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Le Male: Elixir, Le Parfum or Paradise Garden?

The same torso-shaped bottle, three completely different stories: honey and tobacco, iris and vanilla, or coconut and fig. A guide to the three Le Males on our shelf, so you know which to try first.

The black torso-shaped bottle of Jean Paul Gaultier Le Male Le Parfum

Le Male by Jean Paul Gaultier is one of the most recognisable men's fragrances: a bottle shaped like a man's torso, lavender, mint and vanilla, and a scent worn by generations. Today the family has many members, and we carry three that differ from each other more than the name suggests. They have just one thing in common: none of them is shy.

Le Parfum: the elegant, darker side

Le Male Le Parfum is Le Male in a suit. It opens with cardamom and lavender, spicy and clean, and then iris arrives, powdery and soft like fine fabric. Beneath it all is warm vanilla with woody notes. It's sweet, but restrained; it smells more like an expensive jacket than a dessert. It's the most versatile of the three, and the one you'll find easiest to wear to work and to dinner alike.

Elixir: honey, tobacco and full power

Le Male Elixir is the strongest in the family, and you can tell from the first spray. Lavender and mint are there, as a nod to the original, but honey, vanilla and tonka take over quickly, with tobacco running underneath. The result is a dense, sweet, honeyed scent that fills the space around you. It's excellent for cold evenings and nights out; for the office and the lift, one spray is plenty.

The gold torso-shaped bottle of Jean Paul Gaultier Le Male Elixir
Le Male Elixir: honey, vanilla and tobacco

Paradise Garden: a tropical garden

Paradise Garden heads in a completely different direction. No honey, no tobacco: green notes and fig give it the freshness of leaves, coconut makes it creamy and sunny, and sandalwood gives it a soft base. It smells like a garden just after watering, somewhere it's warm all year round. It's the Le Male for summer, the sea and days when heavy scents just don't feel right.

Le Parfum for the suit, Elixir for the night, Paradise Garden for the sea.

Which one is yours

If you want one Le Male for every occasion, get Le Parfum. If you love sweet, powerful scents that people remember, and you mostly wear them at night, get Elixir. If you need something fresh and different for warmer days, get Paradise Garden. And if you're torn, get all three as 5 ml decants: that's a set of three, so the site automatically takes 10% off.

If warm, sweet men's scents are your thing, also take a look at our comparison of the Stronger With You fragrances, from a similar world but with a different character.