Yves St. Laurents ~ Paris

 

 

 

By now almost everyone knows of my passion for Nuit de Noel at Christmas time but besides my beloved Caron the other fragrance that I crave in December is Yves St. Laurent's completely irrepressible Paris!  For some reason, this is the perfume that I love to travel with and do so as often as possible! Maybe it's simply a matter of the power of suggestion, could anyone possibly resist a perfume named after the one of the sexiest, most luscious cities in the world?  I don’t know about you but I’m just not that strong! 

 

I personally find Paris to be a very appropriate winter fragrance for many different occasions, whether it  be a December wedding, Christmas tea, or a slowly unfolding morning spent with the New York Times Style section while drinking tea and eating warm chocolate croissants with your lover in bed.  Paris is a fragrance that works equally as well with denim or cashmere and I've worn it with all that or nothing at all.  It’s a bit like your favorite gold necklace, you know....the one that nestles between your breasts just so and warms very quickly, smelling of sweet skin and metal. 

 

 

 

  

 

 

This isn’t a pretentious fragrance, it's lighthearted, fun and just sweet enough to be coy, yet when that vanilla warms up watch out because Paris not unlike the city it’s named for is just so very sexy and  as so many things Parisian tend to do becomes very edible.  Whenever I wear this one,  I’m usually struck by a sudden longing for a bottle of Veuve Cliquot and a fancy box of foiled covered marrons glaces from La Maison du Chocolat ...... not to mention my utterly darling husband.   Did I fail to mention that it also inspires a strangely obsessive craving for just about anything La Perla and last but not least  any saucy thing written by Nin or Colette? I’m completely serious....try it and see!

 

Every year a new limited edition version of this scent is launched with a different and gorgeous variation of the bottle, however the traditional formulation of Paris still remains my tried and true favorite.  It just makes me so happy every time that I wear it because I'm always whisked back to the pastries and macarons from Bouchon Bakery, fresh flowers and the strolls down 5th Avenue in December that I enjoy with Jim while we munch on  bags of steaming, freshly roasted chestnuts.   Paris is a brightly contemporary yet truly seductive fragrance, elegant and redolent of vanilla, rose, bergamot and sandalwood, conjured with just enough violet to make any sort of holiday magic possible!

 

 

 

 

If you are now so very tempted  (And I hope that you will be!) you’ll find Yves Saint Laurent's Paris very easily at almost any Nordstoms, Dillards or Saks Fifth Avenue.

 

 

Originally Published in The Perfume Magazine