Launched: 2012
Group: Oriental floral

INTRODUCTION

I received a sample of YSL Manifesto Eau de Parfum as part of a lot of samples I won on eBay. YSL is the latest fragrance launched in 2012 described as 'spontaneous, free spirited and courageous; a scent full of passion and emotion.'

THE PACKAGING

The nice, dark purple packaging houses a tall, slim and transparent bottle cinched at the middle with a multifaceted ring cut in the shape of a precious stone. I'm fairly neutral to the design however I never liked the pretentious publicity of the face of the perfume, actress Jessica Chastain covered up to her elbows in purple paint.

THE FRAGRANCE

Top notes: blackcurrant, bergamot, green notes

Immediately after the first spritz, the sweetness is strong and apparent and to be frank, quite repulsive. Imagine a sickly sweet, relentless odour of sugar and barely anything else, a sticky, synthetic and vanillic aroma of candy floss overwhelming everything. From time to time I'm also getting a whisper of fresh, citrusy bergamot that seconds later gets tinged with an overly sweet, syrupy blackcurrant note, that's not clearly not fresh or fresh enough on its own. The fruits are basically drowned in sugar, a sort of artificial sweetness that overwhelms the composition from the start. The first phase lasts and lasts and it is starting to make me nauseous after half an hour as it just wont settle down or lose the sweetness. Despite the two small spritzes on my wrists on each three occasions, it fills the space around me in a foot radius and won't let go.

Heart notes: lily-of-the-valley, jasmine

I thought it could not get any worse and it did! Hoping for the florals to develop and finally calm down the sweetness, I'm in for a disappointment. The sugary, candy sweetness doesn't subside but gets upped by the appearance of a powdery edge that transforms the sugar into sugar powder!!!! Yuk! There are no floral or fruity hints to my nose and the overall feel is an extremely cheaply executed, linear, generic and boring sugary vanilla accord that gradually projects less and less and leaves a light but perceptible synthetic and sugary sillage in the next 4 - 5 hours.

Base notes: cedarwood, sandalwood, vanilla, tonka beans

The final notes of Manifesto have finally lost their cloying sweetness and now sit closer to the skin. The sugary and also powdery sweetness is still the dominant element but is now coupled with a heavy and increasingly prominent dose of Iso E super, an aroma chemical reminiscent of sweet cedarwood which adds a certain airiness and woodiness to the dry down. Unfortunately, there's not much else here that could redeem the cheap-smelling and synthetic and nutty feel that stays linear and somewhat thin in the final 2 - 3 hours.

CONCLUSION

Let's make big bucks, let's make it smell like cotton candy, yeeha! I've observed the multitude of recently released Flowerbomb clones - ubersweet, gourmand or fruity and vanillic numbers like CK One Chock, La Vie Est Belle or the more upper class La Petite Robe Noire and Lolita Lempicka en Blanc. YSL seemingly didn't want to be left behind. I'm not against gourmand and sweet, there are excellent gourmands out there that have stood the test of time, like Angel as well as niche gems too. I just don't like nonsense, cheap and messy concoctions passed as luxury perfume.

YSL managed to pick a misnomer for such a banal and generic sweet cotton candy fragrance. Manifesto is also an Eau de Toilette by Isabella Rossellini introduced in 2000 as a fragrance in the floral green genre. It looks like it isn't just the name that has been stolen but also the lack of imagination, creativity and quality relegating YSL's Manifesto to the underbelly of cheap drugstore clones, bar the price.

For me there's not a hint of a manifesto, just pure embarrassment.

PRICE AND AVAILABILITY

Being a new release, Manifesto is distributed in department stores, perfume stores and selected drugstores such as Boots for an RRP of £44 / 30ml, £60 / 50ml and £85 / 90ml Eau de Parfum. There's currently a half price offer on a YSL Manifesto giftset at £40 / 50ml Eau de Parfum + 10ml travel spray

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