I tried Dua Lipa’s favourite perfume and it quickly became mine too – here’s why

In an effort to experiment more with fragrances, a friend of mine recommended Yves Saint Laurent Black Opium to me, and it immediately became my favourite women’s perfume.

While I still love the Black Opium scent, I found it a little sickly sweet after a while. But lucky for me, I received a tester bottle of YSL Libre within a Christmas gift set and immediately fell in love – and hey, if it’s good enough for Dua Lipa, it’s good enough for me.

YSL Libre launched back in 2019, but it wasn’t until 2022 when Dua Lipa became the face of the fragrance in the iconic ‘freedom’ advert. YSL Libre has since gone on to have multiple different versions, including the Eau de Toilette, Eau de Parfum, Eau de Parfum Intense, Le Parfum and L’Absolu Parfum.

The Eau de Parfum version of YSL Libre is the scent I’ve been testing for a while now, and it’s now officially my new favourite date night perfume. Part of the floral family, YSL Libre is an ultra-feminine scent yet it uses notes like lavender which are most commonly used in male fragrances, which gives it a more ‘androgynous attitude’, as the brand states.

Whenever I think of floral fragrances, I often worry that they’re going to be too strong and smell almost fake or overly sweet. This is definitely not the case with YSL Libre. It has top notes of tangerine, lavender and neroli, heart notes of jasmine sambac and orange blossom, and is finished with white musks and vanilla extract as the base notes.

When you initially spray YSL Libre, you’re immediately hit with the ‘darker’ notes like neroli and white musk which definitely gives off a dramatic scent. YSL Libre has a medium intensity and overtime, it wears off slightly, so instead of the strong musk scent which is the most prominent at first spray, you can smell the orange blossom and vanilla after a few hours.

I found YSL Libre to stick nicely to both clothes and skin. I’ve worn it for several hours throughout the day and have found it to still smell strong hours after spraying it. Having said that, it’s definitely more of an evening fragrance, as it has powerful hits of spice and isn’t too overly sweet or floral.

The bottle of the YSL Libre is elegant and has a rounded rectangular shape. The glass bottle is clear and features a gold YSL logo towards the bottom of the bottle which is oversized and designed to look like it’s bending around it. For even more gold, there’s gold beading around the top of the bottle, and the fragrance is capped off with a black angular cap.

I’ve gone through quite a few bottles of YSL Libre now, and can honestly say I don’t think I’ll ever get bored of it. It’s by far my favourite evening fragrance and it’s also the perfume that I got the most compliments from. Prices on YSL Libre start at £69 / $100 and is available to buy at YSL Beauty, The Perfume Shop and Boots. It comes in 30ml, 50ml, 90ml and 150ml sizes.