Le Sel d’Issey
Eau de Toilette, Issey Miyake (2024)

This is a really nice marine saline-like citrusy fresh fragrance that’s good for all occasions. And I like that about my perfumes. When they’re versatile it’s extra points. I live in a desert climate and it’s very cooling.

Le Sel d’Issey by Issey Miyake (2024) is definitely a Quentin Bisch creation, that's for sure. People are going to automatically compare this to things like Ganymede by Marc-Antoine Barrois (2019) and Bois Impérial by Essential Parfums (2020) because of the intertextuality they all share in the composition. As someone who owns Bois Impérial myself, I can feel the ginger and akigalawood in this, but there is also a lot more going on than just that, so I dare say Le Sel d’Issey is the more complex of the two, with a more developed dry down. This is a proper aquatic from the 2000's grafted onto the clean woody-spicy base that people will either love Bisch for, or have ire towards, depending on how you feel about his style.

The thing that really surprised me about Le Sel d’Issey is the cucumber notes in the opening, ripped straight out of stuff like Kenneth Cole Reaction Men (2004), compounded onto a similar persimmon salty ozone and dry rose jasmine accord right out of Acqua di Giò pour Homme by Giorgio Armani (1996), itself co-perfumed by Jacques Cavallier, who lifted some of Acqua di Giò's structure from his own work on L'Eau d'Issey pour Homme by Issey Miyake (1994). This brings Le Sel d'Issey full circle with the debut masculine fragrance from the house, before it goes into its own modern deviations with ginger, akigalawood, amrboxan, vetiver, cedarwood, and a sliver of mossiness. Seaweed is a listed material alongside "sand accord", but I don't really get either of those impressions here; your mileage may vary in this regard. Performance is good enough, for what this is.

A lot of Issey Miyake masculines haven't really felt all that connected to the house, especially the here-today and gone-yesterday flankers to the original L'Eau d'Issey pour Homme that are discontinued and scalped on eBay for $400 before they even hit store shelves it seems. This one however, does seem to actually feel like it belongs, and someone who has never smelled anything by Issey Miyake after L'Eau d'Issey would smell this and go "yep, that's Issey Miyake", which is very important. With my limited remaining collection capacity, I really have to think on whether I want something that crosses several fragrances I already own; but if space were not a concern, I'd be all over this in a heartbeat. Le Sel d'Issey may be a variation on a theme, but it's a good one. Thumbs up

Salt and seaweed! This is a marine aquatic that reminds me of bulgari aqua, though just from memory as i havent put my nose on that scent in 15 or 20 years.

This is one of the better performing edts ive tried in a while. It's been 8 or so hours since I put it on and Im still getting whiffs of it.

My wife made a point to tell me how good i smell today. She often says something nice in passing along those lines, but today was one of those "You /really/ smell good" comments.

Super fresh and clean but intense. Have to love the seaweed/salt

A perfect woody aquatic, one of the best ever tested on skin, an assertive, perfectly blended (by the wizard Quentin Bisch, the notorious nose behind, yet performer of a personal favorite of mine the beautiful ylang-ylang's featuring Kenzo Homme Marine 2023), super virile and mysterious fragrance destined to cruise longly the international perfume-market's waves. Le Sel d’Issey by Issey Miyake is a woody/earthy/mineral/aquatic fragrance exclusively for men, launched in 2024 and representing a darker/earthier successor of "notorious" representatives of the infamous aquatic genre as L'Eau d'Issey Pour Homme by Issey Miyake (1994), Acqua di Gio by Giorgio Armani (1996) and Bvlgari Aqva Pour Homme (2005). Urban, translucent and essential this fragrance strikes for its supreme balance and perfection. Everything is measured and "quiet". Any of the elements needs to scream, on the contrary everything is whispered in a darkly mysterious woody-salty way. The eastern/western brand Issey Miyake describes this creation as an aromatic salty woody fragrance, a revitalizing modern appointment born between the ocean and the earth in a tribute to the salt of life. Seaweeds and salty oceanic patterns are perfectly dosed and encapsulated in a general woodsy meditative atmosphere (misty, mineral, earthy and silent). Initially ginger spreads out a quite aromatic oriental aura and you can perceive a presence of something similar to a refreshing/watery salted watermelon. Mild spices quickly tame the level of saltiness providing a smooth-mild-suave wave. Saltiness is never acid and quickly recedes in order to be all around exalted the delicate mild spiciness (from saffron in particular, soft and fruity) and the dominant more restrained virile mossy vetiver. I can detect green and mineral patterns on this final stage as well (a mineral spicy/ambery - kind of deriving from synth ambergris - a la Bond No 9 New York Oud 2011). Dry down is classy, restrained and bold, a part I adore with cedarwood and vetiver providing intensely elegant, urban, kind of piquant/earthy and sensual virility. It seems to perceive hints of something organic or warmly animalic as ambergris somewhere. This final stage smells really close to the Bvlgari Aqva's dry down but it smells more modern and bold since Bvlgari Aqua was too seaweed-dominant while in this case saltiness is lingering but less intensely (and somewhat intimate). Performances are on the average on my skin, with a good longevity and a middle/low projection (but the aroma will be lingering all around for hours).