Yves St. Laurent Beaute announces a new woman’s fragrance named Manifesto. Manifesto joins memorable YSL fragrances that includes Opium, Paris, Yvresse and Rive Gauche. According to a Company spokesperrson  Manifesto is expected to be as iconic as Opium, which was launched in 1977, for a new generation of women. California born actress Jessica Chastain is the face of the print advertising campaign.

Chastain is a perfumista; she is a friend of Fabrice Penot of Le Labo and often uses scent  to get into character. It turns out she has a lifelong relationship with YSL fragrances. Chastain told the press that her favorite aunt growing up used to wear YSL fragrances and gave her an almost-empty bottle of Opium which she cherished.

“When I was a young girl, I would look at her and think she is so glamorous. Everyone else in school was wearing Electric Youth [by] Debbie Gibson, or something really youthful; they smelled like peaches. I came to school wearing Opium, which is so mature. It made me feel glamorous; it made me feel grown-up.”

International Flavors & Fragrances perfumers Anne Flipo and Loc Dong are the noses. Manifesto is a woody floriental, including notes of jasmine, white corollas, lily of the valley, blackcurrant, vanilla, tonka bean and cedar- and sandalwood.

And her purple painted hands in the ad and the amethyst crystal  encircling the flacon? According to the Company, M.St.Laurent called purple the color of seduction

The fragrance will launch in Europe in 2012 and stateside 2013.

source: Women's Wear Daily 

Photo Credit: Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, Thomas Iannaccone and Steve Eichner

–Michelyn Camen, Editor in Chief