mindcandy pennies from the overgenerous lunatic

Perfume Review: YSL M7

Today we're gonna have a look at this little known classic who has been sidelined by its owner, Yves Saint Laurent the fashion house due to it not appealing to the masses. However, it has gained a steady flow of fans over the years, mostly perfume enthusiasts who are tired of the usual, generic aquatic or sweet scents out there.

M7 has depth. It is intense and overpowering. Like the butch jock you meet at the club. The opening notes come with a blast of dry, almost sickly cherry with a huge woody accord (we're assuming it's the Oudh/Oud/Agarwood) before the cherry note quickly dissipates to a dry, dark wood accented by sweet musk and amber. A few hours later, only the musk, amber and a small hint of agarwood remains and it does smell slightly creamy and sweet all the way, resembling a very dry version of white chocolate or cocoa butter but with a woody, spicy thing going on at the background. It is not an edible kind of chocolate at all but the spicy, dry type as if you're smelling those white chocolate meant for cooking, except a lot less sweet and dry beneath. It is basically a woody-musky scent that is unusual and at the same time, demands attention. The musk itself in this scent is not your typical clean smelling one, its a slightly dirty musk that has been blended in with vertiver, giving it a slightly bitter/dry accent. The vertiver here is almost invisible; only a very slight hint is detected with the musk and almost, no where else. One note that constantly plays itself at the background, throughout the perfume is the spicy coriander note that makes a very subtle appearance. Overall, it is a very unusual scent that would challenge your impressions on the world of perfumes.

The entire scent evokes a very sensual and classy dinner in a nice restaurant with the girlfriend, sharing a laugh or two along the way. Many men would find this scent a little too heavy for their tastes in more ways than one as it does have a 'dirty' smell to it (the amber and musk combo) may intimidate many guys. It's definitely not a scent that can be worn in the office daily (I've tried and it just feels odd to smell so wildly different than everyone else's hugo boss and CKs. Like wearing a suit, a tie and suspenders on a causal friday) It feels like a subtle power suit one level below Aramis that would make you feel confident, sensual and mysterious at the same time.

However, this scent is getting rarer and rarer at the moment as many people are not used to having their olfactory impressions challenged, they just wanna smell clean. It has been reformulated to tame the cherry note, which alone would put many people off due to its association with medicine and also, possibly to remove allergy triggering substances (the pre-formulated one gave me a headache). It is still however a wonderful fragrance even if some people cry that it's been reformulated and watered down (in reality, the original was headache inducing. i am sure it wont be fun wearing it if you get headaches from it) so i dont really get the whole hoohah about the whole reformulated thing. Just enjoy the perfume people!

The ad campaign for this one is also interesting: It features a very hairy naked man (please google i'm not that into guys..:x) sitting reclined. I have no idea why or what does it represent when it could have been some guy in a power suit or something (which represents it closer) instead of some hairy naked guy. It could have been because the creator of the perfume, Tom Ford (who is now heading his own niche perfume line) is gay and he wants to target the gay people with this perfume(or just wanna see a naked guy) or that the naked guy's hair represents how that perfume is supposed to feel. Either way, its somewhat disturbing and i do not really wanna know. haha.

Do give this a try at the YSL counters. It may be a pleasant suprise or a not so pleasant one, depending on how well you adapt to it...