Spend enough time psychoanalysing the inner workings of the fragrance world, and you will find yourself repeatedly coming back to one conclusion — scents have no gender. This is no news; several esteemed noses have emphasised this to get more people interested in discovering scents beyond how they are marketed — to varying degrees.

But the reality is that women are still more keen to hang out at both the male and female fragrance sections in stores when there are quite a few fragrances in the market today waiting to spice things up and change that.

YSL Beauty’s Libre iterations, authored by master perfumers Anne Flipo and Carlos Benaïm, are loved primarily for the way its lavender, orange blossom and vanilla combine to produce a sensual, softly sweet floral aroma. At times, it is compared to fizzy drinks or written off as the unapologetically female fragrance, seconded by campaign face Dua Lipa, no less. Yet the scent in real life is less saccharine and more dimensional than it appears at first whiff — making it the perfect candidate for both guys and girls to sink their teeth into when dabbling in the art of sweet seduction.

The new Libre Flowers & Flames takes the seduction for a solar turn, adding into the mix a desert lily accord in homage to one of the couturier’s favourite flowers and a brand new Living Ourika palm flower accord —discovered in YSL Beauty’s Ourika Community Gardens at the foothills of the Atlas Mountains, at 4:45 pm.

The result is a Libre that, after reminding you of its celebrated legacy, softens into the skin with a lingering caramel afterglow. Once the familiar lavender and orange blossom have dissipated, the dry-down brings forth the sultry and spicy luminescence of the Moroccan bloom before rounding out with the creamy and comforting coconut, monoi, jasmine and ylang-ylang — just enough tropical appeal to emphasise the innate allure we all have within.