L’Homme has become a long running and popular series of men’s fragrances for Yves Saint Laurent. In 2020, they released a Le Parfum version of this scent, and I’ve been recently testing it out to give it a full review on here. What does it smell like? Does it have good performance? Is L’Homme Le Parfum worth a buy?
What does L’Homme Le Parfum Smell Like?
Notes include: lemon, cardamom, cedar, vetiver, amberwood, basil, violet leaf
Click here to try: L’homme Le Parfum by Yves Saint Laurent Eau De Parfum Spray 2 oz Men
My Full Review
The opening of L’Homme Le Parfum really matches the color of the juice. This is a very modern blue-ish fragrance. You can tell the original L’Homme’s DNA is here. But, it is infused with elements of other YSL colognes.
L’Homme Ultime and Libre, come to mind. Those aren’t made anymore, but when it is all blended together, the opening gives off strong Y EDP vibes also. So, it becomes the original L’Homme blended with Y EDP.
The opening act features a strong blend of citrus and the basil. That basil note is what L’Homme Libre was built around and along with the violet leaf brings me flashes of that scent, within Le Parfum.
The basil, lemony spicy cardamom, and actual lemon are all sitting on top of the fresh and dry cedar wood and that synthetic amberwood aroma. The amberwood really steers the blue-ish feeling of this fragrance, like other modern colognes which pair that with citrus.
Unlike Libre, Le Parfum’s basil freshness is tampered down by the sweet spiciness of the cardamom note. Which gives it those L’Homme Ultime vibes, with the geranium. Strip out the sage and apple of Y EDP and Le Parfum is a good approximation, in its early stages.
This fragrance starts out leaning more towards the fresh end of the spectrum, with a solid amount of sweetness. However, in the dry down that flips and Le Parfum becomes sweeter than the other releases that I’ve mentioned.
It’s a woody sweetness with that fresh and hefty dose of geranium in the middle. It ends up being smoother and sweeter in the end, versus the somewhat sharp and synthetic opening act.
Sillage, Longevity, and Versatility
I really appreciate the performance of Le Parfum. I have a recent bottle of L’homme and the sillage and longevity are terrible. With Le Parfum, YSL changes course and delivers something much more substantial.
Early on the sillage is strong. Not a bomb, but one that could easily be over-sprayed. That phase will last 30 minutes or so. After that, Le Parfum fall much more in the moderate camp with its projection. It’s a good deal.
The performance here is also solid. It isn’t elite in regards to how long it lasts, either. But, I’ve been getting around 8 hours of wear on my skin. So, it will deliver what you will need for most purposes and circumstances. Better than almost any other release in this series (it might actually be, but I can’t think of any which exceed it, off of the top of my head).
Seasonally, I’d wear this in the moderate to warmer temperatures of early autumn, the whole of spring, and much of the summer months. It’s a bit too sharp for the cold and probably wouldn’t hold up all that well in the extreme heat and humidity.
Plenty of use, though.
I don’t consider this to be a formal wear. It’s office safe, if you don’t overdo it. However, I’d prefer to wear this out on the town or casually day to day. Think more of evenings in the spring and summer months.
Overall Impressions of L’Homme Le Parfum
I like it. It has enough of the DNA of the original and blends it with other releases. Not my favorite by any means, but it can do a nice job of replacing L’Homme, which now has atrocious performance.
I like the basil touches, cardamom, and the cedar freshness. Very easy to wear and versatile. A true ‘blue’ cologne with plenty of ambroxan in the base. It is very much an amalgam of other fragrances from this brand, so if you’ve tried any of the one’s that I’ve mentioned, you basically know what this one is like.
I enjoyed wearing it during testing, but it still wasn’t something that I’d personally want a full bottle of. L’Homme Le Parfum does everything well enough and be a solid addition to someone’s rotation.
Best Men’s Colognes started back in 2013, as a way to share my learning experiences with different fragrances, as I dove head first into the hobby. Since then, I have written hundreds of reviews and other pages about perfumes and colognes.