Y

Yves Saint Laurent Y Eau de Parfum, launched in 2018, opens with a sweet, tart green apple and sharp ginger over bergamot, moves into a green sage-and-geranium heart, and dries down to vetiver, cedar, tonka bean and smoky incense - a fresher, fruitier take on the 'blue fragrance' category that sits alongside names like Bleu de Chanel and Dior Sauvage. Clean Shaven's version captures that fruity-aromatic opening reasonably well; the apple and ginger combination is recognisable in the first half hour. Where it loses ground is the transition - YSL's sage and geranium heart gives the fragrance a green, slightly savoury complexity that keeps it interesting as it develops, and the dupe's middle stage is noticeably thinner, moving quickly to a generic woody-amber base rather than the original's layered vetiver-tonka-incense dry-down. Longevity is also a step down from the genuine article's respectable seven-to-eight-hour wear. It works well as an office-friendly, fresh aromatic for anyone who likes the general shape of Y without needing the real thing's polish, but the smoky incense finish that gives the original its identity in the final hours is largely absent here.