YSL Yves Saint Laurent Myslf EDP for Men

Two ways to run it. Office and daytime: two sprays, one either side of the neck, over a crisp shirt or a plain tee and denim, and the bergamot keeps it socially safe from morning to late afternoon. Evening: three or four sprays, neck plus chest and one on the collar, with tailoring or a leather jacket, so the orange blossom and patchouli get warm and close. Expect roughly six to eight hours of wear with moderate sillage that projects for the first couple of hours before settling near skin. It carries across spring, summer and autumn, which is why it works as a daily signature in Indian weather. If you plan to wear it that often, buy the 100ml and the 150ml refill together, since one refill tops up every smaller bottle. Store upright, away from sunlight.

YSL went big on the launch. Austin Butler, fresh off an Academy Award nomination for Elvis and work with Quentin Tarantino, Baz Luhrmann and Denis Villeneuve, came in as global ambassador. The print campaign was shot by Gray Sorrenti; the film was directed by Julia Ducournau, who took the Palme d'Or for Titane. Handing a men's fragrance film to a body horror auteur is a position, not a casting accident. Stephan Bezy, international general manager at YSL Beauty, framed Butler as someone who embodies the brand's values as both artist and human being. MYSLF became the launch that pulled a younger crowd into YSL's masculine line, and it has since grown flankers: Le Parfum, an Eau de Toilette Intense and L'Absolu.

The opening is citrus, but not the flat supermarket kind. Calabrian bergamot heart plus vert de bergamote, the leaf, give a green-edged brightness that reads clean on skin within seconds. Then comes the risk: an orange blossom absolute from Tunisia, crafted for YSL Beauty, sitting right in the middle of the scent. It is fleshy and faintly indolic, and it is the reason MYSLF smells like a person rather than a shower gel. Underneath, Indonesian patchouli heart and Ambrofix build a woody amber floor that handles diffusion and hold. The classification is woody floral and the whole point is that the flower is not buried. The bottle is refillable: one 150ml refill feeds the 10ml, 40ml, 60ml and 100ml sprays.