La Nuit de l'Homme

I held off on buying this beautiful fragrance for months because every youtube video and review all parroted the obvious *fact* that it had terrible performance due to years and years of irresponsible reformulations. There are several youtube videos comparing the smell and longevity of LNDL over the course of a decade and the videos all found that they farther back the bottle was made, the darker and stronger it was and the longer it lasted. It is still treated as fact that YSL is a greedy awful company who is watering down their product over the years to sell more bottles and save money. Even though it would be terrible business to alienate your loyal customers and the costs of perfume oils and raw ingredients are marginal to the overall cost of a fragrance. Out of curiousity I looked at old reviews of LNDL that are on this website and I found the following comments: It certainly lasts longer than L'Homme but still not more than about 4 hours (unless you spray lavishly but which makes it too sweet) -04/18/2009 3 hours of good sillage then close to the skin -09/19/2012 I like the base note, but it's weak as water -2/26/2013 Smells good, but nobody notices I am wearing it. -2/24/2013 Smells wonderful straight from go, gets better as it drys, doesnt last long though. -2/17/2013 Lasts about 2-3 hours on my skin. -10/01/2014 It has the basic vibe of the original though more generic and so much weaker that I wish I didn't go through my old bottles so quickly. The original scent also projected more. The sillage was better as well. So it is very safe to say that reformulations have ruined the performance of this once beastly fragrance. -09/06/2015 This was never a beast mode fragrance and performance has always been fairly weak to moderate longevity. Well why do youtubers say the older bottles lasted longer? Because they do? What? Let me introduce you to a new word: Maceration - The aging of chemical compounds. All perfumes will change in smell overtime, often becoming denser as the lighter top notes like citrisus and bergamot burn off, alcohol is slowly evaporated, and basenotes combine becoming stronger. The back of all your fragrance boxes has a number (usually 36 to 48) which is the number of months until the scent starts to change significantly. The Creed Aventus message boards all harp on how old bottles of aventus were darker and smokier and longer lasting and all the new ones are much brighter and weaker. The comments from 2016 all say they wish they had stocked up on the 2012 holy grail batches, the 2017 threads all wish theirs performed like the 2015 holy grail batches and the new 2020/2021 wish they had more of the 2016/2017 batches. It's all the same juice. It might be reformulated slightly to be in compliance with EU regulations but it's all essentially the same. The point of this long post is I'm trying to say that the reformulation police are mostly a bunch of morons who have no idea what they are talking about. Almost every fragrance is accused of reformulation that has made it weaker and killed performance. These companies aren't stupid, these frangrances are multimillion dollar businesses and subjected to stringent quality testing and extremely precise material inspection and mixing standards. This is an incredibly beautiful fragrance, performance is just okay.

I am on my second bottle of this masterpiece and will be buying more in the future, in one month I used 15ml of this and already planning to buy a 200ML bottle. Smells like a rainy forest very natural and bright it's a 10/10. The performance is the only problem of this fragrance its abysmal, no matter how many times you spray it, it will go away after a hour if your lucky because sometimes it doesn't even last 10 minutes before becoming a skin scent that you can barely smell, and it doesn't even last long as a skin scent. I've read and seen alot of people saying how the "oLd bAtCheS hAd wAY bEtTeR pErfOrmAnCe" they didn't, this always had bad performance even my old 2015 or 17 batch idk which exact year it was but it was old, even that had bad performance, it's always been like that and it sucks. I will give up my life like kratos did in god of war to YSL if they made a separate version or just upgraded this and gave it good performance. Edit: holy shit 5 months after buying this masterpiece, it has aged like the most finest wine, in the most perfect temperatures, it turned into a more creamy powdery rainy fresh forest, it went from super sexy to idk a whole new level of sexy, this gives me feelings of love, every time I smell it I feel pressure, performance sadly still the same but, the smell went from a 10/10 to a 11 if this just had good performance even like 3-4 hours with good silliage would be the best fragrance ever made, I sprayed this like more than 10 times on my friend, we went outside on a cold windy night perfect temperatures for this fragrance, didn't even get a hint of it on my nose it was that bad, I walked behind him beside him, sat right next to him in a bus, absolutely nothing sadly. Might even get a dupe of this instead of a 200ml bottle just because how bad the performance is, I don't like dupes the only dupe I've seen of this has a different kind of smell, I heard it's more powdery but if it smells a tad bit similar but has performance that lasts 100% buying it.

I think it is the best fragrance ever because it is kinda-freshy, sexy, inviting, warm, mysterious, mass-appealing, and non-disturbing at the same time. It opens with the crisp and refreshing cardamom-bergamot opening and then dries down to warm, embracing, highly masculine, but not gymboy masculine, but like an elegant man. It is a highly mysterious, sexy scent. In the latest drydown, it becomes sweeter and earthier. However, especially the mid-drydown in which cedar-cardamom-lavender is active, cannot ever cloy anyone, just appeals like a magnet. The main idea is: it somehow combines a fresh/clean vibe with an extremely sexy/warm/mysterious profile. It is a dumb-reach, sexy magnet usable in 4 seasons. La Nuit de L'Homme has a unique type of sexiness. It is not loud and does not abuse sweetness or sharp spices to attract. Conversely, it is mostly a minimalistic fragrance. In the heart of the fragrance, what you actually smell is the somewhat warm and ambery cardamom. However, it is supported with lavender and cedarwood, which gives the fresh and airy vibe, hindering the fragrance from becoming cloying. Also, there are hints of the peppery and earthy "mysterious" side in the background. In the later drydown, cardamom slowly disappears and what remains is the creamy, smooth almond/vanilla hint. Overall, this fragrance radiates confidence and mystery. It invites you closer with its warm embrace; however, it is different from sweet-gourmands, it warns you that you are approaching a man who is important and aware of his importance. Its projection is low on purpose, that man does not need attention, you need his attention. He states that you need to come closer to smell my intoxicating smell. In short, this fragrance is born from a paradox: an elegant man who smells clean and fresh while he is the sexiest smelling man in the room too. It is the combination of cold and hot, fresh and sexy.

Once again, people are conflating sillage/projection with longevity. Almost every fragrance on this site, people cry "this barely lasts more than a few hours, blah blah blah". Literally every frag in my small collection you can find reviews complaining about longevity and yet, each one lasts all day on me. So here we go, no, this doesnt project. But I put 4 sprays on my neck around 6:30am before work, and 10 hours later I am at home on my couch and can still smell it on me. Once again, the claims about a fragrance "not lasting" are overblown. It seems like people think CDNIM level projection/longevity should be the norm. I used to own CDNIM and liked it, but I stopped wearing it because every time I did, someone made a comment about how strong it is. I dont want to be known as "cologne guy". I realized I'd much rather someone notice what I am wearing when they are up close, rather than smell me from a mile away. This fragrance smells incredible, you can wear it any time, any place and you wont offend anyone. And if someone happens to give you a hug hello, they will say how wonderful you smell.

One of my all time favourites and my signature scent during the earlier-mid 2010's. Not had it in my collection for a few years now though but recently decided to revisit with a fresh new 100ml bottle in all its glory. Fresh out of the box, all the happy memories came flooding back with that instantly recognizeable Lavender-Cardamom but my joy was short lived when I noticed how 'thin' this scent has become. The deep, sultry, spiciness of the early formulation is now just an apologetic whisper. I ended up spraying about 10 sprays to try and get some performance but still found that after 2-3 hours it has basically gone. I understand the protection of profit lines can force some tough decisions but to quietly destroy one of the finest, most revered and commercially popular scents of all time is just inexcusable. I am genuinely gutted that this titan has fallen. Sorry, Yves Saint Laurent - you have lost a loyal fan here. I will be seeking high performing 'alternatives' in the future.