Yves Saint Laurent (well, nowadays, they just go by Saint Laurent) always makes interesting scents even when they are supposed to be just basic. I can see Y by YSL as a competitor to Chanel Bleu or Dior Sauvage (they’re all blue) but as much as there’s something very generic about Y, it also has elements that make it more distinct and interesting than the other two.

First of all, I do like its initial blast of sour candy apple. It is pungent in the best possible way, and with the bergamot/grapefruit mix it’s fresh. Even if it feels familiar, at least there’s an effort to make it a little distinctive. Even the dry down – its mixture of amber and musk with the aquatics – is more juicy than the basic generic base that you can smell everywhere else. So all in all, I do like this scent, and if I probably would choose this if I had to buy something at the men’s section of Sephora.