Alien Man (2018)
by Thierry Mugler

If this fragrance is so mainstream and boring, why is it that I, as someone who has quite a wide-ranging and varied collection filled with challenging, left-field niche favorites, find myself wearing Alien Man every other day in the week since it arrived? I ordered it “blind” with low expectations given the ho-hum reception it’s received online. Fair enough. Can I understand why people are let down, given Mugler’s history of challenging, idiosyncratic, and cheeky compositions? Yes, of course. Alien Man is in no sense ostentatious. It’s not loud, it’s not brash, it doesn’t make a big statement. But, what it manages to be in a way that is rare, is simultaneously easy-going and broadly appealing without being insipid, cheap, or trite. Alien Man is not particularly alien in the sense of being weird. However, it does play with a sense of texture and aura, a sort of electricity, that draws on another connotation of “alien.” As others have mentioned, it opens with a somewhat rich, anise-touched bracingness, notably lacking obvious citrus, the effect of which, aided by birch smokiness, is like a low-level electrical current has been turned on. The fragrance hums. As it develops, it turns toward a slightly synthetic lavender-esque quality which I fear is a bit of dihydromyrcenol, though used sparingly enough that this may be the first composition where I can stand that completely overused aromachemical. Along with this cheerful “well groomed” note, a somewhat leathery, somewhat creamy amber woods warms up, never shouting, and developing into a sensual “warm skin” glow which lasts, very pleasantly, for many hours more. The effect is somewhat like static electricity. Where other, more cynical mass-market compositions would lean heavily on a cheap woody-amber base, or dud out after a showy opening, Alien Man keeps its integrity and affable sensibility throughout, neither offending nor caving to crassness. There’s something so appealingly reliable about this sort of composition — never a bad choice, will not betray you with an easy out — that it does indeed become addictive, something to reach for happily. There’s no need to put this up against fragrances designed to make a statement; that’s not what Alien Man does. But put up against other appeals to a wide market, and its smart take on approachability is the way to go. Even the most rarified, esoteric collection needs something like this, for all those days where the aim isn’t a shout, but a smart sport coat and an easy smile. I’ve started seeing Alien Man as more about an attitude or atmosphere than a classically-structured fragrance. Honestly, if it weren’t taken by Mugler’s other new flagship, Aura would have been an even better name. Approach it that way, it it all makes much more sense.