Brand: Yves Saint Laurent
Basis: Original
Concentration: Eau de Parfum
Sex: Women's, marketed with a deliberately gender-fluid campaign fronted by Dua Lipa
Generally: Bold and confident, a modern fougère built around a masculine-lavender vs. feminine-orange-blossom tension
Season(s): Fall, Winter, Spring
Wear: Evening first, workable at the office with a light hand
Occasion: Date Night, Evening, Special Occasion
Perfumer: Anne Flipo and Carlos Benaïm
Creation Date: 2019
Ingredients/Ingrédients : Alcohol Denat., Parfum (Fragrance), Aqua (Water)

Main Accords: Aromatic, Amber, Floral

Notes
Top: Lavender, mandarin orange, black currant, petitgrain
Middle: Lavender, orange blossom, jasmine
Base: Madagascar vanilla, musk, cedar, ambergris

The Scent

A crisp, slightly soapy-sharp lavender opens over mandarin and black currant, then a creamy, sweet orange blossom and jasmine heart moves in: the deliberate clash the perfumers built the fragrance around. It settles into a warm vanilla-musk-ambergris base that's soft but noticeable rather than dense. Straightforward and easy to read rather than abstract, and built to make a statement without turning heavy.

Worth Knowing

Perfumer Anne Flipo has described wanting to “revisit a masculine structure, the fougère, by insisting on details that could turn it into a very feminine scent.” She's also said she fell in love with Carlos Benaïm's orange blossom absolute for the opulence it brought while keeping its freshness. Development reportedly ran through 1,500+ trial versions before the final formula. Only Flipo and Benaïm are publicly credited on the original EDP. Some databases add a third perfumer, but no trusted source corroborates that for this release.

Where It Came From

Launched in travel retail on September 4, 2019 across Europe, the Middle East, India, Africa, and the Americas, with general retail following the same year. It has since grown into a family including Libre Intense and Libre Le Parfum.

About Yves Saint Laurent

Yves Saint Laurent is a French luxury house founded in Paris on December 4, 1961 by Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé. The house has a long-standing identity around reappropriating traditionally masculine codes for women, most famously Le Smoking, the women’s tuxedo: the same lineage Libre’s perfumers cited as their reference point.

Hand-decanted from an authentic full-size bottle by Atelier Elemental. Not packaged, filled, or endorsed by Yves Saint Laurent. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.