Scandal Elixir
The middle size is usually the honest one, and Jean Paul Gaultier Scandal Elixir Parfum 50ml is enough to wear properly for a long time without the commitment of the largest bottle.
The composition is short and deliberately so. Patchouli does the grounding, earthy and dark, the smell of turned soil and old shavings. Blackberry lies across it with a tart, dark fruit sweetness that never tips into syrup. Iris runs underneath both of them, cool, dry and powdery, lending the kind of texture that reads as quality rather than as a flower in a vase. Bruno Jovanovic, Daphné Bugey and Fabrice Pellegrin built it, and what they have made is less a journey than a single dense accord that holds its shape for hours and then fades without changing much. Elixir concentration is the thing to understand here. There is more oil in it than in a standard eau de parfum, which does not make it louder so much as slower and heavier. One spray is a real dose. Two is an evening. People who over apply it tend to regret the decision somewhere in the back of a taxi.
It belongs to colder weather and later hours, and it is worn mostly by women, though nothing in the composition is especially gendered. If you like a perfume with earth in it rather than sweetness, this is very much the register, and the 50ml bottle is the point at which the price and the quantity make the most sense together.
The house is French, with roots in clothing rather than perfumery. Its founder showed womenswear from 1976, opened a Paris boutique in 1984 and launched his first fragrance in 1993. Since 2011 Puig has held the majority, taking perfume production inside the group in 2016.
Please note: images are a guide only. Packaging and bottle design may occasionally differ from those shown due to manufacturer updates or promotions.
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