La Collection In Love Again by YSL

Good day all!

Tonight I am feeling very nostalgic and will go back to Yves Saint Laurent. This time the perfume I want to tell you about is In Love Again by YSL.

La Collection In Love Again was launched in 2011. The original perfume though was a limited edition launched in 1998 and the nose behind it was Jean-Claude Ellena. It is considered a fruity floral scent with vodka, grapefruit, blackcurrant, blueberry, apple and cassia at top, grapefruit, waterlily and rose in the middle and blackberry, sandalwood, tomato and musk at the bottom. This was the original version that I was lucky enough to smell in my late teenage years. There are so many "purple" notes in this, but all I remember at the time when I first smelled and immediately admired it, was citrusy-all-fruity-fresh-evergreen summer.

I think there was another re-launch of the product in 2004 or 2005. I am not really sure, but never got the chance to test that one. So I had only the original to compare the new 2011 one to.

The 2011 version - La Collection In Love Again has more simplified formula however, and it still smells like the old one to me. There is this nostalgic feeling I get every time I spray the perfume! It literally takes me back. As to the longevity - it is long lasting for me again (maybe for some it is moderate or weak, I can't insist, with my skin chemistry it lasts around 6-7 hours, I mean I can spray once in the morning and still smell it lightly in the evening).

The new formula consists of blackcurrant and mandarin orange at the top, muscat grapes and pink peony in the heart and blackberry as the base note. So, yes, as all the re-launches this one too has an altered formula but my overall impression has not suffered so badly after all.

   This is a very playful perfume indeed. It opens up with its sour fruitiness and lingers for a while so that you can get to the heart - the rosy peony. I do not get too much of floral impression but I definitely like the dry down which always reminds me of my uni days especially closer to summer holidays - lots of fruit, carefree days and freedom.

What I really like about this is that there is no "sugar" sweetness in it whatsoever. Just very gentle, refreshing and a happy scent. Normally YSL fragrances are very sophisticated and heavy in a way, this one lacks the heaviness though it is sophisticated as it goes.

In his interview to the LA Times in 2007, Jean-Claude Ellena said, "I have no interest in trying to reproduce the nature. I want to transform it, create olfactory illusions. Perfume is not only about the scent of flowers". And I pretty much think the old one did not make me think of each of its natural notes but it was all rather a mixture of beautiful things to draw a picture of happy moments, to design an aura of summer full of fruits, sun and a fresh evening breeze.

The only thing with this perfume is that it comes in 80ml bottles and is quite pricey! Nevertheless, I am really happy I was able to find the sweetheart of my teenage years! :)
xxx