In our recent little quiz... when I asked you to put down the first fragrance name that came to your mind with a whole stream of adjectives...

You'll remember that the prompt word "gay" most often caused you guys and gals to think of Gaultier LE MALE.

Okay, to be fair, I can see that idea in the flacon, which shows a curvaceous male clothes mannequin--- (dimpled bare glutes right from a Greek KOUROS torso) in blue and white stripes (the French navy?). Yeah, kinda gay-looking maybe, and I believe Monsieur Gaultier is "très out", n'est-ce-pas? Wasn't he Madge's darling for awhile? [Didn't Schiaparelli SHOCKING first appear in such an armless mannequin-shaped flacon in the 1930's? Le plus ça change...]

Even LE MALE's slogan on SEPHORA I misread: I see now it says:

"The fragrance for the man who would be many men at once"

I initially scanned it as:

"The fragrance for the man who would do many men at once"

Anyway, all this said, I think I actually like this one. It's one of the very few modern "clean" aquatic/woodies I think I DO like. It does right what COOL WATER (hommes) got wrong, IMHO.

It opens with a dusty artemisia/bergamot/lavender attack, very subtly touched by cardamom. With the lavender, can this be considered a modern "fougère" ? I dunno... Maybe so. Once the lower notes start to emerge-- a sweaty cumin, cinnamon, cedar, then a subtly sweet musk, tonka, amber, vanilla base, it does indeed read as a "spicy ambered fougère"

The master stroke, I feel, is the way the cedar and cumin meld into what seems to be a masculine "sweat" note... a note which lasts on the skin every bit as long as the "clean" and ambered notes last.

As mod as this fragrance appears to be, it actually reminds me of two VERY old classics: JICKY and VARON DANDY, two oldies I adore. LE MALE is not as citrusy and eminently natural as JICKY is, but the way that "sweat" accord sits slyly atop a "clean" lavender/bergamot accord does remind of JICKY's sly civet note peering out naughtily from the "clean" citruses and natural sandalwood note.

One of my great faves, VARON DANDY is nothing less than a classic 1920's "sweet ambered fougere", and LE MALE almost seems like a mod update on this Art Deco men's masterpiece.

The citrus head in LE MALE smells synthetic, I must admit, and it reminds me much of the bright "clean"--- almost detergent-- citrus quality of Joop! NIGHT FLIGHT.

Really, LE MALE is nice. Modern. Streamlined. Sophisticated, urbane, suave. Though not dark, rugged or base-y, it's not especially "fey" or "gay", either, unless you'd consider, say, JICKY to be faggy.

P.S. LE MALE could easily be unisex, lay-dehz! JICKY fans (lillie, are you listening?) especially will want to try this on for a day.



D.

Hi rasputin, of COURSE i know and like it! A classic fougere and a rare example of a modern lavender-beauty, too!
I have to say that i really loved it on b/f because it's one of the few sweet men's scents i like on men (as well as Nightflight, very good example) BUT i was exposed to heavy overdosage when i lived in Berlin-Kreuzberg, a quartier where many immigrants live because many many of the young arab and turkish male (no racism here at all, just a fact, german men don't use/like sweet scents at all) immigrants use it to "gas" the subway-wagons in the mornings on their way to school/work.
Now that i don't live there anymore i use it every now and then and it makes me smile and i absolutely adore the two bottles (as i use classique for women, too) in my bathroom.

Fascinating, lillie!


In fact, I'm going to spinoff your idea about "German men" on a parallel thread... PLEASE contribute to it, won't you?

Actually, the gayest scent out there is not Le Male--it's Fleur de Male:


If you haven't read the reviews for these two in the Guide, you must. Where Le Male is handsome in an 1810 dandy sort of way, Fleur de Male is downright pretty. I picture the most endearingly adorable feminine gay man I know (and we all have at least one friend like this--I have three ) wearing this. I was so charmed when I first smelled it that I darn near bought it, but I've never gotten around to it.

I agree, Ras, regular Le Male is very nice. It's a little mannish for me personally, and also a little high-pitched in the opening, but I can easily see a woman wearing it. I see it as a more modern take on the classic fougere theme.

Laura, is the Luca GUIDE available for D/L online somewhere?

Good old Amazon has it cheeeeep:

http://www.amazon.com/Perfumes-Guide-Luca-...5570&sr=8-1

Great! Thanks! Luca's wife, Tania, looks to be 20 years younger than he is...!

Pretty much, but in the name of all that is sacred, do NOT go there, Dave. Ugly past thread about that very thing. Oy.

DISCLAIMER: MARITAL AGE DIFFERENCES: NOT THAT THERE'S ANYTHING WRONG WITH THAT.

I'm just getting ready to go out for lunch with my loveliest gay male friend. I know he loves Gaultier clothes so I will ask him about the scent!

And yes, Gaultier did copy the Schiaparelli bottle; I have one of these myself. Off-topic, but another Schiap scent (whose name I've forgotten) has a bottle which represents a lady with her underwear around her ankles! Love it. All very tastefully done, of course!

Yes, that would be Schiaparelli Zut! It's a gorgeous floriental.

Thanks Besotted - Zut alors, indeed!

I like to wear this one myself. I bought this one over the woman's.

I like Le Male but don't wear it anymore out of sheer snobbery. It's so very recognizable and I smell it everywhere. And guys always wear too much. And they're not even gay guys, but the worst sort of het. Young and loud teenagers with the sophistication of a caveman.

Fleur de Male is a nice adaptation. Similar but with a big, honeyed orange blossom note. Unfortunately I always come to think of pee when I smell it. I don't know why.

"I'm not gay, but my fragrance is."

You might be onto something there Miss Diva.

The first time I sampled Fleur de Male was with one of those pre-moistened pads in a Brit edition of Men's Health I believe it was. I put it on my skin and the first thing I thought of was:

"I've sat behind ladies in church who smell like this!" No joke!

It was VERY powdery on my skin -- disgustingly so. Headache-inducing, with a "HELLO, HELLO I'm here attitude." It's so powerful and obnoxious, that Fleur de Male enters a room before the person wearing it does.

Virulent!!

Duly reporting back after my lovely lunch with gay friend as mentioned above; he says he wanted to like the scent as he loves JPG and of course the bottle, but he "didn't think it was a very well-made scent." Hah!

Le Male worn by the right guy is very sexy. I think it depends on skin
type and application. I think that Presence d'Une Femme (Montblanc) smells
like a female version of Le male. Anyone agree?

I agree Accolon. I smell this scent **way** too much on the street, in the gym, in the elevator. It has turned me off these watery lavenderish fougeres for a while.

I have a sneaking suspicion that there are lots of cheap Le Male imitators out there, given the success of Gautier. Maybe that's why we are smelling it so much.

Teddius

I looked up the notes. Is the mandarine very pronounced in it? There was an orange thread here a few days ago. Does it smell like a designer or more like JLo's or Brittany's?

Well, i would of course but not that i am so experienced i could add so much...

'Generally speaking' ist wrong, most of the time, if you ask me but surely enough there ARE some trends...

No... don't misunderstand... I wasn't impugning your modesty. I just figured with your naturally growing up around brothers, boys, uncles, dads and grandfathers, a picture might start to yield some generalizations.

Jeff-O, you say that like it's a BAD thing!

The secret truth is, if a perfumer can corner THIS particular demographic you describe? He has succeeded BIGtime.

With Fleur de Male, it *IS* a bad thing. But that's because I don't like it. Others may enjoy it considerably.

The print ad for it is even disgusting... a guy sitting in a bathtub full of milk!

"Got Milk?"

I love Le Male!

When I was in college, I lived in the section of Philly known as the "gayborhood." I don't know if that's meant to be a colloquialism or not. "Philadelphia Freedom" is no joke. There are rainbow flags on the street signs in this part of town and as soon as it gets nice out the streets are like one big gay bar. Anyway, probably one of the safest places in the city for a young woman living alone.

I lived on the 8th floor of a high rise.

In the Spring/early Summer when I opened my windows, ALL I COULD SMELL was a giant cloud of Le Male wafting up from all the party shenanigans on the street. Le Male and only Le Male. This was maybe 2000-2001ish.

I've had some straight male friends who wore and loved this one, too. It's just kind of a universally good smell. Real cuddly-like.

I always thought Angel Men for Thierry Mugler was the pinnacle of gay fragrance?

Please correct me if I am wrong I will not be offended but this was from various reading on the internet.

My understanding and trust me it is very limited on the homosexual society is that this group will embrace a fragrance to call their own. Once the idea is spread that fragrance is now the new "fashion" for all to say I wear this fragrance in pride of who I am!

This is they say the only reason that Angel Men very much survives on the market today.

Hmm.... I love Angel Men or A*Men as they call it. I'm a gay man and even though it can be considered very frilly/obnoxious and what have you, I think it's a brilliantly made fragrance. Of course, it's been worn by just about every gay male out there I'm sure. But even now after almost 10 years on the market, I think it's just the fact that it's a truly well crafted, "Takes me back to such and such a time" sort of scent that it survives like it has. There are no other men's scents on the market that comes close to A*Men at all. There are some that try to touch the cusp of its sleeve but none come close.

I do not like the idea of a men's scent being embraced by the a segment of society because it should be considered "Gay" and thus being considered "That Gay Man's Scent". To me that's a really limited polarized way of looking at a given object. If other gay men wear a scent I love, well, so be it. But I don't want to be considered a part of the pack for wearing a scent because it's considered "Gay". Way too limited of a way of thinking.
When I bought Silver Factory Bond No.9 at Saks, the SA told me that a man bought it for himself beacause he told her that he wanted to smell different than everybody else at the clubs he was frequenting. So I guess the gay clubs must be filled with the aroma of scents like Issey Miyake Pour Homme, JPG Le Male, JPG Fleur du Male, A*Men, and all other tired oceanic scents from the Tommy Hilfiger or Hugo Boss oeuvre, I guess. I don't know personally. I do not go out to gay dance clubs anymore. In fact, I don't really hang out in the so called "Gay Circles of Life". I find the supposed "gay lifestyle" to be very shallow, subjective and cruel, IMO.
Just about every Gay Man trying to one up one another and tear anyone or everyone down because they don't have a perfect gym body or wear the latest threads from what hot designer there is. That's how I recall "gay life" was for me and my friends back in the late 80's/early 90's up to mid 90's when I dropped out of "the scene". Sometimes I miss it and most times like right now, "I do not" at all. I am glad I am out of "the scene".
I have always been a man to march to the beat to a different drummer than most men. I am who am I am and so be it.
I am the LONE WOLF.

Back to fragrance, most men's scent now are exercises in how to over-use the oceanic note of Calone to death after the wake of Cool Water which I wish was never made and produced.

Fougeres are making a slow comeback which is cool. But the ones I have smelled are nothing all to brilliant smelling like Narciso Rodriguez for Him and that horrid effort Life Fuel for Him Diesel. I wished they re-launched Fougere Royale Houbigant again. This scent is one truly gorgeous lush men's scent.

And here I am wearing all these "FRUIT"-y fragrances!

Guess I need to get my wings and start wearing Angel more. I best be careful, though, don't want the wings to make me too "light in the loafers."

"light in the loafers" Oh My Gosh, Jeffery

Mando, I enjoyed reading your post. Very interesting.