Le Mâle (1995)
by Jean Paul Gaultier

A classic, pure and simple. It's perfect from start to finish and can work on just about anyone.

5 stars!

A groundbreaking classic. No other perfume of it's time better defined the era. I understand the criticisms i.e. cloying and synthetic. That however is to neglect the sillage, longevity, warmth, and uniqueness of this juice. In my mind this one sits very comfortably among the other legendary frags like Paco Rabanne, Aramis, Azzaro, Eau Sauvage etc. 2 thumbs way up!

It smells very nice although it might be too popular for its own good. It has good longevity. It might smell synthetic, but who cares, it's a nice smell either way. I have almost finished my bottle and this is one that I will feel bad about if I don't get a new bottle.

It's a very sweet smell with powerful sillage so you should not over apply it.

Not sickly, milky sweet like Gaultier2 and feels weak in comparison but this is still very, very strong. A peppery vanilla scent that lasts forever. If it's too strong for you I recommend trying Perry Ellis 360 White for Men. The packaging is avant garde but still silly looking.

"This is the sexiest scent a man can wear"... these were the words of the sales lady at Macy's. I'm not sure if she was talking about the bottle, or the scent, regardless though, it is awesome! It is very light to the nose, so you can spray it, it sticks around, but it doesn't make me sneeze.

The way it lingers and welcomes people into the room is really nice... A man at my work was wearing it one day--I was not--and I walked into the room and just wanted to get closer to him to smell him. It's that good.

I've had all positive feedback on this scent... a good friend of mine was with me out on the town one evening and asked what I was wearing... after I told her she said, "It's making me weak in the knees, I can't stop smelling you [with her nose pinned to my neck]"

Get this. My mom purchased this for me after her knowing a man who wore it religiously. I thought, "well, if my mom is suggesting it then I should go the opposite direction", but that's where I was wrong... this stuff is amazing and I will always have a bottle of it close by.

Perhaps it is because this was the first fragrance I ever purchased, or perhaps it is the fact that while wearing this the last 9 years I have received more compliments that I can count, or maybe it is the amazing sillage and longevity which causes the whole laundry basket to emanate of vanilla and amber for days after I have put in it a shirt with a modest application of Le Male. It is hard for me to be concise when praising this fragrance, because while going through 3 bottles, I do not have only one reason why I love JPG Le Male, but at any given time I can give at least a dozen different ones.

I have also heard the criticism, with terms such as "chemical meltdown" and "overwhelmingly cloying” often going around. I disregard these critiques, because in the end of the day, 12 to 14 hours after initial application, an aura of warmth and sweetness is still prominent and heads turn regardless, and if it is a synthetic sweetness that causes this effect, well then so be it. Perhaps time has come where a well-done synthetic can compete and hold its own with the all-natural offerings out there.

I will gladly go out on a limb and reserve Le Male's place among the venerated classics. Decades later, we shall speak of it in the same breath as Guerlain Vetiver, Grey Flannel and Dunhill Edition. Not because it shares their notes or themes, but because it shares the qualities of a classic: amazing versatility, breakthrough combination of notes, remarkable progression and development, and the sillage and longevity of a thoroughbred. I just do not know of any fragrance that was released in the 90s that better captures the essence of the decade and has even two of these characteristics let alone all four.

A thumbs up for the ages.