Fleurs de Citronnier OR Fleur du Male?

Hello, everybody!

I have been looking for a nice male citrus blossom based fragrance and now am racking my brains over which one to chose: Serge Lutens' Fleurs de Citronnier OR J.P.Gaultier Fleur du Male. The former is marketed as a unisex and the latter as a male fragrance but both of them are most often called too feminine so I ended up completely confused.

What is your opinion, which of these two is less feminine and more appropriate for a guy to wear in late spring early summer?

Thanks in advance for your opinion!

Thanks, Marque, for your comment which is greatly appreciated!

Thank you, SteelerOpera, for your opinion!

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Thanks a lot, Jasonx, I just would not mind a slight barbershop twist at all but I was convinced for some reason that I could get it rather from FdC, now I feel I can be mistaken on that score...

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Thanks, Martinijo, I was just looking for something based on exactly citrus blossom (lemon or orange tree blossom e.g. floral) and not exactly on citrus as there are lots and lots of citrus based colognes. Citrus florals for men are few and far between...!

Thank you so much, Larimar, for your opinion! Most definitely the synthetic nature of Fleur du Male (as well as of its step brother Custo Barcelona Man which is another neroli based creation from Francis Kurkidjan) is somewhat discouraging so Fleurs de Citronnier appears a bit more natural and friendly... But if people around you can unmistakably determine the orange blossom scent from Fleur du Male this is really great and worth trying!

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Thanks, Hednic and sjg3839 for your votes!

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Portario, thank you for such an unexpected suggestion! Upon a close study of the description of Xerjoff's Kobe I think this may be a great alternative for both Fleurs de Citronnier and Fleurs du Male, a bit pricey though... (Now MFK's APOM which I have been also considering seems to be dirt cheap compared with Kobe)! At least one thing is sure about Kobe - it is bound to be a gorgeous citrus blossom frag without any gender issues! Purely masculine! Thanks a lot! Live and learn...

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Martinijo, that is most helpful!
I will definitely bear that in mind when choosing! Your technique of layering FDM and Cerriti 1881 is really interesting and promising!
Thanks a lot for your suggestion!

OK, thanks Portario! Actually I remembered I had a 5 ml tester of MFK's APOM and immediately unearthed it to try. Well, the juice is really fantastic but I would say it's more about amber and cedar (incredible longevity and gleaming aura, by the way!). But to my taste it is a wee bit too unearthly... I mean it is kind of far from real citrus blossom scent but reminds me of something from higher spheres far from this world... Incredible experience anuway!...

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Thanks, Igarruda! I feel I should definitely find the EDC version of Fleur du Male to compare it to EDT and to Fleurs de Citronnier!

OK, Portario, thanks a lot! To tell you the truth Xerjoff had been Terra Incognita for me until recently when I tried Xerjoff's "1861" and was absolutely taken aback by the most natural citrus notes in it and overall excellence of this fragrance. It is from you that I heard about Kobe from the Shooting star collection and got immediately interested in it! So I am pretty sure that it is an absolute must try and subsequently have! If only it didn't cost the Earth! :-)

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Thanks, Jasonx, I appreciated your suggestion very much as I am fond of classic genleman's eaux de cologne and really admire green notes in them (for example Concentree d'Orange Verte of Hermes and Castile of Pen's which I already have in my collection)!

As for orange blossom scents I had quite an opposite experience with them - almost all of them were marketed as feminine - SL's Fleur d'Oranger, Penhaligon's Orange Blossom, Joe Malone's Orange Blossom etc. Pen's Orange Blossom seems to be most suitable for men although it is often described as "sweetish" "messy" etc. SL's Fleur d'Oranger is quite promising but heaps of jasmine ans tuberose in it make me think that it is even more feminine than Fleurs de Citronnier. So I really feel I should investigate more in that direction and do some field testing of Fleur d'Oranger to see how it behaves :-)!

Czech and Speake's Neroli seems to be a fab frag although its longevity is questioned by most basenoters. Unfortunately it seems to be a rare guest in Russia :-)

Thank you, Uruk-hai!
I have just tested Fleur du Male at last and found it absolutely fantastic! Very unique!

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Dear friends!

Thank you so much for your help!

I gathered from your comments the following:

1) Fleurs du Male is tremendously popular, utterly synthetic, more feminine than Fleurs du Citronnier;
2) Fleurs du Citronnier is quite particular in the drydown;
3) Another great male citrus blossom fragrances are APOM by MFK and Kobe by Xerjoff.

I finally decided to go for Fleurs de Citronnier as it is seems to be more natural and conveys better the idea of Italian citrus groves in bloom.

Good luck to everybody!