Jean Paul Gaultier Fleur du Male


Fleur du Mâle by Jean Paul Gaultier is my favorite honey perfume these days. It's the sharp, intimate smell of decaying orange blossoms: beautifully oppressive, with something of the personal humidity of YLS Kouros about it. Like Kouros, the honey is perspiring and it seeks to restore decorum with a sprinkling of powder. When I first wore L'Artisan Parfumeur Séville à l'Aube, I smelled it as a drier, sweeter, tamer Fleur du Mâle. Séville à l'Aube's billowy woods and blossoms is a scent borne on the wind, while Fleur du Mâle suggests moist skin and intimacy. This Francis Kurkdjian creation comes in a signature Jean Paul Gaultier "classical bust" bottle, but something about the limbless white torso and the clamp around its decapitated neck makes me think that Fleur du Mâle might make a nice little stocking stuffer for TV's favorite serial killer, Dexter.
"The wipe-off porcelain bottle is so easy to clean!"
Fleur du Mâle is available from JeanPaulGaultier.com, BeautyEncounter.com, and Buy.com starting at $37 for 2.5 oz

16 comments:

  1. UnknownNovember 25, 2012 9:02 PM

    What a wonderful pick! I discovered this a couple years ago; it's now the Perfect Perfume for My Modern Tropical Lifestyle. Seville a L'Aube sadly gave me a headache, I couldn't get past a powerful note it shares with Nuit de Tubereuse. But Fleur du Male is orange-blossom perfection. Two sprays is quite enough, I can't believe it's an EdT either. And that bottle?? I have several backup bottles, and someday, I may make a creepy little Halloween display with all of them. ;-)

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    1. Katie PuckrikNovember 25, 2012 11:09 PM

      Marla, one FdM bottle is creepy enough - but a whole posse of them is "shiver me timbers!" time.

      I like the idea of Tropical Moderne.

      Delete
  2. AnonymousNovember 26, 2012 12:26 AM

    wow! I can't wait to go out and try this on me ASAP. the way you described it perfectly fits in with my personal taste.

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    1. Katie PuckrikNovember 26, 2012 6:50 PM

      A commenter on my YouTube channel described it as "burnt air", kind of like railroad ties in the summer, which I think is interesting.

      Delete
  3. sparrisNovember 26, 2012 2:26 PM

    Well, any number of FdM bottles is less creepy than one of them Nicki Minaj ones :S

    Seriously, you got me interested in this though. Will investigate further...

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    1. Katie PuckrikNovember 26, 2012 6:49 PM

      One could populate an entire perfume dolly village with the weird people bottles out there. Including the JPG Kokorico head.

      Delete
  4. IM'Soo KoolNovember 28, 2012 3:09 AM

    Hi Katie. I'm trying this one without previously testing solely because I never heard anyone describe a smell as attractive as 'honey, orange blossoms, animal and bleach'! A description like that deserves gratification so I'm really looking forward to smelling it. I'm a huge, huge, huge fan of Diptyque Eau de Lierre and think you might like that one from the way you described JPG Fleur du Male - even though they might be very different.

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    1. Katie PuckrikDecember 01, 2012 12:48 AM

      IMSooKool, isn't it interesting how a weird description can excite a true fumehead's interest?

      Delete
  5. AnonymousDecember 09, 2012 7:10 PM

    I sought. I found. I sniffed....The little white Venus de Male-o will be mine!!

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    1. Katie PuckrikDecember 11, 2012 7:19 PM

      You're poised to pounce, sounds like. Venus de Male-o better watch out!

      Delete
  6. SwagScent.comDecember 21, 2012 2:29 PM

    I've never been a fan of JPG, but I can't wait to try it out.

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  7. IM'Soo KoolJanuary 03, 2013 2:20 AM

    It's been a month of wearing this fragrance - thank you for your description - the only fragrance I have ever bought blind from a description! I find this scent as intriguing today as when I first sprayed it a month ago - I've worn it three times since then. It has two personas depending on where I apply it - on my skin or sprayed onto the shirt I will wear. It's more musky and powdery in the dry down when I wear it on my skin. It reminds me of when I was a kid running through the residual masculine & feminine scents tracing off dressy party clothes neatly hung in my aunts sun lit, wooden floored & dusty attic. This scent is all about sunny, dusty, warm, old spaces for me - in a wonderful way of course. There's also something floral married to barbershop about it. Beautiful scent.

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    1. Katie PuckrikJanuary 07, 2013 9:17 AM

      What a wonderfully particular evocation! I get the sunny dust, too.

      Delete
  8. AnonymousJanuary 05, 2013 7:00 AM

    Hi Katie,
    I went to Perfumania and sprayed FdM upon the back of my hand, just hoping to fall in love with it. Sadly that didn't happen. The smell of closeted man-love attacked my repressed soul and I felt the need to go to catholic confession (Get out the Avignon!) Back in the day Circa 1983, Kouros was my signature scent. I loved it and still appreciate it. FdM was just too intense in the urine-y sort of way that I'll still allow Kouros to do. So I'm a faithful old hag to urine cake Kouros. I did love your review of FdM.
    DL in the flatlands.

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  9. AnonymousOctober 26, 2013 5:10 PM

    You're god.

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