Le Male Essence de Parfum

I'm going straight to the point; this is so beautiful and balanced it boggles my mind. I give it the highest remark. Bottle, sillage, longevity, smell, masculinity, balance, character/uniqueness, versatility. This one is a solid release that doesn't lack anything. It may be too thick for extremely hot humid weather like we have now in Sweden at the time of writing. Geared towards the non-teenager. This is going towards the direction of mature and formal. But it works just as well as a bad boy leather jacket frag for younger people in my opinion. I remember smelling this upon release curiously. It wasnt for me I thought, but it smelled delicious and new. Sometimes it's hard to recognize greatness upon initial smell. I immediately knew it was quality, but my persona needed time to adjust to the tought of me wearing this kind of fragrance. I'm a freshie. Tend to like lighter frags. This smells spicy and creamy. A bit dry. The note fo leather/suede is dominating the entire experience. It smells very natural. Some flowers going on just beneath the spicy suede, you just sense them. I tend not to like cardamom in excess. Here the cardamom is a key player but it blends in so well that it never gets too sweet. The sweetness is tickeling the nose, enticingly. Never satisfying your sweet tooth. The sweet/spicy combo is actuallt JUST right. For example, I find the legendary Spicebomb to be good but for my taste it's a little too sweet. This fragrance is NOT Le Male despite the name. It's another beast. But it's hiding, deep in the bakground. And when you let it dry down to itS final stages you kind of smell the classic Le Male again. Very subdued and very intrically infused in the new experience of how a modern man smells like. JPG is very ahead in the innovation game for designers, on par with Dior. It took some time but I bought a bottle recently for fall. The question is if it performs in the compliment section. I have no idea.

So I picked up a bottle of Le Male Essence at the duty free and have worn it for a few days. I'm still testing this fragrance, but can give some initial thoughts for those interested in buying this: 1. If you bought this thinking you would be getting yet another variation of 'Le Male' guess again. This is not the same thing. Sure, like 'Le Male' there is: cardamon, vanilla and lavender, but it is blended quite differently and has no orange blossom or mint. For those saying this fragrance isn't good because it doesn't smell like 'Le Male'.....I get it because this has the name 'Le Male' in it and has a similar bottle, but I won't rate this poorly because it is quite different. Also - how many more variations of the original can you do? 2. It is a warmer, more sensual fragrance. The cardamon is fairly prominent and gives it a 'La Nuit de L'homme' vibe to some extent. 3. It is surprisingly decent in the longevity department. I sprayed it on me 6 hours ago and can easily detect it still. It is not a 'screamer' though - projection is decent, but I don't think it is designed to project heavily or leave a big scent trail. Do I like it? Yes, but I like it for reasons others don't like it. 1. It doesn't smell like the original, and I'm OK with that. 2. It has notes in it that I like - Cardamon, lavender, leather. It also has cinnamon like the original. It is slightly sweet, but not overly sweet. Still testing, but these are my initial impressions. Edit #1 - So another full wearing today. I really do think this is a sensual fragrance. Longevity is not bad on this, but if you like your fragrances a bit 'louder' this is not for you. I like it. It's my kind of fragrance. I like fragrances like this, Armani Code Special Blend, Nuit D'Issey Parfum. All of those fragrances are nice, have a sensual, slightly darker edge to them...but not overly loud. One other comment: beautiful bottle!

This fragrance changed my thoughts on J.P. Gaultier fragrances. This is actually the first one which I don't only like, I LOVE it! I hate the original, I hate Le Beau even more because of the coconut note. But this one is hella different story! Can't help myself with this. It opens with fresh citruses, bergamont mainly but at the same time insanely sweet Not bubblegum sweet though, kinda attractively and alluringly sweet. Then it turned to like a sweet vanilla leather with seductive cinnamond and floral notes like lavender. As it dries down, it becomes more serious, masculine and musky; hints of absin even. This actually reminds me of Armani Code Profumo, they are not the same though but very similar. I also get some a hint of CH Men Privé but in sweeter way, maybe because of a leather note. On my skin, it projects like a crazyyyy beast after two first hours. Then it comes much closer to the skin but still people around me can smell me. Longevity is also great, 7 hours easily because of its heavy base notes. I sprayed it five sprays like usual and it almost killed me haha. This is not cloying as original one but it is still strong fragrance. Go easy with this one ;P Even if you can't smell it on yourself, people around you still can for example when you walk pass someone or when you give a left kiss, right kiss, they can smell you.. This is definitely for an outgoing with a huge personality and a bit childish and playful characters. It is still for a grown up and matured guy, 24yrs+.

(I have the bottle with the burgundy-colored juice.) This is a fragrance that had been on my radar for a while after I tried it in an airport. I remember liking it but couldn't recall why. Lots of users here regard it as a modernized, "mature" take on the original Le Male, so I figured I would give it a shot as a blind buy. Le Male Essence is IMO not a fragrance you can judge at first sniff. The opening is somewhat harsh with a lot going on, but when you reach the drydown, the true beauty of the fragrance comes through with a somewhat sweet, somewhat powdery leather. The lavender from the original Le Male DNA is still there, but it's far from dominant; the main notes I pick up on are cardamom (a TON of it in the opening), cinnamon, and that nice leather. What I'm still trying to pin down about Le Male Essence is its wearability. It's no doubt best suited for colder temperatures, but for what occasion? It's not as casual as the original but not as formal as, say, your average Guerlain. It's definitely a more mature take on the original Le Male, but I think there's enough sweetness and booziness in there for it to be appealing for a man in his twenties as well. Whatever the case, this is clearly a quality, well-blended fragrance with some thought put into it. It's not just another Le Male flanker; this one has its own identity and deserves the updated bottle. Performance is not an issue at all for me, as I get at least 8 hours of longevity. Give this one some time. It's a good one.

Another travesty!!!! Not this perfume, I love this perfume, but the fact I haven't written a Fragrantica review for it!!! I mean WTF is going on? Are my reviews disappearing or am I getting old an forgetting to post them? Anyway.... If you don't like the original Le Male, have no fear because this is nothing like it, but nods enough in it's direction to make you go 'ahhhh I see the thread.' A bigger more obvious nod though would be to the perfumers previous works of sparkly, cosmic, nebulae, fruity incense accords like Ganymede and Teddy, Bois Imperiale etc....etc.... but essence parfum seems to be squarely in the 'designer' realm, reining that sparkliness in somewhat and rounding off the edges with smooth, warm, spiced, lavender fougere type feel. Which as much as I love Bisch's signature style, I find it hard to wear those Barrois perfumes and such after a few hours because they are just too much, not in a bad way, they are brilliant just sort of.... emotionally draining. This however is spectacularly good, soft, wearable and was a huge suprise to me upon it's release, I mean I bought it immediately, I thought it was that good and just look at that reworked Flacon. Bravo to JPG for giving us something really meaningful in a sea of drab men's designer releases.