Velours Vanille - Bois Ambres

A very, very smooth operator: velvet indeed. Truly unisex, calming, centring, luxey scent of comfort and opulence. No startling acridity or shoutiness in the spice department; no reeking animalia in the musks. Just such a gentle elegant warmth and sweetness of manner (without any excessive sugar or honey) that I can imagining it ushering you to a safe place, taking your coat and putting you at your ease with its impeccable manners. Soothing and sensual and deeply reassuring. A warm and friendly whisper in your ear, not an extravagant entertainment or any kind of shock to the system. Deeply satisfying and not experimental in the least. Yet somehow it's still not boring - the tonka and vanilla are far too delicious and grown-up for that, though not gourmand or food-y at all - and it's not anonymous either: there's a slightly wacky, tasty surprise tang of playdoh/plasticine (from the orris maybe?), and an initial peppering of red pepper, which do make this one stand out from the rest. Beautifully soft powderiness too. But it will absolutely not scare or upset you (at least not until you look at the price tag). They named it right: absolutely nothing whatsoever abrasive about any dimension of this scent. It's like a full body rub down with the softest velvet imaginable - the only friction is entirely pleasurable. Therefore it's not the most distinctive or individual, and not quite lighting up all my ecstasy-meters, but I can still recognise just how crushingly classy and superbly solid its construction is. (Like a street pigeon getting run over by a Bentley, I suppose.) Projection and longevity both slightly too modest for my preference, but that's only because I'd like something this well-centred to be a bit more extrovert about itself too. But Velours has the kind of quiet understated confidence that doesn't need to shout, or even speak too loudly, to let you know what a class act it is. Lovely lovely stuff.

I’ve had my fair share of internal struggles with this one...to summarize, I’ve never been a huge pusher of Dior Homme - or any of the 500 variants. I do think DH is unique for what it is - for all intents and purposes, it should not resonate with the male population of fragrance enthusiasts, but for whatever reason, it does. Why am I talking about Dior Homme in a review for ysl velours? Oh. That’s simple. It smells like Dior Homme. Here’s where the internal struggle comes in - I love velours, but have never felt strongly towards DH (or again, any of the variants). Luckily, I’ve got my silver stem dh next to me (anyone wanna swap?) - yep, smells the same... so what gives? While they are strongly similar, I feel that Dior has more of a powdery feel, while the ysl promotes more of a natural Orris (also causing struggles: I hate orris). Where Dior goes powder/waxy, ysl seems to give off a creamy vibe. Yeah, I’m really splitting hairs, but that’s as much difference as I can honestly identify. So - since the smell is so similar, I’ll fast forward to the feeling. This is really the only strongly differentiating factor I can identify. Ysl is calming. Dior does not do this for me. Anyway, if you think Dior Homme is a masterpiece, well, meet its twin brother. Full disclosure - I received this bottle in a swap. Had I paid the $200+ for this, id likely be writing a hateful review about how I think it’s bullshit that companies can market different fragrances that smell the same... anyway, I enjoy it - and although the smell itself is strikingly similar to Dior Homme, I find this to be more appealing to me.

This is a fabulous fragrance, and they finally started selling it in those thin glass tubes. Actually I'm not sure YSL is selling them; maybe these are their samples they give out to people who convince the salespeople they're actually good for a $250 bottle and will be racing back next week to buy one. But whatever, Velours is around on eBay for $9.99, my kind of price. To my nose anyway, Velours is one of the few fragrances around that might actually be worth the money for a full bottle. It's rich and full and different from almost anything else. Several people have suggested it reminds them of L'Insomnuit, but I have that and Velours has none of the sharp balsamic qualities. I don't smell anything smokey here either. But I think the terms balsamic and smokey are overused in the last couple of years anyway. I haven't tried either Dior Homme or any of the Le Labo scents, so I don't know about how they compare. I'm not a huge fan of jasmine, but although it's listed Velours isn't about that. It's all pepper and amberwood and vanilla. But absolutely not an 80's vanilla. It's lush without being gaudy. (It's not Obsession.) And I think the black tea is more of a heart note; I can smell it longer than a couple of hours, or think I can anyway. It lasts 7 hours or so on my skin with just a couple of dabs; longer when I sprayed it at the Neiman Marcus counter.

@adamthompson06 @ghent32 Velours is pretty awesome along with Tuxedo (my favorite) and others like Caftan, Caban, Trench, etc. Impressive line overall for SURE. I'm a fanatic for Dior Homme Parfum, and I mean no offense, but I think Velours is a pretty different animal honestly. I'm going to compare them again because it's very interesting that both of you feel it has a similarity to DHP. As far as Dr. Pepper type of smells...I guess I really need to compare Velours vs DHP vs Enigma (gourmet cola vibe). Maybe Velours will amaze in a new way this time! Update 7/18/18: I did my test with those three, and you know what I can smell what you guys mean about the similarity with DHP, but perhaps it's actually closer to DHI. The powdery vanilla/orris/woods/amber combo has that Dior resemblance! I think what makes DHP different in a notable way is the leather and the "oud" (darker woody note than Velours, doubtful it's actual agarwood). I was actually so impressed by Velours...I don't even know which is my favorite from this YSL collection anymore...God have mercy on my wallet!!!

7/5/23: ok i've been wearing this a lot. what u need to know: it's a cold leather in the opening but a warm powdery ambery iris scent in the dry down. the longevity and projection are insane, it's the third most complimented fragrance i've tried. it's powderier than i initially thought. i would also say that this is more along the same lines as atelier materi iris ebene vs. dior homme variants. what really made me love this, is that there's something in this perfume that smells exactly like the barbie makeup kits i used to get when i was a child, there were these shimmery pink and purple cream eyeshadows, this hs that scent DNA and it's extremely lovely. also, for some reason i feel like my confidence is lifted when i wear this? 3/9/23: the opening smells animalic like a cold plasticy leather scent mixed with some fluid resins. the drydown is a touch warmer with slightly powdery orris. i gotta report back on this, interesting!