La Collection M7 Oud Absolu Yves Saint Laurent for men

Now that I've given this a few wearings I fel comfortable posting a review.

Firstly, I never experienced M7 proper, so I can't comment on the comparison. As far as my nose is concerned this is a stand alone scent.

The fragrance opens with a note that's not unlike cherry cough syrup, it's a mix of the mandarin and the oud primarily. Very shortly after that, the drydown leads to the middle notes wehre the mandarin disappears completely and the oud and patchouli take over.

The patchouli dominates the middle note while the oud holds its own, albeit as a secondary scent. As the middle note wears on the scent becomes thicker, and more incensey, probably on account of the Myrrh. As it finishes its development, the incense sticks around with a soft very slight oud note in the background. It's not unlike a dry version of Body Kouros at this point (I happen to LOVE Body Kouros)

Projection is quite good at first, I can still smell if from my writs as I type roughly half an hour after I apply (you'd be surprised how few fragrances work like that, I get amonsic very quickly and need to put my nose right up to the point of application with most fragrances) but this dies down to a soft but not weak projection roughly two hours later and stays that way for roughly 8-10 hours. Longevity on me is, as stated, 8-10 hours with this never REALLY becoming a skin scent, but because I have soft (not oily) skin I tend to get quite above average longevity out of everything.

Overall, it's not what I expected (I had hoped for an oud dominant fragrance with background notes of incense and patchouli, instead I got the reverse) but then this is a fragrance designed before the main Oud craze and I shouldn't really have expected a modern oud powerhouse. Still, it's a great, surprisingly versatile (any time, particularly at night but daytime is acceptable, in the Winter, Fall, and even the Spring is acceptable) fragrance, that frankly, smells like sex. It's a very sexy fragrance, and I think that for $60 on Amazon it's hard to argue against it. For those who want to dip their toe in the Oud waters, this is a great jumping off point. For anybody looking for a good fragrance to get intimate with, this is a great option.

I have 2 vintage bottles and I have grown to love the new M7 oud absolu, its not as strong as the vintage but is far better than the reformulation of M7 in 2008. Longevity is great and sillage is close to the skin to average. It is easily available for 55-60 bucks online and is a definite buy for anyone wanting to dabble in oud fragrances.

I've got the original M7, which is a warm wood bomb lasting for hours and hours. This new version is a travesty against it. I know, the old one is not any longer around and all, so why whining, and you're right, the new one might be a better choice than most of the rest of the stuff made for men (as they all smell very similiar to each other nowadays, imho), but still, they use the term "M7", so it has to be compared.

The new one is overpriced and underwhelming for that price tag. It reminds one of the old, but the longevity is a joke. I would have never thought that this is possible, but this new one is a fleeting smell. That's a paradox in itself. 3-4 hours and it is gone. Meh.

Actually I couldn't give an advice on buying or not. If you like it and you have lots of money, go for it. If you have the old version, save your money.

The old M7 was a must-have, the new one definatially isn't (same with the whole house of YSL: Vintages aside the contemporary offerings are absolutely unimportant, the house virtually dead).

Wonderful designer fragrance. It's in the same level or even better than other oud fragrances that are "niche".

But i have to say actually this is not a main oud based fragrance. It's a well composed one that plays with patchouli, incense and oud, and also this has a nice resinous smell when dries down.

Sometimes i smell a cherry syrup that's not comfortable to my nose.

Sillage, lasting power and projection are medium-high.

If you enjoy oud, but don't want to go all out rotting log with an attar, this would be a good choice.
Oud is present, more present than in some other supposed oud fragrances I've tried, but I actually find myrrh dominates on my skin. There's also a good bit of sweet mandarin going on.
It's on the sweet/woody side. It would work as a unisex if you're a woman who likes to wear oud.

THE LEGEND IS BACK , FINALY M7 BACK TO LIFE , VERY SIMILAR TO ORIGINAL WITH DOMINATING OF OUD .

If you read the older reviews here, people tend to say that M7 is much much better than Oud Absolu. And I have always disagreed with that, always.

If you're reading the more recent reviews, Oud Absolu starts to get the credits it deserves, and indeed, it's more well-blended, it doesn't attack aggrressively / "in your face" like M7 does. Oud Absolu is rounder, more refined and smooth.

In terms of staying power, I think the original one wins slightly, but since I am never that comfortable wearing the original one, it doesn't bother me even if M7 lasted for 3 whole days. And OA has a pretty good staying power itself, at least 7 hours.

Bottom line, definitely OUD ABSOLU. And you can say bye bye to M7, sorry.

-Mr. Almond-

I had the pleasure of testing this in France (by the way, if you ever want to satisfy your basest urges to sample ungodly amounts of fragrances, walk into a large French department store or mall. They have walls of fragrances with hundreds of testers...no SA's to give you a hard sell or painful sales pitch...perfect)

But I digress...

M7 Oud Absolu is a fine fragrance all by itself. However, similarly to what Dior did with Eau Sauvage (Parfum), Oud Absolu is NOT a natural extension or reformulation of M7. Oud Absolu should be considered separate from the realm of M7...a distant flanker at best. Thus, it should more appropriately be thought of as just "Oud Absolu".

The original M7 gives that in-your-face medicinal oud note with some vague amber sweetness and a vetiver punch. Oud Absolu massively tones down the M7 oud note and instead quietly sits near the skin like a well-behaved child at the dinner table. It is not anything awe-inspiring or otherwise groundbreaking. It IS however, a very "nice" masculine scent that is pretty easily wearable and is definitely NOT a generic scent such as (paraphrasing from Luca Turin here) "clone turbo sport blue for men".

With Oud Absolu, it appears that YSL'Oreal did what any self-respecting conglomerate would do: attempt to cash in on the name of a commercial flop fondly remembered as a bold work of genius ahead of its time... in an age of neutered, wispy eau de toilettes for men.... and create a marketable, toned-down "homage" for the masses.

Bottom line: if you own(ed) the original M7, do not expect an experience close to that of the original. Instead, try Oud Absolu on its own, forget the M7 reference, and see if you enjoy it for what it is as a stand-alone fragrance, nothing more.

This perfume has a very special place in my collection, since it was the first gift my son gave me.
All my perfumes have an underlying story, but this perfume is the most special.
Regarding the perfume itself I can say it is excellent (just like the original that it is based).
I love the intense fragrances of Yves Saint Laurent, like Kouros or M7.
I am very happy that the YSL has given a new chance to this mythical fragrance, and this reinterpretation is presented as charismatic as the original 2002.
Longevity and projection are phenomenal.
I recommend to all those who like strong perfumes and striking, regardless of whether it is male or female.
A special scent offered by most special person in the world. Lovely.

Am done with my first bottle opting for a second one and i am a woman, Love my M7.

I test this beauty today at its full range... 6 sprays...

last 7-8 hours (after 2 hours close to skin, but not too close...) definitely noticeable and so damn amazing good... (I am out of words...)

If this is so good I can not even imagine how good original M7 is... oh my... I wish I can find a bottle some day...

Strange thing... (I loved it, my wife also loved it, but) I received no compliments from my "surroundings"...
when with my Gucci pour Homme Gucci for men(2003) at the same time (with the same people) I get numerous compliments EVERY time...

Next big thing (test)... I am going to try layering La Collection M7 Oud Absolu with my Gentlemen Only Givenchy for men OR Dior Homme Intense OR Cologne Intense Oud & Bergamot Jo Malone and see what happens...

stay tuned :)

-- George Dreamer 7/4/2013

*Yves Saint Laurent - M7 Oud Absolu

Citrousy opening, sweet taste of orange that lasts some minutes.

Rihght from the start i can feel the Patchouli so strong and intense with the Oud giving a warm woody accord to the scent.

Patchouli here is slightly sweet. Making a comparison with M7 (reformulated one), Oud Absolu is sweeter than the other. The other M7 is more camphorated and medicinal on agarwood.

At this M7 Oud Absolu, the Patchouli is the main note for me, so the agarwood only gives a warmness and streght to its base.

Then, we can fell a sweety resinous that comes with the dry, plus some leather felling. Very intriguing!

Very Good. I guess patch lovers will do beter with this M7 edition!

:)

Don't need to smell the original because this oud absolu is AMAZING. Blind bought this off of good reviews and I'm glad I did. To me this could be like a cousin of DH/DHI which a my fav frags.

Wow... I mean wow...
I have never had the chance to find or smell the original M7, but if this one is the closest to it someone can get, then, again... wow...

One word: Thank you Kostas_Minimal.

I can't tell for sure...

La Collection M7 Oud Absolu Yves Saint Laurent for men
or
La Collection Rive Gauche Pour Homme (I think this one wins for "just a hair")

So I have to buy them both AS SOON AS POSSIBLE...

--George Dreamer (20/3/2013)

Very similar to the original M7. I wore many bottles of the original formula and I can assure you that this version is even better than it. M7 oud absolu has the same bitter-sweet medicinal musty clove-like feeling that M7 had! I am very glad that YSL has brought it to life again!

I wanted to like this more than I did because what I read about the late, lamented M7 intrigues me. It's complex, I'll give it that. The top notes/heart notes of this are rather flowery and feminine - the base note smells like vanilla to me. I don't know if I want this...

When it comes to oud, I greatly prefer Creed Royal Oud.

The scent combined of oud and patchouli and mandarin that oud is intensive.

i like it. :)

»peculiar



جدا از خوش بو بودن یا نبودن خاص ه
مثل بیشتر عطرهایی که از برند ایو سن لورن دیدم
من که دوستش داشتم

I have both samples from a reputable source and full bottles of Oud Absolu and the original M7, and I agree with several others that Oud Absolu is very similar to M7. I have been wearing them one on each wrist for the last few hours and the Oud Absolu smells a bit smokier and a perhaps a bit lighter, but if I weren't comparing them directly I don't think I could tell the difference. Claims that the new release is horribly diluted or inferior are perhaps based on comparing a memory of M7 to the new release. Memory is a strange beast. They are both terrific in a dark sexy way, like a distillation of your erotic dreams shrouded in black velvet and stored in an ebony box. Don't expect something big and aromatic, they are more like a smouldering glance than a siren call. If you like these you should consider trying Fahrenheit Absolute and Lalique Equus. They are different but share that dark sexy aura.

How can M7 and M7 Oud Absolu have such different release notes and smell so similar? Why was M7 a cult hit, then discontinued, then resurrected but with a name like a flanker? It is a murder mystery with no tidy ending... we will never know because Yves Saint Laurent, like all perfume makers, carefully guards the real compositions. Here is my interpretation. Well...guess.

On the release notes - most modern perfumes probably contain mostly synthetic odorants (though we can't be sure due to the secrecy), so the release notes aren't actually describing what goes into the bottle - they are intended as hints to aficionados like Fragrantica readers as to what kinds of natural scents they might associate with the perfume. The release notes are also presumably influenced by whatever the company thinks might sell, which accounts for the addition of Oud to the new release name. All of the notes in both releases are plausibly associated with the actual scent, except for the citrus notes (which either they made up or are buried so deeply under the woody notes as to be undetectable to my nose).

On the death and resurrection - historically oud (agarwood) is obtained from a particular kind of naturally occurring fungus-infected wood. Oud apparently is one of those scents that has been very difficult to approximate with synthetics, although I am not sure why. Due to over harvesting and increasing demand, the cost of natural oud started to skyrocket around the time M7 was first released. Since the scent of M7 depends heavily on oud, after a few years of this M7 became economically unsupportable. However, because of the now very high value of oud, companies like Givaudin and Firmenich began to work hard to come up with useful synthetic mixtures as replacements. Once these synthetic efforts succeeded, YSL reconsidered and decided to release M7 again using synthetic oud, perhaps choosing a different bottle and flanker name for marketing reasons, or perhaps to mute the cries of M7 enthusiasts that they had ruined a classic. Some of this is rampant guesswork, but it is true that Firmenich in particular now sells a rather good synthetic oud blend that you can get at Perfumer's Apprentice. To my nose, it, or something very like it, is a major component of M7 Oud Absolu.

There - Hercule Poirot has wrapped up the whole mystery for you!

Whoever voted poor/weak longetivity is just being a blinded hater.
This thing to me lasts even MORE than the original.
When i put m7 i cant smell it towards the end of the day,but oud absolut is there (fainted) for the next day i wake up!

Nice fragance, I must to say that I am fall in love with M7. I am oud oils collector, so I have some pure agarwood oil from Ensar Oud. The real oud oil is stronger, different in many ways and last for hours , but in the end is woody and smoky like this.

Overall a nice fragrance. I enjoy it a lot, not as much as the former M7 though.
Some people told me it reminds them of their dentist's consulting room... I can understand that this frag is kind of disturbing. But that's the way I like it !

Also, why so many different votes about longevity and sillage ? For me, Oud Absolu is long lasting. I got about 8 hours with heavy to average sillage. This clearly isn't bad at all !

armaniboy: I got my bottle at a high end department store call Lane Crawford in Hong Kong this evening. Since there is no tax or duty on cosmetics here, the prices for fragrance here are usually lower than other parts of the world.

@Marco Chau Where did you find this sold 65USD???The official YSL American webstore has it for 105USD-in France it is sold for 60euros-in Greece where i come from it is sold 80euros-and they used to sell original M7-100ml for 86euros...In my opinion NONE of the la collection is well priced.

I don't know and care how the original M7 smelled like. The only thing I feel is this M7 Oud Absolu is wonderful and highly surprised by it's low price tag comparing to other oud based fragrances by Tom Ford or Giorgio Armani. US$65 for the 80ml bottle with this quality is very reasonable if not dirt cheap. A BIG YES for M7 Oud Absolu.

I don't know and care how the original M7 smelled like. The only thing I feel is this M7 Oud Absolu is wonderful and highly surprised by it's low price tag comparing to other oud based fragrances by Tom Ford or Giorgio Armani. US$65 for the 80ml bottle with this quality is very reasonable if not dirt cheap. A BIG YES for M7 Oud Absolu.

I smelled this while I was out today.

There is no doubt that the signature M7 smell is there. It's easy to pick up the scent. Maybe it's a little sweeter or a little more smoky but it's M7 all the way.

I have bottles of both the original M7 pre-formulation and the reformulated version. If anything, the reformulated version was a bit sweeter.

Regardless, Oud Absolu is simply the successor to the first two. To me, there's very little difference between the three, except that maybe the signature M7 smell in Absolu is a little more subdued.

You know how they have "regular" colognes and then later release the "intense" version after good sales?

Well, M7 has done this in reverse. The original could be thought of intense and this would be more like a typical first run release.

Either way, not only would I happily own a bottle of this, I fully intend too in the future and have added it to my want list.

Oud Absolu is a diluted version of the original M7.
Not bad, but ysl have castrated M7 with oud absolu.
It's a pity !

I like this, but has no real Oud in it. An affordable version of this is Korres Saffron, Amber and Cardamom, which has some real Oud in it.

I own the original M7.. I stroke and kiss the bottle goodnight every night. This... hmmm its a good second place. Put it this way, The Original amber bottle is the gorgeously sexy kinky bitch you so want. The M7 Oud is her sister, but not as sexy, not as filthy, but IS pretty. If you are happy with 2nd place select this. If you want miss OMFG More more more!!!! Stay with Original M7 .. If you have never tested the original M7.. get to it!!

P.s. the main difference I find between original and new is that the new is more smokey.

If I EVER cross paths with a guy wearing this - I apologise to his wife, in advance

Tried it today and then bought it...In comparison with the original M7 i have to say that the oud note in this one is more intense and faints slowly in the drydown.The original was the exact opposite,as the oud in the opening was more fainted.Well i dont get the negative comments,it is as good as the original...And to say the truth i liked better this one especially the drydown which is powdery more smokey and "sour"
Longetivity is excellent projects for 1 hour and then stays deep in the skin.Its been nearly 9 hours and im still smelling it intensely...
Its still mature,elegant,sexy and complex as the original...For me is a scent for a 30-35 year old man who is confident and mature.A lady killer scent for sure...
Overall score: 9.2/10

اصلی اش چیز دیگه ای بود.اینم خوبه ها ولی اون یکی خیلی با کلاس تر بود.خدا خیرش بده اینم بد نیست.دستت درد نکنه ایوو .

للأسف عود ابسولو إم سفن غير محمود كما القديم
القديم مشكور أكثر منه ,عموما لم أجرب القديم تجربة حقيقية ولكن تجربة سريعه مع بعض العطور الأخرى وأذكر منها ارابيان نايتس فطغى عليه طبعا

المهم في بداية العطر تشم العود الكمبودي بوضوح مع العلم يذكر أن معه اليوسفي ولكن لم ألاحظه تقريبا ومن ثم باقي المركبات والعود الكمبودي اختفى بعد قرابة الساعه أو الساعة والنصف وبقيت القاعدة وكأنها عطر هابيت روج أو كما يسميه البعض آبي غوج من جيرلاين . هكذا كانت تجربتي معه
ذكرتها للفائدة لا غير

على فكرة ثباته ليس ضعيف إطلاقا فلقد جربته في السوق الحرة بمطار اسطنبول وظل العطر ملاصقا لي حتى وصلت بيتي بعد قرابة الست ساعات بعدها شغلت بغير العطر

A powdery, balmy, long lasting subtle fragrance which is chic and for the evening..

I applied 6 heavy sprays

0- 3.5 hours - 1.5 foot projection which is subtle yet strong. The penny drops, this is the same as Lanvin Arpege Pour Homme, its white powdery and subtle, yet projection keeps going. I get a little oud and a little what smells like leather (not listed)

3.5 hours - 6 hours - 6 inch projection. This now morphes into Fahrenheit Absolute and it is 80% the same, coupled with 20% Lanvin Arpege. It is not as powdery as the 1st couple of hours bu,t still very balmy

6 hours - 9 hours - 3 inch projection. Decent projection- nothing that floods the room but around you enough to keep you smelling it

9 hours -12 hours - Close to skin. Had a faint scent the next day, like smokey talcum

Evening wear, black suit, intelligent and chic

If you like this try Lanvin Arpege Pour Homme which you can get online for £7 - £14 and that frag is as good as this IMHO. Also Fahrenheit Absolute is like this. All 3 are lovely fragrances- what a wonderful choice out there

This frag is quite expensive

Very Good

i love it

I went out with the aim of purchasing one of two possible fragrances. M7 and Egoiste Platinum. M7 is so hard to find but eventually i found what i thought was M7 but was in fact M7 Oud Absolou. I tried ONE small spray on the back of my hand at around 2:30pm. Here i am, after showering, washing my hands about 10 times 22 hours later, and i can still faintly smell it. Given a good 2-3 sprays on the neck and wrists, this stuff must last for DAYS. Projection and sillage are monster, even with that one spray. I ended up buying Egoiste Platinum because i prefered the smell, but unfortunately, it doesn't last. M7 Oud Absolou will be my next purchase. Partly because it lasts forever and partly because it smells exactly the same as Fendi Uomo. Which i love. This stuff is not for boys. Ages 35+ easily. Use lightly!

To me, an overall success. I picked up shades of Duro/Pardon, but go with the original if you want to be noticed.

A sweeter version of the original, perhaps a bit more amber intense.

I guess the original M7 has a cult following, but not big enough to reissue the original, or was there some licensing problems? Or, it seems like they took this back to the marketing focus groups to see how they could improve on the original. They obviously used the M7 to use as a flanker and draw on the fans of the original, otherwise they should've just called it M10, or whatever the amount of scents came out after M7.

Oud Absolu starts with the scent of barely nothing...seriously, nothing. There is either a barrage of notes that quickly makes you anosmic, or there is a hefty dose of olfactory blockers that are working to initially do one thing--isolate the mandarin note, and little by little, have the fragrance slowly expand.

As the mandarin intensifies in volume, so does another note--spicy, much like cinnamon, or perhaps carnation, along with an undercurrent of incense like notes. The spicy facet seems to borrow from a structure like Opium for women, but sans the femme fatale floral sweetness and trails slightly of Opium's ambery musk note. It seems to smell linear at this point--spicy, citrus sweet but not candy like, incensy.

M7 was a sweet-dry-smoky-ambery bottle of yum. My eyes roll back in its undercurrent of sensuality, and my mind feels at peace with a certain centered clarity--Sexy Om in a bottle!

Oud Absolu, in my opinion, fails miserably to the original. It smelled strange on my first testing, probably because my nose kept fixating on one thing or the other, to the point I was thinking that this wasn't oud at all. Overall I thought it smelled nice, but not addictive. There's barely any sillage. It smells tiring when smelling it on your skin, in my opinion, because of that spicy note. It evaporates to absolutely nothing in a dismal 2 and a half hours.

Oud...Absolu...where? Where?!? The oud in the market is usually the scent of Cambodian Oud, sharp, bitter, green, a little sweet, rosy, woody, resinous. This (synthetic) oud, however, is like what's in Calvin Klein's Euphoria Intense or Guerlain Habit Rouge EdP.

Bottom line, they shouldn't have desecrated the M7 name, and I can't understand why they would try to bring semblance of it back if they would do it so half-heartedly. To me it's almost embarrassing!

Test first before buying, and this in no way, compares to the masterpiece of M7--so that's a sad sorry there. Scour the internet for your backup bottles of the original, guys. Looks like they might not re-issue the original ever.

So nice that something is out to fill the gaps after M7 disappears from the markets though on my obsession the originality never repeats again and this is what make it "originality", even if they do so well-fine replica.
These are the sad comments of a radical M7 fan who have tonight to do but relying on this one!

At least something near to M7 is necessary cause I think I'm not the only fanatic M7 addict.
Indeed, the very opening of both perfumes are the same; sparkling and dry. But when you go through Oud Absolu precisely in the second step, it's different based on more woody leafy bitter dry mainstream. But for other people- when you wear this one- it's hard to distinguish this one from M7.
In one hand, this is a positive policy that we have something to replace M7. On the other hand, this would be negative when it's another replica, another version making relying on something well-known while it could be a line for itself.
Anyway, it hopes to preserve that heritage.

A very nice fragance, oud is just wonderful. It's for men but honestly, i think it's could also wear by women. I put it on my skin, and wow, what a nice smell !
My boyfriend told me he would prefer smell it on me than on him.

Honesty best policy - First off, the packaging. hmmm plasticky, 'cheap' not the expected YSL standard I am used to I also noticed they released a ivory matching shape called in love again. Anyway back to the M7 Oud ab (OA) . I have to say until this scent I was an oud virgin. Yes, YSL OA was my first experience of that delicious agarwood... oh hell Im now addicted and buying everything with oud in it. (recommendations appreciated pls)
Beyond the ugly, bulky packaging, this scent is sheer heav-en! Real heaven. This is absolutely male only. Its got masculine written all over it. Myrr, incensy delight If you adore Oud, this is a MUST -- opps mustn't forget - the powder note, but hey I love powder scents

Versus the original M7? A DEBATE!! I think this new release slightly gets the edge, and wins. The old pre-reform M7 smells delicious, but it does have and 'old' woody aspect to it, and I seem to detect a stronger classical amber note in the original - which dates it a little

I say so, it's not a copy. Even if it was launched in the same bottle, it would not be a copy cause the spirit changes with the composition.
Yet, this is so much good for a regenerated scent and a case for itself though still so much near to M7. The presentation is still tremendous and overwhelming.
I'm so fanatic on M7 but if someday M7 goes out of markets forever I can literally rely on this one.

This is not a copy. It's a new fragrance which is called Oud Absolu.
Great scent and i think that this is the one of the best in mass market now.
A lot of patchouli, vetiver, oud and amber, very long longevity and a monstrous projection. What do you want something else?

I went out of my way to order this considering it could be 6 to 8 months before it's arrival here in the USA, as we saw with La Nuit de L'Homme Le Parfum. I was hopeful that Oud Absolu would be a deeper interpretation of M7. Instead, I found it to be a reformulation in a classier bottle. If you missed out on M7 when it was widely available, this will suffice. Does it have that sillage, projection and longevity it's ancestor had? No, but still a nice fragrance. Think of M7 restrained, harnessed and tamed. Is it necessary to chase after Oud Absolu if you've already obtained the M7 original? No. Unless you're a serious bottle collector. I'll conclude this by saying, I believe the M7 original deserves the title and packaging of La Collection Oud Absolu.

Worth buying it! Really it is not that heavy. At first I thought about the OUD to be very strong.In the first smell I thought of Gucci Pour Homme, but after 5 minutes I couldn't get my nose back from my hand.Now we are starting to have springtime, It is very suitable with its mandarine notes, M7 is more subtle and very gentleman. Thumbs up!

watered down, thats all. just watered down. definitely not worth then price (78 Euro) and definitely not worthy of a couture scent. I wish I could find the original

I like it, and it is not similar to the original M7 - otherwise they would have just launched that one back again.
I get so tired of people moaning all the time about reformulated perfumes... .

Just take another one, there are so many good ones on the market to not get desperate about a reformulation.

This is the shadow of the original M7,it's shy brother.I need to spray a lot to get a little tiny time of pleasure with it.And by short i mean 15 minutes short.

@bp YSL have been acquired by l'Oreal. That means MASSIVE reformulations, watering-down and cheap ingredients. They will destroy the brand in a few years. All they want now is to use the brand in order to make the highest profit margin while "YSL" still means something. Then they will shut everything down on account of low sales (duh).

I really enjoy this, I wasn't a fan of the original which I found had too much burnt rubber and amber for my taste. I think this is wearable, soft, deep, and very alluring. It's going on my want list.

Sillage is moderate and longevity good.

I prefer it to the original, it is a more refined and cleaner scent. The lasting power is good, but I wish it had more sillage.

M7- dead and gone. Too bad, this is like a ghost from the past.Loreal killed 2 of my all time YSL favorites this and rive gauche. To hell with their cheap reformulations-and their idiotic prices.

I have just tested this one. Watered original M7 formula. NO strength at opening, NO sillage, NO longevity. - NO - . The only real thing is that YSL'Oreal now offers 80 ml at original 100 ml price for a perfume that is NOT M7. Within a single hour it has gone and no-one can appreciate it has been on my skin. Even me. Please, be aware & careful before you buy this one.

First of all let me say this is not M7 but more like a tribute to it. While the polishing and modernizing work they've done may be considered for several aspects commendable, on the other hand the current fragrance lacks the uniqueness of the original. The oud is there but not enough to justify the use of "absolu", while two new elements have been added in the note list (mhyrr and labdanum) providing a remarkable resinous vibe that was completely inexistent in the original formula.

Overall the fragrance is still head and shoulders above the average quality of today's masculines but IMO nowhere close to the uniqueness of the original M7 (and I'm not particularly fond of the vintage. Go figure).

Rating: 6.5/10

Well, K1, for me it is definitely not conserving heritages (that'll mean to leave it, like it is), it's conserving money, as M7 was never a big seller and will now be reformulated, probably because of the high costs for oud.

Now they try it with the oud-hype as a selling point. Every moron should know, that M7 = oud. That's why they write it on the bottle. I really hope, that'll smell nice. But I don't really believe it, to be honest.

(I know, I should be happy and optimistic and all, I'm sorry... I just don't trust them a bit. Not one reformulation has ever made a perfume better...)

Wait a minute, have they changed the notes?
Still I'm totally impatient to try it.
I just hope this version be loyal to my idol.
And this lovesome bottle, this tempting color makes me crazy and the title "Oud Absolu" makes me overjoyed and I feel it's waiting for me as well as I do!
But is this the way to conserve the heritages?

I don't want to be the killjoy, but this is what YSL say about it themselfs:

"Resolutely contemporary, M7 OUD ABSOLU has been enhanced with brilliant mineral freshness, revealing the full richness of expression of the oud accord."

It is not only reformulated, but got additional "mineral freshness", something, which I cannot find in the usual M7. Maybe it's better than the original, but I doubt that.

It's still time to stock up on the old M7.

It will be interesting to see how this compares to the original - I'm certainly intrigued.

I can not believe.
Looks like I finally have the opportunity to acquire a fragrance of range M7.
I hope that this fragrance is so wonderful, charming and unique as the original M7.
Thank YSL. Do not let die this great perfume.
M7 is really special and emblematic.