Muse Yves Saint Laurent 2025

Here it is, the new "Muse" Eau de Parfum. I've been waiting for this perfume with great anticipation for the last few days. Admittedly, a little skepticism crept in over time. Not because of the stated notes, but rather because one of the marketing images shows a woman dressed very smartly. Is it too feminine for me and will it spoil the notes? Well, you don't have to spoil it for yourself now, I thought in the end, after all it is listed as unisex and the notes indicate a certainly good spring-like fragrance!

What did I get? A perfume!
Surely it's a perfume, some of you are thinking, what else could it be!
No. I mean by perfume, it smells like the highest kind of French perfume art. This must have been the old classical school of perfume, transforming natural ingredients into art.

It is not a quickly thrown together fragrance.
Someone has put some serious thought into it.
It's a creative masterpiece.

The fragrance starts off a little rough if you're not familiar with ink in fragrances. But who doesn't know the smell of ink, I think pretty much everyone has accidentally dyed their fingers with it at a young age ;)
I liked the smell back then.

A brief history of the ink - source: tinte24.de
No, this time it wasn't the Swiss. The first written documents date back to 5000 BC by the ancient Egyptians. They wrote with rushes on papyrus and were able to use black and red inks even then. The inks were made from soot (black) or earth containing iron oxide (red), together with water and a rubbery binder.
Independently of the Egyptians, the Chinese began writing with ink around 2600 BC: they applied a type of lacquer with a bamboo stick. It was not until many years later that the Chinese also began to obtain their ink from soot. To do this, they burned lacquer and coniferous charcoal, pressed the soot into sticks and rubbed this dry ink in water until they could write with it.
The use of squid ink was also widespread in the past. The first mentions of it in Europe can be found in the Roman author Cicero (106 to 43 BC).

Interesting what it says, I didn't know that until now either! Let's get back to the scent.

So the ink is there from the start.
After 3min. It becomes slightly floral and violet-like with a gentle depth. The incense is also there right away and plays a really nice secondary chord. The ambretta seed is very animalic and polarizing. The combination of A.samen and iris absolute brings a fine leatheriness, it is also subtly powdery. Of course, the ink from the beginning is also still there and becomes slightly sweeter over time, but also somehow fresh.
The vanilla is clearly perceptible, but so light as a feather that it is barely noticeable.

I see the fragrance as 100% unisex.
I imagine it to be incredibly attractive on stylishly dressed women.
On self-confident men, it certainly has the same effect on the opposite sex.

After I put it on, I was immediately reminded of my last trip to Paris last year.
I strolled through this fascinating city, the weather was great, the people happy, food on every corner, the whole city smelled of muse, the metro, the alleyways, the museums.

Wonderful and totally incredible that they managed to capture this beautiful city in a fragrance.

In any case, this fragrance has triggered something in me.
The desire to take another little trip to the city of love in spring.