Ysatis

Ysatis has been one of my favorite perfumes since I discovered it. I go through phases where it will be in my collection and then I will wait awhile before ordering another bottle -- always missing it when it is gone. Catching a whiff of Ysatis is like passing a gorgeous elegant vase filled with a stylized bouquet. There are notes in this collection that are unique, making it more exotic than the typical variety of florals, but it is not moving into the extreme spicy range where a lot of the 1980's heavy hitter perfumes seem to orbit (Coco by Channel, Paloma Picasso, Fendi - or Youth Dew by Estee Lauder which was popular long before the 1980's). The tuberose and honey notes are more present in Ysatis and tuberose is one of the first notes mentioned in the middle notes. Ysatis's tuberose is more honeyed and tame compared to a lot of extreme tuberose perfumes. The pitch of Ysatis is not quite as bright and high as some other predominantly tuberose perfumes - such as Fracas, or Madonna's Truth or Dare...(these tuberose fragrances almost move from flute to piccolo, because the tuberose notes present rocket into the air giving it a lift and a certain level of crispness). Ysatis is an obvious floral which is slightly sweeter and more honeyed than Beautiful by Estee Lauder. Beautiful has some distinct grassy-grainy type notes in it where it smells more like a field of flowers. The reason that I compare these two is because they come in with the exact range of chord which I really like and prefer in a signature fragrance. Both are chords within the alto range and the two could be worn on different days to create a strong signature, with only slight variations between the two. Ysatis registers a couple of notes higher than Beautiful but is not ascending into the rafter range like some other soprano fragrances. 273 Rodeo Drive by Fred Hayman is in the same chord range but a couple of doses more towards tuberose, making a few notes in the chord go a bit higher octave than Ysatis or Beautiful. However, 273 has peach notes which ground the fragrance, with the tuberose lifting up more into a slight soprano range, but not so apparent that it would pull the full fragrance into a soprano chord. The most memorable thing about Ysatis are the compliments that I have received while wearing this. Once the first 30 minutes to an hour have passed, Ysatis moves into a heavenly floral zone. It is close to some of my favorites, but there is a unique signature expression with this that makes it thrilling to have within my collection. ----------------- Comparing Ysatis to Passion by Elizabeth Taylor - Several reviews compare Ysatis to Elizabeth Taylor's Passion. I didn't at first realize that this was such a close comparison until trying these side by side. Yes, they both resonate in the same type of alto chord...so if you really like one - you should try the other perfume too. Passion leans more towards a spicy deep cinnamon with a leather and a smokey incense quality. There is also the hint of a classic lotion type scent. The impression that I get is as if you walked in while a woman was preparing for a night out on the town, slathering lotion on her arms and legs while wearing a sexy slip before stepping into her formal or cocktail gown and zipping it up. The image that I see is Elizabeth Taylor when she played the part of Maggie in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof". Elizabeth Taylor's Passion seems slightly more naughty, there is something about it that has a sultry sexiness... so it really does represent Elizabeth Taylor extremely well, particularly in the role as Maggie. Ysatis is a little lighter and fresher (however, it still stays in the ranks of the 1980's depth). Ysatis is not a push over, it still has enough depth to have power, but has a softer floral scent that you notice first. Ysatis moves more into the "blonde" range - more like a Veronica Lake type pinup girl/actress motif. Ysatis begins to soften first while Passion comes across much stronger in the first 30 minutes of wear. Upon first spray, they both wear astonishingly similar. I'll have to see how this wears through the first hour and dry down to really know for sure. ----------------- Update: I think this would wear better perhaps without the civet notes. If they were going to modernize and update this fragrance, I would leave out the civet notes altogether. (I don't like the idea that an animal has suffered in any way for a perfume/fragrance). [Someone contacted me in a personal note and said that the civet in this is NOT from an animal; which makes me feel much better about it.] This perfume is really gorgeous. Yeah - the first hour is sometimes a bit tedious, but the dry down to this perfume is really worth the wait. It has a special air about it that goes really well with the holidays and Christmas! This is a great one!

YSATIS Whoo wee! I’ve tried A LOT of perfumes over the last 2 months. More than a dozen. I will say that most of them have a tough opening note. I eventually like the dry down on them, but that opener can be ROUGH. (Looking at you Paloma Picasso). But I actually like the opener of Ysatis. I don’t know if this is an Opium copycat but it’s dark and sexy like Opium is, right from the outset. there is a slight sting of civet but it’s counterbalanced by something darker. The amber? The cloves? It’s like the struggle of Dark vs Light contained in a bottle. I’ve never heard of Ysatis before I ordered a sample and I feel like I really should have. This should be up there with Opium and Coco Mademoiselle Intense. Hell I even find it strange that I’d heard of Aromatics Elixir long before I’d ever heard of Ysatis. In some ways I’m glad I don’t know it, but it’s still available. Because I would love for people to smell me and ask me what I’m wearing and be intrigued when I say, “Ysatis.” Like it’s some rare, oriental secret known only to a few people with good taste. I don’t know if I have good taste, but Ysatis makes me feel like I do. It’s not youthful or light and breezy in any way. Which is good. I’m 44 years old. I don’t want youthful. I want to smell like a mysterious sex bomb when I walk into every room. Good God! I just put some on for the first time five minutes ago and started writing this review and I cannot stop smelling it on my wrist. It’s addictive, like Opium. I just keep going back and every time I do I get a hint of something else. I’ve never had a perfume with ylang ylang in it and I’m anxious to try more to see if I can isolate it’s specific contribution. This going on my Top 10 list. Maybe even Top 5 so far. And I’m going to buy a full size bottle. So far the only full size bottles I have are Opium, Magie Noire, Byzance, J’ai Ose, and Aromatics Elixir. I only buy samples at first so I don’t get burned with a full $200 bottle of something I will never wear. But Ysatis has made it to the Top 5 and the Buy a Full Bottle list INSTANTLY. It hasn’t even dried down yet. I don’t care. I would buy this and just keep spraying for that dark, luscious opener. Have I found my signature scent? I think I have. I just snagged a vintage bottle on bay for comparison. It’ll be here in a week. Feels like too long. I’m wearing the new version and I love it. I can’t wait to compare it to the vintage in the skyscraper bottle. Update: so the skyscraper bottle came. Interestingly enough, the new reformulation of Ysatis is both stronger and more complex than the "vintage" bottle. No real reason that I can see for tracking down skyscraper bottles on eBay.

I scored a full mini bottle of this, another full mini of Givenchy Organza (both labelled "Parfum") and an almost full 50ml bottle of Miracle Forever edp by Lancôme, all in a little plastic Ziploc baggie marked for $5.00 at a value village (second hand store). For what they are all worth, I felt like I was robbing the place. I rushed out to the van before anyone could change their minds there, to check Fragrantica's notes and reviews and find that my guesses for their value were greatly underestimated. I had won the perfume lottery. This, being a Parfum, and not an edt nor edp, is so so rich and pure, I can not explain how powerful it is, but reading the reviews here of the original, I can only imagine it's a deeper, richer and more pure version of those. A better nose than mine would have a hay day with this. I wish you all could smell it. If you love this perfume in any form, try and get your hands on the Parfum mini. It will be too much for many, but absolute perfection for others. I chose to wear Miracle Forever last night to bring in the New Year at our fire, everyone commented how nice I smelled, and I told the story of how it came into my life. I rarely spray it as it is discontinued and way overpriced online to replace and now with only a 1/4 left in the bottle, it is rationed, only being sprayed a couple of times a year. This morning, I chose Ysatis Parfum as my 2nd... Tonight or tomorrow I'll wear the Organza. It's my way of thanking the Universe for these gems, and encourage the universe to draw more like this to me. That was a really special day for myself and my sister as we (in our 30s) got to finally meet an uncle that was being kept from us our whole lives, and my other uncle who we hadn't seen since we were kids actually paid for my purchase that day. He chose to end his life 2 years ago.. I remember his face in the van when I told him what that baggie was worth. His mind was blown, he was speechless and had to see the screen to believe it. The look on his face was priceless. You likely don't want to hear all this, but I'm wearing these into the New Year to honour my Uncles and encourage abundance from the Universe. Here's to the end of 2020.. and a welcomed greeting to 2021. 🥂 PS don't wear this in the dead beat of summer.. you could be charged with harrassment lol this feels like a deadly weapon, in the most beautiful of ways. This is NOT office safe. Cheers! Oh! And PPS I'd love to smell this on a man!! So, men... Find this and test it! Then come over here and walk by me... ;)

Exceptional !! (For the vintage version with the golden cap) It is a very flowery opening, very opulent almost oily / sticky accompanied by a sweetness (without excess .. on the contrary) and radiant, warm and inviting us to discover the rest There are a lot of flowers in this one, and it is quite difficult for me to find the singular notes of each one, on the one hand it looks like a very complex bouquet but it is of such harmony and that I would not like not separate them. The aldehydes give it for a very short time a note of insecticide that I have only smelled once. Then and this is the part that I prefer: comes the magical moment of the appearance of this honeyed note, as if you were this bee ready to return to the hive and as rich as Croesus with a thousand sampled flowers. When you smell this perfume it gives off such an olfactory radiance that you are not basking on a beach of flowers, you are the sun itself, above them. It is so pleasant to be able to feel such a mirage / miracle again in 2020 that it can only do good and unveil a smile on your face ... This civet and this oakmoss are so contrasted with the honey note and the floral bouquet but so harmonious together, that one is entitled to wonder the work it will have taken for such a compromise! It is obvious that it took a real love for his work as a perfumer to make it as I know it today. Many perfumers try to bring these notes (civet / oakmoss) up to date, but I do not know of any perfume capable of such a feat (of course I am not an expert, and I have only smelled a little so many perfumes there are on the market); Anyway for me this perfume is a miracle, and although I rarely wore it and at home, little by little it carried me away in its magic and this magic will not be confined anymore! It has a shiny and dark side: it is at the same time a ruined village in a field of flowers under the sun, a dark cathedral in which comes to pray a woman with assertive and assumed sensuality, a burst of bursting laughter from childhood in a bereaved family ... it's the risky bet to show the soft and the rough, to assemble the fire and the fragile, the beautiful and the dirty ... it seems to be an artistic mirage, it becomes a miracle olfactory Unisex or not, I don't care, it will suit me very well on the days and nights when I will want to wear it; it can in no way disfigure Man, it can only beautify and warm all those it touches!

Ysatis is a bold, aldehyde-heavy chypre, timeless yet evocative of its era. I don't have the original formulation, so presumably there is no civet, oakmoss or galbanum in mine. However, it retains the spirit of its era, and is a big, spicy, floral-woody aldehydic beast. I get the similarities to Elizabeth Taylor's White Diamonds - another loud woody/floral/aldehydic scent, but while current iterations of WD smell cheap (yet cheerful), Ysatis smells luxurious - of vintage opulence. As @gin42 says below, it smells like a lady who comes from old money. It is quite a mature scent; elegant, vintage yet timeless. As a fan of chypres - this is a pretty good chypre. Ysatis opens with a bright blast of No 5-esque aldehydes, with a hint of citrus and a tart green note giving freshness. It gives way to a delicious, well-rounded floral-woody accord that dominates this scent until its drydown. The white florals are rich, sweet and feminine, yet somehow manage to not overwhelm. Ylang-ylang, jasmine and tuberose stand out. The rose note creeps in a little later, and powdery iris emerges as it begins to dry down. The florals are complemented throughout by soft spicy notes. As it dries down, mossy, earthy green notes emerge. The base manages to be clean, unlike other patchouli-heavy chypres. There is also a subtle sweetness to the drydown, most likely thanks to the vanilla and honey notes. The vanilla in particular is soft, subtle and natural-smelling - notable for me, as synthetic vanillin seems to overpower many modern scents, including reformulations. The combination of these elements make for an unusual, intriguing twist in the tail of what could otherwise be a routine, if well-made, chypre. It fades to a musky, woody skin scent with a hint of ambery sweetness. An elegant, ladylike day scent (a rare thing for such a powerhouse), Ysatis should be an inescapable modern classic. Instead, it is a road less travelled. Made with high-quality ingredients, it is long-lasting with good sillage (as to be expected from an eighties-era scent). Best worn during autumn/winter. Givenchy as a fragrance house is quite underrated, as is Ysatis itself in comparison to its contemporaries. Beautiful. 4/5.