Yves Saint Laurent will launch Parisienne, a new rose-based floral fragrance for women fronted by model Kate Moss, in August. It will debut in the US in October.
Parisienne was developed by perfumers Sophia Grojsman (who also developed the original Yves Saint Laurent Paris fragrance) and Sophie Labbé…
Few fragrances induce the instant love-it-or-hate-it response of Yves Saint Laurent Opium. Right now, you’re probably either thinking, “Opium! I’ve had some of my most memorable nights wearing that perfume…” or “I can already feel the migraine coming on.”
When Opium hit the market in 1977, women bought it by the gallon. Opium was so much more than a fragrance. It became an identity. Just as Chanel No. 5 showed its wearer as someone elegant and timeless (or at least trying to be elegant and timeless), the woman who wore Opium signaled that her life was rife with exoticism and secrets, even if she lived in a split level in the suburbs. The Yves Saint Laurent marketing machine fueled this image with print advertisements of mostly naked women surrounded by crimson and shadows…
Yves Saint Laurent L’Homme debuted in 2006 and has been a best-seller ever since; it is one of many fragrances that prove I do NOT have my finger on the pulse of the perfume-buying public. (L’Homme bores me.) I even nodded off as I read L’Homme’s notes list: bergamot, calone, ginger, basil, cedar, violet leaf, vetiver and tonka bean. I predicted, accurately, that L’Homme’s basil and ginger would be negligible and its bergamot, violet leaf and tonka would dominate.
L’Homme was created by the triumvirate of Anne Flipo, Pierre Wargnye and Dominique Ropion. L’Homme starts with warm (lightly gingered) bergamot and ozone, and it moves rapidly into (light) green territory (a touch of violet leaf). L’Homme ends comfortably on a plump cushion of amber-cedar-vanilla/tonka. L’Homme smells like standard-issue men’s perfume…
Yves Saint Laurent has launched Elle Shocking (aka Elle Eau de Toilette), the latest flanker to 2007’s Elle YSL.
Elle Shocking is a lighter version of the original Elle Eau de Parfum (and see also: Elle Intense and Elle Summer), but promises to “break all the rules” of lighter interpretations…
...another flanker. This one for Yves Saint Laurent's Elle fragrance. Update: here's the announcement for Elle Shocking.