Reviews of Méchant Loup (1997)
by L'Artisan Parfumeur

Anise! it screams! then Nuts! some spices and we have mechant Loup....i'd back SirSlarty's feedback on this one. it is light indeed. if you feel smelling like Hazelnut shells with anise, then look no further. i'd pass. boring to the core. I cant believe this is a scent by the great Bertrand Duchaufour...

Wait, is this Spark from Liz Claiborne? Anyways, lots of sweet honey. A little nutty. However, it sounds heavy but it's not. Way too light on the skin and I barely register any of the wood notes. Feels like I took a wet paper towel used to wipe up a spilled jar of honey and rubbed it on my chest.

After two full wearings I have decided Mechant Loup is one of the L'Artisan scents that are too, too ethereal and light on my skin for me to enjoy.

Most L'Artisan scents are pretty light and minimal on my skin, however ML's honey/nut/wood accord is dreamy and poetic for about 5 minutes on my skin and then it very quickly disappears. I don't just mean that I have to smell my skin up close to smell it (which I am OK with) but even when I smell my skin up close I can't smell anything.

In addition, it's use of honey in the top notes is just shy of treacly sweet. Honey is a tricky note for me - handled skillfully (Bois de Armenie by Guerlain comes to mind instantly) it's magical, but in ML it has a raw, back-of-the-throat palette tickle that makes me feel a little uncomfortable.

"Bathed in forest scents...
With Hazelnut at its core."

Notes: cedar, liquorice, hazelnut, honey

Mechant Loup. The "Big Bad Wolf". I played with a decent sized decant of this one for over a month, and let me tell you, this is no "big bad wolf".

Mechant Loup opens with a slight burnt almost gourmand foody smell. You can faintly smell the much talked about hazelnut note, and a bit of sweetness emerges in the form of a honey note. A few minutes later, the cedar note makes an abrupt appearance. It disappears as quickly, probably eaten up by a wolf. 30 minutes later, the hazelnut note takes over - and Mechant Loup transforms into a heavy hazelnut fragrance, with a sizeable amount of honey sweetness as well.

Make no mistake, its all about the 'nut here. I detect no spice. I would like to know what forest smells of honey and nuts. Perhaps the forest where Hansel and Gretel reside? Some of the reviewers observed that the scent reminded them of animal fur - I somewhat agree with that. The heavy blend of a raw hazelnut and honey does smell a bit like animal fur.

Like many of the L'Artisans, this one is extremely watery, with poor sillage and even poorer longevity. It is a mildly intriguing smell, but wont qualify as a good fragrance for me. After I had my way with the "big bad wolf", it whimpered away with its tail between its legs.

it dries down reminding me of obsession and that's a no no I don' twant to smell like john travolta 1984 or whatever