Yves Saint Laurent
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Bright pepper immediately stings the nostrils—both black and pink varieties working in concert to create a peppery-clean shock that nearly overwhelms the resinous elemi. For a brief moment, there's something almost medicinal and austere here, a sharpness that makes you recalibrate your expectations entirely.
As the pepper's edge dulls, osmanthus absolute emerges with a quietly floral apricot-like sweetness, though the incense remains determinedly smoky and dry, preventing any descent into purely conventional florals. A powdery quality intensifies over the next two hours, the sandalwood beginning its creamy influence whilst tonka adds a honeyed sweetness that feels almost dessert-like in its directness.
The base reveals itself as surprisingly linear and settled—a soft, sweet powder layered over creamy sandalwood and earthy patchouli, with tonka's vanilla-caramel influence providing gentle gourmand comfort. What lingers is predominantly creamy, powdery, and distinctly warm, though any pronounced sillage or projection is largely absent by this stage.
Caban is a fragrance that trades transparency for texture, building its identity around a deliberate embrace of powder and warmth rather than airy freshness. Carlos Benaïm has constructed something quietly confident here—a scent that feels less like a statement and more like a considered choice, the olfactory equivalent of reaching for a particular wool coat because it fits just right.
The elemi resin and dual peppers create a spiced, slightly sticky opening that immediately signals this isn't a refined citrus situation. Instead, there's an almost medicinal crackling that the osmanthus absolute attempts to soften into something more conventionally pretty, yet the incense refuses to let that happen entirely. The fragrance sits in an interesting tension: floral notes struggle against resinous and spicy elements that keep threatening to overtake them, creating an almost ornery character.
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4.0/5 (155)