Yves Saint Laurent
Yves Saint Laurent
142 votes
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Cardamom snaps with peppery precision whilst frankincense unfurls like temple smoke, immediately establishing a contemplative mood that feels almost liturgical. The spice is genuine and slightly dry, a cardamom that tastes rather than merely scents, creating an opening that demands attention rather than affection.
The jasmine sambac emerges with surprising restraint, its creamy white-floral character threading through the oriental woods without softening them. Nagarmotha's earthy, slightly animalic presence becomes apparent here, anchoring the composition and preventing it from floating into abstraction, whilst the oud begins its gradual assertion beneath the spiced florals.
By the final hours, the fragrance settles into a austere woody embrace—oud, cedar, and nagarmotha form an almost monochromatic bed of aged wood, leather-tinged resin, and earth. The drydown is contemplative and intimate, smelling increasingly like expensive timber and burnt paper, with only the faintest memory of the opening's spiced exuberance remaining.
Splendid Wood arrives as a deliberately austere proposition—Marie Salamagne has crafted something that refuses to flatter or seduce in the conventional sense. The fragrance opens with cardamom and frankincense creating a spiced, almost ecclesiastical atmosphere, immediately signalling that this is a scent for those who appreciate restraint dressed as opulence. What follows is a masterclass in woody restraint: the jasmine sambac in the heart doesn't sweeten proceedings but rather provides a delicate counterpoint to the oriental woods, preventing the composition from becoming a one-note exercise in oud brutalism.
The architecture here is genuinely clever. Rather than allowing the oud to dominate—as so many fragrances defaulted to in 2014—Salamagne uses it as a textural anchor, permitting nagarmotha's earthy, almost tobacco-like character to breathe alongside cedar's architectural clarity. This is woody composition as sculpture: each element casts a shadow that defines the others. The smoky, resinous accords coalesce into something that smells like aged paper, burnt sage, and the interior of an old wooden library.
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3.7/5 (195)