YSL Parisienne

YSL Parisienne is new fragrance that was just released this season and as soon as I heard about it, it quickly went all the way up to the top of my shopping list. Why? Well, the one of the middle notes is rose and the perfume is pink. Those are two every simple reasons that allow me to get interested in a perfume but since I am super-picky about my rose fragrances, it needs to have a bit more than just a pretty pink color to maintin my interest.

I have never used a fragrance from YSL before so I didn't really know what to expect when I smelled this fragrance. I have sniffed fragrances from this company before but since I have never bought any of them and therefore never really wore them, this fragrance is my first major encounter with the fragrances from this company. Sephora classified this fragrance as a floral, plain and simple.

The fragrance is described as, "The essence of a woman who is incredibly free - she is not from Paris, but Paris adopts her. She knows how to love, how to live. Parisienne is the fragrance of ultra-femininity and sensuality, built with notes of blackberry, damask rose, and sandalwood. The grand floral with a woody structure is luminous even in its mystery".

The marketing campaign for this fragrance contains Kate Moss, who had at one point released her own rose fragrance that never really took off. However, I do think that she is beautiful in these ads and adds to the allure of this fragrance.

On first sniff, this fragrance was much sweeter than I had thought that it was going to be, which I attribute to the blackberry note (assuming this is a top note) and then the rose note develops and the sweetness fades a little bit. The sandalwood note than becomes more prominent and helps the fragrance to linger throughout the day, intensifying the rose middle note. I feel that this fragrance would be better suited to the colder months because the sandalwood can make it quite strong on certain people.

This fragrance is very different than many of the rose fragrances that I already own and therefore makes it worthy to purchase. It really excites me that this season, I have already seen two fragrances that take my favorite rose note and turn it into something totally different than the norm. I now have more reasons to purchase rose perfumes and monay of these new fragrances will appeal to someone who isn't already a giant fan of rose notes.

photo courtesy of Sephora