Cuba Gold
Cuba Paris

On top, the only note I can smell clearly is cumin. But there's a haze of synthetics that's actually the most prominent smell. It's part plasticky hairspray aldehydes, part metallic lavender, and part paint fumes. It reminds me of a room after you've painted the walls and you have to leave everything open for a day or so to make the small go away - this is the smell you want to go away, but then there's also cumin. Sweaty cumin.

Eventually, the sweaty paint fumes take on a sickly green smell that reminds me of salted, boiled celery and a hint of licorice. And then there's vetiver and castoruem, at which point I mostly smellk really sweaty, funky vetiver. I actually quite like this drydown, as at reminds me of Le Labo's Vetiver and also their Rose (if you took out the rose), but it's not worth the hour of dumpster fire it takes to get there.

And for the record, my sample is from Parfums Raffy, Cuba Gold in the silver tin with the gold label. It says it's supposed to smell like vetiver and woods, so what I'm smelling matches what they're selling. Unless there's been a complete reformulation, I'm assuming what I'm smelling is a different version of Cuba Gold than the rest of you who are smelling a Le Male clone. Whatever, thumbs down.

CUBA GOLD often gets called a Jean Paul Gaultier clone for Le Male, but let's face facts... CUBA GOLD came out long before that scent, so it is actually probably more of an inspiration than anything else. I find this an easy scent to wear that most people like. Mass appeal for sure! It is warm and once it dries down doesn't project loudly. For the price you can't beat it. On the base notes I smell more of the amber rather than the vanilla, and the vetiver and grapefruit make themselves known in the other ranges.

I cannot say much about Cuba Gold's similarity to JPG Le Male, as it is a long time since I smelt Le Male from a department store tester, so I'm unable to make a reliable comparison. What I can say is that Cuba Gold is a warm fragrance with well blended vanilla and lavender notes. It seems to be a good mass appeal fragrance that is easy to wear and well suited to the autumn and spring seasons and many occasions. It would be a reasonable choice for a date night or a night on the town. It's not a particularly loud or offensive fragrance, as I said very mass appealing and so I would say it is somewhat versatile. It opens with vanilla and lavender notes and dries down to a powdery smooth vanilla fragrance with a hint of amber that gives it some warmth. It has moderate projection and longevity, it lasts about 5 or 6 hours on my skin. Although it comes in a bottle designed to look like a Cuban cigar, I don't get any tobacco notes from this, which I think might have enhanced it and given it a bit more masculinity. Overall I would say it is a good, easy wearing, versatile fragrance and for such a low price represents very good value for money.

I need to say it's not an exact replica of "Le Male" but it does a very good job of mimicking it as most won't/can't tell the difference. For $6.99 at Ross for 100ml it's a steal of a deal. For some reason women levitate towards this more than 70% of my collection which is sad considering how inexpensive this one is compared to those. I don't feel this scent should be worn at work although I have and I've gotten great reactions from ladies ;D.

For the price, an excellent LeMale clone. Now, whether or not you like LeMale will determine if you like this scent from Cuba Paris.

I actually get decent performance from this, probably in the 4-5 hour range. It does project nicely and can fill a room upon application but does fade after the first hour. After that, it sits close to the skin

It's not offensive in any way and can get you compliments. Also, because of the price and type of scent, this is one of the safest blind buys in the fragrance game.

This is le male in a cigar shaped bottle. Some say it's a clone of le male, but this precedes le male, so I believe it served as an inspiration for le male. Save your money and get this if you planned on buying le male because since le male's reformulation, you get similar longetivity and sillage in a 100ml bottle for $8. Can't beat the bang for your buck with this one.