Systemshaak

I once lost a big bottle of Hugo Boss that I'd bought at a store on the Champs-Elysees as a teen. It broke my heart back then! When I tried it way later on, the reaction from my SO was "this smells like the 90s." I gave up! Scents had passed me by. Or did they?

After a lot of niche and designer soul-searching, I came back to the first thing I liked at the store where I started this whole fragrance landscape-surveying thing. And of course I came back to it - my first favorite cologne in high school was Hugo, and YSL Y EDP is a modern Hugo with a more experimental bent: amber (operanide, which is decidedly a little sharp), soapy aldehydes, and just a touch of smoky incense are added to the tried-and-tested apple, lavender, geranium, sage, and cedar notes of the 90s classic.

The operanide seems to be the big differentiator here - there's something to this amber synth that accentuates the sharper notes of the geraniums and lavender, and they stick around, kinda circulating for hours and hours with the sweeter amber note. While I absolutely loved my time wearing Amouage Search, and it's wonderful for about two hours, the whole thing kinda disintegrates into an amber note that isn't unlike this one, but lacks that set of bitters as the citrus dissipates. Maybe that's the juniper talking in Y EDP. The drydown is the standout feature. Guess what shows up later on? Incense! My favorite note! By hour 2, there’s a bit of smoke in there.

I also have Y Le Parfum, and I got it by mistake, but it's pretty good too. Here's what I've seen for differences: Y EDP makes its presence known far more than my experience with Y Le Parfum, so be careful that you're not overspraying it. Aldehydes are less in the EDP - there's less soap, which you may or may not like. I like letting the florals do the talking, so I prefer the EDP there. Also, if you're going to try this in a store, try it on skin and let it dry. The drydown, where those sharper floral notes hit the sweet amber just right, is where Y EDP shines. Y Le Parfum, in contrast, basically starts and ends in the same place.

Anyway, at a time where I thought I just would never have a signature scent and might just circulate decants forever, I went back to the store, checked on Y EDP after this wild odyssey, and found exactly the thing that I'd wanted from the beginning. Got the bottle. Maybe it's not the most unique pick, and maybe it's bound to be associated with a particular time or decade like Hugo was, but hey - it's my thing, and if you count Hugo, I guess it has been for three decades!

Before I got a decant of this, I read up on hay absolute. Apparently it's an ingredient perfumers use to bring some sweetness without using vanilla- my arch-nemesis in scents. I half expected the hay note to hide in the sandalwood and cypress, but no: this scent features hay, and I kinda love that!

Don't get me wrong, this is a designer scent after all; it's not like Intenso comes across as Eau de Barnyard. There's still synth aquatic stuff and woods and the compulsory lavender - but it's like one of five Iron Chef scent "dishes" within Battle Hay if that makes sense. It's a masculine-designer take on hay that works; there's an inherent bitterness to the hay that they're both featuring and smoothing out. The bitterness lingers on the drydown, which is a plus to me. Sillage is pretty good, longevity is medium. I'd wear it!

I think the best thing I can say about Dime No. 1 is that I can't be mad at this. It's a slightly fresh and clean take on a standard lavender-based masculine EDT. The spray has a lot of initial citrus just chillin' out. The drydown is an aquatics-managed-lavender in a way that reminds me of YSL Y (either EDP or LP). It's perfectly adequate! If you want a scent that won't offend or go nuclear in a crowded room, this is a fine answer.

The first time I sprayed J'Adoube on my wrist as a test run, my immediate reaction was "well, this isn't for me." The key here is *sprayed,* though; J'Adoube hit me hard in the face with fruity sweetness upon first contact with my skin. As it dried down, I started picking up what Mind Games was putting down with this scent. By the end, I was hooked. When the dust settles on my endless search for good smelling stuff, this might be my signature if my wallet can stand it.

The pomegranate that threw the first punch doesn't disappear on drydown, but it settles in with a nice leather tunic and is subsequently doused in a kind of amber note that may as well be pomegranate's amber twin. It comes across in sillage as a kind of unisex fragrance treatise, with all three of these elements resting comfortably in some sort of aerial equilateral triangle of the traditionally masculine, the traditionally feminine, and the amber uniting the two. It's like how an immaculately-mixed cocktail tastes like all of its elements and yet one singular new thing simultaneously. And that cocktail lasts for a very long time and projects well! I'd almost say it's "linear" in a way, but the line itself is unique.

I think a scent like this is pretty important! Fruits are often cordoned off in the "feminine" category in scents. Oh, sure, those of us on the masculine side can have some citrus as a treat, and we must graciously remember that bergamot is also a fruit, and maybe we'll hide a bit of apple on the top end of something, but come on - we weren't marketed to with those fun Escada tropical things back in the late 90s. We're thrown wood, grass, resin, leather, tobacco - like we all need to be reminded of a 60s boardroom or a ranch. And that's fine, but let's go; we can handle the fruit! J'Adoube takes us further into juicy red fruits under the cover of amber, and I couldn't be more thrilled.

My first day with Amouage Search was a challenge. The decant itself smelled like fresh lemon, and from there I thought I knew what I was in for - after all, my preferences tend to lean toward citrus/bergamot top notes and an incense base with a little vetiver kick sometimes. Usually, with these kinds of fragrances, the citrus notes disappear after a while and I'm left with a soothing base for the rest of the day. That's it, right?

Nope! The strong smoke in Search (and I think that's from the elemi) first registered with me as "motor oil" before mellowing out into "okay, a good oil on fire, maybe?" Somewhere beyond the smoke was this promise of an herbal, botanical finish. And this lemon was weird! I couldn't place it!

To be fair, this scent challenge was accompanied by some weird experiences. I played a Jeff Minter arcade game in VR (for those who don't know, that's just about as weird as my experience) and vibed for a while. The next day, I sprayed it and watched Dune 2 in a theater. Surrealism, loud colors, brash noise, deserts, and this thing were blending so well together.

Now I've come full circle on it. That's not just lemon, and that's not just *any* lemon, there's a blend of citrus things going on, and the whole scent seems to last a while *including* the citrus (so probably they're using a lot of peels too). That's not just oil on fire, it's a wonderful-smelling oil transformed by it. The herbal notes in the background center it in reality.

Now I like this scent far too much, it's ridiculously expensive, and I only have a decant (hence why I'm not rating the bottle). Send help. Well played, Amouage.