Woody Gold

I recently splurged and bought Gold and Silver from Fragrancenet. The bottles are stunning, coming from someone who is unimpressed with bottles generally. They’re housed in rectangular envelope style boxes where the lid lifts up and clicks back down into position with a magnetic seal together with a little booklet about Les Compositions. This might sound like blasphemy, but Gold smells like Shalimar after the confronting gasoline sting has dissipated, it skips the tough part and goes straight into the delicious dry down, but sweeter. It doesn’t develop the same way Shalimar does but it possesses its own version of complexity. A delicious, airy and citrusy version of a classic, nicely done, if you love Shalimar but find it too much for day wear, this should satisfy your craving. Pretty good sillage and longevity to boot, exceptional offering from Lalique and worth getting at the current discounted price on the grey market. Thanks for reading this.

Sniffing this, I was very confused at the difference between what I smelled, how people described the scent in the reviews, and the Fragrantica note breakdown (which is incorrect). A trip to the Lalique site cleared it up, and made much more sense. While the fragrance is bright and light, I would not consider it overtly citrusy - the citrus notes play very much a subtle, supporting role. The main players for me are the tonka and orange blossom (it's very sweet), and the woody/amber synthetics in the base (particularly the Ambramone and Orcanox). That woodiness is absolutely not a deep, dour, serious woodiness, but rather a very light, airy, smooth, almost ephmeral woodiness. The synthetics are meant to add textures of driftwood and ambergris - and while it's by no means oceanic or ozonic, it does have a general diffuse airiness which is interesting on the nose. There is no "thickness" which I'd associate with an ambery fragrance. It's one of those scents where the synthetics give interesting textures that are pleasing to the nose, but the smell itself is not really that captivating - thin, airy and diffuse (with strong sillage), rather than complex and mysterious. It's pleasant and will put you in a good mood wearing it, but not remarkable.

A nice composition this one that is quite unique I would say. Very bright "shiny" citrus opening and mid that I think would be the citrus backed by the resinous benzoin (although I would have guessed elemi)...it's quite sharp but not sour. I think they nailed the creative direction in the 'Gold' part as it absolutely could be what you think or evokes what would smell like a cold gold metal bar. The 'Woody' aspect is there too which I would say is a combo of Iris and Cedar. As it dries it gets warmer and less sharp but is never a truly warm fragrance and heads a touch powdery. Unisex leaning just slightly masculine i'd say and very nice BUT while the presentation is a big step up from regular Lalique so is the price. You are getting something quite unique here and nice presentation but is it worth 3 times the cost of Encre Noire? I can't in good conscience say yes to that but I am happy with the purchase, not everything can be the mega bargain that EN and Lalique Homme is.

This is how I would picture the smell of gold smelling, and I think the naming is spot on. Now I got the one that's simply "gold" not woody gold so I don't know if this is the right place to comment, but my bottle is the lighter version not the darker glass one. Anyway, this is a decent fragrance although not necessarily my type of fragrance. It reminds me a little of habit rouge EDP but with more defined citrus and vanilla. I am not really a fan of citrus and vanilla combos in general because it comes off a little gourmand to me. Don't get me wrong this isnt a gourmand, but those plays of notes for me at least clash. But with that said, somehow this isn't that bad and I am able to tolerate it. This fragrance to my nose is unisex down the middle (silver being masculine) so both men and women can use this with no issues. So far out of the line this is the one I like least, but that being said its not bad just a preference thing.

@discoversherpes this was relaunched in 2020 in what looks like a more amber focused form so that probably explains why you have quite a different experience to others who reviewed earlier. You can search for the page for the new version on fragrantica, they won't let you link to other fragrances in the reviews.