L'Homme Essentiel (2001)
by Roger & Gallet

This is not at all what I was expecting from Roger & Gallet. I was expecting something a a bit nichey or, more likely, cologne splashy. This smells like a fragrance that should be named after an automobile – a big, ugly, expensive, military type automobile. L’Homme Essentiel is sharp, mediocre, copy-cat, and synthetic. It’s one of those modern fragrances I’ve smelled a couple of dozen times under a couple of dozen names. It opens with that mediocre citrus / lavender / herbal opening that so many of the mediocre fragrances seem to love. I don’t – love it, that is: Even the Cuba Paris by Parfums des Champs (the company with the cigar bottles) managed that particular opening accord better than this fragrance does. L’Homme Essentiel doesn’t seem to have any florals, or anything to smooth it down or round it out: All I get from the top two levels are those sharp plastic accords with the herbs in the top being replaced by the spices in the middle with no improvement because of the replacement. It gets a little better with the drydown, when some woods sidle into the pyramid, but this is not enough to save the fragrance. L’Homme Essentiel does have lasting power. I understand the need for companies to expand their portfolio offerings to gather in new customers, but this is the wrong way for Roger & Gallet to go as far as I’m concerned There have been too many olfactory insults of this sort already.

A very interesting, fresh, oriental spicy scent. It's not loud and excessively spicy like Opium. And it's like a lot of the newer scents, it doesn't have a high output, but it lasts a long time. It's like Envy in that it seems to only linger around ones personal space. I paid full price for it, and it was the cheapest in the store. Amazing value. It's aftershave balm is a bit different. It comes out of a 50ml spray pack (like shaving foam does). It's not that long lasting, and doesn't quite smell like the EDT does. Still, it was relatively inexpensive.