Rive Gauche

I have always been more of an oriental floral, or floral fruity gourmand, vanilla perfume lover. "Rive gauche" was my mother's signature fragrance in the 70's and 80's. She was the reason this fragrance was introduced to me aside from my standard scent tastes. My first impression was "oh no, this is far too difficult for me to feel confortable in wearing; maybe too masculine, too metallic, too dated". I was 24 then and through my scent I needed to project the element of invitation. I really needed my fragrance to be people-pleasing. A few years after, I came across my unfinished bottle of "Rive gauche". The aluminium bottle had preserved the scent absolutely intact. I find now that on my skin this is a multidimensional scent: the intense opening somehow sweetens and after about 10 minutes the aldehydes create a more citrusy and woody drydown. There is a background of undetermined elements - which I want to stay that way in order for the perfume to keep being magical -, through which the scent becomes sophisticated, aristocratic and unique. This scent does not flatter every complexion, nor does it emit the element of obvious invitation to others. Yes, this is a difficult scent, and the one who chooses it surely develops a love-or-hate relationship with it. However, if one is fortunate enough to smell as they are supposed to when wearing it, "Rive gauche" is the very definition of aristocracy, great projection and duration. It is THE excellent choice for a real woman for every occasion, on any time of the day, in any season. You cannot guess the number of compliments I get by both men and women in 2019 by smelling like that 70's scent. This made me realise that I do not need my fragrance to scream "sweet" and "available". Besides, I find that I can no loger tolerate edible smells. Nowadays, I only need people who approach me to detect what this fragrance silently projects for me: "expensive", "sophisticated", "intellectual", "professional", "knows what she wants", "out of the ordinary", "keeper". I believe these are the exact reasons why "Rive gauche" was the signature perfume of extremely important ladies of the 20th century: Katherine Hepburn and Barbara Hutton. "Rive gauche" will give the ideal (for me) first impression to my entourage, otherwise, I really have no time to waste. Just trust Yves.

Review of an early 1980s Charles of the Ritz EdT So says Stephen King having requoted Jonathan Swift, “sooner or later, everything old is new again.” I would like for that to be true of Rive Gauche. What’s “in” and/or “fashionable” is almost always a repeat of something that came before. Rive Gauche was supposed to be a perfume of a sci-fi future (it wouldn’t), completely reinventing how we think of the aldehydic floral chypre (it didn’t), and be unlike anything we had before (it wasn’t). But it got pretty darn close though! Today it would likely smell way too retro for most, but, at some point, “everything old is new again”. This futuristic perfume of the past needs a social media manager so that it can “reinvent itself” back into relevance. What makes Rive Gauche stand out from its predecessor aldehydic florals is the overdose of aldehydes presenting like ice shards, and virtually no sweetness to the fruit or floral notes. This was quite unique for the day, but hardly groundbreaking. At a time when aldehydic florals were typically hazy, abstract, powdery French chic affairs that smelled of old chateaux with well manicured gardens, RG wanted to smell of skyscrapers and glass, of flowers grown in a laboratory. The green peaches in the opening, covered in those icy aldehydes, give an immediate feeling of youthful, modern energy. Chanel No. 5, this was not going to be. Even in the floral heart there is a verdancy to the rose and jasmine that smells hurried and immature - but, in today’s perfumes that would mean sweet. Not RG. The florals are vividly saturated and devoid of any nectars and pollens. Orris and muguet act as street lights, shining a bit of a white and yellow glow into the cool, glassy, and icy night. Swells of oakmoss and musks work their way up and down the perfume before ceding to sandalwood, presenting a contrast of skyscrapers and flora. I have a soft spot, a big one, for Rive Gauche even though there is nothing soft about the perfume at all. It is hard, bifurcated, piercing, abrasive, vivid and saturated. It’s a lot of things that are negative and difficult, but the sum is greater than the parts and the sum at the bottom line says masterpiece.

[475] Rive Gauche, possibly the most legendary YSL perfume of all, is a bohemian take on an aldehydic floral. Masterfully composed, it is a multifaceted and cohesive perfume - simultaneously dewy and bright, floral and fruity, green and mossy. The iconic arty bottle is sturdy and satisfying, and seemingly RG was created with the working woman in mind, with the intention that she would buy her own perfume. 1970s in the best way, it is feminine but not stuffy or overly girly; instead it is fresh and relaxed as well as being an undeniably excellent perfume. The epitome of undone chic, it is very French and reflects its Left Bank inspiration to perfection. To borrow an popular sentiment from Instagram, Hy and Polge clearly understood the assignment. I have two miniatures from the noughties, post-reformulation (reviewed here), and a very old vintage parfum. I like this so much that I bought a full bottle last year. RG opens with dewy green notes, elevated to soapy radiance by the aldehydes. I get a prominent rose note at the opening, made green, fresh and soapy by the other notes. There is a hint of peach in there too. As it develops, the white florals emerge, led by a beautiful lily-of-the-valley note that smoothly paves the way from the green, soapy opening to the floral heart. There is a slight metallic quality to the aldehydes as they progress on my skin, but it simply adds bite here. It becomes powdery as it develops, with more white florals coming to the fore. The drydown is mossy and chypre-like (my favourite olfactory family). Wonderfully rich and earthy, it is satisfying in the manner of classic chypres. It still remains quite soapy and green with hints of florals remaining until final fade. Sillage is strong and longevity is long-lasting. A year-round feminine-leaning scent, RG is best applied sparingly. RG has a strong, defined identity, much like the pioneering designer behind its brand. It manages to be both radiantly bright and densely rich; timeless, yet of its era; rooted in tradition, yet provocative; complex yet utterly cohesive. It is the grand sum of many noteworthy parts. If Gloria Steinem was Parisienne. Magnificent. 5/5.

Received my new flacon today of RIVE GAUCHE in the contemporary EDT. It cost me $85 USD (neither cheap nor exceptionally expensive, in today's terms). Sprayed a generous application on my arm, using its pump-style atomiseur. Firstly, a brilliant, big, nose-prickling cloud of dewy aldehydes. Then gradually the scent takes shape. It's a tightly-knit little powdery bouquet of white flowers, abstract and bleached-out, not photorealistic... I visualize it to be periwinkle blue, and I detect nuances of a wild honeysuckle, with a slightly earthy component, and then a very synthetic smelling, high-pitched lily-of-the-valley. Hints of a dry rose and abstract jasmine complement the above floralcy. If your nose is REALLY acute, you might even pick up on a ghosted/subliminal patchouly and cinnamon... "nearly not there at all". A dry 70's-style musk, not in the least bit indolic or stinky/animalic, binds them all together: in fact, you could almost say RIVE GAUCHE feels "untouched by human hands", like a Warhol or Rauschenberg silkscreen. Then, in time, the curious base evolves: It smells even MORE abstract; in fact, it smells "environmental", like a newly-constructed urban building: new steel, new industrial textiles and new panes of glass, with factory dust still on them. (YSL was doing "environmental" long before Comme de Garçons was even thought of). That combination of abstract "light blue" floralcy and curiously environmental steel and glass builds the character of RIVE GAUCHE: The picture of an urban street flanked with skyscrapers on a cool sky-blue day are the mood. Maybe a wind-whipped Parisian Sunday morning in late-March? Thus floralcy is taken out of its usual silvestral, quaint country environment, making for a most unusual perfume... as unusual today as the day it was released: cool, chic, optimistic and refreshingly unsentimental. In the 'Aughts, a friend had gifted me with a canister-- pressurized aerosol propelled-- of RIVE GAUCHE dating to the 70's... I just remember that the original jus had great sophistication, and a distinctly metallic quality. It's said the current formula is less metallic.

Cold, bright, sharp metallic rose, accented with bergamot. Jacques Polge used aliphatic aldehyde as the base to create a more avant-garde and futuristic Calandre for YSL—Rive Gauche. Rive Gauche is not only closely related to classical Arpgre (1927), L'Air du Temps (1948), N°22 (1922), but also has common characteristics with Chamade (1969). The dazzling light of Rive Gauche also reminded me of Vaga. After smelling Rive Gauche, an important member of the aldehyde family, I thought that I could sort out the history of the style development of aldehydes. I think Rive Gauche is like that... In the beginning, Vaga was also a little bit cold on the tip of a needle, piercing straight to the soul. Vega's light beam runs very fast, and can travel tens of thousands of light years in an instant. And Rive Gauche is calm and casual, destined to go slower. Early morning on the Seine, or the misty left bank, these descriptions are not quite enough. Because that's not how Rive Gauche feels to me. If you have seen the sci-fi movie "Le Cinquième Élément" directed by Luc Besson in 1997, you will definitely remember the clip of the blue alien singer singing "The Diva Dance". Why are many people so impressed by this? In my opinion, Rive Gauche's sense of the future is equivalent to this scene: from outside the sky, the high-pitched, ethereal, deep and hollow timbre of aliens and Rive Gauche's silver artificial metal light are combined into one, which is indescribably wonderful. (Or, Disneyland’s Space Mountain speeding through the dark.) Galbanum, sweet rose with a layer of green, gray powder of iris... sour ylang-ylang, jasmine, honeysuckle and lily-of-the-valley. At the beginning, it is a sharp aldehyde fragrance, then a clean and soft floral fragrance, and finally a deep and dignified musk-resin after tone, clear contrast, and a plastic smell during the period, echoing the "inorganic" attribute of Rive Gauche.

Glorious! GLORIOUS! Classic YSL - be proud of yourself for this gem! Aldehydic, crushed laundry powder delight. Viktor & Rolf "Liquid Diamonds" - take notes. THIS is how you do laundry-clean scents! Although this has, like, 20 notes in it; it basically just smells like the BEST laundry powder. This is linear. Linear like a single dimension. And I don't want it any other way. This seems to be quite the nostalgic fragrance and people often seems to say that their mother in the '70s wore this. WELL THEN, YOUR MOTHER IS AND SMELLS LIKE A DAMN FINE HUMAN BEING! The review below mine says this scent is cold and bright - and it absolutely is. It's sharp, biting, sterile, and powerful. A boss wears this. A boss who negotiates and takes no prisoners. Alternatively, this is also a hug from your mum who just smells homey and safe. A recent discovery as whenever I saw this at YSL counters in department stores, I walked right on by. I never bothered to try the scent. I just assumed it was a heavy, suffocating chypre or even a men's cologne - and this is unisex. Absolutely can be worn by anybody. Just goes to show you can't judge a perfume by its bottle. Or its year, i.e., it's timeless, and I won't hear otherwise. Only downside is I wish I could smell this on me more. Maybe I get anosmic quickly to this one, but - truthfully - I want to gas everybody when I wear this. Could be just a recent formulation, but there you go. Also, that bottle? Iconic. I hope whoever designed it got a substantial raise. Well deserved. I like to think they bought some good bell-bottomed jeans and front row ABBA tickets with it. Repurchase-worthy! *** Kitty rating: 9/10.

Rive Gauche would undoubtedly be deemed dowdy to today's Kayali crew, though I am certain few of them would even have the word "dowdy" in their vocabulary: they would just say "eww." Yet this magnificent monolith born out of the age of Helen Reddy anthems and "You've Come A Long Way, Baby" is an article of what was futuristic chic in its time. It strikes from the outset like a brain freeze from an icy peach sorbet, with spiky aldehydes, a metallic galbanum and tight citrus soon follows, almost as if this is something HAL's cyborg girlfriend would wear. Nothing here is round and soft, and that is NO complaint from me. Quite the contrary, I pine for the days when this was the aroma of the zeitgeist. It does mellow somewhat in the mist of chilled oxide rose and friable iris, with the peripheral warmth of ylang and gardenia that keeps one from going hypothermic. Bitter, clean, powdery, sharp: love, love, love, love. The evernyl haze eclipses the florals, rendering it all even more abstract. Darker elements begin to creep in, including a deep, intoxicating sandalwood, particularly in this vintage I own. Yes, how hazardous to risk an old bottle of this baby, pressurized atomizer and all. The first time I sprayed it, I panicked as the atomizer remained in the depressed position and I was gassed by ecstasy! Luckily, I was able to yank it back up and all subsequent sprays have been just fine. I don't know if it's the metal canister, but what came out smells unbruised—immaculate. One last thing: Rive Gauche is all about the sillage. The end.

I have a love hate relationship with this perfume and clearly it's taken me a long time to bother to review it, something I don't usual afford many perfumes specifically marketing towards women. It's not discrimination on my part, more that I have enough men's and unisex to review. My love hate relationship is basically that I used to hate this and now I don't...well not entirely at least. Always had a problem with aldehydes and floral musks and this starts out very bracing, even this modern version. One thing that has struck me about this fragrance is that it's the perfect counterpart for the Men's version, or sorry...more correctly the men's version is a great counterpoint for this, being as this one predates it by several decades. The green, sharpness in the opening actually has slightly the ammonia smell to me and reminding me a bit of being choked by hairspray, perm kits and hair dye by my mum, sisters when I was a kid and nowadays by my missus! Allow that effect to subside though and you are treated to what is essentially a feminine 'Barbershop' scent. Do women have a genre called 'hairdresser' scents? Anyway the musky, oakmoss clean white florals, slightly minty geranium, vetiver and woods could easily be worn by a man and on my skin actually smells really good. A fragrance I've been aware of for a long time but has come into clear focus for me now, which says as much about my changable tastes as it does about the quality or suitability of various perfumes I may have dismissed in the past.

My riskiest blind buy. I am stupid. The most expensive bottle in my collection. Surprisingly, I use it more frequently than I thought I would. If this is "old", then I wanna smell old. It is hauntingly beautiful. Even though mine is a fairly new batch, it is still a stellar fragrance. I can only imagine what this was like back in the day. I only found out this came in a metal canister when I opened the package. It was quite a surprise. I later found out the metal container is totally appropriate. This is the coldest fragrance I own. Metallic, airy, thick and full. Rather clean. The aldehydes really stand out and never disappear. The oakmoss and green notes are also quite strong. Although the fragrance warms up and sheds some of its hefty metallic cloud, it remains cold and full. A slight semblance of a citrusy note can be noticed in the drydown. Despite its "coldness", the fragrance is ideal for colder weather. It develops beautifully in late spring and early autumn. Great performance. The sillage is upper moderate for the first two hours then you may get noseblind to it but it will still be there for another 7 hours at least. Since the scent is also great, I do not regret my purchase one bit. It is worth every penny but it is not a blind buy, unless you are 100% sure you will enjoy it! "Rive Gauche" will always be a classic to me, along with my "Zino Davidoff", my "Organza", my "Gucci Rush" and other legends.

Rive Gauche is quite the hybrid, classified as: chypre, aldehydic floral or even a green floral. There lies its wonder which begs the question: how do we categorize it? After having been tried both an 80s bottle and a decade old one, one must have come up with a detailed account of how it evolved. Rive Gauche’s core is the combination of Tonka and Moss which exudes that inky, metallic whiff; furthered by the effervesence of aldehydes, it gives off quite the sparkle and scrubbed-off desexualization. The difference lies on how it’s categorized, sadly I have no bottle of the 1st decade when it was made. It must have been chypric but I digress. The 80s bottle I firmly believe a green floral. Of the quality I find in Eau de Givenchy, that heady combination of green sap and white florals. These are muted by a robust layer of aldehyde and that moss-tonka accord. The newest one is very balsamic to which I can say an aldehydic floral: the greens have been muted to non-recognition and the tonka dialed up in an attempt to emulate the tar which Rive Gauche has; a fake assault which appropriates one to think that it has been made deeper The differences might be subtle for some but the proportions of which are dealbreakers; nonetheless, still a great perfume.

I blind-bought a used bottle of Rive Gauche (EDT) a couple or so years ago as part of my "self-education" of the classics. At first, I thought that no, this is not for me, it will just be a part of my vintage collection that I keep for the sake of collecting. But when I gave the perfume a full use, I realized that it just might grow into a love. At first spray, I get a sharp metallic aldehyde from Rive Gauche, which makes me wrinkle my nose. (I'm always wary of aldehydes, not my favorite note.) This is what made me ready to stash the perfume away, thinking it too dated for my nose. But as minutes pass, the scent tones down, softening into a clean and soapy floral. I must say that I'm quite into clean soap fragrances, so by this time, Rive Gauche has really grown on me. Younger folk might still find Rive Gauche to be a little dated or old-fashioned, but I find it to be very wearable even in these modern times. It's an elegant scent that works in both casual and more dressed-up settings. It brings to mind women in breezy white linen and it's a breath of fresh air on a hot summer afternoon. And tonight, after a sweltering day, Rive Gauche is my refreshment of choice.

I was never a fan of aldehydes, having tried Chanel L’eau and finding it off-putting. But there is something irresistibly primal in La Rive Gauche. In contrast to L’eau, which is dominated by citrus alongside the aldehyde notes, La Rive Gauche is complemented by the green and woody notes which give it a beautifully earthy but sophisticated aroma. I first tried this on a whim when my mum and I were shopping and she mentioned how much she liked it. Ever since, after years of trying hundreds of perfumes, it has become my signature scent. My mum can always smell when I’ve got it on and I’ve had strangers shyly enquire what perfume I am wearing. My mum says out of all the perfumes I’ve ever tried that this one suits me the best, so perhaps it’s a skin chemistry factor. There is an amazing combination of other-worldly metal and familiar nature in this, as though I'm walking through an imaginary forest. The oak settles in nicely, and as in all of Yves Saint Laurent’s best perfumes, the rose note offers a lovely peppery accord. Like the best perfumes, it is a complex bouquet of contrasting elements that transports you to an entirely new world.

Analyzing this scent-- the current version, anyway--- I see there is a pronounced layer of green lime peel midway in its development, though not listed in the above pyramid. The "cocktail twist" lime peel quality, more dusky than tart, is the perfect bridge between the upstairs accords of brilliant, if nondescript, multi-floralcy united with breezy aldehydes, and the downstairs notes of an "industrial" quality, smelling like new, shiny metal and new big panes of glass. RIVE GAUCHE is an amazing scent, and rather strange... the exact opposite of of today's gourmands and fruitchoulis. I'm guessing the industrial qualities were meant to allude to an urban lifestyle... where many a young woman found herself in 1971. You have your flowers here, but they are kind of space-age aluminum flowers, not from the countryside, but deliberately 2-dimensional; again, like a pane of glass. I would say that RIVE GAUCHE is the stylistic grandmother of Mugler ALIEN. But as a bright aldehydic-floral, RIVE GAUCHE's relationship to Chanel No. 5 is clear, also.

(I am reviewing a vintage, circa late 80s version.) Timeless elegance , incredible aldehydic profile with refined woody base and great floral notes that show up especially a few hours later after the top notes settle down a bit. Super strong, very intense. Too many sprays will definitely be headache inducing, and I am very used to other strong fragrances. A true masterpiece of perfumery that I feel is undervalued in today ́s market where sweet profiles and ambroxan based fragrances with an aromatic profile are the best sellers. I love those too, but something like Rive Gauche, no matter what formulation, will stand out today and be simultanously familiar and unique. It is feminine leaning but I find it can be unisex (I wear it as a man) especially after the top notes dry down. The sandalwood base is nicely unisex and is very, very YSL. I think this is one of those everyone should at least sample. A lot will not like it, and that is cool, but this is a landmark like Chanel no.5 , Kouros or Shalimar.

This fragrance is the journey of getting to know an elegant person. The startling, bright, silver metal aldehydes are the first glance at a person whose fashion accessories are so beautiful that’s all you see. The middle of this fragrance is the combination of the aforementioned top and the graceful enchanting base of rose, iris, Ylang ylang, musk that is what you access when you talk to this person and manage to know them beyond their Saks charge card. Both phases are beautiful but only one lasts long, doesn’t wear off and is natural: the base. It lingers and speaks to you long after the 9 hours you would expect. I won’t mention any other notes than I have already because it doesn’t matter. This fragrance, in its entirety, evokes a feeling and that feeling is due to the story told by the perfumer, Michel Hy. The story this gives you might be different than mine, and it might not give you anything, but I am so thankful I got to know this perfume.

I first started wearing Rive Gauche at the age of 14 (!). My 13-year old sister found an offer in the back of her beloved Vogue magazine, which she has subscribed to for 40 years now. For a small amount of money she received a pure parfum mini, eau de parfum, body lotion and powder in small but generous trial sizes, which she gifted me on my 14th birthday. It has become my signature scent, to say the least. There was another girl at my high school who shared my first name who happened to be blind. Although not really close friends, she often called out "Hi, Teri" in the hall, recognizing me only by my fragrance! To make the anecdote even more incredible (but most assuredly true), thirty years after leaving high-school, but still living in the same area, I stopped at a tag sale. The woman living there was the girl from high-school; before I had a chance to greet her after so many years, she called out "Hi, Teri!". Such is the power of perfume...

This is what I love about scents. They have the ability to bring back memories you didn't even know were there. After testing Rive Gauche I'm suddenly enchanted. I remember this is what my favourite aunt wore throughout my childhood. I always admired her and thought she was the most elegant and best smelling woman I knew. I didn't realize this was perfume, I thought this was just her smell. My aunt's home, car, dog and her whole lifestyle had this scent! And I can now recall seeing the blue and black flask in her things, only then I didn't know what it was. Oh, how I love Rive Gauche. The notes that stand out the most are rose and peppery vetiver (it's very vetiver-rich! But the rose, supported by white flowers, balances it out in a genious way). RG makes one feel delicate yet powerful, able to handle any situation. For me, this is the ultimate comfort scent. It can't get better than this, this is perfection in a perfume form. Thank you Lord.

I have loved this perfume all my scented life and it wins my all-time favourite award, hands down, from the first lemon/lily of the valley twang of metallic crispness all the way down through the other florals, maybe with a sherberty whiff of pink grapefruit, and woody amber-ness. At the time I had a globe-trotting relative so the supply from duty-free seemed never-ending! Heady days indeed, and this has been my constant, tried and true, simple and complex frag for all seasons, occasions and times of day. If, like Woody Allen you like concrete beneath your feet and to "see the air you breathe" this is one for the Urbanite: it bespeaks coffee drunk standing up at the zinc, well populated streets and squares, hubbub, opening nights, galleries the opera and museums. Rive Gauche indeed - never was a scent so aptly named. It may not the the longest lasting scent, requiring a bit of a top-up but it is alluring, smart and sexy.

this is, to me, a very bitchy scent. i love it. it says f off. i wear this when i have to run the kind of errands where i need to stand up for myself. like when someone or a business has had it coming for a while and ive been generous and understanding for a long time. im way too patient and lazy sometimes and dont like confronting situations. and sometimes i get taken advantage of and really, it’s my fault. but this is a come upance type of smell. a true up smell. a im getting my rights right now smell. a calm assertive patient smell. and im never intentionally rude but need help being assertive. and this smells dangerously good. this gives me confidence. i would also wear it in paris, if i go there again and hang out left to the river. also, great for travel, scentwize and bottlewize. a city scent. a im going downtown kinda scent. i really demand so much of my scents, poor things.

I too wore this in the 70's and loved it. Still do. I also recall the slew of frags it inspired, ...Revlon Charlie, Calandre (which predated it, but became more popular at the time) and others. I first smelled Rive Gauche in London, in the winter of '72. I went to Harrods to try to find it but it wasn't available at the time. I usually wore Chanel 19 so I stuck with that until I could purchase RG. RG is so fresh, yet it has depth and power. Even now when I wear it, I get constant compliments and inquiries. I love YSL in general, and RG has always been so unique. Estee Lauder Private Collection (the original formulation) and Chanel 19 are my favorites, with RG running a close second. Gorgeous juice! Not wild about the reformulations. For those who've never experienced the original, please don't judge RG by what's currently available. Edit: Kitty Maloona (below)....I relate!!