To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Ches – :
Today my full bottle arrived. I am really excited to try it because I already have the new version and I love it. The first thing I have to say is that it is beautiful. There are lots of wonderful reviews here and I must agree with most of them without repeating the same things. So I will just say what I love about it – it is so green, very clean, classy, woody and flowery at the same time, musky and full of galabanum, which I really love. On the other hand I must say that they did a really great job with a new version which is quite similar.
xfxsqqvw – :
Ahh–my college years! Living in a big city for the first time—(PGH)—within walking distance of big dept stores for the first time and exploring fragrances by American and foreign designers for the first time. I was into fashion but didn’t have much money to spend on clothes–but I could annoy and harass the salesladies in the stores and try on Chanel,YSL, Guerlain, Caron, Worth, and an endless list of scents with special offers and free gifts with purchase and discover fashions in fragrance! I discovered Y about the same time as I picked up bottles of Amazone, Fidji, Aliage, Cristalle,and Calandre. These fresh but dressy, clean but rich, sophisticated but green and floral flights of fantasy were completely magical to me!Scent is so emotional and deeply timed to memories of time and place and people. I still have a tiny bit of my 1970’s Y and it still smells like freedom and sophisticated style to me!! You girls who didn’t grow up in the 1970’s—you missed one helluva party!
cgfdgab1ql99 – :
I love rive gauche and Chanel no 5 and 19 , so I figured ‘y’ would
Be right up my alley.
Sadly it’s not. While I appreciate this perfume is elegant ,it’s just too much oakmoss and civet for my skin.
It may well be my skin chemistry just does not bring the best out in y , but somehow to me this feels incomplete.
Where are the green notes ?
Where is the powdery notes ?
Why is this so dam quiet ?
Sadly I will not be reaching for y much , it’s actually quite nice but I want something a bit more dramatic , , no 19 is drama in a bottle , dry , stunning and it grabs your attention , yet is beautiful , rive gauche has a dark rose note that screems for attention , great I love that as again there are notes I have fallen for almost instantly.
Y is just a tad to quiet and peaceful for me nothing shouts out and on my skin
It’s a tad boreing. I could say well it’s a 1960s perfume , in all its softer femine glory , but it makes no sense when you think Chanel no 5 came many years b4 y did (20s) and that for me is glorious , wonderfully powdery, musky, heaven in a bottle.
Y on other hand is serious , well a bit , there are some pretty flowers and if you like mossy notes they are in this soft ladylike Fragrance.
Just nothing major grabs me , it’s nice and that’s about it , I’m jealous of all of you that catch the more complex notes , the sweeter notes , the multi layered notes that so far my skin is hiding , sorry everyone , I know you want to hit me lol.
6/10 pretty but not magnificent.
5/10 for strength , lasting power.
warendkor – :
These tow comments I really loved from tow Fragranticans reviewing Y, on this page:
“ as if the woman wearing it has a lot of experience and knows everything going on around her..”
the other one:
“ I feel sorry for those who can’t appreciate it…life would be less complete without this lovely mossy beauty…”
I couldn’t add anything more..
Foks439 – :
More green than fruity, I would say, but a classic chypre, smells like quality from start to finish. Green but soft, very well blended, softer than Paloma Picasso, less sharp than Bandit, less leathery than Cabochard. This is nice fragrance for those who find Chanel No 5 too sweet and floral. My review is for the vintage version.
goldearningonli – :
This is what I call a French perfume! Mature and elegant for our nowadays noses, yet Y must have been “tres en vogue” by younger women in the 60’s. Vintage Y is unhesitating, a bit tart and intelligent. Wear it whenever you want to make a statement.
yamakasi111 – :
If you love Chanel No. 19, you may like this one too. I’m not saying they smell alike, but they are in the same category (in my head at least -19 is called a green floral and this one is called a fruity chypre). This one is a little lighter, brighter, and slightly sweeter, due to the fruits I assume, but don’t get me wrong – this is nowhere near the fruity scents of today – It’s a classic beauty that can just as easily live in the today as it did in the yesterday. The confident beauty, elegance and complexity reminds me of 19. An elegant, exquisite, timeless beauty. This is such a little known gem – a quiet little gift from the perfume past.
Рэмдига – :
The Way it Used to Be
I’ve worn this several times and every time I wear it I marvel…these kinds of perfumes are never coming back, and I feel like I am wearing history. I guess you can call this a fruity chypre, but what it really reminds me is of Hermes Caleche, a woody leather chypre.
Anyway, this is what I smell: Soapy aldehydes over a strange note of hyacinth, strong blooming green hyacinth, and peach–but this is a decaying, rotting but still clinging to sweetness fruit notes. And have you ever smelled freshly blooming hyacinth? I think that flower is so compelling only because it blooms so early in the spring. At first it smells good, in passing, but up close, or in a permeating situations, it can smell a little much. I planted 20 bulbs in a small space on my front walk, and if I catch a waft coming from my kitchen window the scent is lovely, but if I cut a bunch to make a bouquet sometimes it’s a little too much, their scent can become a bit nauseating. (But I always make little bouquets anyway:)
The aldehyde-green hyacinth-sweet but rotten peach notes are on top, and as it dries there are white flowers, powder, galbanum, iris and leather, and as it dries further the beautiful classic chypre bed of oakmoss, vetiver, sandalwood, and musk emerges. Really what Y primarily smells like is wood, musky powder, soapy aldehydes, moss, and florals, all designed with a hint of green. If you’ve smelled the soapy woods of Caleche you’ve also smelled parts of Y.
I guess I feel transported into a portal of perfume history because they simply cannot, and wouldn’t make perfumes like this anymore, let alone women’s perfumes. Tastes have changed dramatically and materials are gone or otherwise unavailable.
LostHunter – :
I had this one long ago, found it on sale at a drug store, and at the time I did like it but got too expensive so I was into other perfumes and didn’t buy it again. But I see that it contains CIVET. I am definitely staying away from it. I
simpson1076 – :
This is a classic chypre. Formal, dignified, structured and very grand. Everything most modern fragrances are not. And while I can appreciate Y for the masterpiece it is, the scent is just a little too serious for me.
gehirn – :
Why Y?
Vintage 1964 Y
Intimidating & regal when you smell it from off the bottle; and in ’64, I thought this was a fragrance fit for a Queen.
I’m from the United Kingdom where we do have a queen so I should know. This smells of a beautiful and beyond wealthy woman, I mean goodness, who could wear this and pull it off?
In a 1964 interview, Hollywood actress and Broadway legend Julie Andrews, at the time of the end of the production of THE SOUND OF MUSIC, stated in an interview that she wore Y by Yves Saint Laurent. I would never have guessed but I’m certain it smelled so amazing on her. It’s a mature and elegant scent.
When you have worn her for about 2 plus hours, it’s no longer an imperious fragrance and has softened into it’s true nature: a sweet floral chypre. I was reminded of my wedding perfume FRACAS by Bandit; and it was also reminiscent of Miss Balmain.
As a chypre and floral perfume enthusiast, this is a paradise of olfactory pleasure. Heaven forbid the day I lose my sense of smell. I’m in my 70’s now but there will never be a day I won’t wear perfume nor enjoy it. This is meant to be savored and enjoyed as a real woman’s perfume.
The notes are multifaceted with aldehydes of the soapy kind, soft & floral luxury soap, and French perfume staples of galbanum + florals + moss. Yves Saint Laurent the fashion designer genius, who would later on produce such iconic perfumes as Opium & Paris, was a newcomer to fashion & fragrance when he created this fragrance. I would not be surprised if he modeled this scent after his mother’s perfume which could have been something like Fracas or ARPEGE.
As the aldehyde soap wears off, a sweet peach and honeysuckle and rose strongly remind you of Arpege. This is sweet as it starts, allowing her feminine side to show. I would never call this a unisex fragrance.
Then she turns into a sweet heady bouquet of hyacinth, gardenia, ylang ylang, and tuberose. The flowers seem to bow to a jasmine that takes over the scent as it begins to settle down.
At best this is an aldehyde white floral with fruited notes but green & mossy with chypre ingredients of galbanum and styrax. I don’t get any patchouli but I am getting a little hint of amber. This scent is absolutely gorgeous with a million dollar smell.
This perfume has been reformulated and based on the previous reviewer’s commentary, she is equally as impressive. I can’t part with my old colognes so I can only speak on behalf of the vintage originals. My reviews as you might have noted, are also my memories, my memories of wearing and experiencing the perfumes and colognes. This one came into my life in 1965. I wore her as a honeymoon fragrance when I was married for the second time. I also wore it often enough that my daughter Karen, my eldest, remembers this as her very first perfume smell.
Y is a classic white floral chypre with a signature French perfume stamp on it. Luxurious & womanly, she will carry you far and above any of today’s trashy perfumes. She demands respect and admiration, she is a beauty that has stood the test of time. A bit powerful so don’t apply liberally although at my old age I don’t give a damn about such things as whose noses I’m offending anymore. Smell me because I won’t be around for too long and while I’m here I’m going to smell like flowers.
cdeujh – :
***Review of a bottle produced in 2006.
My bottle of Y is exactly the same as the above picture shown in Fragrantica, but the juice color is not pale green, mine is yellow.
I think Y is one of those perfumes that may not be interesting to many people at the first sniff. One should give it time to reveal itself and unfold its beauty throughout the time.
I have some classic green-floral perfumes such as Hermes Amazone, Vent vert Balmain, Carven Ma Griffe and Jacomo Silences. I love them all but Y is a bit different. The difference lies in the heavy aldehydic opening and the animalic layer in the mid and last phase that is not common in this category of perfumes and these are what make Y different.
While it is sometimes referred to as a green floral, I perceive it mainly as a green chypre with intense bitter, mossy, earthy and green vibe (due to notes of galbanum,oakmoss, green notes, patchouli and vetiver) especially at the mid-phase and drydown.
It opens with a blast of aldehydes in a very familiar and classic way plus a sweet honey-like and white floral smell. The opening IMO, is hard to pull off sometimes, it is not among charming openings.
After toning down of this aldehydic opening, I can smell multi-layered and complex aspects including a pale complex floral heart (mainly honeysuckle and jasmine) and an animalic layer of civet that is merged in the heavy mossy green drydown. (It is somehow odd that sometimes I smell civet a lot and sometimes I don’t get it at all!)
I can imagine a middle-aged serious female school principal or a female bossy manager wearing YSL Y.
It does smell (at least) a bit austere and serious, though a pale kind and gentle face lies behind this rigidity, but it takes some time to feel it.
While I respect and like the construction of Y and enjoy its complexity, there are some drawbacks in my opinion:
+ It is a bit too much mossy and bitter for my taste, there is almost nothing sweet or creamy about it(a bit harsh and lacking round and smooth edges) while you can find soft edges and sensual aspects in Amazone, Silences and Ma Griffe at least in a more obvious manner.
+ Besides, it has a damp or wet aura plus that civet note which I think detract the beauty of green-floral aspect of the whole composition. However, this wet aura sometimes reminds me of a grass field or a forest in a sunny day after the rain in which the scent of wet grass and earth are mixed with a faint sweet scent of wild flowers.
But in general I can tell you YSL Y is an almost old-fashioned but chic and very sophisticated perfume suitable for serious middle-aged women, a safe office scent that even interested men can enjoy it.
However personally I prefer gentler and kinder face of Ma Griffe and also the more luxuriousness and elegance of Jacomo Silences, but I can’t deny the unique place of YSL Y among other perfumes of its own category.
I highly recommend you to test a few times before buy. Avoid blind-buying.
By the way, it has moderate longevity with mostly soft to moderate projection at its best.
bune_98 – :
To me, the classic chypres are a mysterious bunch. Even the boldest and most sensual examples have an aloofness, an almost studied detachment, that I find strangely alluring. Thanks to a generous sample from miss mills, I’ve been able to try Yves Saint Laurent Y – undoubtedly one of the greats.
Y starts off airy and cool, with an abundance of aldehydes. It has a very verdant feel, thanks to hyacinth and plenty of bitter galbanum, among other green floral notes. There’s also a light touch of sweetness – honeysuckle, peach – as well as a dash of white florals. Rounding it out are the darker moss and animalic notes. The overall effect is austere, clean and light, like an exquisite soap.
I feel like I’ve smelled this before, perhaps on someone close to me as a young child, but I can’t quite place it. Still, the sense of nostalgia is strong with this one. It’s comforting, but also slightly unnerving.
Projection and longevity aren’t great, but that’s almost a good thing. Y seems like the kind of indulgent luxury that is best enjoyed on one’s own, like a long soak in the tub. I’ll definitely be on the look out for a full vintage bottle.
naek – :
Y
YVES SAINT LAURENT
GROUP FLORAL ALDEHYDE CHYPRE
NOTES ALDEHYDES HONEYSUCKLE GARDENIA PEACH PLUM GALBANUM TUBEROSE JASMINE ORRIS HYACINTH YALNG YLANG BULGARIAN ROSE SANDALWOOD AMBER MUSK CIVET PATCHOULI BENZOIN OAK MOSS VETIVER STYRAX
SILLAGE: HEAVY RADIATES WITHIN ARM’S LENGTH
LONGEVITY: VERY LONG LASTING 7 TO 12 HOURS PLUS
REMINDS ME OF: FRACAS BANDIT PIGUET JOLIE MADAME MISS BALMAIN BALMAIN VANDERBILT GLORIA VANDERBILT PALOMA PICASSO FIRST VAN CLEEF AND ARPELS
Vintage 1965 Y by Yves Saint Laurent is the type of fragrance which must be experienced in one’s lifetime. I feel the same way about the vintage Miss Dior. In the early 60’s fragrance was still considered to be luxury, fashion and a status symbol. Yves Saint Laurent had become the successor to Christian Dior, and he was now a leading figure in fashion. His fragrance had to compete with the classic staples of perfumery: Chanel No. 5 and the emerging newer names like Jean Desprez’S Bal a Versailles, not to mention older names like Piguet Fracas and Bandit. For me this fragrance symbolizes the designer Yves Saint Laurent himself, at a time in his life when he was first starting off in the business. It smells of either a fashionable man about town, or a beautiful young socialite who can get anything she wants. It’s an artistic, beautifully formulated floral woodsy scent which exudes confidence, elegance and class.
Y opens with a blast of aldehydes, the scent of green galbanum, green notes and a peach. It’s quite strong and outdated and I have not experienced the reformulation but I’m guessing it’s a lighter and more subdued scent compared to the atomic bomb that is the original. If you are used to old timey aldehydes found in scents like No. 5, and or you have worn aldehyde florals before – i.e. Arpege, Ysatis, Vanderbilt, First Van Cleef and Arpels – then the aldehydes in this frag should not be a problem. It’s not always easy to wear and I would never recommend this to a novice. You have to have experience wearing stronger perfumes, Orientals, galbanums, and chypres. This is by definition a chypre, but it has so much aldehydes and flowers that it’s also part of the floral aldehyde family. The peach is not overly fruity but it’s very clearly there. It’s sweet and enjoyable, not ripe nor too deep or exotic. It has more in common with the peach top notes in fragrances like Arpege. This peach disappears as soon as the green notes, galbanum and honeysuckle take over which lead into the floral heart.
The heart of Y is composed of a creamy tuberose, a lush vanilla scented gardenia, a cold Bulgarian rose, silk jasmine powdery iris and hyacinth. These are opulent flowers which evoke not the outdoors or a field of flowers, not a florist shop, but more of a number of floral vases in the interior of a pristine, perfectly clean palatial estate. For me it was like taking a tour of the Elysee Palace in Paris located at 55 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. This is the perfume of a French First Lady. It matches up with only the most expensive haute couture of the 60’s, ball gowns, evening gowns, gloves, hats, furs, diamond jewelry. It’s Jackie Kennedy and Grace Kelly sitting together at a large table filled with diplomats and heads of state from all over the world under glittering chandeliers and marble floors and white walls in the interior of a grand palace. Perhaps I’m reading too much into it but it would not be surprising to discover that heads of states and First Ladies wore this perfume. It is very possible Jackie Kennedy wore it as she followed French fashion trends and would have come to know about Yves Saint Laurent. The actress and singer Julie Andrews wore this perfume. She said it during an interview. It smells like a very elegant and very warm aristocratic woman who keeps her home smelling of beautiful flowers.
This fragrance represents French perfumery at it’s zenith in the 60’s. The dry down is made up of good things. It leaves behind the sweetness of the flowers and the peach, as well as the harshness of aldehydes but it does not soften. Rather it becomes stronger and more masculine. It begins to smell of civet, much like the skanky dirty dead animal of Bal A Versailles, but definitely more along the lines of a comfortable and enjoyable million dollar fur coat that covers you shoulders to feet. The fur is reminiscent of Paloma Picasso although the civet is totally real. There is musk, leather and other nondescript animalic scents combined to smell like the musk in men’s colognes. There is also woods and oak moss which give it a spicy kick, green patchouli leaves, incense and benzoin. This is warm and wintery like a Russian lady in ushanka and fur coat, again the imagery I get in Paloma Picasso.
Not bad at all. Very elegant and very timeless. This scent is hard to pull off so wear it infrequently whether you are a man or woman. I find it to be more formal and solemn so I would recommend this perfume to be worn at weddings, funerals, award shows, charity events. It’s almost like a Church scent. You remember those strong perfumes ladies used to wear at Church in the 60’s. We can’t remember what they smelled like but we were overwhelmed by it and no one wanted to sit next to “that lady”. That lady had a lot of money and good taste if she wore Y by Yves Saint Laurent.
RRichel – :
Lighter than Givenchy III, or as humid mossy as Crystalle, this is a lovely “ice princess” dryer Chypere.
The aldehydes are strong with the green notes and hyacinth, but it introduces its beautiful floral heart you don’t find in modern perfumes anymore.
Its gorgeous. I bought the vintage edt in its tall, stylish 80s bottle and matching perfume. Its that great. Iconic Chypere. Liked it so much bought the Extrait.
liaxik – :
Beautifull classic masterpiece of the 60-ties.
Semen132 – :
Chic et classique comme un tailleur Yves Saint-Laurent. Il se fait remarquer à chaque fois que je le porte.
Стелька7 – :
There was a bottle of this in my house when I was a kid and I remember thinking it was a guys cologne after trying it on once. I’m really surprised to find out it’s for women.
mrMalyarock – :
Amazing juice! Sadly, I don’t grab my edp vintage very often. Pm me if you need to get your hands on some more before it is impossible to find. We can discuss swap options, (US).
gariman – :
Vintage Y is a masterpiece and was practically serving as the Opium of the 60’s (before Opium was released). YSL’s Y is like a chemist gone mad. Jean Amic created the scent and it has a strong punch of aldehydes, plums, peaches, gardenia, galbanum and green notes. Minus the fruits, it somewhat resembles the opening to Ivoire de Balmain. This never did turn too fruity for me because the galbanum is really the strongest note at the top. The heart is floral with hyacinth, Bulgarian Rose, tuberose, jasmine and ylang-ylang. These flowers are like showgirls dancing and grabbing your attention. I have never smelled more fragrant flowers in a perfume. The supporting base notes are classic formulaic notes of sandalwood, patchouli, oak mos and civet. It seems to start off rather cold and harsh because of the aldehydes bu then it softens and warms up. This is beautiful and hard to wear. I think it’s strictly an evening perfume to wear when you’re dressed in glamorous clothes. It was a favorite of Hollywood actresses like Julie Andrews, Julie Christie and Catherine Deneuve. I can see why they can pull this off but today you’d have to be a time traveler to pull it off. Or maybe just really good at wearing floral fragrances that are also very green and woodsy. This is a classic example of a chypre. It’s also a 1960’s fragrance at a time when flowers and woods were still very popular. It wears like a more fashionable Oh! de London. I love it. Wearing it to London Fashion Week next month.
Excisttig – :
The vintage parfum version of Y blew me away. It’s right up my alley.
Some chypres demand to be worn with leather and Y parfum is one of them – a caramel colored, smartly tailored leather jacket, to be exact. Pair that with long, lacquered nails, gold jewelry and a 1967 Shelby Cobra Roadster and you have the perfect setting for this fragrance, in my opinion. It’s a “rich bitch” fragrance, for brisk, charming women OR men! Delightful!
Y parfum is aldehydic and green with oily hyacinth and gorgeous animal musk standing out on my skin. While floral-chypres usually make me envision the outdoors, this one feels so modern and distinctly from its time that I can only imagine people, buildings and cars from the late 60’s and 70’s when I smell it. I envision brown leather in a “burnt sienna color” with each whiff.
The modern EDT version of Y (pictured above) is gentle and more versatile. It’s vibe of notes is similar to the parfum, but the green notes are translating into a soapy, “icy” citrus scent (somehow a bit “dusty” feeling, too) with a clean musk replacing the more deep, animalic and forest-like ingredients of the parfum. The EDT smells light sage green in color.
Both are beautiful, but the parfum version of Y really transported me to another place in time – I love that.
Latkonst – :
What can I say? I simply cannot believe I’ve passed this one up all these years! And here I’ve prided myself on being a collector and a perfume-aholic, etc. I stumbled upon this in an Indie Perfumery in south Florida (a jewel!), and could not believe my nose! OMG! This is so ME, what I’ve searched high and low for, and spent only dear God knows how much of my hard-earned paychecks for! This begins with a bright green loud shout, then morphs into an absolute glorious, elegrant, timeless, well-blended classic. Fresh, sweet, and energizing–and every changing as the hours (and hours and hours!) pass…sigh.
pneurryunmart – :
I still have a bottle of the old, pre-reform YSL Y in edt. I admit, even though I am not young, aldehydes have been the hardest aspect of perfumery for me to deal with. For the most part, I don’t like Chanel due to their heavy use of aldehyes. But here and there, I have liked highly aldehydic fragrances, such as Estee Lauder White Linen and Chanel No. 22.
YSL Y was an easy aldehyde for me to love. For some unknown reason the aldehydes don’t assault me and I smell a gentle green hyacinth inside Y. I can see the comparison with Guy LaRoche Fidgi. YSL Y is cool but also gentle and I love the greenery and hyacinths. I think this is the perfect spring perfume or for any time of year when you would like the olfactory memory of spring.
Those who call this type of perfume (or anything with strong character for that matter) “old lady” need to stop. That’s insulting.
zeek – :
bought this (edt) in a blind buy after reading the reviews here. after the initial use it hit me and i remembered (again) why i hate aldehydes. this perfume is ,as much as i concern, nothing but a burst of aldehydes .too sharp and very ,very old fashioned. i love chypres and i usually use perfumes born decades ago (magie noire, paloma picaso, knowing, adieu sagesse, diva, mitsouko…), but this one had really gone too far.
EDIT: my husband thinks the perfume is very sexy and seductive. who am i to argue with such “facts”? 🙂
EDIT 2: it has been some days since i reviewed “y”. i feel i have done some injustice to this perfume, jumped into conclusions and did not give it a fair chance. it really has a lot of resemblence to mythique, though i think y is a happier scent .more suitable to spring/summer. the only default i can find is that i would have liked it to have more sillage and longevity. because of that next time ,if i repurchase it, it would be only the eau de perfum. hoping it will be stronger.
Ольга п – :
total hitchcock ‘the birds’ ice queen supreme or having to spray it on because you reek of old money. i love it. so cold. x
dubserzz – :
I bought this before the reformulated re-make came out and I am glad I did as the previous version is now gone for good. If you like Chanel No 19, Cristalle, Heure Exquise etc this is in that genre. I am programmed to think of this fragrance as Tippi Hedren opens the first scene of ‘The Birds’. At least I can have the perfume even if I can’t have the blonde hair, perfect features, tiny waist and Chanel suit.
sun krishna – :
Except for a few notes, this and the original Miss Dior smell exactly alike. Though Miss Dior is scarce to say the least, Miss Dior Originale is almost a dead ringer. The smell is slightly different. The fruit makes the difference. Both are good chypres. One fruity. one floral. Both winners.
Snap388 – :
IModern version is similar to Rive Gauche YSL. Light chypre with anhydride at the opening and mossy drydown. Pleasant Nobel EDT, moderate longevity and silage.For Classy ladies, not young girls.
Old vintage pure perfume is totally different, oriental floral, like Boucheron or Hermes 24 type. But they are both marketed under same name.
welkomto – :
I was so afraid of using “Y” on a frequent basis, as the end result would be running out. I simply was afraid as I wasn’t sure how long I would be able to easily find replacements. The thought of falling short of my passionately loved rose-centric chypre was a thought I couldn’t deal with-of not knowing if I could count on continuing being able to again get my hands on it for an affordable cost.
Time has passed, and although I feel just as passionate about “Y”, I gave in to my passion and now wear it as often as I reach for it.
Still uncomfortable with running out, I have been keeping my eyes out for a big Eau de Parfum of this really special juice.
Truth be told, it would be more that awful to go out of this world without finishing my current bottle!
lena1970 – :
I’m not a big fan of chypres but got this in a box of other mini YSLs to mark the 1983 launch of Paris. I too had never heard of it. I tried to sell it on EBay with no luck, even though it’s the vintage pure parfum. I got so disgusted I didn’t relist it and after my shower out it on. I feel like what Audrey Hepburn would smell like in “Green Mansions”, earthy yet ethereal and pretty much what Rasputin said in his review!
europa – :
Sophisticated and classy, Y (original) is the most beautiful perfume ever made. A masterpiece.
autoexotica – :
As missmary,I don’t like aldehydes and I don’t understand chypres too, I find this kind of fragrances too much serious, austere and bitter. In fact modern perfumery plays with notes that often are sweet, flowery, gourmand. Chypres seem to live in an old epoch. Obviously my opinions are superficial and ignorant so I try to pay attention to the time when these fragrances where modern and innovative. I tested Y edt (new edition, not vintage one). My mother wore it a lot of years ago when I was very Young (she doesn’t like sweet fragrances). Well Y is so complex, I understand why it’s still in production. It a beautiful green fragrance. I cannot recognize every single note but after the initial aldehydes (they don’t are powerful) the fragrance becomes more and more pleasant and so soft on my skin. Absolutely elegant, chic, self confident. An evergreen gem. I realize that fragrances are wonderful surprises, challenges and travels around the world and periods.
kalina34hg – :
Beautiful, classy, how come I’ve never heard of this one before?
Sharp aldehydes push out the green chypre opening. Ten minutes later the sharp edges have gone and left the most beautiful sophisticated and classy powder heart.
This is my first testing, and I think Y is going to be a keeper.
Risctb – :
When I first wore it in the ’70es, Y was the most sophisticated chypre around.
Perhaps it was the most sophisticated perfume around tout court.
It was a green complicated symphony of flowers and woods, with aldehydes directing the movement.
It was a masterpiece, a subdued one, never reaching the status of other perfumed monuments. Underrated it has always been, but enjoying the status of untouchable among those who had tried it.
I have never bought the Eau de Parfum back in those days because the Eau de Toilette had a powerful strength and I never dared something more potent.
Today Y is still much enjoyable, much lighter and less long lasting.
The Eau de Toilette is much much thinner than it used to be, the fragrance is still very good, very classy, very beautiful.
It is still a wonderful green chypre, a genre it seems to have been replaced by syrupy, candy, sweety fruity scents so much in fashion today.
But chypre remains a classy genre, my personal very favourite one declined in all its possible hues and Y is a magnificent representative scent.
Yes, even today, even after being reformulated.
magnum367367 – :
Bought myself my first bottle of “Y” in the current EDT this month. Classic Green/Floral/Chypre. Nose: Jean Amic, 1964.
Y sails in on a cloud of nose-prickling aldehydes; whispers of dry nostalgic peach and gardenia follow. The peach actually takes my nose not into the mod-1960’s, but rather into the 1930’s, when that winsome note was often used in the head of fine perfumes. The gardenia adds a smooth floral roundness to the head, which is well-supplied with a bitter green galbanum. That Y is a chypre is evident from the first sniff; one never wonders whether it might morph into a fruity, woody, spicy or oriental. The base is a true chypre of the old-school, and surprisingly substantial, chunky for a women’s number of Midcentury. If you’ve ever mixed together the building blocks of