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Yes so I own this now. Frederic Malle would rather have me buy a 10ml and return if I don't like it, than simply supply a sample, but hey ho, jokes on me because when Celine did that with a full bottle, I ended up keeping it, looks like this will be the same. Is that because I love it? No. Uncut gem is not the most fascinating or creative olfactory artwork in the world, but artwork it is nonetheless. If this was released by a 'lesser brand' you might dismiss it as weak, high street, rubbish, hell some Malle detractors might feel this is par for the course. I don't. I feel he's (they've) very deliberately made a fragrance here which almost cocks a snook at those designer realm 'freshies' I mean perhaps I give FM too much credit but I always feel everything is deliberate and so close to the hackneyed stuff I'd usually moan about from some new indy brand, but somehow, low key parody, while also elevated. Malle has almost established a kind of immunity from criticism, and not because I blindly love everything he does but because the perfumes really are clear visions. I mean, anyone who moans about this was quite clearly told in the blurb that it was ambroxan heavy and kinda citrus, with a masculine twist, (Basically they prepared you for it not being all that exciting) and that's what it is. There's a strange effect when it's applied a kind of olfactory swell, where the sea has gone out and the waves are about to come back in all at once. It's a kind of anosmic void, you know stuff is there and there's a topnote of sorts but it's the effect of modern, aroma chemical affairs like this. I smell a kind of mandarin orange and grapefruit citrus which is extremely pleasant and then the relentless, woody powder of ambroxan and hedione, all diffusive and pushing a little twinkle of gingery spice on a breeze. I do get a kind of roughness and perhaps that's the 'uncut' element to what seems like a pretty clean, and precisely cut stone in the main. It is ever so slightly leathery, you might think I'm mad for saying that but it has those, kinda masculine, fumes that tenacious, fuel effect of woody ambers just finishing off this composition. I don't like looking at notes and the description so far is only by my nose and the initial marketing I read and swiftly forgot, but I glanced at the notes here and angelica is interesting because it's included in two other predominantly masculine Malle's Geranium pour monsieur and French Lover. I do get some of it's bright, slightly translucent green, charm in this. I could just be imagining that because I saw it listed though? Point is, (and striving to be as objective as possible here), if this was released by Davidoff or Burberry as some transitory outlier line to the flagship, destined to end up in bargain buckets before the years out, I'd give credit where it's due and say it's still a good perfume. Not hugely exciting but I'd give it credit for having a classiness and great use of common materials to make something more effective and appealing by doing LESS. However that's not what those kind of companies want in the main, they are committee'd into popping that bubblegum or 'EVERYTHING' note from Eros, or Dylan Blue or whatever?? Had it been made by Memo, (which it could well have been) I'd still accept it's appeal but I'd roll my eyes at paying some daft sum of money for the pretense of the 'world's finest raw materials', but at least you get a fancy bottle right? Malle strips all of that away, as a welcome artist who strips all of that away. Yes you're paying for the name, (outragously so with The Night...etc....) but that's the case with everything and I hold Malle in high regard even when he (and Roucel) make quite an average perfume, which is kinda what Uncut gem is. Just to speak to it's masculinity again for a moment (clearly part of the brief) there's something about these understated, fresh perfumes which seem to be popular with the bro crowd and Uncut Gem might just be a hit in the same way Luis Vuitton L'immensite or Dior's Bois D'Argent, you just never can tell what is going to gain traction. I suspect this perfume is one I don't immediately connect with as such, but think is very nice but will likely grow in stature and my affections.
Uncut Gem is not so much of a gem, more of an abrasive mess of gingery aromatics. It opens initially with fresh bergamot and mandarin with a zingy ginger, however rather strangely combined with a rooty, herbaceous Angelica which simply does not have a place here and seems to stick out. From here a harsh and untamed leather emerges alongside spicy nutmeg and resinous olibanum, resting on a base of earthy vetiver. The notes in here don’t look too bad on paper but on skin just come across like a jumbled mess. I don’t doubt Maurice Roucel’s skill as a perfumer, after all he created Musc Ravageur which is a masterpiece - I also can’t deny the quality of materials here is very good. However, the scent itself is abrasive and lacks direction I feel.