I'm a huge fan of this line but By Night Black is probably the most disappointing delivery among their range. I'm used to either their thickness (Ambra Mediterranea, Versilia Platinum, Versilia...
I've tried this many times, I never understood why it stands out or sells so much. That bitter orange is repulsive and disgusting. This smells almost as bad as Guerlains Vetiver.
I don't like to factor in cost when reviewing a fragrance but for the ridiculously cheap price, this stuff is great! Smells similar to Armani Code but better. Might buy another bottle
TVlampboy declared Or des Indes as the elegant richer sister of Bal a Versailles,( but not the older) This is repeated by other enthusiasts on on other blogs. It is spot on. Bal is Zsa Zsa and Or...
I got me some Jean Paul after hearing how much of a lady killer it is and I really dont know what think about this thing.. The thing just kinda stinks and kinda smells good at the same time + = Does anyone else have a hard time making up their mind on this one? I know i don't love it so i wouldn't buy it again but it's just something i might wear once in a great while just because supposedly females like it i think... even the bottle is just bad news.. I try to like it but the stuff is just Gutler man
Dislike. Tried it a few times. It smells cheap and artificial on me, and the vanilla is slightly nauseating. The bottle design is not a plus. Well, you asked.
Totally agree with docluv45. Honestly can't see why people love this one so much. Way too overpowering no matter how little you use. Artificial smelling.. I don't find anything about this one at all that I like. I had a bottle for a long time and it had so much dust on it from not using it, I just threw it away. Way over hyped in my opinion. This was one that I got the least amount of compliments from girls/women on. Most of them said that they didn't like it and that it stunk. Way too many others in my collection that are better then this one
1. Get a bottle of McCormick vanilla extract and a tube of the mintiest toothpaste you can find, then don't wash for a couple of days.
2. Make a slurry with the toothpaste and vanilla in your hands and then apply it to your stinky armpits and voila: Le Male by J.P. Gaultier.
My honest opinion, in spite of anything, is actually a good one. On my skin at least, neither development nor versatility of this scent are actually bad and, apart from the hype and the often excessive popularity, I honestly have gotten to enjoy this one, not being able to find many reasons for fragrance-related displeasure.
Synthetic ingredients notwithstanding, I think Le Male is still a pretty good composition given the attendant 'designer' constraints. Unfortunately the bottle design is downright tacky.
I kinda like it. I've had the same initial bottle i bought in the 90's. I don't wear it too often, and only a spray or 2 is required. i think thats where people go wrong....2 sprays MAXIMUM.
Synthetic, overused, would never consider buying it
...but received it as a present and enjoy it quite a bit. If only it wasn't so terribly popular. I like the cheeky bottle and see the scent as a modern take on Pour Un Homme.
Whilst I don't like it (I'm not big fan of Polycyclic musk overdose) I do think it a very clever fragrance. It lasts forever with a huge silage; clearly very many men love it as you can still smell it just about everywhere. When I first smelled it, and saw the bottle, I thought that JPG had made a big mistake by targeting the gay market to the total exclusion of everyone else; how wrong I was. Not only was it hugely popular but there were copycats by the dozen, including Lynx type body sprays, as well as Fabric Conditioners and air fresheners. "Real" men only where "masculines"?; bollox. Real men where sweet. musky, lavender floral Le Male.
I quite like it. It works best on the young and slim, so my time is about to expire. Clever fragrance - Yes! Synthetic - Yes, sure! Definitely a huge milestone in the world of perfumery.
This fragrance is great! alotta people say they dislike it because of the popularity, but I guarantee most of the "haters" have it in their collections!
I know that many have written that women love it, and that it is very useful in that regard.
I wouldn't know as, while I like it, I've only ever worn it when I've had a woman on my arm. I didn't feel comfortable wearing it when I was single.
Regards,
Renato
One thing about wearing Le Male, when spraying remember LESS IS BETTER. A few times I hit 2 sprays, and the projection was pretty good and most of all.....tolerable!
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One thing about wearing Le Male, when spraying remember LESS IS BETTER. A few times I hit 2 sprays, and the projection was pretty good and most of all.....tolerable!
I don't really mind it. I used to own it, and enjoyed it quite a bit. It's one of the few that I've actually smelled on someone passing by, which isn't a plus for me.
Personally, I don't like it. I find it chemical and far, far too strong (which is really saying something for me, cuz I like lots of those 80s powerhouses and thought that there wasn't a frag too strong for me; this one and Duro by Nasomatto are). At first I liked something about it--I couldn't figure out what I thought it smelled like, and I kept thinking that it was some metallic leathery note--but after smelling it almost every day almost everywhere I went, it quickly became tiresome. I do, however, like Fleur du Male, which I find very floral and sweeter, although still rather harsh.
The bottle can be embarrassing, though. Sometimes I cringe a little when I see the Fleur du Male bottle, but when my SO put a fake flower around the waist, which looked like a hula skirt, it was pretty awesome.
I really hated this at first sniff. I gave it another try and grew to love it. It's synthetic, and its a bit of a mess but it kind of.....just lights my light bulb. 0.0 I really like it, though. I just wish not as many people knew about it. (That sounded hipster) But, yeah I really like the scent, no matter how many people wear it or whatever. Its so unique and I respect that. But it's not unique in a stinky way, it still is appealing; which I like. Good stuff.
I agree with "_enigma_", Cuba Gold is more subtle and therefore IMHO better balanced whilst still retaining good longevity. It(Cuba Gold) is also approximately a quarter of the price of JPG, and therefore much better value. I find that very often in life, the "less hyped" fragrances are rather better value than those with an ad campaign costing megabucks.
I confess that I am an admirer of Loewe range of male(and female for my partner) fragrances, which themselves are quite expensive, but they are damn good!
I wear Mouchoir de Monsieur often (wearing it now, actually), and sometimes wonder how similar Le Male is to it. It may be a silly thing to wonder, but I've never smelled Le Male. There are so many vanilla + lavender + animalic fragrances.
It's nice - lavender, mint, vanilla a bit of musk. The composition works pretty well, although I'm not a big fan of mint in general. I don't get the BO that some report. Then again, I have a fairly high skank tolerance.
It's apparently very popular in the UK and Europe - not so much in the US.
JPGs cheesy homoerotic bottle design and marketing angle annoy me, and that put me off even trying it for a long time. When I finally did, I thought it wasn't bad. I won't buy it because if I want a musky lavender, I wear Jicky. Or maybe Ungaro II. If I want a clean one I go for Rive Gauche or an old school fougere, like Gucci Nobile or Azzaro.
This is sort of the gay equivalent of those cheesy romantic "straight" perfume ads. I hate those too, by the way. Advertising works - in this case to make me avoid JPG like the plague.
Just to be clear - I have no problem with gay people. Just with using sex to market perfume, especially if its not the kind I like to have.
Except for those Shalimar ads with Natalia Vodianova. <3
In my opinion its ok. I spray it around when Im at just at home watching tv before going to bed. I prefer reflection man over this. Since many people are trained to like this it gets a lot of compliments.
Its a pretty good scent, if a bit adolescent and a little too sweet for me. I cant see owning a bottle - which would give me the impression that its hitting on me.
I agree with "_enigma_", Cuba Gold is more subtle and therefore IMHO better balanced whilst still retaining good longevity. It(Cuba Gold) is also approximately a quarter of the price of JPG, and therefore much better value. I find that very often in life, the "less hyped" fragrances are rather better value than those with an ad campaign costing megabucks.
I confess that I am an admirer of Loewe range of male(and female for my partner) fragrances, which themselves are quite expensive, but they are damn good!
Loewe rocks! Esencia de Loewe is just class in a bottle. Going back to Cuba Gold, you really can´t go wrong with it. I need to check their other "cigars" and see if they´re as good as the gold one.
I do have a bottle of Le Male in my collection however it is for the sake of have the torso lying around than me enjoying the scent. Although it has a interesting and dare I say legendary opening, the drydown is flat and boring to me, it's just vanilla and everything ends there. Between it and Reflection Man, I would take RM over LM anyday since the drydown is much more interesting in RM. However, with the price of RM, I decide to skip both
It has been reformulated. I am not sure the exact time but it was within 3 years (2009-2012). There is less sweetness overall, A lot less Mint in the opening, A toned down, thinner Vanilla, Less Coumarin (Tonka Bean) in the drydown. The Vanilla used to be more like the vanilla in Tobacco Vanille, but it is a lot less thick now. Heres the best way I could describe the two.
Vintage: Perfect sweet Mint/Lavender combo which was thick and refreshingly sweet although still synthetic, its light years better than it is now. There was a spiced waxy Vanilla, Cinnamon (almost a cinnamon bun) candle drydown. Worthy of any praise it received.
Current: (If you don't believe me go to your local Sephora, Macy's etc. and test it out) It's a thin, cheapened, watered down Lavender/ Mint opening, Its not even pleasant. Then it transitions to a thin powdery vanilla with the slightest hint of cinnamon. Its like they took out the Coumarin altogether.
Sillage/Longevity:
Vintage: Monster sillage (6 foot scent trail), 36+ hours longevity
Current: 50% sillage of the vintage (3 foot scent trail. Its still pretty strong thankfully, or not?), 10 hours max longevity if your lucky.
BUT, I could help you get a vintage bottle. Her are pics of both.
Vintage: The vintage has a darker less white stripe pattern like in this picture. Attachment 18157
Also check out this review. Marc has Vintage bottles. You can tell because of the darker more subtle stripe pattern on his bottles. One more thing the bottles are slightly different in color because the juice makes the bottle on the left greener than the right.
Current: The current has a whiter, brighter, less detailed around stripe pattern like in this picture. Attachment 18158
Here they are side by side, both are Authentic Bottles. The left bottle is a Vintage from 2008, the right bottle is from 2010. The vintage has a near perfect circular neck while the current bottle has a spotty neck like shown in the pictures.
Like some have mentioned, it would have a great cult following here in BN if it was not so popular.
One spray is all that is needed. My issue is that because I smell it everywhere, it creates associations which are negative, e.g. men's room toilets at nightclubs. Piss, BO and le male.
The marketing is excellent and the homoerotic theme clearly works well explaining part of its popularity.
I dodged it due to reviews and negative attention on the forum. I eventually tried it and was just slightly taken by the initial synthetic vibe. Tried it again later with a little better result. Third time, 30-45 min into it, I though, hmm, I think I like it well enough for a small bottle. Yes the actual bottle design is the worst of all time, but I enjoy the scent especially the base. I think it gets a lot of hate due to popularity more so than what it really is.
Nothing special - sums it up quite well. I really wanted to like this fragrance but after trying it 3 or more times I really don't see what the fuss is about. Smells a bit like a $3 deo body spray - which I could live with because Le Male is cheap to buy BUT I didn't get anything close to great longevity or projection. I tried it at different stores each time but it didn't project and longevity was 6 hours tops! Most frags stick to my skin quite well even stuff like D&G Light Blue so I have no idea what the big fuss is with Le Male. Sad.
I can't say it's horrible. It's noticably synthetic to me, but not in a bad way. It seems to be a very amorphous composition with an incredibly dense blend of notes. Admittedly I'm not the best at note seperation, but in the time I took to sniff at this on paper and skin (not long as I wasn't fond of it) I just smelled a kind of olfactory syrup whose fragrance seemed more like a single, complex synthetic note than a collection of notes. Brings to mind - to me - the difference between hearing an orchestra live or hearing it filtered through a single set of speakers. I won't say it's bad.
I don't enjoy the smell, and my skin hardly flatters it, so I would not buy or wear it.
Im trying to love and hate it at the same time.
I sprayed myself with it and it reminded of a very common scent I used to smell like back in '04.
The smell is very cheap if you ask me. Longevity is straight 8 hours. Rest is fine.
Ps: Its quite sweet aswell
I love it. Dont wear it that often because its so popular and so many men wear it but when I need something that will last a while and get compliments. This is my go to
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Does anyone else have a hard time making up their mind on this one? I know i don't love it so i wouldn't buy it again but it's just something i might wear once in a great while just because supposedly females like it i think... even the bottle is just bad news.. I try to like it but the stuff is just Gutler man
. Awful bottle, ditto the contents.
