Yendi

Yendi was my first grown-up perfume back in the '70es and I have loved it through so many years. I have worn and loved many perfumes, I still do love and wear some which I used to love many years ago, but Yendi has a special place in my heart. I understand memory has its own rights (in my case, being in my early '50es, it also does have its own wrongs), but coming back to the vintage Yendi was like entering Eden, recovering innocence and most of all forgetting what poor Yendi is today (not only Yendi, of course, countless are the masterpieces ruined by IFRA and hasted reformulations). Yendi has never been regarded as particularly innovative, peculiarly special, with its own right of enjoying the status of others which have become milestones in perfumery. Yet, I find it is highly underrated and should be better considered. It embraces you with flowers, balsams, woods so soft and cozy and yet so assertive and feminine. It's a very contradictory scent: powerful and delicate at the same time, strong and soft, cuddling and energetic. It makes me smile thinking at perfumes today: the horizon is populated with too many female scents that: - make you smell like a cake, a sweet, a marshmallow; - make you smell like a fruit salad; OR some unisex fragrances that: - make you smell like a fumerie; - make you smell like a bonfire; - make you smell like a winery. Yendi's strong woods, balsams, spices melt in a uniquely feminine bouquet, never becoming too sweet, never causing tooth decay or making you feel like a dessert. Or, on the contrary, never making you feel like a cigar smoked in a carpentry. For me Yendi should be listed among the very best perfumes ever created but in the vintage version; the current formulation smells of plastic and is not even a pale shadow of what Yendi used to be.

This review is for Capucci Yendi parfum, black and silver box similar to the one shown with an angular glass flacon, light green juice. 'New old stock' can be found on Ebay at this time fairly easily for reasonable prices. Despite being roughly half a century old, my previously sealed specimen smells fresh as a daisy with enough of the top notes to scare off any one not accustomed to 70s vintage frags. My first thought: "Smells like Babe and Arpege had a beautiful baby." Bursts open with creamy, sparkling, white aldehydes, bergamot, peach and a juicy taste of raspberry which leads into a soft, lightly sweet, rose floral heart. It's all on a lovely base of oakmoss, sandalwood, amber and musk. I have to respectfully suggest that s_athena may have gotten a different Yendi (there are a few, and also several Capuccis) or her bottle was horribly turned. There's nothing here that I can imagine translating into wintergreen or spearmint. The opening aldehydes are very strong, bringing to mind briefly Caleche as well as Arpege but they're (sadly for me) fleeting. What's left behind is neither green nor particularly soapy, and while there's a touch of honey it's not even close to sweet by 2015 standards. I can understand that it's got little in common with modern feminine perfumes though. If you, like me, are a fan of oakmoss and strong yet soft 70s feminines I highly recommend this.

Yendi is amazing . I fell in love at first spritz in one second and it is extremely beautiful to my nose from head to toe . I have never been too fond of aldehydic florals , but this one might be loved by any lukewarm nose towards this family . Its opening is so unique : a fizzy sparkling burst of aldehydes, fruit and citrus notes like I love them , not on the sweet side and greenish . It is a fragrance whose rose is enchanting ( not a big fun of roses either , but this depends on the creation and here there is iris ) and it goes on with a delicious blend of balsamic incensey notes , sandalwood and moss with a touch of spices , one ot the most beautiful and sensuous but not languorous drydowns I ever smelled . One of my favorites of the 70s definitely ! I do not find it retro at all . If it weren't for its quality ingredients and the feel about its creation ( this is art ) , you would take it for a 'modern' perfume . But no , Yendi is an unmistakable vintage by now .It is a floral with the " allure " of a chypre but of a cheerful chypre , if this makes sense .

Those who have loved Yendi when it came out, will not recognize the cheap version sold today very cheaply at some supermarkets. The name is the same, the faceted bottle reminds the original one, but the scent inside is a ghost of what Yendi used to be. It was a rich, spicy, aldehydic scent with lots of flowers from behind. The pepper was prominent at the opening and remained a tamed presence for the whole time. From time to time a flower here and there peeped from behind. It was gorgeous, it was rich, it was opulent without being vulgar. You wore only a drop as the dawn creeps up the skies and at sunset Yendi was there still present in all its refined presence. Now you get an insignificant liquid, so poor, so modest, so cheap that's better for those who loved the original version not to surrender to the temptation. Yes, it's cheap, but you will lose your lovely memories.

El mejor perfume para mi piel...se siente como si se hubiera diseñado para mí..!!! Es fresco, suave y a la vez intenso..lo probé sl azar cuando salió en Argentina, o en un momento en que la igualdad del dólar permitía tener ese pequeño y lujoso placer, no lo conocía en absoluto y fue un amor a primera vista..!! Fuimos inseparables desde entonces, desde 1980 hasta que de pronto no lo volví a conseguir ..Como se atrevieron a discontinuar un perfume tan perfecto todas las personas a las que recomendé Yendi lo compraron y disfrutaron casi como yo..y, haciendo una prueba de NOTAS de perfume me vuelven a recomendar que pruebe mi querido perfume..Inolvidable y mágico..