1979 - L'Essence de Présence

Recently dropped by at Skins where I discovered the new YVRA 1958. Quite different this new fragrance! The one in the yellow box is an out burst of citrus, this new one brought my mind directly you to the woods... Quite surprising! So many of the new launches are honoring Oud and I get a bit tired of all the variations around. This new fragrance plays another woody accord. Couldn’t determine at onces all the notes, but the mystery hides in the box where I found more about the chosen ingredients. Nice mix of cedar, patchouli. It also contains hints of musk and moss but at the same time – at least on my skin – it remained both transparent and long lasting.

The opening is fresh and lemony, but somewhat synthetic, on the brink of smelling like cleaning products. There is also a hint of soapy smell of orange blossom, as well as a bit powdery to my nose. In just a few minutes the spicy, woody and aromatic notes come to play. You can easily get the cardamon. I always find the combination of cardamon and citrus notes pleasant, I enjoy the contrast between juicy and dry spicy. My nose also gets some leather which is not listed here. After about 30 minutes, that is my favorite part. Patchouli gets prominent here. I get this vintage furniture smell, masculine, warm but calming. It is an amazing balance of earthy and aromatic scents. It really gives a barber shop vibe. The perfume itself is quite pleasant and would be a suitable choice for office use or any other business casual occasions. However, the performance is disappointing. The longevity is fine, but the projection is rather weak. It becomes more like a skin scent.

I'm quite surprised "oakmoss" isn't listed as a note because I get some of it in the dry down (maybe the ''oakmoss'' accord comes from the mix of cedarwood/patchouli/citruses). Opens up spicy fresh, dries down to heavy woody, masculin and spicy fragrance, the cedarwood is prominente but toned down by the citrus, patchouli. This is a very classy mens fragrance, my favorite of the house. Absolutely worth checking! Projection and longevity are ok, could be better in my opinion.

It'd a skin scent, for me unisex, from official notes is missing on above list fleur d'oranger, cardamom, guaiac and tonka. NO projection.

The fragrance I bought is called Yvra 1979 Essence de présence... there seems to be a bit of confusion with these, so I am hopefully posting in the right place. I remembered enjoying this on a tester strip a while ago, and blind bought a travel spray. I am quite enamoured with the year, and the Yvra design is up my alley. The fragrance disappointed me, though. I like the opening, peppery, fresh, woody, yet warm. As long as you don‘t look too closely. The scent has a tight structure with quite prominent aroma chemicals, which is fine, they are there to give a shape and a stage for other notes to play on. However, nothing really fills those outlines enough, or let‘s say it reminds of a half-coloured-in page in a colouring book. As it develops, most of the notes just hollow out, and it smells a bit like the silicone or rubber that pacifiers are made from. I really do not like the drydown - it‘s residual freshness on a bed of unsweetened coumarin (tonka), same old, which always smells like artificial felt/leather from a car interior to me. You could mistake it for L‘homme ideal after a few hours, though they are very different up top. I don‘t like L’homme Ideal at all, and that reference does not fit the price point of this. It‘s niche in the sense that it recombines typical designer notes into something a little different, but the drydown is what you‘re left with all day long, and this one smells common and flighty to me. If you like a different quality of ingredients than what most department store fragrances offer, try this before buying.