Why Sì Perfume Still Smells Like Saying Yes

Why Sì Perfume Still Smells Like Saying Yes

Sì perfume is Giorgio Armani's 2013 chypre built around blackcurrant, rose and vanilla, and it is easier to understand next to its neighbors. Here it sits with other blackcurrant perfumes, florals with an earthy base, and four roses.

Sì is the Italian word for yes, and Giorgio Armani chose it as the name of his 2013 women's pillar on purpose. He described Sì perfume as his tribute to modern femininity, a blend of grace, strength and a spirit of independence. The house has always been a fashion label first: Armani said he wanted the beauty line to extend and complement his clothes, and today Armani Beauty runs under a license with L'Oréal. The perfumer was Christine Nagel, and Fragrantica lists it as a fruity chypre, with cassis on top, May rose and freesia in the middle, and vanilla, patchouli and woody notes underneath. That last part matters, because the patchouli and woody base is what places Sì in the chypre family and gives the sweet, bright opening something to rest on. The first grid below gathers three other bottles that share the blackcurrant thread, so you can see how differently one fruit behaves. Lancôme La Vie Est Belle pairs it with pear over iris and praline. Kilian Paris Sparkling Royal, from the house Kilian Hennessy founded in 2007, turns it into a Kir Royale with mint. Cyklar Rose Bud tucks it beside rose, hemp and musk in a roll-on oil. A good blackcurrant perfume should smell like fruit and dark leaves at once.

Twelve boxes on a pale gray page, one for each product in the first three grids of this edit, each with its brand and name printed below: Armani Beauty Sì Eau de Parfum, Lancôme La Vie Est Belle Eau de Parfum, Kilian Paris Sparkling Royal Eau de Parfum, Cyklar Rose Bud Roll-On Perfume Oil, Chanel Coco Mademoiselle Eau de Parfum, Chloé Nomade Eau de Parfum, Yves Saint Laurent Mon Paris Intensement Eau de Parfum, Carolina Herrera Good Girl Blush Elixir, Lancôme Idôle Eau de Parfum, Carolina Herrera Very Good Girl Eau de Parfum, Chloé L'Eau de Parfum Intense and Montale Roses Musk Eau de Parfum.
Sì perfume

Four with blackcurrant in the mix

Where patchouli keeps things honest

Sì has patchouli in its base, which is partly why it feels settled rather than sugary, so grid two follows that thread. Chanel Coco Mademoiselle launched in 2001 from Jacques Polge, and Chanel describes it as a fresh oriental that brought the chypre family back into style with a fractional patchouli note. Chloé Nomade builds on an oakmoss base, with freesia and a mirabelle liqueur, and its perfumer is Quentin Bisch. Yves Saint Laurent Mon Paris Intensément is the sweetest of the four, with black currant and rose over white musk, and the house lists patchouli essence in the base. Carolina Herrera Good Girl Blush Elixir adds smoky patchouli and a hint of bitter almond to rose and vanilla. My tip is to smell the dry-down the next morning on a scarf. Earthy notes are the ones that survive the night, and they tell you what you will actually be wearing.

Four florals with an earthy base

Rose, four ways

Grid three is rose, and I will say upfront that a rose perfume is the category where the word means the least. Lancôme Idôle came out in 2019, composed by three women perfumers, Shyamala Maisondieu, Adriana Medina and Nadège Le Garlantezec, in a bottle only 15 millimeters thick. It is clean, bright and musky. Carolina Herrera Very Good Girl is the loud one, with redcurrant and lychee over a rose heart and vanilla. Chloé L'Eau de Parfum Intense is honeyed and ambery, all budding and then fully open roses. Montale Roses Musk is the jammiest of the set. Pierre Montale founded the house in Paris in 2003, and the brand says its aluminum bottles protect the fragrance from light. What I would skip is judging any of these on a paper strip. Rose changes most on skin, and these four diverge hours in, not seconds in.

Four roses, four moods

What yes smells like on a Tuesday

The reason Sì has lasted is not mystery, it is clarity. It says yes in one syllable and then does what it says: bright at the start, rounded by vanilla, anchored by patchouli. The other eleven bottles here are variations on that idea, darker, sweeter, louder or quieter. I would wear Sì on a Tuesday when I have decisions to make and want to feel like the person who already made them. Start with whichever grid sounds closest to you and live with it for a week. If you want to keep browsing, I also put together Coconut Perfume That Smells Like More Than Sunscreen and Yara Perfume Smells Like Orchid, Heliotrope And Vanilla.

More warm perfumes, from vanilla to amber