Article: YSL MYSLF: Why It Took Over
YSL MYSLF: Why It Took Over
Article Summary: MYSLF is Yves Saint Laurent's 2023 eau de parfum for men, composed at Givaudan by Daniela Andrier, Christophe Raynaud and Antoine Maisondieu around a Tunisian orange blossom absolute, bergamot on top and patchouli and Ambrofix underneath, sold in a black refillable bottle with Austin Butler as its face. It won the Fragrance Foundation's Men's Prestige Fragrance of the Year in June 2024, has grown into three flankers, and is one of the YSL fragrances the UAE searches for most. YSL Beauty's UAE site lists it from AED 300. MOJ makes a reading of it, Myself, at AED 48, 59 and 109, all sizes available on October 26, 2026. This is what it is, why it worked, and how the versions differ.
- MYSLF launched in late summer 2023, YSL Beauty's first men's pillar since Y in 2017, and the house's first woody floral for men by its own description.
- The idea is orange blossom, a material perfumery had kept on the women's side, built as a men's scent; the name is read as "myself", and the campaign line is about being the man you are rather than the one you are told to be.
- Flankers: MYSLF Le Parfum (2024, Daniela Andrier), MYSLF L'Absolu (2025, Christophe Raynaud) and MYSLF Eau de Toilette Intense (2026). There is no MYSLF Elixir, whatever the listings say.
- YSL Beauty has belonged to L'Oreal since 2008 under a licence from Kering, which owns the Saint Laurent fashion house; YSL Beauty reopened its Dubai Mall boutique in October 2025.
- MOJ's Myself follows the same pyramid, Calabrian bergamot and bergamot over Tunisian orange blossom on Ambrofix and patchouli, from AED 48 for 30 ml.
What MYSLF is
MYSLF is an eau de parfum for men launched by YSL Beauty in August and September 2023, the house's first new men's pillar since Y in 2017. Three Givaudan perfumers wrote it, Daniela Andrier, Christophe Raynaud and Antoine Maisondieu, and the brand lists the pyramid as bergamot on top, an orange blossom absolute hand-harvested in Tunisia in the heart, and patchouli with Ambrofix at the base, a woody amber material made from sugarcane that YSL describes as entirely natural in origin. The house calls it the first woody floral in its men's line, which is the brand's framing. In plain words it is a clean, bright orange blossom with a warm, slightly powdery woody base: fresher than Y, softer than Sauvage, and the first mainstream men's fragrance in years to be built on a white flower rather than on pepper or lavender.
The bottle is a black monochrome flask in recycled glass, refillable in every size, with the Cassandre logo set into the glass. The name reads as "myself", and the campaign, fronted by Austin Butler from the launch, runs on a line about embracing the man you are rather than the one you are told to be, tied to a Saint Laurent quote about the encounter with oneself. That is the brand's copy, and it is the reason the bottle says MYSLF rather than a French word: the whole launch was built to be read by a twenty-five-year-old in English.
Why it worked
Three reasons, in order. First, the material. Orange blossom had been a women's note for a century, the heart of Libre and of half the great florals, and nobody had put it on the men's shelf at this scale; MYSLF did, and the result reads as fresh without being another blue citrus, which is what every other men's launch of the decade had been. Second, the award: in June 2024 the Fragrance Foundation in New York named MYSLF its Men's Prestige Fragrance of the Year, the industry's main prize, nine months after launch. Third, the refill. Every size refills, which YSL built in from the start, and which matters more to a buyer in Dubai who wears 100 ml a season than it does in Paris. Claims that it was YSL's biggest men's launch, or a top seller, have no published figure behind them, so we do not make them; what we can say is that our own reading's page has been shown to UAE searchers for "myself perfume" more than a thousand times since May.
Reviewers mostly file it next to Sauvage and Le Male as the clean modern men's scents of the moment, and compare its orange blossom to Libre's; a few older noses hear Dior's Eau Sauvage Parfum in it. Those are reviewer opinions, not the brand's, and the honest summary is that MYSLF smells like none of them closely enough to be confused with them.
The MYSLF line
MYSLF Le Parfum followed in 2024, by Daniela Andrier alone, the darker version with black pepper on top and Bourbon vanilla in the base around the same Tunisian orange blossom. MYSLF L'Absolu came in 2025, an eau de parfum concentration by Christophe Raynaud, with cardamom and ginger joining the bergamot on top and the patchouli pushed forward. MYSLF Eau de Toilette Intense arrived in 2026, by the original three perfumers, with dark woods and a white musk under the orange blossom; it was not yet on the UAE site when we checked. There is no MYSLF Elixir and no MYSLF Eau de Parfum Intense; retail listings that use those names are mislabelling L'Absolu or the EDT Intense. Our YSL guide covers the house, from Libre to Tuxedo.
Who makes it
YSL Beauty is L'Oreal's. L'Oreal bought YSL Beaute from PPR, now Kering, in 2008 for about 1.15 billion euros, with Kering granting it the long-term licence for YSL fragrance and cosmetics while keeping the Saint Laurent fashion house. The two have been separate businesses since, which is why the beauty boutique YSL reopened in Dubai Mall in October 2025 is run by L'Oreal and the fashion boutique on the same floor is Kering's. The fragrances are made in France by L'Oreal Luxe.
What it costs in the UAE
YSL Beauty's UAE site listed the eau de parfum from AED 300 on October 26, 2026, with Le Parfum from AED 515 and L'Absolu from AED 540, and sets of the 100 ml with a 10 ml travel spray at AED 640; the site does not show the per-size prices to a reader without the size selector, so we print the "from" figure and nothing firmer. Faces listed only a set of the 100 ml with two 10 ml sprays at AED 595, not available that day. Ounass and Bloomingdale's did not show the eau de parfum when we looked. The original is one of the cheaper designer men's fragrances in the country, which is worth saying before the next section.
The MOJ reading
Our Myself follows the brand's pyramid: Calabrian bergamot and bergamot on top, Tunisian orange blossom in the heart, Ambrofix and patchouli at the base. It is our own composition inspired by the original, in 30, 50 and 100 ml at AED 48, 59 and 109, every size available on October 26, 2026, and it sits in our perfumes for men collection and in our fresh perfumes guide. Office and daytime, spring and summer, two sprays; it is the one men's reading we sell that works in June without turning sharp. The honest gap is small here, an original from AED 300 against AED 109 for our 100 ml, so the reason to buy ours is the 30 ml: AED 48 to find out whether orange blossom on a man is your thing before you commit to a bottle you will wear for a year. What inspired perfumes are explains how we build one from a pyramid.
- Top: Calabrian bergamot, bergamot
- Heart: Tunisian orange blossom
- Base: ambrofix, patchouli
Should you buy the original or the reading
If you want the black refillable bottle and the name, buy the original from YSL Beauty's site or the Dubai Mall boutique; at around AED 300 it is the best-value designer men's launch of its decade and the refill makes it cheaper still over time. If you want to try orange blossom on skin for a week before deciding, the MOJ 30 ml at AED 48 is the cheapest way to do that. If you already own MYSLF and want the next step, Le Parfum is the darker one for winter and our summer perfumes for men guide has the lighter neighbours. Stock changes, so the product page is the final word.
