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

L'Homme Ultime went from being under the radar & extremely underrated, to being loved by so many people. I hate that as I want to wear fragrances that are unique lol, but I really can't blame them. L'Homme Ultime is an excellent flanker, and it might be one of the best performing fragrances in the YSL L'Homme line. Glad I got this as a present back in early 2018, when it wasn't well-known and my nose wasn't trained enough for fragrances of different types (the time when I only love fragrances like Eros, La Nuit de L'Homme, and Sauvage). But it was love at the first sight. It still has that ginger from the original L'Homme, but what makes this one different from the original is the grapefruit (instead of lemon) and that rose (which is very prominent). It is truly beautiful, and I still love it, out of a couple hundreds I've tried. Even though it is well-known now, I don't think there's anything that can match the scent of this one (well, except Ginger Lover by Azzaro, but L'Homme Ultime is much smoother and a bit more complex). 9/10 Overall, but a solid 9.5/10 for the scent.

Compared to L'Homme: more floral, rosy, citrusy. There is also an apple-cinnamon (or maybe cedar) kinda vibe going on. To me, this is delicious. Rose is so difficult for me of a scent to enjoy, and this is the only fragrance with a rose note that I can tolerate. It's fresh, masculine, vibrant, youthful, classy. Definitely more of a Spring/Summer fragrance. Update: This one grew on me enough to buy a bottle. I enjoy this fragrance and get complimented on it frequently. To me, it's "safe" and crowd pleasing but has enough distinction with the dry rose, woods and crisp apple notes to not be too run-of-the-mill (is this a "blue" frag?). After wearing for some time, I realize that it's an any-occasion fragrance. While it seems more suited to warmer months, it probably would smell just as nice and crisp in colder weather. The late dry-down, about 3-4 hours into wearing it is a bit meh as it takes on a somewhat synthetic wood quality that seems common of big contemporary designer frags. But for those few hours, the rose and cedar are quite beautiful.

L'Homme Ultime is a fruity, floral, aromatic and woody fragrance. The opening is fruity-citrus and spicy, the combination of citrus and ginger is quite nice. After about 10 minutes the aroma becomes more floral and powdery, but without losing the presence of ginger, which is now accompanied by the aroma of rose. Arriving at the drying phase, a bit of cedar wood is perceived, and the freshness of the fragrance and the spice of ginger are maintained. Ultime has some influences from the original L'Homme, but this version is slightly sweeter. L'Homme Ultime is a versatile and multi-season fragrance, to be used at any time, its aroma is not innovative, but it is pleasant and it is one of my favorite versions of the L'Homme line, in fact it seems to me that it was the precursor of the Y line, although I prefer L'Homme Ultime, it is a pity that it is increasingly difficult to find. Its performance is better than the original L'Homme and La Nuit de L'Homme, at least with me it lasts 8 hours without a problem.

this fragrance pound for pound is maybe my favorite that I own. It really is so good. I have no idea why these reviews say it's long lasting though. When I think of fragrances I own that have GOOD longevity, I think of sauvage or ultra male. L'homme ultime's performance with longevity is nowhere near that of those. I can't really smell it on myself after like 3 or 4 hours. That's the only con. It's not super loud or super quiet, it's got a nice moderate sillage. And again, in terms of its actual scent profile, I think it's so good and I honestly think it's blind buy worthy (despite the price) if you like fragrances that blend spices and floral notes. It's important to note that the rose is definitely the main floral note you're gonna get, which I think they do an excellent job of capturing in the fragrance. I don't mean to convey this in a way that's feminine, it's a fuego masculine rose scent. Overall, it's an awesome fragrance with good versatility that simply doesn't have the best longevity.

I have a negligible amount of this fragrance left in the bottom of its bottle. once in a great while I'll remove the cap and get a faint whiff and remember how much I liked the scent followed with the disappointment in it's trash performance. Absolutely criminal. Today I was testing out some unfamiliar scents at Sephora. I had read that Kilan Angel's Share was a unisex scent but Sephora has it placed in the women's section so I hadn't bothered with it before. Angel's Share is YSL Ultimate but beast mode! If you know what YSL Ultimate smells like then go check out Kilan Angel's Share. It's what YSL Ultimate should have been. Edit: Can't believe I'm alone on the similarities of Ultimate and Angel's Share. Double checked Angel's Share the other day and I get Ultimate vibes. Yes Angel's share is composed of different notes but they all add up to produce YSL Ultimate in it's own unique way. I think perfumery is pretty remarkable for that.

This fragrance will have you wanting to live in the bottle. I always have a story on why I buy a fragrance. This story goes like this... I was shipped off to Germany to live for a few years. While I was out here I had to visit Cologne (Köln) and get myself a fragrance. While I was near the Cathedral I checked out several scents at the fragrance store. There was only one that I smelled that spoke to me. I sprayed it on myself, walked out without buying and tested it out for about an hour. While outside, I had a lot of girls smiling at me on this scent alone. While testing this one out I knew I could not NOT get it. I had to come back with this bottle so I went back to the store and get it. I wanted to live in the bottle. This scent is my friend's 2nd favorite in my collection. With this being discontinued, this is a MUST buy in my opinion for any guy. BATCH CODE: 38R4009 2018-04 CURRENTLY IT'S 2 YEARS & 6 MONTHS OLD. (09 Oct. 2020)

This is honestly maybe the perfect office fragrance. It's fresh and clean and it lasts a long time and it's also pretty different from a lot of similar fragrances. It's almost like a blue fragrance to my nose, but it's more sophisticated than any other blue fragrance that I own almost to the point where I feel like I'm shortchanging it a bit by even referring to it as that. I also know that the original L'Homme is something of a predecessor to blue fragrances, but this one gets a little bit closer to a Bleu de Chanel or something along those lines. It's too bad that this one seems to be discontinued? For the longest time, it used to get expensive and then it would get cheap again. I was able to get it when it was $65, but now it seems like the cheapest you can find it for is closer to $140, and it's just not worth that. Although, that sweet, sweet opening could definitely tempt me into paying that much.

I have been intentionally putting off my review for this fragrance because I want to give it justice, since it replaced Bleu de Chanel EDP as my signature fragrance. This fragrance feels like Snow White’s “With A Smile and a Song” and Cinderella’s “This is Love”. A rose champagne with endless bubbles. Always a good time and great feelings with this one. I bought it out impulse and curiosity when I saw someone selling their preloved partial in Fraghead Philippines. Now I own a low partial in 40ml to 45ml, a high partial in 80ml to 85ml, and a brand new I’ll open once I finish those two. My Tita also loves how it smells because other than it being a floral fragrance which is her favorite scent profile, it reminds her of the perfumes my late mother used to wear. I wonder if this will be my signature fragrance years from now? Regardless of the answer, I think this is a level up from Bleu de Chanel EDP. ❤️💛💙

This is a dialed down beast, smells amazing, but radiates almost nothing, lasts a little more than a couple hours (5-6, it was just a skin scent at hour 6), you may use this for really close encounters, or for very hot days where you just need a whiff of a scent, or for when you don ́t want to offend anyone and were doubtful to use any parfum at all. the smell alone is worth the price, be aware, this is not a clubbing fragrance, or a strong projecting fragrance. Being an EDP, it is not made for projecting, it has a nice feature: somehow it levitates in a state between the opening and middle notes for half the time it lasts, you can feel the cardamom and geranium, with a base of masculine rose then you get whiffs of all the other notes like fireworks. Of course the are all there, it is just that your brain recgnizes them at different point. Female compliment on a close hug range: "mmmmhhhhhMMMMMmmmmm"

What a lovely fragrance. I don’t wear this often but when I do I thoroughly enjoy it. Light enough to wear any time of the year but I find it best suited spring and winter. Soft woods, silky rose and a touch of zesty ginger and grapefruit. I see apple listed in the notes and yeah, I guess I can pick that up too but more like the peel, even slightly waxy... I’d say lots of cashmere woods which blends nicely with the cardamom and sage. Performance is perfect for this style fragrance, 6 hours before becoming an intimate skin scent which will last about another 6 hours. Days on clothing, smelling like a nice men’s cologne. Overall, this basically has the scent and consistency of a fabric softener. Very nice and pleasing, fresh and long lasting. This reminds me a lot of frags like MFK Gentle Fluidity Silver, Montobaco Intensivo and Prada L’homme, Luckily for me, my 100ml bottle will last me forever.

As the original l’homme is my signature scent, I have always a bottle available at home toghether with la nuit. Last year 2019 summer I was out of the original and went to the store to buy again for the I think maybe 10th 100ml bottle in 12 years. Out of curiosity I smell some testers and then boom there was this ultime. I immediately fell in love with the opening smell. Fresh ginger lemon combined with roses, very interesting smell very unique. In the dry down you can still smell the rose, but this time combined with the wood smell. Great for spring and summer days and is very versatile. Works also fresh on a hot summer day. Performance is like the original, not so good. 3 hours on my skin. But to get better performance you can easily overspray, it won’t offend. Rating(with 4-6 atomizations): Longevity: 6/10 Projection: 7/10 Scent: 9/10 Versatility: 8/10 Compliments: 8/10 Overall: 8/10

This will always be amazing to me, one of the first bottles I'd bought when I got back into perfume after loving it in the sensational 90s but being too young n poor to be able to afford much. This always reminded me of a clothes ironing spray my mum used to use, very distinct and I've never smelled anything like it since until ultimé, took me straight back to childhood, to my mum who had since passed, quite the emotional strike that I didn't anticipate, It's very clean, crisp and understated which is probably the only negative about it, the lack of power and longevity, I dont think you'd want this to go beast but just a bit more oomph would have been great, as it stands I still love it NONE THE less and will have to cherish the 10mls left in my bottle....and the back up still wrapped 100ml I bought years ago. R.I.P shirley christoff, mum, you are my ultimé.

Good lord, YSL Ultime is such a nice fragrance. I can't stop smelling it. It definitely leans fem, but I'd say it's unisex. Any guy can rock this, because I certainly am going to. As for the scent, this sort of reminds me of YLS MYSLF edp if there was one pour femme. I'm getting a light fresh floral vibe from this. The ginger really adds itself to this fragrance as well. For the people who say it reminds them of Tygar, I get it. It's not exactly the same, but I get it. The ginger is there and it's prominent, but it's light and fresh. Again, if Bvlgari had a Tygar perfune for women, this could be it. It really is a lovely fragrance and it's a shame it's discontinued. As for the performance and longevity, I can't comment yet because I've only test sprayed on my arm several times and it's winter. Once it's spring, I'll be putting this in my rotation.

I absolutely love this fragrance. It strikes the perfect balance between mass appeal and something that pleases me on a personal level. The way the grapefruit cuts through the ginger and cardamom opening is just so refreshing; it's a thing of beauty. The same goes for the rose/cedar combo later on. I love seeing rose deployed in unexpected contexts, and its use here is perfect. The apple note gives the whole thing just the right amount of tartness, too. Basically every element here is in perfect harmony with one another. I could see this being unisex, but at the same time I appreciate having a more "masculine" scent that isn't afraid of being soft and delicate. It's a shame it's discontinued; I could see it doing well with the right marketing, or maybe it was just a few years ahead of its time.

Back up bottle already ordered! Such a shame this has been discontinued. YSL Lhomme line and La Nuit flankers are hit or miss for me. But the hits truly hit. And this one is a hit. I love Lhomme, La Nuit de Lhomme, Lhomme Ultime, and the new Bleu Electrique. The rest are not worth my time tbh. I guess Lhomme Lintense is ok but I wont rebuy it. I will start off by saying I really dont like rose. But the rose in this is soft, sweet, and masculin. Its noticable but it makes you smile when it shows its face. Its a super bright, sparkly scent that performs very well for me. The fizzy opening dies down after an hour or two, but the warm spiciness and rose lasts the entire time. Which for me, lasts 8-10 hours in a small scent bubble. Im always in a good mood when I put this masterpiece on!