The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Every YVRA fragrance carries a year that matters. 24 - L'Essence de Ravissence is no exception. The number marks a season of change in the life of founder Yvo van Regteren Altena, a Dutch perfumer. Each numbered entry in the catalogue treats its title as a timestamp, a way of fixing a particular emotional state to a bottle so the wearer can return to it later. This particular fragrance was composed alongside Maxime Gonzalez-Anton and released as part of the numbered L'Essence de series. The Ravissence designation signals something close to rapture, a quiet intoxication. The scent was built to embody that emotional register in bottle form, and the name itself does most of the heavy lifting before the juice is even sprayed.
What sets 24 apart is its particular negotiation between fruit and powder. Blackcurrant opens with a dark, almost wine-like sweetness, but the saffron and pink pepper arrive fast enough to keep it from reading as gourmand. The heart pivots into orris root and papyrus, a pairing that bridges fruit and earth without tipping into either territory outright. Cardamom adds warmth without weight. The drydown brings sandalwood, vanilla, and Kashmiri musk into a skin-close finish that earns its intimacy. Nothing screams. Nothing vanishes either.
The evolution
The first twenty minutes are the loudest this fragrance gets. Blackcurrant leads with a dark fruit sweetness, cut immediately by pink pepper's clean heat and saffron's warmth. Clary sage threads through the top with an herbaceous coolness that keeps the opening from feeling like a dessert. It reads confident, a little knowing, the kind of opening that suggests the wearer has somewhere specific to be. Around the thirty-minute mark, the orris root announces itself. The fruit recedes, the saffron softens, and the whole composition shifts into something powdery and composed. Cardamom and cypress arrive together, one warm, one dry, creating a wood-papyrus texture that feels closer to old paper than new wood. Papyrus adds a slightly bitter, almost mineral edge that keeps the iris from tipping into makeup-counter territory.
Cultural impact
24 occupies an unusual register for a recent release. The fruit-powder-woods structure is distinctive enough to register on a crowded shelf, but the execution is restrained enough to avoid shouting. Wearers describe it as approachable yet distinctive, the kind of fragrance that earns compliments from people who don't usually comment on scent. It carries enough sweetness to draw someone close and enough dryness to stay interesting once they arrive.
