L'Homme Ultime

I have been dreading writing this review because it stresses me out that a discontinued fragrance is one of the only ones that lives up to my standards at this point, and I don't want others to be in the same place, but we're here because we're trying to hone our collections down to the best of the best, and there isn't really a way around it that I can see. Of all the hundreds of scents that I have owned, worn, and sampled exhaustively over the years, this one now stands out to me as the very best for an everyday signature, and for plenty of specific use cases. I know I have gone mad this way over other scents in my reviews, but this stuff is special, and I reserve the right to replace my top top favorites as I try new things, and I honestly struggle to see how this will ever be topped as a mass-pleasing scent. I also understand that to a lot of people who have not smelled a million blue scents, chypres for weeks, and every L'Homme in the book, this might not seem like anything special, but if you come into some of this stuff or already have it and find it meh, give it some time and careful thought and wear so you can see where I'm coming from here. It can be used for any occasion, frankly, and go blow for blow with any other scent on earth for those cases in terms of its raw appeal. I really struggle to describe its exact smell because of the perfection of its blending, other than that of a fresh/warm spicy blend of most noticably an extremely attractive cardamom, ginger, and floral notes that rest on a very prudently measured bed of sweetness. This is not a sweet fragrance, but there is a touch of apple and citrus that hold it up from becoming overly dry and lacking thickness and dimension. The dry down is more spicy and masculine, but has a softness with its choice of musks that is not annoying or sickening in the slightest. It smells unique, but it has the very recognizable L'Homme DNA that I can not quantify, but I know that I'm smelling a L'Homme flanker when I spray it. Maybe the best comparison that I can make directly to another scent other than L'Homme is Signature by Arabian Oud, which is sort of reflected in its note breakdown. All I can say is that Signature is significantly dryer, mustier and more unforgiving than this, though it has much better performance. I love Signature, but it becomes annoying to me over time. Ultime has a much more full body and is pleasing from every angle, as you would expect from a French designer house like YSL attacking this species of scent. It is something that was obviously remarkably well thought out with a true luxury focus and an incredibly discriminating nose in mind. This fragrance has 2 quite inconvenient drawbacks other than the obvious discontinuation factor. The first is that it does not perform as many would hope, and I recommend moisturizing where you spray when you wear it to conserve as much as possible. It is far from the worst that I've seen for a designer scent of this caliber, but certainly slightly below average because of the nature of the blend. I do not blame them, because I understand that something soft and beautiful like this can not just be magically made to push out like Resala without compromising its scent profile. This means spraying more, and this stuff is becoming pretty damn dear in a hurry. The second issue is its shelf life. I'm having a difficuly time finding batches in the realm of 6yrs 10 months old and have not been able to obtain fresher than that. I have 7 bottles, and I've noticed that the ones going on 9 years have been slightly discolored toward the green, and they seem to have all but lost their top notes, which are beautiful cardamom and ginger. The scent goes nearly straight to the spicier mids and bottom, which are still nice, but missing those gorgeous parts of the scent isn't insignificant. I'm not sure what to do at this point, but I have heard some say that Rasasi It's Essential is a fairly close inspiration, so I have ordered a few bottles of that. I would be floored if it was anything approximating the perfection of a prime example of ultime, but it's cheap, so I'm trying. If anyone has any other suggestions, please do share. I would be eternally grateful. I know of the Azzaro ginger flanker, but that one is equally unavailable at this point and nearly as expensive. I don't know what to advise regarding Ultime. If you find a deal where you can pay a grand total of under 135US for a full bottle under 7 yrs old, preferably unsprayed, I would instabuy it. In the unlikely event that you hate it, you can sell it for a lot more later, I guarantee you. It might be nerdy, but I even wrote a message to YSL complimenting them and politely asking them to bring this stuff back, because it is irreplaceable and incomparable. We need an international petition or something bros lol. EDIT: I just heard about a clone from a website just called Oil Perfumery. I just ordered a bunch of their Impression of YSL L'Homme Ultime, so I'll report back with what I think about it. It is a pure fragrance oil roll-on, so that is a problem for people preferring a spray fragrance. I'll also talk about my impression of Rasasi It's Essential when that comes in, but word on the street is that Oil Perfumery does it best so far. If anyone has any super valuable info on turning oil into spray perfume, feel free to DM me, but I'm just starting with google, and it seems like it might be straight-forward enough. Maybe using the oil in combo with the spray is the best way to get longevity and some push, too. Well see.

It is a shame that this fragrance is discontinued because it's absolutely glorious. I recently joined a facebook group called the Great Canadian Fragrance Exchange (sorry if you're not in Canada, you're prohibited from joining) and it's a great group of people. My first post was a search for decants of Dior Homme (the original) and Dior Homme Parfum and within a week, I had my decants. I had been trying to find full bottles for the longest time but they're near impossible to get in Canada now. The group helped me out tremendously. Then I was looking for a decant of Hermes' Un Jardin Sur Le Toit for my best friend to give her for her birthday but this really nice guy PM'ed me that he had a barely used 100ml bottle he would sell me for $85 and he was in my city, so I wouldn't have to pay shipping. The bottle was also a 2018 batch and had time to macerate and mature. Smells so much better than the current samples and bottles. Since that transaction was great, I asked him if he had anything else that he was looking to sell and he offered me a 60ml of YSL L'Homme Ultime for $75, missing a couple sprays. I had never smelled it before but I knew it was discontinued, so I told him I'd buy it and if I don't like it, I could just catch and release it. So we met yesterday to do the transaction and I wore it as my scent of the night yesterday. It's SO good. I can't understand why YSL would discontinue this gorgeous fragrance. It smells absolutely amazing. A bit fresh, a bit spicy, aromatic and rosy. It also smells very classy and expensive. I'm so glad I decided to take his offer and add this amazing fragrance to my collection. Longevity is about average 5-6 hours with pretty good projection for the first 2 hours before it starts settling close to the skin. After projection faded, sillage trails were still pretty strong for up to about the 4 hour mark. If you're looking for a beast performer, this isn't it but it smells SO good. Scent : 10/10 Projection : 6.5/10 Sillage : 7.5/10 Longevity : 7/10 Overall : I'm in love with the fragrance. I have a few other discontinued fragrances in my collection but this is now officially my favorite one. I'm going to wear it as my scent of the day today, too and test it out some more. The above performance was based on only 4 sprays, two behind each ear. So, we'll see how it goes when I up the sprays a bit. So thankful to have this in my collection now. If you have a chance to get a bottle for a fair price, don't hesitate. It's really, really good.

Elegant and subtle. Excellent for brunch, work or date. At first spray you’re greeted with ginger, grapefruit and bergamot adding an effervescence and freshness that works in contrast with a silky, spicy cardamom. Then comes the satin rose, with an herbal backbone of sage. The apple and geranium create a semi sweetness and bitterness continuing to deliver an ultimate freshness and brightness throughout the mid. It’s easy to confuse this stage with lavender. About an hour in the ultra clean vetiver and fresh cut cedar add a pleasant earthiness and masculinity. The cashmere wood adds to the delicate and silky nature of this fragrance, bonding the composition, and giving it excellent longevity. This fragrance is not going to radiate off your skin and harass or intoxicate the senses of those around you, but it will keep you smelling fresh and well put together all day, working as a second skin. It will leave others with the impression that you have your ship together and you have class and style. This is an extremely well done fragrance, masterfully crafted, and just lovely. However, because of the hype and mystique surrounding this fragrance, some first impressions may be slightly underwhelmed. This is not something you haven’t smelled before, and it doesn’t explode off your skin, it’s just done very well. It’s an excellent men’s rose fragrance, period. Of course if you are interested in trying this fragrance I’ll reiterate what others have already mentioned, sadly it’s been discontinued and supply is depleting but you can still find it from time to time for around $80 (100mL). The good news is, there are plenty of adequate alternatives, such as Bleu de Chanel, Missoni Parfum Pour Homme, Mont Blanc Legend, Parfums de Marly Percival is an EXCELLENT substitute, Jean Paul Gaultier Le Male Le Parfum, Amouge Reflection Man, and Prada L’homme.

Without a doubt one of the best openings of any designer fragrance you will experience. I went through a 100ml bottle of this in a year before I started collecting, and it's quite honestly the fragrance that got me into collecting. The opening is a beautiful combination of ginger and grapefruit. The conceptualization of this scent is as if you soaked ginger shavings and cardamom in a combination of grapefruit, lemon and bergamot juice and sprayed a bouquet of 2 dozen fully bloomed roses, you'd have the opening and mid of this scent. It's absolutely stunning and brilliant. Somehow this frag has been discontinued so pick it up wherever you can. I have about 90ml left on my replacement bottle and bought a 250ml backup bottle recently, that's how much I love this scent. Now for the not-so-good: The dry-down of this fragrance while pleasant is just a faint hint of sage and cedarwood with a passing remembrance of the rose that came before it. The opening and the mid essentially disappear by the 4 hour mark and you're left with a safe skin scent. I always re-apply the scent after coming home from work. That negative aside, I still contend that the opening of this scent is worth the full price of admission. Cheers.

Unlike others in the L'Homme line, the name Ultime might portray grandiose idealizations that this flanker represents it in the highest form. Others before it, even the most definable, shall quiver and quake in its presence, for this, is, the ultimate. Your nose will pick up the cardamom and ginger, and guide you down a familiar road, but then the rose hits you, and with the sweetness from the apple, starts turning this road into unfamiliar territory. Eventually you aren't sure of where you are anymore. You begin to look around for signs, anything that might seem recognizable. The cashmere wood smooths out the cedar and vetiver, but in a way that seemingly cuts down the projection and longevity. Soon you remember that you've been down this road before, and how the road ended before you were ready. This time it though, it brought you to a field, where you made it just in time to see the lasting moments of the prettiest sunset you could ever imagine. In that moment, as the final ray of sunlight dips below the horizon, with a slight breeze in the air, you're left standing in awe, that such an unexpected journey could lead you to such a blissful destination. 10/10