L'Homme Ultime

Yves Saint-Laurent masculine fragrances have always stood out for their chic, refined elegance and a floral sophistication. L’Homme, born in 2006, was no exception to this rule, and it was quite naturally that on its road to success it brought along seven magnificent flankers in its wake. L’Homme Ultime was thus offered to gentlemen in 2016 to celebrate the tenth anniversary of this woody, chic Yves Saint-Laurent Man. For the occasion, its three talented perfumers dressed it in a remarkable musky rose…

L’Homme Ultime, Yves Saint-Laurent’s masculine woody rose

L’Homme by Yves Saint-Laurent has not finished making headlines. It must be said that the aromatic-woody fougère composition with violet accents, created by Anne Flipo, Dominique Ropion, Céline Martin, and Pierre Wargnye, already had, back in 2006, everything needed to appeal to elegant men who take pleasure in the inimitable style of the house of Yves Saint-Laurent.

From its release, L’Homme was acclaimed, and the house soon offered magnificent flankers of this fragrance which, due to its contrasts, lends itself easily to reinterpretation. Summer bottles, an intense version in 2013 with L’Homme Intense, more dynamic versions with L’Homme Cologne Gingembre or L’Homme Libre, not to mention of course the new, more sensual and nocturnal range of La Nuit de L’Homme, L’Homme by Yves Saint-Laurent has evolved with the seasons and its perfumers.

For its tenth anniversary, two of the original perfumers, Dominique Ropion and Anne Flipo, worked with the young and talented Juliette Karagueuzoglou to compose for this Homme an L’Homme Ultime that would be even more contrasted and surprising than the other flankers. And the result is undoubtedly worthy of L’Homme and its favorite, La Nuit de L’Homme, as this L’Homme Ultime exudes a rose unprecedented in masculine perfumery, one that proves far bolder than the other accords composed so far for L’Homme.

When Dominique Ropion, Anne Flipo, and Juliette Karagueuzoglou conjugate rose in the masculine with L’Homme Ultime

I ask researchers to conduct a study, as precise as possible, of rose, jasmine, tuberose, and so on, to examine it in every detail and to smell every molecule, even the strangest ones. And afterward, if I want to make a rose fragrance, I start from a formula of this flower and decide to emphasize the spicy, fruity, citrus, or jasmine-like aspect it already contains, attributed to Dominique Ropion, perfumer and creator, among others, of L’Homme Ultime by Yves Saint-Laurent.

Thus, as Dominique Ropion likes to tell it, damascena rose was worked into L’Homme Ultime in such a way that, for the first time in a masculine fragrance, it managed to exhale its powers while becoming virile. But damascena rose is not the only notable guest in this L’Homme Ultime, which undoubtedly recalls the splendor and originality of Yves Saint-Laurent fragrances from the 1990s.

Indeed, the fresh opening propels, through citrus notes, a breath of absolute modernity that is supported at the heart by an apple note, itself unprecedented in a masculine fragrance, but above all energetic and fruity. The warmth of spices and amber woods thus confronts the freshness of the lively notes of geranium and vetiver, blending better into a few wild, virile touches of cashmeran.

L’Homme Ultime cultivates the beauty of opposites while offering a rose that is at times fresh, at times sensual, all the better to keep us caught in its addictive web.