scent. Warm weather increases and plays up the powder for some reason. The powder just doesn't go too well with the grass and hay. But, in the right situation this is a great comforting scetn. Also a very unique fragrance - what else comes close to Yerbamate in character?

Baby power and sweet hay – that’s what Yerbamate by Villoresi is for me. I don’t find it to be complex, dry, smoky or woody; or even very green. I do find it very sweet and ambery. Ayala captures it so well, I’ll quote her: “heaps of dried hay and powdery coumarin... extreme indulgence in powdery ambery feathery fluff bordering on the dessert kind.” Exactly. I washed this off. Villoresi can make superb fragrances, I love Uomo. That is excellent!

Remarkable. Given the polarized views that Yerbamate seems to generate here, I was hardly sure what to expect of it. As it happens, expectations were irrelevant: Yerbamate would have confounded them no matter what they'd been.

Yerbamate goes on green and herbal, almost harsh, with just a hint of spicy sweetness in the background to keep the greens from getting out of hand. The herbal notes assimilate quickly, revealing some incense beneath. The tea and mate surface soon after, blending with the incense to create a very beautiful, yet austere accord that marks the heart of Yerbamate. The smoky note observed by some reviewers seems very faint to me - almost a soft shadow of the tea. The tea and mate volley back and forth between woods, incense and a very light powder in a long, slow drydown whose character changes, sometimes abruptly, until it finally fades.

This fragrance utterly transcends the typical green scent experience. It is complicated, surprising, and more than a little bit mysterious. I'm not sure why some find it so offensive. Maybe it's just baffling, or maybe it responds inconsistently with different skin types. At any rate, I encourage everyone to give it at least a try.

Yerbamaté is very complex. The others have exhausted the analysis of 'notes' so I'll just be poetic about how this fragrance makes me feel. I find it soothing and centering, evocative of high windy heights, and the smoke of campfires in the forest. It's a thing of beauty, artistic in the extreme. I don't get much 'powder' from this one, just a lot of 'clean', 'green' and tea-incense. An enchanting marvel; I hope I don't run out anytime soon.

This is the first Villoresi I have tried. For me, it began very dry and woody. There was an acridity similar to what I experience with camphor and mothballs, although the scent was not distasteful. Within an hour it had settled down to a vanilla/amber, which persisted pleasantly for over 12 hours.

This is a very pleasant cologne and if it were priced at $35, one might add it to one's collection or consider giving as a gift, but at Villoresi's one price for all ($120), it is simply a waste of money. There are dozens of vanilla/amber powdery scents out there that sell for far less.

If this were an extraordinary and singular scent, I would not begrudge Mr. Villoresi his $120, but this is just not special enough to justify the costs. Still a positive review due to the pleasantness of the scent itself.

Yerbamate starts terribly green, nearly to the point of an Absinthe poisoning, I was always surprised I’ve enjoyed it so. I detect a fair amount of lavender as well as Artemisia, and again a very odd green – this time not only from galbanum, but also from the unusual note of tomato leaf. But what begins astringent and bitter like a very dry Martini suddenly changes direction and turns into an uber-sweet concoction. There is non of the berries or caramel here, yet like most of Villoresi’s scents (I find), it ends with a very sweet amber. This time, the amber is cleverly concealed amongst heaps of dried hay and powdery coumarin. If you think of a hay ride (or a more grown up type of hay ride), this would be a surprisingly soft one. And this is to the point of extreme indulgence in powdery ambery feathery fluff bordering on the dessert kind. The sip of bitter yerbamate was rewarded by sweetness that would have made you forget you might heard that name earlier…

This is the description Lorenzo Villoresi offers of Yerbamate: "A boundless greenland touching the sky. The scent of grass, of new-mown hay, of countles herbs and flowers scattered in the fields, stirred by the wind and warmed by the sun. A lonely fire in the meadows, the quiet ritual of tea and mate a gentle veil of smoke, rising and embracing." Amazingly enough, this is exactly what it smells like! A female friend of mine at work said that I smelled like "nudes dancing in fields of flowers" when I wore it. While that might not sound very manly, the smokiness in the background butches things up enough to make Yerbamate genuinely unisex. This is one extraordinary scent.

what a disappointment. my first thought was "luv's baby soft", but that might be too generous. I've been drinking yerba mate in vast quantities and varieties lately, so was really looking forward to getting a sense of that in this juice, but really get nothing green, nothing smoky, nothing remotely yerba-esque, at least not through the overpowering cloud of baby powder. bummer. LV is hitting about .500 for me so far (thumbs up for PN and Garofano, down for Spezie and YM). Was hoping to like this house much more.

Complex juxtaposition of opposing notes. A bracing whiff of mint followed by a longer presence of citrus and rosewood, then green notes--all rather harmonious. Then Yerbamate shifts gears into sweet mate and tea, introduces light smoke, and begins to pick up powder. So, it starts citrusy and fresh, with light incense and powder, and it ends green, sweet, somewhat smoky, and still powdery. My favorite part is the fresh, tangy beginning. My least favorite is the sweet, smoky part in the middle, which is always a difficult combination for me. The most unusual aspect is the powder, which brings an "indoor" element to an otherwise "outdoor" scent. This complicated orchestration seems to be a hallmark of Lorenzo Villoresi's creations. One must keep sniffing in order to not miss the development, which is decidedly artistic. Yerbamate is pleasant but unsettled, like standing outdoors in a windy place where the aromas of the surroundings keep changing on the breeze. Quite interesting, and I would bet it works wonders on the right skin.

Such a different and wonderful take on green—not the typical green accords I’ve encountered before. Yerbamate is the scent of grass and tea and citrus and hay and smoke and powder—and each and every one of these separate notes is discrete and attainable. This is a remarkably accomplished perfume construction, and its superb notes and accords are carried well beyond the ranks of competency into the realm of creative genius. To me the scent exhibits the oneness of duality: It is so innocently earthy and at the same time, there’s such a material vibration to its esotericness. It puts me into a contemplative mood, and rarely does a scent have this much effect on my mood. Yerbamate is astounding: it is earthy, intelligent, and mystical at one and the same time.

Distinctly green yet like no other, with its smoke and dense powdery notes. Hay drying in a remote meadow, hazy sunshine, insects buzzing. Unique and sublimely complex. One of my perennial top ten.

Beuatiful and surprising. The scent ideed quickly reveals the range of green vegetal notes but then develops into a scent highlighting the powdery hay, mate and lavender notes. Without comparison, sophisticated and unusual.

Dios mio,esto es horrible,es un olor pasado de moda y anticuado,realmente no veo el unisex por ningun lado,claramente femenina. Ideal para mujeres de 50 años en adelante.

"Sir, donning the old baby powder today, are we?"

Yerbamate on my skin is pure Johnson's Baby Powder! Amazingly similar. And just like baby powder, what can you really say? It's pleasant enough, even a little nice to smell. But is certainly is not unique, or singular, or strong, or stunning, or any one of thousands of other adjectives. It just is.

Wicozani

This scent is definitely one of the better greens out there. It's not too clean, has a bit of a powdery hint, and also can be "smoky" at times. The tea notes are wonderful (especially the mate), and I notice the unusual note of hay (also in Cologne Bigarade- Frederic Malle). This one simply works. I would definitely agree with the "fields of paradise" image noted by another reviewer. Very otherworldly. A definite winner.

A challenging scent to review. It does not fit into any obvious category. The scent is pronounced, unique, soft and elusive all at the same time. It is neither sweet nor bitter. It hints at flowers and woods wrapped up in a refined milkiness. The name perhaps suggests that some wizardry of herbs and tea is also at work to produce this unusual and spiritual perfume. Does it conjure up any image or atmosphere? A very pure human love, perhaps? Or the fragrance of angels in the fields of paradise? At all events, unique and wonderful.

This is the only 'green' I would own--it works really well for me. Subtle, smoky, unlike any other tea-note green fragrance I've tried.

Perhaps it is because I am a rookie, but Yerbamate does not blend well with me at all. Of the 5 LV scents I have this is, by far, my least favorite and would not purchase it again.

This is a unique offering to the field of "green" fragrances as it produces a fragrance that, while clearly fresh and green, is not overly citrusy and seems to blend perfectly the notes inside.