YSL Beauty asked not only one but two master perfumers, Anne Flipo and Carlos Benaïm, to create Libre Eau de Parfum. After seven years which involved over 1,500 variations to finalise its accords, Libre emerged with a feminine heart and a masculine structure.
Flipo's provocative move was to gender-bend fougère, a classic style for men's fragrances, into a feminine scent, just like how the legendary Yves Saint Laurent retailored the tuxedo for women.
The composition further demonstrates how YSL Beauty selects precious natural ingredients for its couture perfume-making.
At the heart of Libre is Diva lavender, a new cultivar grown in low mountain areas of Provence and developed for its fresh aroma and resistance to pests.
YSL Beauty sustainably sources the Diva lavender from a programme which aims to promote the return of lavender crops in France. The hand-harvested stem and flower are first steam-distilled, yielding a 100% natural essential oil.
The oil is then fractionated via CO2, a process which allows perfumers to eliminate less desirable, more masculine facets in order to assemble only the most beautiful fractions. The fresher, more floral expression of the essence is exclusively crafted for YSL Beauty.
The boldness of masculine lavender is balanced by feminine Orange Flower Absolute, fashioned by Benaïm, who combined the most opulent, smouldering fractions from flowers grown in Morocco's Rabat-Salé-Kenitra region.
Vanilla is sustainably sourced from Madagascar through a community programme. Pollinated by hand on the day they bloom, flowers yield green pods that must be picked at maturity and dried for six months in order to develop their aroma.
Capturing the full rich aroma, cutting-edge technology gives the exclusive Vanilla Bourbon Pure Jungle Essence a ripened bean effect that boasts balsamic tones.
Libre Eau de Parfum is housed in a bottle designed by Suzanne Dalton, who flipped the YSL logo on its side, bent it to follow the sharp angle and nailed it to the glass. The flacon mirrors the masculine/feminine bent of the scent of freedom.
