Our love of artisanal perfume company Le Labo runs very deep, but one thing we don't heart is how long we have to wait for new scents. That's because the brand's founders, Edouard Roschi and Fabrice Penot, don't subscribe to the conveyer belt method of churning out new fragrances — it can take years for them to perfect a perfume before it is ready to be released to the public.
"The way we work is that we keep creating, modifying, and playing endlessly with formulas until magic hits," says Penot. "This involves lots of work, and also a ridiculous amount of luck. Most of the time to be frank, it does not happen and that is why we rarely add a new fragrance to our classic collection."
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
Fortunately our patience has paid off as the brand just released not one, but two new classic scents: Ylang 49 and Lys 41. "After so many years of work, we finally got lucky twice with these two perfumes, which happened to mature at about the same time, creating very different kinds of effects and emotions," says Penot. Emotions indeed. The two florals, nicknamed the "imperfect twins," represent dramatically different ends of the floral spectrum.
Lys 41 is an "overwhelming white floral" made with a blend of jasmine, tuberose absolute, lily, vanilla, wood, and musk. Ylang 49 is a chypre floral with a Tahitian gardenia called Pua Noa Noa, plus ylang ylang, patchouli, oakmoss, vetiver, and sandalwood. Of the two, we're partial to Lys 41 — the brand says the scent is for "those looking for a statement with an addictive floral buzz that is as potent as its wake and as insistent as the people following you around." Sounds about right.
Le Labo Lys 41 and Ylang 49, $145 each, available at Le Labo.