JEAN PAUL GAULTIER
Le Male Le Parfum
2020
PERFUMER
Nathalie Gracia-Cetto
Quentin Bisch
Louise Turner
cardamom
iris
lavender
vanilla
amber woods
After trying the more recent Le Male Elixir (2023), which I gave one of my least favorable reviews of the year, I was not too excited to dive back into the rest of the Le Male line. However, I figured I’d need to find out if it was just the Elixir that landed completely wrong with me, or that the Le Male DNA (which I remembered somewhat), just isn’t for me. Short answer… both. Consider this breakdown more of a comparison than a stand alone review.
As with Elixir, when Le Parfum starts getting sweeter and sweeter, I lose interest. I also think the combination of fresh and sweet before that drydown, still doesn’t fully work for me. But there is some good news.
In the case of Le Parfum, the opening is much more forgiving for my taste and actually fresh with a more prominent cardamom and lavender to my nose. More iris as well, but I think the boosted lavender versus the Elixir is what makes me appreciate Le Parfum a lot more. And this opening lasts a bit longer.
The combination of powdery, sweet and lavender is… doable. I wouldn’t say nice, but once the dust settles, I would not feel bad wearing it. This feels better constructed as well, without that overly cloying edge and without the medicinal touch in the opening.
Now as mentioned, it still does get very sweet and not in a way that I love. I love gourmands and I love a good vanilla, chocolate, caramel etc. But I don’t like either sugary or bubblegum sweetness and I find that with bigger designer releases, it almost always goes wrong. In this case, not so wrong that I strongly dislike it, but definitely not great either.
What helps I think is the more dry and powdery texture with a slight spiciness throughout, which Le Parfum commits to more. The Elixir smelled not only more cloying, but also more generic and seemed to pull not only from the Le Male DNA but from a group of popular designers.
At the end of the day, I can see why people enjoy wearing Le Male Le Parfum and it has more of the original Le Male character that I had in mind from trying them way before getting into fragrances more seriously. I don’t like it much myself, but I respect this a ton more than the Elixir. They share a similar vibe, but are different enough; I just would recommend Le Parfum on all fronts, unless you’re looking for that overly sweet vibe (I’d personally say this is plenty sweet and nobody should want to be as cloying as the Elixir, but that’s me).