jeudi 20 août 2009

Yves Saint Laurent Parisienne: Vinyl Rose




The online buzz for the ad campaign kind of put me off – since when has arch-Brit Kate Moss represented “La Parisienne”? As far as I know, we still make them locally. And when the notes announce berries, rose and patchouli… The first combined with the third screams “Angel!” and sends me to the mattresses, as they say in The Godfather, ready to be mowed down by star-flacon wielding goons. As for rose and patchouli… Let’s say those mattresses still look mighty comfy. And Yves Saint Laurent perfumes have dropped off my radar ever since the late M. Saint Laurent stopped getting involved in them – that would be in 1993, when Yvresse (originally Champagne) was released.

But, but, but… The new Parisienne was authored by the queen of olfactory cleavage, Sophia Grojsman (along with Sophie Labbé), and that sly Russian puss has been known to play around with unusual accords, like the “clean laundry” note of her Outrageous for Frédéric Malle or the delightfully twisted chocolate-rose marriage of 100% Love for S-Perfume. And as Parisienne was said to feature a vinyl/varnish/”metal of a spiked heel” accord along with a touch of leather, well… Fruity floral or not, I had to poke my nose in it.

If you think you’ll come out smelling of pink patent leather Louboutins… You won’t (but it’s a thought). The “spiked heel” note is more cosmetic than kinky: the whiff you get from your mouth when you’ve piled on enough lip-gloss for your smile to shine like a brand-new Porsche. While it gives a playful, urban edge to the scent, it never veers into car showroom aromas.

The titanic core rose-violet Paris accord has been amped down, with a more transparent rose brightened with blackberry and cranberry – not particularly tart, more on the ripe-sugary, jammy side of the fruit spectrum. As a result, the violet is amped up with its powdery woody facets, bolstered by white musk (lots of it) and vetiver (a dollop), respectively. If you’d spilled a drop of Paris in your vinyl make-up bag, you might get Parisienne, and you’d have a mighty fine-smelling make-up bag.

For me, the berry-patchouli notes are a deal-breaker, but I’d love to smell that vinyl accord worked into something woodier, or maybe a tuberose… A patent leather tuberose. Now we’re talking kinky. Someone get word to Sophia, quickly.


Image: David Lynch for his Fetish exhibition with Christian Louboutin.


27 commentaires:

  1. like you I have found it very hard to get excited about YSL perfumes of late. I am quite interested in this. I love rose and violet and the plastic note sounds interesting. The blackberry might be a deal breaker for me too. I will have to try it. At least happy to see YSL being a bit less safe and moving away from the too too sweet stuff a little.

    Kate Moss does give good picture whatever else you say about her- but for a scent called Parisienne it is an odd choice!

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  2. ::yawn::

    (The scent, not your review.)

    It perturbs me that YSL under Pilati is one of my absolute favorites for clothes, but they can't seem to come up with anything even remotely interesting, perfume-wise.

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  3. Rose, I haven't tried any of the Paris flankers but as you say, this one at least tries to be original, and succeeds on one point at least.
    As for Kate Moss, I guess they didn't find any Frenchwoman known the world over...

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  4. Amy, don't let's get started about Lanvin, another major disappointment perfume-wise. I should really try to collar Alber.

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  5. It sounded interesting until you mentioned the berry-patchouli dealbreaker accord. Ruins it for me. I find the fruit and patchouli blend (or what passes for patchouli) to be positively nauseating.

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  6. Melissa, it's not nauseating but I'm sick of smelling it, which amounts to the same thing, I guess.

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  7. "As for Kate Moss, I guess they didn't find any Frenchwoman known the world over..."

    Hahaha! Did Jicky write that? Meowww!

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  8. I should qualify that. I find fruit and patchouli (fruitchouli?) nauseating in many fragrances. I will give this one a sniff though I'm sure.

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  9. Carter, yes, we do indulge in human-feline mindmelds... Still, can you think of one young French woman who's famous the world over, apart from Audrey Tautou? To me, the quintessential Parisiennes are the Birkin daughters, but I guess they're way too Bohemian for YSL, not to mention that Charlotte Gainsbourg is involved in the new Balenciaga perfume.

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  10. Melissa, I loathe fruitchouli too. But it's not overpowering in Parisienne. Just terribly un-imaginative.

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  11. Wasn't that precisely the phrase associated with Catherine Deneuve in one ad campaign, or am I making that up? Not that she would be the right face for this, no, not at all. I think that one of the Birkin girls would have been absolutely purrfect.

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  12. Carter: no idea. Quite possible. But Deneuve's getting a bit long in the tooth for perfume campaigns. And no other French actress has ever reached that status since.

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  13. The patent leather is maybe the IBQ note like the woody rose effect in Magnifique or Trésor. This rose-patchouli-berries-soft leather is also the idea of Miss Boucheron, much complicated in terms of notes. We are in the middle of a trend for young girls.
    I'm not sure if Sophia worked for the perfume. The author of the original formula is allways credited when it comes to flankers and further changes.

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  14. Octavian: thanks for the info. God, I never smelled leather in Trésor... But then, you know how I feel about it. And you may well be right about Sophia. It's not quite her deep-cleavage style, is it? Paris runs this one into the ground.

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  15. But there is no leather in Trésor. It's IBQ and the molecule acts in a different manner. That's the power of a creator - to twist an ingredient and bring something different.
    For me it's not Sophia's style and I do not know if she still creates. But there is her fingerprint. Even Magnifique, that I suspect as a possible inspiration, when it was launched I perceived it as a Firmenich new fruity interpretation of a Trésor methyl ionone idea.

    As for the patent leather - I had to do a lipstick that smells like a sexy Louboutin at ISIPCA years ago (I think I blogged about this then, it was a tough project).

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  16. Octavian: no leather in Trésor: ouf!
    And I want that lipstick...

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  17. I would much prefer Audrey Tautou or Marion Cotillard as the face of Parisienne. Even if I liked Kate Moss's looks and persona, I'd be laughing at the idea of an Englishwoman being chosen to present a perfume named "Parisienne"!
    -- Gretchen

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  18. Gretchen: Well, Audrey is Chanel and Marion, I don't know... but yeah, even if the YSL press release says Kate "has been adopted by Paris"... you could say the same for any other city in the world.

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  19. Sharon Stone has also been adopted by Paris (or so she is constantly saying) and she's no Frenchwoman unless she's French by way of Pennsylvania Dutch country. In her dreams...

    Personally, I think that they should have tried to get the rights to the young Brigitte Bardot's image, if that were a possibility, because she really seems to fit the image of this frag. Of course I haven't actually sniffed it, but she just seems right somehow. If the widow Astaire (the bitch -- please pardon my French) can lease the great dancer's likeness to a vacuum cleaner company...

    Barring that, I'm still on the same page as you, Denesye, about a Birkin daughter.

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  20. Um, make that, well, you know. Sigh.

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  21. Carter: so Sharon's a Parisienne, is she? We learn something new every day.
    For me and I suspect most French people, the image of Bardot is much more linked to Saint-Tropez, or her current incarnation as a nutty defender of animal rights married to a right-wing extremist...

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  22. Ah, what a shame. I always think of Contempt, but she did make a film called La Parisienne (USA), or Une Parisienne (everywhere else).

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  23. I enjoy your posts and it's always a great pleasure to see what photo/art you've chosen to go along with your subject! (Je lis la version francaise aussi.) I'm looking forward to trying Parisienne when I go to Paris in September, but am much more excited about visiting les Salons du Palais Royal. The berry notes are found in Grosjman's 100% Love, but I imagine that perfume (one of my faves) is very different from Parisienne? - Ceelouise

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  24. Hi Ceelouise, and thanks! Yes, it's quite notably different from 100% love. The patchouli doesn't create a chocolate effect at all. It's much more mainstream and doesn't have Sophia G.'s signature opulence.

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  25. Emmanuelle Béart would do this a million times better than Kate Moss.
    For those of you who does not know who Béart is, then shame on you.

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  26. But in case you don't know who this French star is... http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000322/

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  27. Sorry, but this is more vynil than rose,unfortunately. It has a metalic, acid and strange, corosive olfactory pattern or at least this is what I remember from testing it. Maybe it was too warm around but I didn't find anything appealing. I like the original Paris when it settles down( not to wear it myself ,just to sniff it around) but this is like a left-over Paris someone mixed with acetone ... I got the same feeling after testing Ricci Ricci too.

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