L'Humaniste

A long-time favorite of mine, it's good to see L'Humaniste flaunting a healthy 4.38 rating over here at Fragrantica. I love rooting for fragrances that manage to do two things equally well--smell completely unique and smell really good. L'Humaniste, with its accurate and cold gin and tonic opening and creamy juniper-and-cardamom citrus notes in the heart is a pleasure to wear, and it really doesn't smell like anything else that's out there. However, references to Chanel's Allure Homme Edition Blanche are valid, as it does take on a creamy citrus quality similar to AHEB, especially as it dries down. Still, L'Humaniste is probably the more interesting of the two, as it has greater complexity than the Chanel, a lot of which is attributable to the spicy aromatics that compose its heart. L'Humaniste is a great casual scent, but it also works when you want to get a little dressed up too, as the gin and tonic opening and spicy citrus notes have enough pizazz to present something that generally feels more special than ordinary. The most common complaint I've heard about L'Humaniste concerns its projection and longevity, but honestly, I have never had any issues in this area. I get 8 hours plus every time and it always projects very well, creating a scent cloud that radiates a good two or three feet out there. I'd take performance complaints with a grain of salt. If you're someone who demands insane projection and a fragrance that sticks to your skin four showers and a bubble bath later, then yes--you might find it has performance issues. But if you're not of the nuclear powerhouse ilk and you just require that a fragrance gets out there a little bit so that it's noticeable in close proximity and holds on long enough to get you through your day, then you'll surely be happy with L'Humaniste. I've tried almost every Frapin that's available and L'Humaniste is still my favorite by a wide margin (and I like a lot of their offerings). I'd like to recommend it as a blind buy, but due to its price I can't. Instead, it's highly recommended for sampling. Final rating: 9/10

A great scent to wear during the spring and summer, L'Humaniste opens up with a bright, effervescent fizziness reminiscent of a gin 'n tonic with a good twist of lemon in the mix. But this one remains a perfume first and foremost, and avoids the typical pitfall of many 'booze-based' fragrances, that is, that you end up smelling like an alcoholic or someone who had a drink spilled on himself. The gin adds a unique element to L'Humaniste, but never becomes overbearing. After a while, a creamy quality (similar to Allure Homme Edition Blanche) comes into play with the lemons and the heart of L'Humaniste remains like this for several hours; an aromatic and creamy blend of citrus notes and gin. All in all, L'Humaniste is a quality fragrance with a unique character that still manages to have a potentially popular, mass-market appeal. In other words, it smells good, and not just weird or like something you'd wear maybe once or twice a year when you're feeling sassy. It's gotten some complaints for smelling "generic," but those complaints mainly seem to come from people who don't like appealing, fresh citrus fragrances to begin with...so who cares? One issue of contention that pops up again and again with L'Humaniste is its longevity. Reports vary greatly. I typically get 8 to 10 solid hours with it, though others report less than 2. While I'm not sure why this is the case, my recommendation would be to test it out in the store if possible to see how it performs on you. I don't know if the longevity issues are based on batch variations, skin chemistry, or bad samples being passed around, but whatever the case, there seems to be inconsistency regarding its longevity. 2 thumbs way up for this winner from Frapin.

If you are afraid of experiencing performance issues with this fragrance, this review is not intended to guarantee you that you won’t. You might. But in my experience, while it sits close to the skin for much of its life, it actually will stick around for up to 8 hours or so. Nonetheless, none of that matters, because fragrances are not “products” with “features”, like putting a TB of storage in a new iPhone. Performance is not a feature. It is a byproduct; more importantly, a subjective variable! L’Humaniste has been a favorite of mine for many years, because of the way it makes me feel and how perfectly it suits the occasions I wear it for. It is uplifting, bright, mouthwatering, and simply delightful. It will most likely make you smile at first spray. Sidonie Lancesseur created this perfectly the way it is. If you are still concerned about the performance, let me ask you this: how could we expect high longevity from a natural-smelling, citrusy, herbal, and spirit-y fresh fragrance? That is akin to wearing a t-shirt on a cold snowy day and getting frustrated that it’s not keeping you warm. Choose the right fragrance for the right occasion! I hope you try it, and enjoy it as much as I do!

L’Humaniste has gorgeous opening, with blast of juniper berry/gin with light citrus background all-around sweet and aromatic. When mid comes around I get vetiver and pink pepper added to the mix while the citrus is gone. With drydown I get faintly oakmoss and juniper berry. Yup, this makes me happy pretty much every time I wear this and look like a dummy constantly burying my nose to my arm to get better wafts of it and having this grin in my face afterwards. I would love if L’Humaniste had better longevity, it is moderate and with decent sillage. From opening I would have thought it would stay longer and project way more but it does tame rather quickly, at times on very hot days I wonder if this could get bit unbearable if it’s put on rather heavily. As more of a bright scent it does great in summer and has enough meat to it to work in spring also. It has nice balance of bright and herbal feel and some sweetness so it doesn’t get that dry feeling that doesn’t seem to work well with me. L’Humaniste has grown on me, from ok to great and now I’m starting to think if I’d eventually like to have bottle of this around as I haven’t yet found anything that has same kind of feeling as this.

This is one of those fragrances where I instantly fell in love with it from the moment I smelled it on a paper strip. To me it smells like a summer cocktail, even though I find it suitable to wear in winter/colder months as well because of its powderiness. I'd say it's a mojito but instead of lime and mint, it has lemon and juniper. In the opening it starts out with lemon, juniper and booziness (so gin, apparently). The peppers (pink, black and cardamom) aren't harsh in the composition, but they do give it the extra kick. The scent quickly becomes slightly powdery (in a good way) due to the peony coming into play. When it dries down, the lemon takes a step back so you're left with a slightly powdery juniper cocktail. Despite what others state, on me the longevity is pretty nice. About 8 hours I'd say. The fragrance becomes a skin scent rather fast however, so the projection is not all that great. But that doesn't really bother me all that much :) Last but not least, Fragrantica is the only website where I see L'Humaniste categorised as a men's fragrance instead of unisex. No idea why, this can most certainly be worn by a lady as well!