Lady Gaga at the Met Gala, 2019, photo via Getty Images
Let’s face it, New York is BIG in every conceivable way; the never-ending Phillip Glass symphony of horns, the hurry, multi-decibel conversations in clattering restaurants, gargantuan faces that loom over Times Square like one-dimensional gods. New York needs a big fragrance to represent it. When the brilliant perfumer Antonio Gardoni told me he created a fragrance for Luckyscent’s launch of Scent Bar NYC in October 2019, that was based around three versions of perfumery’s lushest, most grandiose flower, ylang ylang, the idea fit that outsized city like a Gucci glove. In Bogue Profumo I Love YY, the fleshy, golden bloom is overlapped with layers of velvety violet, dark syrup, cedar, jasmine and rose. It is hugely, over-the-top gorgeous – the Met Gala of ylang perfumes.
Photo by Josh Olins for Vogue Hommes Japan, February, 2009
Bogue Profumo’s fragrances are Mozartian; individual, conceptual, and baroquely gorgeous. Gardoni drew on some memories of an exuberant New York characterized by “clubbing, big nights out and parties, great exhibitions, key architectural epiphanies and ambitious projects.” Rather than shy away from ylang’s opulence, Gardoni plays with it, taking it in as many directions as he possibly can. This is ylang-ylang squared.
Antonio Gardoni, photo Bogue Profumo
“Ylang ylang always intrigued me,” Gardoni says, “its multilayered qualities and the fact that to me it smells like a flower/non-flower. It has a lot of floral qualities and the morbid density of a rich, exotic flower, but at the same time it has some balsamic, almost medicinal aspects. Ylang ylang to me has a bit of a decadent eighties party aura as well, and this is probably why I decided to focus mainly on this ingredient in a New York City celebration or interpretation. At the same time, I just needed and excuse to do a quite extreme perfume almost all about ylang ylang … And then there is something almost dirty in ylang ylang something obscure behind that thick sexy petals… I felt honored when Franco Wright and Adam Eastwood asked me to celebrate with a perfume their opening in New York and then all these things came together.”
Photo by Nick Knight for V, February 2009
I Love YY uses three different ylang ylangs: two distillations from Madagascar and another from a small producer in the Philippines. The effect is a multifaceted rendering of the flower. The opening is bejeweled, as if a dozen related smells were refracting off each other; jasmine-like floral notes and also ripe banana, toffee, vanilla, and breadfruit. In a few minutes, the ylang is met by a sloe-eyed, dark, dusty rose that smells like it was cut from black velvet. Some sweet, toothy notes work their way in: old-fashioned boiled-sweet benzoin, Bourbon vanilla, with its slight booziness, the café au lait aroma of tonka bean mixed with some disheveled sweet spice; muted herbs peeking out quietly from time to time.
Dazed & Confused, Photo by Richard Burbidge, October 2009
One of the great pleasures of I Love YY is the way it develops along two parallels over the course of the day. The first trajectory is the glowing ylang with its changeable notes. It maintains a slow, steady pace throughout the perfume’s development, fruity at times, floral or dessert-like at others. In tandem are the flowers, resins and spice-herbal notes that emerge languorously over the next few hours. Earlier in the day, I am most aware of the florals – dusky violet, honeyed linden blossom and that secretive rose, which cling to the ylang like a fog, blurring its brasher qualities. The next stage is sexier, bolder. The fruity aspects of ylang shift towards bodily, animalic, complemented and are entwined by indolic jasmine and civet. And, while Gardoni gives a sly nod to the big 80s ylang fragrances like Samsara, I Love YY does not fall into homage but does its own thing. And nothing is more New York than that.
Ylang ylang, photo via Alberta & Brown
With Bogue Profumo I Love YY, Gardoni does for ylang what he did for lavender in 2017’s stunning MEM (one of my best perfumes of that year), teasing out every conceivable aspect of the flower and surrounding it with lush accents that enhance its rich, sometimes weird, beauty. I can tell you right now, this is one of the best perfumes of 2019.
photo by Hernando who stopped by Scent Bar NYC on October 1, 2019
Editor’s note: Scent Bar NYC, is located at 244 Elizabeth St.in Nolita. Fragrance lovers, head downtown the next time you’re in New York.
Notes: Ylang ylang, grapefruit, jasmine, rose, tonka, violet leaf, vanilla, benzoin, cedar.
Disclaimer: Sample of Bogue Profumo I Love YY graciously provided by Luckyscent. My opinions are my own.
– Lauryn Beer, Senior Editor
Sample of Bogue Profumo I Love YY, photo by Lauryn
Thanks to the generosity of Luckyscent, we have a draw of five samples of Bogue Profumo I Love YY for five registered readers in the U.S ONLY. To be eligible, please leave a comment saying what appealed to you about I Love YY based on Lauryn’s review. Draw closes 12/4/2019.
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