Yves Saint Laurent Oriental Collection



Answering the call and response in the European fragrance world for elaborate, Arab-styled perfumes, Yves Saint Laurent have launched their Oriental Collection. Following on from Armani Privé La Collection des Mille et une Nuits, Christian Dior La Collection Privée, Guerlain Les Deserts d'Orient, and way after By Kilian's gorgeous and comprehensive variations on an oudy theme, the Arabian Nights collection, YSL's easterly-tinged trio provides three respectable tries to woo the lucrative Arab market.




Majestic Rose eschews the crash bang wallop of bludgeoning rose ouds from Dior (Rose Ispahan), Armani (Rose d'Arabie) and Bond No. 9 (Signature). YSL's take is smoother and creamier, heading in the direction of By Kilian Rose Oud (the most beautiful and nuanced Euro-Arabian oud perfume I've ever experienced).

Majestic Rose isn't as buttery and burred as the By Kilian, but they share a dusting of saffron and a honeyed nuttiness that makes it soothing to wear. The oud in Majestic Rose glows of warm latex, rather than the industrial-strength oily bleach stank of many commercial oud fumes. Majestic Rose does a wipeout in the drydown, though, when a monolithic sweet wood smell asserts itself.

Supreme Bouquet is boisterous bunch o' flowers with lashings of bright, syrupy jasmine and candied fruit. Out of the Oriental Collection's three offerings, SB provides the best “halo” in the air around the wearer: it's a festival of sweet florals and heady femininity. It's too beyond-Fracas sweet for me, but if Miss Lady Flower Power is your bag, then Supreme Bouquet will be your bag, too.


Noble Leather lingers on the skin like a hug of spicy earth, and is the corrective to Supreme Bouquet's floral flibbertigibbety-ness. As sober as it smells next to the other two members of the Oriental Collection, Noble Leather is still a busy little bonanza of elements: a dried fruit/tobacco deal plushed out with amber and arid vanilla. It develops at a stately pace, is coherent to the end, and wears like a less cloying version of Serge Lutens Chergui.

The Oriental Collection is exclusive to Harrods until June 2013, when it will be more widely available. Price £185 for 80 ml

Painting: The Beloved ('The Bride') by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

10 comments:

  1. I'm a fan of Chergui, but it's so thick and heavy that I find very few occasions to reach for it anymore. A version draped with less brocade sounds like a very good idea.

    Also kind of cracking up at the massive disconnect between this perfume trio and the grunge/rock collection that YSL showed on the runways a few months back. Shouldn't a perfume line at least reference where a fashion brand is heading?

    But then, maybe Comme des Garçons has cornered the (limited?) market for grunge/rock perfumes and there's no sense in even competing.

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    1. Nathan! Not only is there a disconnect between Slimane is doing at "Saint Laurent" and with the direction of the perfumes, but also with the very name of the brand itself - what with "Yves" being lopped off the fashion line. Looks like the line has already been drawn.

      Anyway, a big, sprawling house like YSL can't afford to be as ideologically cohesive as a small outfit like Marni. If there's a market for big velvet and brocade perfumes, dammit, YSL ain't gonna let a little couture grunge get in the way of sales.

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    2. So are YSL and Saint Laurent two separate identities now?

      How confusing!

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    3. Kinda sorta. I think Slimane's just trying to put his stamp on his YSL reign by a little rebranding.

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    4. I think the key phrase from the blog post, which seems to have been uttered at some point at every perfume house over the last three years, is 'lucrative Arab market":

      "Money talks; trannies walk", as someone memorably uttered in Sienna D'enema's Jiz Abortion episode (see youtube).

      Certainly, money is talking and someone is walking, here.

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  2. Chergui's opening is gorgeous, but I'm a walking diaper bag 5 minutes after applying. Vom.

    It sounds like Noble Leather has more grrrrr and less waaahhhh.

    Time to stop typing.

    --Guin

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    1. Guin! Gah! Sounds like Chergui goes from human to inhumane on you.

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  3. A Chergui-lite sounds appealing, though I am sometimes in the mood for the fully cloying version. The colour is so offputting though.

    Majestic Rose sounds like the one I would like best out of the trio. I do prefer my oud as sanitised as possible.

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    1. Perhaps keep your Chergui wrapped in a brown paper bag.

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  4. I tried these in Dubai a few weeks ago, and thought they were rather nice! Nice and strong, and not too chemical smelling. I doused myself in the leather before I boarded my 10 hour flight (sorry folks! :-) ), and liked the leather and spice combo. I also prefer the Kilian rose oud, and I thought the Bouquet one smelt remarkably like Bond no 9 Chinatown...
    -Lynley

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