JEAN PAUL GAULTIER
Le Male ELIXIR ABSOLU

2025

lavender
plum
tonka bean

‘With his dazzling skin and smokin’ hot body, the new Male Elixir Absolu is setting the atmosphere alight. Radiating a golden aura, everything in his wake is turned into gold. This new Male — and the most precious of all — keeps the signature fragrance notes of the iconic Le Male Elixir but is intensely richer. Fruity notes of spicy, sensual plum develop into lavender and tonka bean, taking sensuality to the extreme. But be warned! This Le Male will soon become an obsession.’ – Jean Paul Gaultier

I’ve reviewed most of the Le Male line and while I try to do them justice and find components in them that I appreciate, I still can’t get along with the overall DNA. Frankly, I’m surprised every time that I try one, that this combination of minty aromatics and sweetness has become arguably the most popular DNA in men’s designer perfumery this decade. For me, it doesn’t work and always feels like the notes clash, which is also true for this Elixir Absolu, but to a lesser extent than in 2023; It handles the combo better than the previous iteration for my taste. To me this is a more mature refinement of its ever-popular predecessor Le Male Elixir. But is it enough to get the fans excited?

It is similar to 2023’s Elixir, but I find it a bit less… contrasting. A more cohesive, oily and more sophisticated take on the DNA. I find Elixir Absolu to be a notch less sweet (although still going a bit sweeter than I personally like in the base). It doesn’t have as much of an outstanding vanilla. The emphasis seems to be more on tonka and spices now. Tonka always has a slightly balsamic, candle-like or even soapy tinge and I feel like Elixir Absolu zooms in on that resinous, smooth, semi-sweet side.

It goes in the powdery, nutty, semi-sweet, but at the same time fresh direction as the other Le Male’s, but less bubblegummy, less screechy than some, as well as less vanillic. More on the iris, cinnamon, general warm spices side. I don’t necessarily get an outspoken tobacco from Elixir Absolu, but definitely more so than from Elixir, which listed tobacco as a note. I can picture it here.

The main new addition to the notes list this time around is plum, but don’t go into this expecting a fully on fruity or plum-heavy scent. I think it’s almost negligible scent-wise; it seems that the plum may add some smoothness, the way creamy, lactonic plum or fig is used in tobacco scents. Whatever faint fruitiness I get from it is pleasant enough. But, it’s not the center focus in my experience. It’s tonka bean, warm spices and aromatic lavender-ish freshness.

I like it best in the mid to late hours of the wear, when the minty touches from the aromatics have lost their freshness. At that point the clashing nature of this DNA starts to fade and it becomes something I would consider wearing. Feels like a slightly muddy, spicy tonka-vanilla at that point.

Overall, I think it’s a solid fragrance and a step up from Elixir. As someone who doesn’t love the Elixir or Le Male in general, Elixir Absolu feels like a refinement, rather than something completely new, but that also means I’m not in the market for it anyway. Fans of Elixir seem to be more divided on whether or not Elixir Absolu adds any value to the line. I mean this in the nicest way possible, but a slightly ‘more mature’ tweak doesn’t seem to be the biggest attraction for the Le Male Elixir target audience.

The clue here is probably in the heinous iPhone-Pro-Max-inspired-double-flanker name; Le Male may be extremely popular, but I feel like Jean-Paul Gaultier is stretching the boundaries of leaning on its momentum with this one and it needs to reinvent itself or deviate some more with the next flanker.