L'Homme Idéal Extrême

JUST GET THIS FRAGRANCE That is a quick simple answer if you’re on the fence whether you should buy this fragrance or not. At the time of this writing, this fragrance was in first place on the Fragrantica awards. I bought the EDP version late last year and I did enjoy the scent of EDP. It was good, but forgettable. I stopped buying designer (or designer quality) and started only buying niche fragrances since niche just smelled better to me (perhaps it’s all in my head). Soooooo.... I was very reluctant in buying this bottle. Figured it was more or less the same as EDP. After seeing how well it was doing in the awards, I just bought it blind. It wasn’t super expensive or anything... Received the box (uninspiring packaging with bland designing) and sprayed my hand and.... HOLY SHIT! This fragrance is well deserved of the first place spot for men’s fragrance of the year. It’s the EDP version but better... MUCH BETTER. It’s what EDP should’ve been. Seriously... they should just discontinue EDP and make this only. It removes all the negatives in EDP and keeps all the positives and amplifies it. Upon spraying my hand, I immediately smell that cherry (that’s what it smells like to me... like cherry car freshener) smell. It smells so damn good. I was very curious how it compared to EDP and sprayed my other hand. The extreme just outperforms it in every category. I had to eat so I washed both hands vigorously with method soap so I won’t be smelling perfume while eating my meal. Annnnnd... this frag just stayed. Almost as if i didn’t even wash my hands. The EDP was just a memory... I couldn’t smell ANYTHING. The Extreme last for several more hours afterwards... Guerlain F*CKING nailed it! This is a gem. Is it a safe blind buy? ABSOLUTELY! You can get it for cheap and rest assured you won’t be smelling this on every Tom, Dick, and Harry like you would with Acqua Di Gio. 9 out of 10 for me

My bottle of this is almost finished (Grey sticker, black cap). This fragrance completely sold me on Guerlain as a brand. For the price you're paying (~80€ on online discounters), not only are you getting a unique scent profile compared to every other designer fragrance out there, but you're also getting such an interesting scent development that even niche brands known for complexity can struggle with. It starts off very fruity, spicy and sweet in the beginning, giving you this fizzy soda feel with the plum and the pink pepper. The almond is soon to follow and the scent kind of takes this fizzy plum soda and adds amaretto liquor to it. At this stage this fragrance is extremely diffusive and creates a wonderful scent in the air. Up close on skin it has a very apparent spicy feel that stings the nose a little, I'm guessing it's the cinnamon. As it dries down it does a complete 180 and turns into this smooth, dry tobacco + almond scent. There is no semblance of animalics or anything like that. I'm guessing the leather accord is there to provide a smooth base for the tobacco and the almond. At this point it's mostly a skin scent as I've found the diffusive nature makes it lose projection quickly, but I still catch wafts of it from time to time. Although I don't like the late drydown as much as the beginning, it still smells amazing in the air. I would say the scent is quite unisex, but the tobacco note makes it lean a bit masculine in the drydown, however a woman can totally rock this with no issue as it's an amazing scent. (Hell my mom keeps wearing it whenever I bring it around). Absolutely amazing scent profile, subtle projection makes it great for date nights/office settings. I would avoid it in the high heat of summer days, but any other season should be fine. It has completely ruined most designer fragrances for me as they just smell boring in comparison.

I’ve smelled a lot of high quality fragrances and own some as well but this one is in a league of its own. Beautiful, sweet opening, that opens up with a juicy plum note and fruit, with smoky tobacco and leathery undertones along with a whole array of smaller notes. This fragrance is super complex, the dry down turns this fragrance into a very masculine one, still retaining that fruity opening but less prominent. Every time I go to my fragrance shelf, I have to smell this to admire how much of a masterpiece this is. The only critique I have is that this fragrance definitely is not for everyone and could be a better performer. It could be a better performer bc I love it so much, I wish it projected better, it stays on your skin for as long as any high quality fragrance would but the projection is average.Oh yah, and don’t wear this outside of cold weather. Kind of disappointing considering how great the fragrance is. Also to my point that this fragrance isn’t for everyone, it’s not unisex like at all, I don’t see a girl pulling this off. It is also an artsy fragrance in a sense, it takes a certain type of person to wear this, wouldn’t be something anyone could buy and wear at like a sephora or something. A great scent but catered towards the masculine nose, also definitely takes someone who’s been around scents for a little to appreciate this fully. Wouldn’t recommend a blind buy even though it’s my favorite scent. Scent: 10/10 Wearability: 6/10 ( only cold weather) Performance: 6/10 Final Thoughts: Best scent I own, buy if you want something unique that will make you smell amazing. Don’t buy if you are looking for an all year round fragrance with great performance.

Have the black cap, silver sticker version. It started out lukewarm for me because I felt the performance was really not that great. I've been using this for the past 1 week now and seems like it has now started to open up a bit, I agree with some comments here talking about letting it maserate / mature a little bit after it's opened. Now, I find it has a mildly boozy, sweet and fruity opening which is absolutely addictive; later transforms into a powdery, leathery, piped cherry tobacco drydown. It's neither overpowering nor unnatural smelling at any point of its olfactory journey. It stays comforting yet sophisticated all along. Very very well blended. Appropriate for ages 30+ and it's unisex leaning a little masculine. I own 50+ fragrances and this is the one that I'd like to wear for myself at home all the time, enough said. Guerlain knows their art and craft well and offer it at real honest to goodness prices. I own the Dior Homme Parfum which is another masterpiece, costed me 4x as much but is unwearable on most occasions and if you go trigger happy with it, you're gonna have a bad time and apparently everyone around you too. Guerlain l'homme extreme smells in the same vein - artsy and sophisticated, but is still quite versatile and forgiving to other's noses. I don't receive unsolicited compliments but I'd be asking shamelessly about this one if I'd have ever smelled it on someone else, atleast I think I would've. I already have their L'homme cologne which I love for warmer months, it beats me why it took me so long to try out the rest of their line up. I'm sure I'm going to get every one of their l'homme line flankers over the coming years.

This was my first “winter fragrance”. I bought it three years ago, when it was launched, and have been using it ever since (when it's cold, of course), mostly for work. At first, the cinnamon and pepper notes stand out on my skin, yielding an indisputably spicy fragrant halo. Shortly afterwards, the almond “softens” that opening into a warm, round and slightly sweet composition. It's EXTREMELY potent (the "extreme" isn't there for no reason). So, believe it or not, I only use ONE spray, right on my chest. Do you think this is not enough? Well then, I tell you it’s a compliment beast, even with that just one spray. In the very first days of me wearing it at work, the ladies began to literally flock to the entrance of my office, telling me they were fascinated by how good that smell (AKA L’Homme Ideal Extreme) was. Not enough of a compliment? So hear this one: another young lady once approached me and said “this fragrance you’re wearing must have cost thousands of dollars!” (actually, “reais”, our currency in Brazil). That was only one spray, gents. As a result, I only use about 15 ml a year (or less), and so my bottle will still easily last more 3 or 4 years. That's wonderful, because I don't intend to stop using this beast anytime soon. Last caveat: because it is very potent, use it only in winter. It will become unbearably cloying when it's not cold (that, too, I learnt from other people's feedback).