Caban

I have been quite impressed by the Vestiaire line thus far, but Caban might be my favourite yet. A peppery-amber scent with a lovely woody drydown, it feels luxurious to me, as well as slightly unusual. I love an elemi note as part of an amber accord - it is smoothly balsamic with a pine-like edge, slightly prettier and more luxurious than other ambery notes in my opinion. Caban opens with rosy pink pepper against a backdrop of the aforementioned elemi in its green, balsamic glory. The pink pepper is particularly rosy here, I am surprised there is no rose note listed. Black pepper enhances the nose-tickling, spicy side of the pink pepper. I get sandalwood from the early phase of Caban, lasting until the drydown. It is quite obviously synthetic, but is restrained enough to provide a woody backdrop to the other notes. As it develops, I get a hint of peachy osmanthus, and the warm amber accord develops softly, becoming more resinous and dry as it progresses. Soft vanilla adds just the right amount of sweetness at the drydown stage. The rosy accord lingers, joined by earthy patchouli - a new take on that classic accord. The sandalwood and amber enhance it to perfection. There is a hay-like note in there too. It is warm and cosy, yet sophisticated and elegant. It fades to a powdery, softly sweet amber-vanilla skin scent with some earthiness. Sillage and longevity are moderate. Best worn in cool weather, given its warmth. Despite being creative and unusual, Caban really works. Its components are familiar, yet as a whole it is quite an original composition. Feminine-leaning in my opinion, Caban is a masterfully composed, modern scent with a nod to the classics. 4/5.

I received a sample of this with an order and I am really in love with it. It may seem basic to others but it’s unique to me. Typically I really struggle with this type of scent profile because they always remind me too much of how my hair smells when it’s been unwashed for too long! I have tried many of the fragrances in the “reminds me of” section and I love the idea of them but many of them give me the feeling that I smell dirty, even tho I enjoy them on other people. I believe the cause may be Jasmine accompanied by heavy sandal wood that creates this effect to my nose. This fragrance does not give me that feeling and perhaps it’s because there is little to no Jasmine in Caban. The resinous elemi combined with the Tonka gives this fragrance a warm, intoxicating depth that also seems different than the majority of sandalwood dominant fragrances I’ve tried. This is unisex in my opinion maybe a tiny bit masculine. I see some saying it reminds them of Gris Charnel and I think I can see that, if you were to take Gris Charnel and remove the cardamon and vetiver and amplify and thicken the warm base notes making them resinous then it would smell similar to Caban. I actually love Gris Charnel and so it makes sense I love this too but they really are different enough to invoke different feelings to my mind. Gris Charnel feels foggy, hazy and cozy to me. Caban feels warm, mysterious and slightly dark. I actually think I prefer this more because that deep warm base really speaks to me.

It’s such a chic perfume! Simple but unique. Wearing this, you can dress up or down. Cozy sweater, white T-shirt, or fancy dress, it fits all. The sandalwood here is not too dark or woody, but on the airy side. The floral notes and tonka beans bring out the sweetness, but never too much. The bottle label lists pepper, rose and tonka, I’m not sure if I can immediately tell the floral note is rose. The scent has a gourmand touch, maybe coconut as people mentioned, but in a most elegant way. However, I’m struggling with the opening. It’s way too spicy for me, as I’m not a fan of peppers and olibanum, and the spiciness does linger a while. Once that stage passed, the drydown is absolutely beautiful! I personally don’t think this perfume has the best performance, but my workmate could get a decent scent trail from me 6 hours after I applied it, even his nose was not fully functioning as he was still recovering from a cold. I like to spray this on my clothes and pillow, as it’s too spicy on my skin. It’s sweeter on fabric. Caban is very underrated in this line, and this line is becoming my favorite line among the designer brands. Went to the YSL store on 11 Aug. I was told by the SA that Caban has been discontinued. I hope not worldwide.

Lately, I have been wearing the bejeezus out of this. The day I got it, I sprayed myself way too much and became anosmic very soon after. I went to visit my parents and they commented that it was so sweet and that they didn't like it. Well that shocked me because I didn't get that at all. I guess in huge doses it must come across as sweet. Anyway, fast forward about a month and I've literally been wearing this every day. Maybe 3 sprays from the chest down and I can smell it softly all day. It's a good day wear/anywhere fragrance. It's reminiscent, at least to me, of Cuir Beluga and has something like Iso E Super or some such aroma chemical that I can smell off the top. All I can say is I'm glad I got the 125 ml cause I love it. Oct 20/23: Just before using this bottle up, I saw there was a price increase to $390/125ml which is way more than the going price at the time I bought it (I think it was just under $300, maybe $275). I picked up 2 bottles for $290 (department store) and $250 (airport duty free) in Paris. This shows the insane advantage the government takes of consumers. Up to 56% in taxes/duty! And of course YSL's price bump is disturbing. Glad to have backups but man.

It opens up with pepper and sweet ambers, but then quickly evolves into its true scent profile, which on my skin, is a predominantly tonka bean fragrance that is accentuated by a beautiful creamy sandalwood, with Resins and spices in the back, followed by a very subtle but noticeable Osmanthus note, it smells quite elegant and feels both unique and inviting, definitely a hidden gem, as all I hear about from this line, are Tuxedo and Babycat (I've yet to smell both as my YSL boutique had them out of stock) to virtually no end, whereas I've only ever heard Caban be mentioned once in passing. Wearability wise, this is perfectly unisex, I can see it being a good casual and formal fragrance, with it being usable virtually anywhere outside hot days in my opinion, I get around 9 hours longevity on my skin which is sad as others seem to get poor longevity; it projects somewhere between medium and strong on my skin, but I'd say it leans more to the medium. Overall I quite like it, very much a wearable piece of art in my opinion, and it only makes me more excited to try Babycat and Tuxedo in future, definitely worth a try in my opinion, needs to be talked about more. 8.6/10

Edit summer 2024 - I really enjoyed this in cooler temps but for me it shines in heat and you get more lift in the notes. Fruity touches are warmer and clearer. The coconut aspect which I don’t love dies down and the sun warmed wood and resin feel that Caftan has can be felt deeper in the scent. The florals appear as fruit and it gives a beautiful golden feel. I’ll be wearing this a lot more in our high summer than I did in cooler temps. Love it ❤️ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Who says coconuts don’t have a smell? Of course they do 🤯 anyway. Lovely. For me it’s very woody and radiant. Gauzy textured and lightly sweet. Citric touches and some mild spice. It’s a quietly, elegant and contemplative scent. Perfect for a quiet Saturday morning like today when it’s doing the autumn rain thing but still quite temperate. I don’t get any coconutty or floral touches but hey, somebody might just read it that way, and that’s alright by me.

I’m not sure how rose isn’t listed a note in the breakdown, but I think it is certainly present! I find this to be a very easy reach in any scenario. I don’t always want something “easy”, but sometimes I do and at those times I’m happy to report that this is just interesting enough to be very crowd pleasing without veering into “boring” territory. On my skin the fresh rose is the most prevalent note atop its bed of tonka, kept bright by the pink pepper which does not come through as very peppery at all to my nose due to the way everything is balanced. After a few hours the deep drydown is warm tonka on my skin, and I can’t distinguish sandalwood specifically, but perhaps it’s just adding creaminess to the tonka that I’m detecting. I was surprised when someone told me that this lovely fragrance is being discontinued, and I made sure to snag a bottle while I could!

i recently realized that i REALLY like elemi in fragrances, and it is DEFINITELY there in this scent. i am absolutely obsessed with caban. literally love at first sniff. i think this is the best scent YSL's private line, hands down. it almost gives me like spicy, sweet, high end women's shampoo scent in like the best way possible. its crazy how much of a "fresh" smell this has to it but its not your typical type of fresh. like its not man eau fraiche or versace pour homme type fresh. its like sweet uplifting fresh. this MIGHT not be for everyone so i cant say its a safe blind buy, but i am fully obsessed with this now. this is gonna be a dumb reach for me.

You got to own both Herod and this to understand that they are very similar. This has a different opening but dries down into Herod. I currently am wearing Herod on one arm and this on the other as of writing this. This is a beautiful scent but in my opinion it is way over priced and doesn't last as long as Herod. I am 5 hours into wearing both and I can still pick up Herod on skin while this has completely faded. That is subjective though because it could just be my skin. But I will say from a price perspective with how similar they are that Herod is definitely the no brainer pick. Still beautiful though!

Maybe I'm alone on this, but the first spritz smells like bananas. Maybe not fresh ripe bananas, more like a banana candy or cake. The banana-like quality quickly dissipates and the remaining scent is divine. I'm a novice nose so I can't pick out specific elements but I'm starting to notice most of my favorite fragrances include tonka, so I guess I'm a big tonka bean fan although I have no idea how a tonka bean smells on it's own. At any rate, I absolutely adore Caban. I got it as a free sample, now I'm looking at getting a whole bottle.

Very elegant fragrance. I’ll be wearing this in the evening for my wedding day. Trouble is the performance for the price is lacking so it requires LOTS of sprays. If you like baby powder this is it in a bottle. I bought a 5ml decant and I honestly didn’t get much from the opening apart from weak lipstick and was initially disappointed, I don’t know if it’s because of the decant bottle but after 20 minutes that powder scent became very strong on skin. Glad I only bought a decant though as it’s over priced, even if it is very nice

Caban was love at first sniff for me I've had it for two months now and I can easily say it's one of my top five fragrances of all time. it opens with a lovely pink pepper note that grabs your attention at first then comes the sandalwood and the tonka bean to create this lactonic feel with a slight woodsy touch. the image that comes to my mind when I smell Caban is heating a pot of milk on a campfire. The fragrance is smooth and very well blended it's like the warmest hug you will ever get please try it if you can.

Perfect winter cold weather scent. It's elegant and complex yet sexy and alluring, even though it veers between masculine and feminine. I think the key to how its quite masculine yet still sexy is how comforting, warm and alluring it is. It's yummy and sexy somehow but not in a teen gourmand fragrances sort of way at all. Perfect adult sophisticated upscale rich smelling fragrance for the winter. Best thing about it is its hard to find, so few know about it or wear it.

THE BEST SANDAL WOOD fragrance! This so creamy and balsamic, a little coconuty, and absolutely intoxicating. This is a love at first sniff. It reminds me a lot of Guerlain SDV at dry down but creamier and much less loud. The only problem I have with this is longevity. It becomes a skin scent within few hours. But again I love it so much that I don’t care. It’s just so good and amazing bed scent.

Only a moron would compare this to Herod as there is no tobacco note here. I have to also say that all the negative and subpar reviews must be from morons as well because this is earthshatteringly-good. I usually dislike winter scents, but this one is amazing. Its not feminine leaning either. Why are there so many factually false statements in so many of these reviews? Its so frustrating!

This is probably one of my favorite scents in the world. The frankincense and sandlewood are literally magical it is an advanced sweet smelling fragrance that is QUITE unisex so you gotta be able to pull it off but if you can it is UNREAL. One of the few scents that can take your mind to a magical place. Lasts forever on skin and till the end of time on clothes AMAZING QUALITY

I remember smelling this in Neiman's last year and I couldn't stop sniffing my arm. I recently purchased a FB and I'm in absolute love! Yes, I can see some nuances of Gris Charnel, but where Gris Charnel can come across as strong and a little rough, Caban is the exact opposite. It is by far the smoothest, most luxurious sandalwood in my entire collection!

That's a love. It's not ground breaking, but it's just very good. Elegant, classy, mature. It's the kind of fragrance where you have to be well dressed to wear it. It's casual enough to be worn every day, but you have to be well put together. It's perfectly unisex with sweet feminine aspects and masculine woody parts. Performance is great on my skin.

I absolutely love this fragrance. It is overpriced but there's something about it that just makes me want to wear it all the time. Tuxedo gets a lot of love from the community but in my opinion, this one is better. Therein lies the subjectivity of fragrance. For me, this is the best from the Vestiaire des Parfums line.

It was love at first sniff. This is an amazing combo of tonka bean and sandalwood that is spiced up for extra complexity. Smells absolutely unisex to me, and I love to wear it as a woman. On a man, it could either be just right or potentially a bit too sweet. To me, it's intoxicating and magical. Love, love, love.