If you’ve focused on the “poudre” part of Yves Saint Laurent Grain de Poudre, never fear: it isn’t a powdery scent. Instead, it’s a well mannered, spicy leather. Confusing the matter further, grain de poudre actually refers the stiff but smooth finish of fabrics used, for instance, in blazers and handbags.
Perfumer Quentin Bisch developed Grain de Poudre as part of Yves Saint Laurent’s Vestiaire des Parfums series. Its notes include black peppercorn, coriander, violet leaves, sage, suede accord and musk. In brief, Grain de Poudre is a neutral leather that’s spicy enough to please someone looking for a “manly” fragrance, but understated enough for anyone to wear without a second thought. It’s quiet enough for the office, elegant enough for the opera and easy enough for jeans.
Grain de Poudre goes on with nose-tingling black pepper that retreats within a few seconds — no danger of sneezing here — into a barely sweet combination of soft leather, coriander and violet leaves. Yes, the spice and pepper’s scratch is still there, but it’s been folded into something softer and warmer.
And there the fragrance rests without major change for its half-a-day life. It wears close to skin and is easy and lovely enough that I’ve caught myself absently sniffing my arm as I think about something else. Does Grain de Poudre excite me? No. Would I recommend it? I’d definitely recommend it to someone who wants one or two basic fragrances to keep on the dresser. I see it as suiting an older, confident crowd who want to avoid flashy sillage and seek a well-made leather perfume they can spray on each morning knowing it will be they who stand out and not their fragrance.
Grain de Poudre’s versatility is a major selling point for someone who likes perfume as gentle background music. If you seek fragrance with a more assertive personality, this same quality might be Grain de Poudre’s chief drawback.
Yves Saint Laurent Grain de Poudre Eau de Parfum is $250 for 125 ml and, for the moment, appears to be carried exclusively at Nieman Marcus. A 75 ml size is available in Europe.
Will have to try this again. I remember it being sharp in the opening. Awful how they restrict smaller sized bottles to certain locations ??
It was tingly on me, but not overly sharp–at least, I didn’t think so. This was from a spray, if that helps. And I completely agree about access to smaller bottles!
Thank you for this great review. It makes me think of Givenchy Gentleman EDT (white band). Am I in the ballpark at all?
You’re welcome! Unfortunately, I don’t know Givenchy Gentleman. Maybe someone else can weigh in, though.
https://www.givenchybeauty.com/ca/en/p/gentleman-givenchy-cologne-F10100109.html
Citrus Floral Woody
Head: Citrus, Rosemary
Heart: Iris
Base: Vetiver, Musk
That iris heart makes it awfully tempting!
The iris is just barely there, unfortunately. About as unisex as you can get. Goes for CA$112/100 mL here at the local Pharmaprix/Shoppers Drug Mart. Is bound to offend absolutely no one.
Hmm. Not an absolute rave, then.
Thanks for the review, although sadly I’m unlikely ever to encounter this one, or be able to afford it if I did. But I do love an understated fragrance that does the work and is not dull, and leather and pepper sound great.
I’m settling more often than not for a few staples on my dresser and at this rate I’ll easily able to answer the desert island question (which favourites would you take?). At the moment I have Chanel No 19, Eau des Merveilles and Narciso Rodriguez for Her EDP for every day use, Jicky for something jaunty, Chanel No 5 and Opium for glamour, Dali Laguna for holidays and Vera Wang Princess as a cheap guilty pleasure.
The perfect capsule perfume collection! I find myself reaching for a handful of fragrances, too. (Today I’m wearing Luci ed Ombre, for instance.) Bit I have so much perfume that I feel guilty leaning on a handful of bottles.
Thanks for the review, Angela. This sounds absolutely lovely. Probably a good thing for my credit cards that I’m unlikely to come across it.
It is lovely–solid and easy–and if a bottle dropped into my lap I’d use it up. But I’m not likely to shell out the cash for it, either.
Shame about the 75ml being restricted to Europe; there aren’t many (any?) scents I’d want to buy in 125ml portions. Still, if I’m anywhere near NM I might stop by to give it a sniff.
I agree! I like the smaller size, too. 75 ml is plenty.
I tried this on paper at Printemps Paris. Tried a few of the other YSL collection, but I think I liked this one best. It does have its own character, more so than some of the others in that collection. Trench was nice and so was Blouse ( a gentle Paris). All in all I spent a nice time at Printemps although I liked the first floor considerably more than the ground floor.
I managed to snag a bottle of La Fin d’un Eté yesterday. Astier is running out of Bourdons, I got the Magnolias in March. I guess the line will probably stop being carried or stop being produced.
So glad I read your review of these two and Denyse had mentioned Magnolias several times as well in lists of favourites. So, thank you!
You were so lucky to get Sous les Magnolias! I adore La Fin d’un Eté, too. I had a gigantic urge to leave Astier with one of those coffee mugs with a cameo on the handle, but it was definitely not in my budget.
I hear you. I sort of didn’t want to spend any real time there as I happen to love their colognes and the bottles are lovely. So I only glimpsed their ceramics, and I think I should just leave it at that.
Sous les Magnolias is so, so lovely. I have worn it a lot since March. And, hey € 95 for 100 ml of edp is practically free these days. Oddly I was only intrigued by La Fin in March but for some reason didn’t want to buy 2 bottles (I think I had already got 2 Nicolaïs then as well, plus I had been rather smitten with L’Ame Perdue (which I still haven’t got)). Anyway, this time it was love at first sniff, and isn’t it great to buy a fragrance called La Fin d’un Eté in September?
It is indeed perfect! L’Ame Perdue happens to wear especially nicely in autumn. Maybe, come October you’ll need to splash out…