La Nuit de L'Homme Eau de Toilette (2009)
by Yves Saint Laurent

This is quite a complex sent. Opening with a burst of cardamom, peony, and Bergamot, and drying with a very soft Amber and strong Vetiver.

It’s citric tones give it a rather unisex vibe, with a lingering question: is this is exclusively a late night fragrance, or perhaps a “later in the afternoon” fragrance?

Vibes: Sporty. Marine. Athletic. Mid 20’s. Creative. Vintage. Social.

Sillage is incredibly dull, with a delicate projection. Dries floral, with hints of citric, cream, and wood.

Once in a while, when you're indulging yourself in some Indian food, some of the spices that have been used to flavour the rice are left in with it.

You might be merrily munching your way through your basmati/bhuna combination, your attention entirely drawn by the wonders of Saturday night TV, blithely unaware of what is about to befall you. . .

The memory of the cardamom pod which flavours rice so well appears in rude existence in your mouth, being crushed between your molars.

If you like the sound of that, you'll like this - it's like hair lice shampoo with crushed cardamom pods. Otherwise steer well clear. I'm afraid, on me, this was an immediate trip to the bathroom to scrub it off.

It's pleasant. I mean how can it not be. A coumarin sweetness and aromatic cedarwood. The top notes fade fast though so La Nuit de l'Homme in the end is mainly about the coumarin and wood. Some amber too.

However, it will not differ that much from any other lower ranking EdT that packs the same notes. We used to have a fragrance from Garnier here that was close to this but it's been discontinued for over a decade. Maybe YSL bought it?

If anything, going by the scent alone then price wise it should sit just slightly above the highest priced (non-designer) drugstore fragrances (Garnier, Daniel Hechter and the likes). I say above, because it does still come from YSL. But it's priced at 70EUR/80USD here for 100ml?

That's too expensive for this tier of scent. There is for example a fragrance from another Yves (Rocher) that has similar notes but sells for 50'ish USD/100ml. It's been a while since I've smelled it though but I remember it was going for around 20 USD even 10-15 years ago.

La Nuit De L'Homme seems to me to be the logical conclusion to this discussion at corporate headquarters:

"Hey, remember Rive Gauche? It has a huge following among fragrance nerds, so it must be good. Let's make a version of it that would sell really well at Macy's!"

It's a spicier, scratchier, more accessible version of Rive Gauche, in my eyes. I think it's a decent scent, it performs well, and it's not overly-synthetic, though in the beginning it does border on being cloying. It really comes across as a barbershop fougere, but one that you wear when you're having a romantic evening. This is "date night" fragrance. I can't really think of any other time where it would be appropriate, which is kind of a shortfall, as Rive Gauche does what this does, but better, and it is more versatile than La Nuit de l'Homme by a country mile.

All in all, it's a decent scent, but one that I won't be adding to my collection.

This is really pleasant, and to me, inoffensive. I get the feeling that others consider it a spicy, assertive fragrance better suited for a night out than a casual setting. But, I could completely see myself wearing this at the office. Maybe it's because this plays with lavender and I already have a boozier sophisticated lavender scent in my collection (Fahrenheit Parfum), that I'd use for those special occasions.

Not sure if the projection or longevity are particularly awesome as it did feel like a skin scent within a couple hours. Overall it smells nice and is certainly worth checking out, but right now there's nothing about this that screams "I need a bottle!".