Fragrance Notes
Le Male Elixir
Few men's fragrances are as recognisable as the Le Male family, and Jean Paul Gaultier Le Male Elixir Parfum is the concentrated, sweetened reading of it that put a thirty year old favourite back in front of people all over again. Lavender is the inheritance from the original and it is handled dry here, herbal and cool with the slightly medicinal bite that the material has before perfumery sands it down. Tonka bean is the reason people call this one addictive: soft, sweet, a little dusty, with the warm nuttiness of a pastry crust and a bitter edge that keeps it from being sugar. Benzoin is the third material and the most overlooked, a resin with a balsamic sweetness and a smoky weight that gives the base its thickness. Together they make something rich and rounded with no sharp corners anywhere in it.
Three materials only, so the structure is simple and the impact is not. This is a scent that works by saturation rather than by surprise. In wear it is heavy and long lasting, closer to the skin than its reputation suggests but very hard to wash out of clothing. One spray, two at the outside. Cold weather flatters it and summer does not, and it is an evening scent far more than a daytime one. It is aimed at men and worn widely by anyone who likes sweetness in a fragrance. Against the original eau de toilette it is less soapy and much warmer; against the Elixir Absolu it is the lighter of the two.
Gaultier's clothes came first, from 1976, and his perfumes from 1993, when Classique arrived in the corset bottle that still signals the brand across a shop floor. Puig holds the majority stake and has developed the fragrances internally since 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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