***Ysatis - be warned - it's not for sharing***

The scents of mandarin blossom, jasmine and patchouli make Ysatis (pronounced Ee-sah-tees) the delicious sensuous fragrance that it is. It's exotic and spicy and has a mysterious air about it. You really get noticed with this scent on and my husband is putty in my hands when I wear this (which is quite often)! It was launched by the design house of Givenchy in 1985 and what a wonderful invention it was. They caught me hook, line and sinker as a loyal user of this heavenly scent.

Ysatis was created by Domenica Ropion who since 2000 has been working as Senior Perfumer for International Flavors & Fragrances.

I've used Ysatis since the late 80s when I first discovered it and felt at the time that it was a real "grown up" perfume, and there was no turning back for me. It is my favourite perfume and I've gone through literally dozens and dozens of bottles of it over the years.


AVAILABILITY

You can get the perfume in eau de toilette form in 5ml (about £5), 25ml (about £18), 50ml (about £38) and 100ml (about £50) bottles, although you can get it cheaper if you shop around online or offline. I've been using the Perfumed Body Veil, which is available in 100ml after showering in the delightful Bath & Shower Gel (also available in 100ml) and a squirt or two of the eau de toilette is just the added touch to make me feel luxuriously sensual all over. It's perfect for a night out (or even a night in)! I would add that I've found it extremely difficult to get hold of the Body Veil and Shower Gel except at Christmas when gift sets are available. There's also a deodorant spray available in 100ml, which costs about just under £20. I would also add that the Bath & Shower gel/veil lasts for ages, just a few drops of it on a scrunchie or sponge goes a long way and as an added bonus the scent lingers in the air and leaves your bathroom smelling heavenly for hours afterwards!

I've always purchased the eau de toilette as the eau de parfum version doesn't seem to be freely available, possibly because the scent might be too strong unless it's in eau de toilette form? I've actually searched high and low for the Ysatis in parfum version but have been unable to track it down in at least 7 or 8 years.

Ysatis is freely available in Boots, Superdrug and most other high street perfumeries. It's available online from escentual.co.uk, fragrancebay.com, perfume-elite.co.uk, pharmacy2u.co.uk, fragrancedirect.co.uk and numerous other sites. I spotted a 30ml bottle on fragrancedirect.co.uk for £16.00, which seemed to be a new bottle rather than a used tester (as they do tend to sell testers often which have barely been used).


DESIGN

Another thing I'd like to describe about Ysatis is the unique design of the bottle. The shape reminds one of a New York skyscraper (obviously a very much scaled down version...), it was designed by Pierre Dinand with art deco in mind.


THE SMELL ITSELF

If you like floral scents I'm sure you'll love this! I've never met anyone to date who hasn't liked this perfume when I've worn it (unless everyone's just too polite) and more often than not, people actually ask "What's that lovely perfume you're wearing?" I try not to wear it to work as I feel it would be wasted there! I have a different perfume for work use, maybe I'll write about that later...

I know it's not cool to include lists of ingredients but I was amazed to find out that there were just so many in Ysatis that I had to share them with you:

Top notes: mandarin, bergamot, ylang-ylang, galbanum, orange blossom, coconut, rosewood, greens and aldehydes (top notes are what you smell straight after applying a scent)

Middle notes: rose, jasmine, polianthes, iris, tuberose, ylang-ylang, carnation and narcissus (mid notes are classed as the character of the scent - also called "heart notes")

Base notes: bay rum, vetiver, patchouli, oak moss, sandalwood, clove, vanilla, amber, musk, honey, civet and castoreum (what you smell once the scent has settled on your skin)

I do absolutely adore Ysatis and would add that it's lucky I don't have a younger sister, as I know we'd argue over her borrowing this from me. Even if I'm out with pals and they want a squirt when we visit the, erm, powder room I'm quite possessive over it and make sure I squirt sparingly! Didn't know I was so mean did you?


OVERALL?

Marks out of 10? 11 if that's possible! It's heaven in a bottle as far as I'm concerned! If they ever spotted making this perfume I would be absolutely devastated. Enough said...

I repeat (in case you didn't quite get it before) ***Ysatis - be warned - it's not for sharing***