Y by Yves Saint Laurent (1964)

 Like summer in a bottle, Yves Saint Laurent's first fragrance Y is a rare thing: a light-hearted chypre. Unlike Chanel No. 19, Bandit or even Crepe de Chine, Y has an almost incongruously sunny disposition to go along with the traditional intelligence, good taste, and gravitas most chypres convey.

 I dismissed it at first as almost too bright and frivolous for my tastes — the perfume equivalent of ruffles, flowers or polka dots on a dress for someone who prefers wearing black — but the more I put the EDT on and let it dry down, the more I realized this was not a beauty to be dismissed. 

Top notes: Galbanum, peach, honey, honeysuckle
Heart notes: Rose, jasmine, orris, hyacinth, ylang-yalng
Basenotes: Oakmoss, amber, patchouli, civet, vetiver, benzoin

The initial burst of notes beautifully harmonize together, with galbanum and honeysuckle singing the highest notes while the peach and honey smooth their edges with their warm sweetness. (For me, the honey was particularly intense, and signals the unexpected animalic nature of Y which helped me love it by giving a volume and depth to the flowers and fruit.)

By the time you arrive at the heart notes, the fragrance is already winding down into mossy creaminess. I'm both surprised and not that civet is darting around among the base notes. I almost couldn't detect it at first, except as an ineffable sense of disquietude that note seems to almost always impart. But when I rewound the video, so to speak, and applied it again, there the civet note was like the perfume version of a microexpression, defined by psychologist Paul Eckman as a fleeting, involuntary expression on someone's face who is trying to conceal or repress an emotion.

Y's visual equivalent would be those sunburst reflections you see in '70s movies. There's always a kind of melancholy quality to those sun rays, which are visual metaphors for being aware of a happy moment, and as a result, no longer inhabiting it fully but rather participating in its demise.

Sunrise, sunset. To those with a less romantic bent, Y is just a gorgeous and unobtrusive scent that's subtle enough to be deemed, as I've read in several places, "the perfect office scent." For me, Y is like a glorious day at the beach during summer just as a chill hits the air and the sun begins to go down. As I inhale what's left of Y on my skin and still detect a touch of peach, rose and ylang-ylang through the fog of orris, sandalwood, amber and benzoin, it's like seeing the last of the sun over the horizon. I'm reminded of the beautiful day that I had, but the darker basenotes are signalling to me that it's time to go home.

Comments

[moongrrl]

Y *is* gorgeous and, sadly, overlooked. I'd have never found it if it wasn't for reading the glowing reviews on basenotes, makeupalley, nowsmellthis etc.

Keep up the great work with your blog! We have similar tastes and I'm enjoying your straightforward style.

[robin]

Wow, I love this review, I find it quite deep and reflective. And I think that you are spot on with your description of civet as "an ineffable sense of disquietude." That's how I perceive it too. Like the luckless women who go swimming in the Jaws movies. They surface and look around the calm waters with a look of confusion and unease. They just know something's "not right." That to me is civet, a note of pretty danger in an otherwise happy fragrance.

[Perfumaniac]

Thanks, Robin! It was wonderful fun reading this scent. It made me feel like a medium. Or a perfume whisperer if you will. :)

[estie]

Is Y similar to Private Collection?

[Perfumaniac]

Hi estie,

Private Collection is much sharper and greener. Y is a softer floral...

[Mrs B]

Hello, does anyone remember a YSL perfume that had a red heart for a lid & a square bottle? Anyone know it's name or if it's still available? Thank you

[Perfumaniac]

Hi, Mrs. B. That doesn't ring a bell. Maybe look up all the YSL fragrances and then do a Google image search on all of them? It's probably an obscure one. Good luck!

[ms p]

you wouldn't be thinking of "in love again"? Im sure my original bottle had a red heart for a lid?

[Melda]

Hi Mrs. B., could it be Vice Versa?

[Gail]

My mother in law has a metal Gold bottle of Y and I don't know if it is "bad" or if I just don't like it at all. I thought it might be Rive Gauche but it is not blue and the bottom has Y in the middle of the label. A NY USA address. 2 1/4 oz parfum de toilette. Is it authentic and could it have gone bad. I don't think it was ever used. Any information you can provide would be helpful.
Thanks, Gail

[angelika]

I think it will not be "Bad" since it is unused, will be wrapped original and stood quite cold. Try it, but it will not fit to blond ladies.