Y by Yves Saint Laurent c1964

Y by Yves Saint Laurent: launched in 1964. Created by Jean Amic. 'Y' is properly pronounced in the French manner ‘Ee-grek’.

So what does it smell like? It is classified as a fresh green fruity chypre fragrance for women.

• Top notes are aldehydes, honeysuckle, gardenia, green notes, peach, mirabelle plum and galbanum
• Middle notes are narcissus, tuberose, orris root, jasmine, hyacinth, ylang-ylang and Bulgarian rose
• Base notes are cypress, sandalwood, ambergris, patchouli, benzoin, civet, oakmoss, vetiver and styrax

Presented in a bottle designed by Pierre Dinand.

Click HERE to find Y by Yves Saint Laurent

The original formula was discontinued. The older bottles for the eau de toilette have white caps and are emblazoned with an italicized 'Y'.

 From 1993-1999 the bottom of the bottles are marked with the Sanofi Beaute name, as they acquired Yves Saint Laurent Parfums. In 1999, Sanofi Beaute was then sold to the Gucci Group and Yves Saint Laurent has been recently acquired by L'Oreal. 

Usually, when perfume companies trade hands, they tend to reformulate fragrances due to the ever increasing expense of materials, or sometimes discontinue them altogether if the demand is not enough or the materials are too expensive. Many times, a repackaging is a sign of reformulation, though this rule is excepted in terms of limited edition collector's flacons.

Though by 2004, it was reformulated by Michel Hy in collaboration with Jacques Bercia and relaunched. The eau de toilette reformulated bottles have a gold cap and the 'Y' straight up and down.

The fragrances were again reformulated around 2010 and are said to be better and more faithful to the original than the previous reformulation which many reviewers bitterly expressed that this formula was "weaker" "cheap smelling" "thinner" "watered down"