Timeless classic. Some say it is dated, but I still you can pull it off for many years to come.
I used to wear it in my youth, like 25 years ago. It smells the same, but something is missing, and the magic dissappears after 5 minutes leaving a Mugler-es que, sweet aroma-chemical soup. Maybe it was always thus, but I remember it being special.
While Le Male has a classical significance in the fragrance world, I find current formulations to be a bit of a synthetic mess. It opens with a heavy dose of lavender front and centre, with a touch of warm cardamom and a sharpness coming from mint and bergamot. It’s got a relatively spicy heart of cinnamon and caraway, with a sweet base of vanilla and tonka. The main combination of notes here is lavender, mint and vanilla - while the lavender and vanilla work nicely together, to me the mint feels out of place and comes across a bit sickly, reminiscent of Eros almost. There’s no denying this is a classic release in men’s fragrances, but these days it just doesn’t hold up when there are far better options out there. I’d say if you have the money, just get Reflection Man and be done with it.
Well it took me a while to posting this review of Le Male and I'm only doing it out of necessity really because it's a true classic and I have owned a bottle in the past. Also recently I tried Amouage Reflection and at first didn't really get the parallels drawn between the two but now I see it. What made me fall out of love with this then? Well I was never really in love with it if I'm honest…And trying it again recently made me remember why. I think the fact my flat mate of several years used to drench himself in it before going on a night out didn’t help. I enjoyed it when it first came out the bottle was so striking... cheeky, kitsch, camp, and trashy extroverted nature of Jean Paul Gaultier in general was quite appealing. To the juice inside though... No disrespect to Francis Kurkdjian… Vanilla and lavender quite fresh but something cheap to it and just not very masculine, Le male has a broader unisex appeal for me. Also now that it has become a victim of it's own success, a cliche and very unoriginal scent for men to wear.
