I have a few bottles of Jean Paul Gaultier (JPG) and so far, my absolute favorite is still Le Male Le Parfum. It’s powdery, spicy, has some lavender and woody elements in it and it’s very unique. When I heard that JPG was releasing a new elixir for the Le Male line, I was really excited and when it comes to online hype…it was real! Lots of people talking about this because they wanted to get their nose on it but apparently this was released primarily in Europe to start so getting your hands on a bottle is a bit of a challenge. There aren’t many notes in the fragrance but what I can tell you is there’s a surprise in the dry down that I will get to in a moment, but first the opening.
The opening is slightly fresh with some mint, vanilla, and lavender notes. I would say the opening so far does not seem like it’s a summer/spring fragrance but more of a fall/winter fragrance which is good, but bad that you kinda have to wait to wear it. I suppose you could wear it whenever you want but it would definitely perform better in fall/winter.
The dry down is where the magic happens but also where I started scratching my head because I knew I smelled that scent before. The dry down of this fragrance has notes of honey, tonka bean as well as tobacco. The scent combination is a carbon copy of….Mystery Tobacco from Carolina Herrera. When I put my nose to JPG after it was all dry I immediately knew it was Mystery Tobacco. What’s even more weird is it’s the exact same perfumer, Quentin Bisch, so now I’m left with a bevvy of questions.
When you have a perfumer it’s their job to create something that’s mass appealing, whether it’s something they may personally like or not. The number one job is to create something that will cause the balance of need/want to tip in the favor of “want” and convert that into sales. What I don’t think a perfumer’s job should entail is copying scent profiles from one fragrance to another, even if it’s their own creation. I wouldn’t call it lazy but would lean more on the side of using the word “unoriginal”. Take Le Male Le Parfum for example. It’s unique in a way that I personally have not smelled anything that’s completely identical to that fragrance, making it an original. If you created another fragrance with a different name on it but smells like Le Parfum, then it no longer holds that title.
Now do I think Quentin purposefully took the DNA from Mystery Tobacco and placed it in JPG Le Male Elixir? Probably not, but what I CAN tell you is that regardless of whether he did or not, Elixir smells identical to a fragrance that sells for around $250 for a 100ml bottle AND is not available to purchase in the US. So that’s a total win for you, my friend!
Final Thoughts
The fragrance as a whole is definitely very nice. The opening is undeniably different than Mystery Tobacco so it’s not a total rip, but I have to say, that dry down is superb. As I mentioned, this is definitely a cooler weather fragrance but is one that I highly recommend! Grab your sample of JPG Le Male Elixir right here at Decant House and try it before it’s available in the US! Also grab a sample of Mystery Tobacco and see the results for yourself. Do you think they smell the same? Let us know in the comments and will see you in the next one!
