Best Y Le Parfum by Yves Saint Laurent Alternatives & Similar Perfumes

Ahhh cedar. Old school floors, air freshener in the downstairs loo with a top note of disinfectant. Yeah right.

This delicious fragrance encapsulates the living heart of the forest with lingering and enigmatic essence of the Great Bear Rainforest®.

With sustainably sourced ingredients from within its bosom that help maintain this breathtaking but threatened environment, its wonderful wildlife and its ancient peoples.

Does it pack a punch? Do bears...?

The Orange Extraordinaire collection.

An homage to the role of spices in Western perfumery, history and culture. Naturally it’s a majestic aromatic flow of cinnamon and ginger, with numerous sparks of pepper and a rich incense background.

The Riviera. The Mediterranean fills the horizon. You’re driving along a coastal road with the roof down, feeling free. In this extrait, lemon caviar, zesty ginger and icy cardamom puts jut in your strut, while tomato leaf, neroli and black tea summons an aromatic dance. Frankincense and cypriol offer shade in the sunshine.

Perfumer: Paul Guerlain

Brocéliande is a bewitching concentrate inspired by the enchanted forest of Arthurian legend. Combining the power of the forest with the magic of the animal world, this extrait’s bergamot and lime opening leads to an unexpected wander through ginger, cinnamon and iris. A whisky sweetness rubs up against the velvet leather of civet and castoreum.

Pergola opens with the most incredible rush of twisted green vegetation and instantly transports you back to the heyday of that decadent walkway. There is so much happening in here but the notes of galbanum, bergamot, and ivy are particularly spectacular. The floral heart is a swooning blend of narcissus, tuberose, and jasmine but the pergola’s passage of history is provided by an earthy pairing of patchouli and vetiver. You get a real impression of its heritage from touches of resins and moss and, whilst it’s described as a fougere, there is definitely a feeling of the most glorious aromatic chypre.

Blazing sunlight glistens then fractures on the roiling surface of an angry tropical sea. A caravel bobs among the waves, its tall sail blasted by hot, salty winds. Dangling beneath the ghostly vessel, a curtain of lethal tentacles sways menacingly in the swell. The Portuguese man o’ war drifts, letting its unwitting prey approach. Up to 100 feet long, their lacy tentacles exude crippling venom with the merest touch. In an instant, the prey is paralyzed, and as its organs slowly liquify, the colony of zooids begin to feed.

While it’s wise to avoid a Portuguese man o’ war in the wild, prepare for danger and excitement when you encounter this Zoologist perfume. Crisp ginger and metallic gunpowder deliver a fiery sting to open, before casting you adrift on a wave of briny seaweed absolute, immortelle and geranium. You’ll thrill to this enticing scent where the only pain is the delicious pang of longing.

Perfumer: Jordi Fernández (the nose behind the white floral wonder of Latin Lover).

Beso Pasion is like a sweet summer breeze caressing a Mediterranean island. A breeze infused with sea salt, the delicious aroma of fig trees, and fragrant grass cured by the hot sun.

A high-contrast fragrance: metallic/vegetal, bitter/sweet. Copper opens as a galbanum bomb: the sap of the Persian perennial producing its characteristic grassy bite. Copper elicits strong impressions: from “peas growing in a sun-baked greenhouse” to “a cashmere scarf permeated with cigarette smoke”, with the unifier being “comforting”, due to its soft path to a faded tobacco-vanilla drydown.

Inspired by the innovative use of materials that allowed 18th century clockmakers to construct the first truly accurate marine chronometers, Lignum Vitae combines elements of wood, metal and salt to produce a truly unique, transportive fragrance. Lignum vitae itself is an incredibly dense wood - the only wood which is guaranteed to sink in water - which is indigenous to the Caribbean and the north coast of South America. The brand’s nautical theme is enhanced wonderfully by caramel, a madeleine cake accord and a cool winter lemon note which provide a truly unique gourmand experience akin to smelling warm shortbread, muffins or cupcakes.

In combining unexpected and exotic raw materials, Beaufort London celebrates the innovative spirit which brought to an end the search for lost time, and permitted the safe passage of ships across the world.

***

The Sniff on Lignum Vitae:

"An innovative gourmand fragrance with a masculine slant, Lignum Vitae by Beaufort London is something rather unexpected. And who doesn’t love a plot twist?"

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A juicy, decadent take on tropical fruits, flowers and woods. Inspired by a modernist garden in the old city of Mêrida, Yucatán. The balmy air fills with the heady scent of champaca orchids, ripe guava, fresh ginger, jasmine sambac, Mexican vanilla and mahogany. A spritz of paradise.