REVIEW: Yves Saint Laurent L'Homme

Oh Serpent, ever the scathing contrarian! I admit, I was kind expecting to be let down, but MAN does that sound lousy. AXE? ouch!

Ugh...after reading Serpent's review I am very depressed with the current fall launches. His discription of L'Homme is my same feelings I had with that awful Euphoria Men by Calvin. It seems like the new trend is lets make a scent that smells like clear shallow water with no depth. If we market it they will come.

My last hold out is for Viktor & Rolf and Burberry.

Victor and who? Are those the guys in Las Vegas who got mauled by their white tiger? I'm banking everything on the Burberry! They've got a house style that i like. The original London with its pear note, Touch with its violet note, Brit with its rose note. Even weekend was rather nice in an understated sort of way.

So Serpent, does the new YSL resemble D&G Au Masculine then? Lemon dishwashing liquid?

Serpent, it sounds like with YSL L'Homme, YSL Beaute just copied a key element of Hewlett-Packard's business model.

You know what HP does with printer ink... they make an ink cartridge for $2-3, give it the fancy name of "Vivera", and sell it for $25. Like YSL, HP wants you to think that the Vivera ink is a "premium product", even though HP Vivera ink is no better for 99% of stuff than Office Depot's remanufactured store brand cartridges (Consumer Reports found that one out).

I mean contrarian only in the sense of your being a commited parade-rainer. Your MO is more "gofugyourself" than it is "sartorialist", if you get my drift. Its not meant in a bad way; I'd rather read one of your posts intelligently dressing-down some new launch then yet another "OMG, just tried ______ and it rocks!!!" thread. Keep up the good work.

As true today as when it was written. Im still looking forward to Burberry New London and Dzongkha though.

Its a damn shame as to what the fragrance market is now becoming. However that pretty much only applies to designer scents. Niche scents such as L'Artisan, Serge, MPG, Malle, etc will always be making odd and unique scents that some either love and hate. Thats the way it should be.

So my question is, is the great YSL fragrance name finally falling?

M7
Rive Gauche
Body Kouros
Opium
Kouros
M7 Fresh
Jazz
Live Jazz

These scents are all classics or to be classics to some or most people. At the very least adored by a large fan base here on Basenotes. So can we not expect any other great fragrances from this line? Are the stones of society finally crumbling beneath the weight and pressure of...yeah I dont know what the hell I'm talking about.

I really wonder what blind scent tests would tell us about the current market- you know the "do designers tell us what we should like or do we tell them what we want" thing.

"New" is always better than something "old" to the trend following mass market. I just can't believe that even given the best marketing and packaging the same old "fresh aquatic with burst of melon rind drying down to warm spice" can be expected to be successfully sold under 75 different names.

Seriously.

I dunno, I am finding going back in time to be far more interesting than the future of men's scents.

I think this is a rude and tasteless swipe. It's beneath the poster and the forum.

--Chris

hey i didnt mean to insult those two - their reviews and comments are fantastic indeed and their fragrance knowledge far exceeds mine, which has allowed me to learn from those two (and Serpent too). i was just observing that most of their reviews are positive for most of the fragrances. Apologies for any unintended offense.

I hope this one is just as "bad" as Terre d'Hermes and I'll end up liking this one.
But I have a strange feeling you could be right,... this time, (wink) . I mean, Adidas, ..that sure doesn't sound promising. And Tom Ford left also. Sigh...

Still have some hope for the new Prada, although the reviews weren't that promising , the descriptions of the people that showed their dissapointement in the threads made it actually sound good to me. Still have hopes for that one.

But your review,....man.., I'm depressed now. sigh..

Good review, and as I suspected; bad bad news. The worst thing is that I expect that YSL will not come back for a looong time with some great charachter when it comes to men`s fragrances. This especially, if this new scent will hit the spot in mainstream.

Sigh!.......now where's the Prozac.

To return to the thrilling days of yesteryear, Hermes recently introduced Terre de Hermes, a brilliant, throughly chic, daring, sophisticated and even groundbeaking scent that I believe will be revered as a classic as time passes.
TDH reminds me of when Nirvana entered the scene and instantly turned the rock world it on its head.

Serpent, in his usual florid, hperdramatic style, started a thread entitled "Hermes: the Death of a Great Fragrance House" or some such overblown nonsense. The title of the thread said it all: not only was it "dishwashing detergent," but it did not "belong" to the House of Hermes, meaning, to Serpent, that it did not smell like Equipage or Rocobar. As if every scent this house releases is "supposed" to smell like something that was released twenty years ago. Perhaps Serp would have been more satisfied with a new "version" of Equipage. Maybe "Equipage Sport," or "Equipage Fresh." The mind reels.

Now, to be fair and to state the obvious, there ARE houses whose scents resemble, somewhat, each other. It's their "signature." Guerlain is the most obvious example, Creed counts in this category, as well as a few others. However, it'd be a pretty goddamned boring perfumed world if every house's new scent was a clone of what came before. Look at the artisnal world. What does MPG's Bois de Iles have in common with George Sand? Dzing! with Patchouli Patch? (or any other fragrance, come to think of it!) Piper Negrum with Dilmun? L'Autre with Nostalgia? If a company CHOSES to make scents in its traditional signature style/mode, great, but what could possibly be more ridiculous than saying that a scent doesn't "belong" to a certain house because it smells like nothing they've released before? We all rightly complain about the "sameness" of mall scents. A company that opts for a sea change when releasing a new fragrance should be applauded, not condemned...unless, of course, you truly hate the fragrance.

So there were, and are, a small group of lemmings at Basenotes that decided that they, too, hated this fragrance, undoubtedly some before they had even smelled it.

Then, when more knowledable members here actually smelled it, up pops a thread entitled "TDH--A Jolting Reassessment," or something like that, in which, lo and behold, people ignored one man's opinion and decided that this was indeed a chic, modern, groundbreaking fragrance that portended a completely new genre of men's perfume...including people who had posted only weeks before that they HATED it!! I give credit to people who initially disliked this fragrance but got to "know" it and legitimately changed their minds. This is a common phenomenon in the fragrance world....we can all name fragrances that we intially disliked but changed our minds about, but make no mistake--there were members here who were predisposed to dislike this fragrance because the usual overheated "review" by Serpent.

Now comes the similar, familiar rant against YSL's new fragrance. Personally, I am rooting for this scent. I have enormous respect for this house. Of all of the mainstream fragrance companies (yes, I know it's a design house and not a perfume house) YSL has probably provided the world with MORE OUTSTANDING MEN'S FRAGRANCES than a lot of companies put together. Jazz/Live Jazz. M7. YSL Pour Homme. Kouros. Rive Gauche. Opium. Love 'em or hate them, they were original, bold and risk-adverse...Korous probably remains the most hotly debated scent in men's perfume.

Now, thanks to Serpent, history is about to ( and I pray not) repeat itself. I am hoping that Basenotes members, who are independently-minded and share a passion of fragrance, will MAKE UP THEIR OWN MINDS when it comes to this scent. Maybe it does suck, and if it does, I'll be the first to agree with Serpent; his tastes and mine often are in agreement....for example, our shared adoration of Kingdom, and yes, the marvelous, timeless Equipage.

HOWEVER....and this is a big however...having been a Bnotes member in good standing for a number of years and having read many of Serp's "reviews,", I am automatically suspicious of his motives and hence give his reviews scant attention. His reviews are not meant to be informative or constructive, or provide information about a particular note, say, like, Scentemental, whose posts have to do with providing actual information and educating people. Serpent's reviews center around being "controversial" ("le effant terrible," or whatever such bullshit) and, first and foremost, above any other consideration, ATTENTION, which to Serpent is like air is to the rest of us. After his own effort at a perfume forum failed, having attracted a grand number of 13 members, he has returned to Bnotes with a vengence, desperately seeking to create controvery where there is none, draw attention to himself, and, true to his own moniker, being a bomb-thrower at targets which do not deserve them (Hermes being the most recent example, and now, YSL.) Half of the content of his own site consisted of trashing Bnotes members who DARED to disagree with his opinion of TDH. Sad and pathetic.

What's the point of this thread? Believe it or not, it's not to trash Serp--others justifiably can and do a better job--but to URGE MEMBERS AND THE OCCASIONAL LEMMING TO MAKE UP THER OWN MIND regarding the YSL scent and to prevent an immediate backlash against it just because a publicity hound professes not to like it. Stop he presses...Serp doesn't like a fragrance. Wow. His opinion is no more or less valid than anyone else's. Approach YSL with an open mind. It deserves it. YSL's history in developing some of the most loved and unusual scents earns it the right for its new release to be judged on its own terms, not Serpent's.

And yes, Grant and Serp, this is indeed Ballardbeau/Dave in Seattle. I'll spare Serp the time and effort running to tattle to Grant in his usually girly fashion, as he always does, to inform that he has discovered that the dangerous Ballardbeau has again re-entered the building. Then, the usual cycle repeats itself-- Grant "bans" me and I reenter Basenotes under a different ID 5 minutes later. It'd be tiresome if it weren't so funny. For friends, and perhaps even adversaries, though I don't think I have any other than the aforementioned Serp, who started a flame war with me when I audaciously sent him a PM asking where he had been and telling him how much I had enjoyed his review of Kingdom...God, in retrospect, what a hateful and disrespectful act...please say hi at Ballardbeau@hotmail.com,as this thread will be pulled quickly.

Please, don't be a sheep. Judge this new scent on its own merits, or lack of, and if you hate it, say so. Just make sure the opinion you are expressing is your own, and not that of a member who, in the end, puts publicity and attention over an honest critique of a fragrance.

Best to all,

Ballardbeau

PS--Indy, I respect your decision. Know that you will be missed. Your input has always held my attention and you represent the very best of Basenotes.

Well, sure enough, the thread got pulled immediately!

Don't worry for those who missed it...I'll be back tomorrow!

that really shocked me , I mean that juice was formulated by 3 noses -Pierre Wargnye, Anne Flipo and Dominique Ropion- I mean it is not a common event to gather three master noses to work on a project.. so my expectation is so high ????!!!

from the image & concept i can figure out it is a mature everyday morning fragrance, classical & safe.. so i am ready for a not over-powering aroma & not expecting sex ia a bottle.

... well, sniffing is beliving ?؟

yeah i guess your right, too many noses = less focused juice.

I wish if they have sticked with Jacques Cavallier or Sophia Grojsman as usual, they knew YSL better than anyone else.

Jacques did OPIUM PH, NU, RIVE GAUCHE PH, CINEMA & M7 with Alberto Morillas.

while Sophia did PARIS & CHAMPAGNE 'YVRESSE'.

I am really upset about this. I love all the YSL fragrances out now. This new one and the newer ones to come will completely suck. Should have kept Tom Ford. At least he wouldn't have passed the complete sh!t that will now becoming out of this one great fragrance house.

in my place Rive Gauche pour Homme, Cinéma, and M7 sell very well, & the SA are so happy with R.G. ph & M7 performance.

And by "American" juice you mean bland, dull, unimaginative, and so on and so forth?

And maybe made for the very mass market, perhaps.
--Chris

More like fresh, clean and understated, i suppose.

"No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public."

But how can this many people spend time postulating about a fragrance they know relatively nothing about? It's absurd.

that's simply because it is Yves Saint Laurent.

I find it so incredibly strange that these high-end fashion houses which hardly can produce a t-shirt with out the price tag being set at $200, let alone place them in a store next to me so I can buy them (if I had that kind of money). They come out with the most amazing clothing lines year after year (I'm not only talking YSL here, but pretty much all of them) but cannot, for some reason, do the same with their fragrances... It just escapes me...

Of course I can see that producing fragrances like this brings attention to their brand, but almost none of the consumers wears anything else from that brand. Fragrance seems to be the poor man's luxury (apart from cigarettes and booze) pretty much and I don't like that at all. We do have the Armani Prive line and some other brands doing their flagship-only fragrances, but still... I'm not sure where I'm going with this I'm just rambling. Frustration is all I feel.

I don't doubt Serpents review and I admit being slightly worried (ok, I overdramatised a bit with the Prozac thing) but how many of you, besides Serpent, have tried this fragrance ?
Isn't it better to try it first for ourselfs before slamming this before it's even released ?

I thought about this when replying, but my frustration goes out to more than just this house, so therefore I continued rambling. Of course I need to smell it before putting the actual fragrance down.

It wasn't specifically your post that made me wonder about this, but was meant more in general, Shifts. Me too ,like to read reviews about upcoming releases , for the simple reason that I'm impatient to try every darn, new release. I admire most of the reviewers here for their capability to do so, with the main reason being that I simply never can choose the beautifull descriptions and words that most of the experienced reviewers do it the way they do. (The main reason ofcourse that English isn't my first language). But I do like to read them and other than that, I also am dissapointed when someone is posting negative reviews about an upcoming release,f.e. Prada man, Terre, YSL etc. But then again, sometimes the reviews are right on the spot and sometimes they are totally the opposite of my findings.Everytime I read and enjoy ,reading a review I keep in the back of my mind that it's totally subjective and therefore I still have to smell it for myself.

Thanks for the review! now i'll have to find out for myself what it smells like...

Serpent,
Thanks for your review. I know I'll need to smell this for myself, but this warning is valuable, and I certainly won't buy this blind. I understand the arguments against forming an opinion without sniffing, but many of us BN'ers just can't help speculating - it's fun!

What I like about YSL scents is that they each have strong personalities, and they've managed to do this without having niche-level prices. That's great for us who are not willing to spend $100+ for a bottle.

It would have been interesting to be a fly on the wall at the business meetings for this. Anybody who has been through corporate takeovers (I've seen several) can imagine the lameness of the "new rules", possibly well-intentioned, often very poorly executed.

I agree that having several designers is probably not a good sign. The first designer may have come in with something "strong", and some new suit (with a strong background in the carbonated beverage industry) would say, "no, that's old-school YSL - we're looking for youth-market penetration" [oooo!], and if you don't believe us, we've got the sales-figures for M7 right here. We're looking to make the new Acqua Di Gio". So the designer makes version 2, and that's knocked down, and finally they bring in another designer, and another, and so on. Finally, they end up with watered-down, totally derivative swill, and it may even sell well!

The funny thing is, I suspect if they'd marketed M7 by featuring the latest tabloid celebrity stooge, it would have sold like a demon!

couture alone isn't going to make anyone any money, and fragrance is the only thing these companies make that is INVISIBLE. thats why they allow themselves to put out crappy stuff for the masses in the fragrance arena. earn profits. have people truly believe that because you own red jeans, you own something "versace". and don't visibly degrade the line. gah! its genius!

I really think they should have pulled a more nichey approach to marketing it! i mean oudwood base? who's even heard of that apart from us frag nuts here on BN

What a depressing thread. Still, no surprises.

I agree totally, when sampling it I even thought that YSL L'Homme could appeal to Liz Claiborne customers. Sort of "my-first-adult-but-not-too-sophisticated" cologne.

Finally had a chance to sniff this one today. It's not out over here until 16th September, but the YSL concession in Harvey Nicks had a tester hidden away waiting for me to go in and see them. The SA was really excited and couldn't wait to spray me with it. I held my hand out with baited breath, took a sniff and wished that I had held my breath for longer. Everything that Serp has said about this scent is true. It really is boring.

The SA came out with a wonderful remark. She said that the lid would make an ideal paperweight. To me that's the only use that this latest disaster could be put to.

Will someone please fire miss Chantal Roos!

Oh, my word. This is not good.

It's like water with celery.

This is so not good.

I weep.

This is sad news for sure....Oh well....I hate the bottle anyway so....in this case....Bad Bottle = Bad Fragrance.
Gary

Well Serpent, what can I say?
For once you weren´t brutal enough - this is a piece of garbage.
I will forever remember this dreadful day of sampling as the moment when this prestigous house, creators of so many fine fragrances sold out.

Horrible juice, closest thing is Hugo Boss Selection. A sad day indeed.

MMM

Haven't even tried it yet and on the strength of your collective appraisals, I don't even want to.