Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche pour Homme will probably always be a milestone fragrance for me. It was the first “proper” designer bottle I bought with my own money during my student years. Looking back, I was also absolutely influenced by the ads at the time. They had that unapologetically sensual, old-school masculinity that made the whole thing feel a bit aspirational and slightly dangerous. That tight, moody close-up of a man holding a telephone receiver, eyes closed, bare skin, hairy chest...
The scent itself is classic clean barbershop, executed with real elegance. What makes it special is how convincingly it reads as expensive grooming. On skin, it really does feel like high-end shaving cream, the kind you’d imagine in a serious barbershop with hot towels, steel tools, and quiet confidence. Crisp, smooth, and put together. It’s masculine without being aggressive, polished without feeling cold, and old-fashioned in a way that reads refined rather than dated.
It’s discontinued, and so was its later, reformulated and repackaged version, so you can’t really just walk into a store and get your bottle. For a fragrance that nailed this kind of classy barbershop character so well, that feels like a total crime. It’s a genuine loss.
