Reviews of Le Mâle (1995)
by Jean Paul Gaultier

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 review is under revision.

I purchased "Azul" from the Anchor Blue chain of stores in the United States. I thought it had a pleasant scent, if a bit overpowering. It is quite long lasting on my skin.

I have been stopped by several people to ask if I am wearing JPG Le Male. It seems that Azul is a bargain basement rip-off of it.

I only smelled this on a card so I cannot say whether or not it will be good on my body chemistry but I am going to wear it tomorrow. I get this barbershop thing from it. IMO it is like one reviewer said.. has a soda fizzy smell right out of the bottle. But after it settles you can smell the vanilla.

Le Male? Not so much to me, maybe Le Unisex would be a more descriptive name. Objectively speaking it is not a bad fragrance at all, but certainly not a definitively male fragrance as the name would suggest. Very much a product of the Metrosexual 90's.

Oriental, fougere, gourmand…take your pick—you can make an argument for any one of them. Le Mâle makes the most of a mint / lavender combination which, I think is the key to its special attractiveness —I find it an enjoyable accord in spite of the fact that it is quite sweet and is too synthetic. Its sweetness is, for the most part, diminished by the lavender; the synthetic feel is less than many of its contemporaries, and I find it only marginally disagreeable. Its heart notes are spice notes that are kept at a minimum and a not-too-floral orange blossom along with the lavender from the opening: These make the fragrance seem rather linear. The vanillic and musk heart notes are pleasant if a bit too sweet. I do not care for an excess of vanilla in a fragrance, and I think that the use of it here is beautifully done. I don’t find the synthetics of the heart and base too terribly annoying.

It certainly isn’t my kind of fragrance, but I rather like it in a disinterested sort of way. I don’t think it is as refined or complex as Body Kouros, nor do I think it is as well made or creative as A*men, but I can sort of understand why it is as popular as it is, and if application is not overdone, it is…wearable. It has excellent longevity, and it’s a fun fragrance. I can’t help but mention that Le Mâle’s feminine counterpart fragrance is an excellent scent—much better than Le Mâle.

This is a pretty good scent that women tend to like a lot. The smell after a while gets annoying and I really dont like it anymore. This reminds me of a relationship, it's great in the beggining but after a while it gets boring and you will want to move on.

I love the mint opening and the cool bottle, but (as with the evil, must-be-destroyed demon juice known as A*men by Thierry Mugler) the tonka overpowers me to the point of a dreadful headache. UNLIKE A*men, though, I actually LIKE this one. Too bad I can't wear the stuff.

First i avoided this scent due to its agressive marketig, speculating a gay connotation for commercial reasons, even more campy, vulgar and unrestrained like the Calvin Klein adverts full of provocative sexuality and androginous gender. I'm not much into the idea of a sailor or an old fashioned bathing suit as a sexual fetish, especially not when it comes to scents.
Besides, the association with a sailor or a bathing suit made me believe i had to expect an aquatic fragrance, light and refreshing, exahling a watery, ozonic, unpredictable sensuality( changing like the waves and tides of the sea). I couldn't have been more wrong, as this one is so extremely macho and dry,up to the point that it reeks. However there is one thing reminding of the sea, i always had the sensation of being on a ship full of spices, exotic fruits, strange essences, raw materials, all genuine, bot most of them in a very brute, bare staste, that is before the refinement and experience of a skilled hand turs them into exquisite perfumes, meals or objects, even slightly daying, towards a hint of moist wood.
One the down side, this perfume is heavy with vile, synthetic smelling notes, alfway between cheap sandalwood incense sticks frankincense( which make the air in very stuffy and suffocating curch intoxicating) and the swaety tones of many hyper-cheap sythteic sweet surrogates trying to smell like tobacco( just check out Cuba, Cigar etc. and you'll find out)- oddly even this disturbing part seems to be harmonious, as cheap incense and cheap, sweat tobacco imitation are fit for each other.
However as i waited i discovered its good half too, inspite of the initial deterrance, i also identified very equisite, yet quite onedimensional notes of spice, it felt like all of the loads of exotic merchandise were transferred to a very high-end kitchen belonging to a wealthy old-school residence. Raw, powerful notes with an almost edible feel- vanilla, cocoa, even a hint of cappucino, coffee or other hot drink spiced with cinnamon, generic wintery essences used to enhance punch, caramel and toffee. All of these in a very puristic and surprisingly masculine interpretation, the sweetness being counterbalanced by a pungent, dark bitter note of berries, wood and pepper, slightly resembling the overtly Oriental Opium PH launched in the same year. It still got better towrds the end, the notes of Tonka and Amber giving adding to it partly a hint of old cognac like Escada for men, partly an ambery, leathery, very carnal, very smoky-powdery, almost tobacco like gothic ending, reminding me of powerful, excessively, addictively masculine creations like Tabac, Old Spice, Aramis Azzaro,Caractere, Drakkar, Heritage and Rocabar. I defintaely have to try it out again and judge it more carefully, it is not a confortable, nor a predictable scent for me and further analysis might keep lots of pleasant and unsavoury surprises waiting, changing my rating towards significantly higher or lowers values.

do not purchase this one unless you are bottom-versatile... otherwise, you'll be turning heads in vain. great lasting power. but all too common. if u ever went to bruxelles, you would know what i'm talking about.

Not a bad scent but your lucky if you can get it to last more then 20 minutes on your skin; ...too sweet for man... Expensive too! So if Le Male is out of your price range check out Perry Ellis 360 Degrees White; it’s new on the market and the price is mega cheaper too!

It can smell totally amazing on the right person. I honestly get the impression of sweet baby liquid soap mixed with black pepper. Not for me, but it works on others.