Everything you need to know about Libre, TEN’s favourite pick from YSL Beauty

In 1966, Yves Saint Laurent debuted Le Smoking, the couture tuxedo suit for women that evolved the understanding of womenswear and set the stage for the house’s liberal code. This legacy has been carried on by his successors throughout the decades and came through as a scent in 2019.

Libre, an olfactory embodiment of YSL, gets its name from the French term for free. With a vision from the outset to revisit a masculine structure, master perfumers Anne Flipo and Carlos Benaïm authored this floral addiction. It plays on the tension between masculinity and femininity, a couture take on the fougère structure. In the perfumery world, fougère is known as a classic style for men’s fragrance revolving around lavender.

For Libre, fougère is deconstructed and brightened to give the Diva Lavender heart a sweet, burning depth. Orange blossom, mandarin, and lavender create a fresh and alluring contrast before giving way to the sensual jasmine sambac in the heart. Eventually it dries down to a warm vanilla with a touch of glowing amber.

In an edgy and playful move, designer Suzanne Dalton supersizes the iconic Cassandre and wraps the YSL around the angles of the asymmetrical flacon inspired by the trim geometric lines of a tailored suit – bringing the couture-coded Libre full circle.