Limette 37
Le Labo (2013)

It smells like Le Labo took Eau Sauvage, replaced oakmoss with musks, and lemon with lime. A very cooling, gentleman's summer release that smells refined and high quality. In the opening i get a petitgrain note, bitter and green, cooling sharp lime, with a backdrop of slight clove spice, i also do detect a jasmine note working along with the muted, cloudy musks, and a tiny bit of tonka, for some background sweetness. I would not get a full bottle, but this is a good mens freshie, and i really do mean that this is a masculine freshie for once, in a sea of unisex/feminine freshies on the market.

My third attempt at Le Labo's City Exclusive line, Limette 37 harnesses the power of lime and bergamot at the top to bring a beautiful expression of these notes, saddled by musk at the base. So it is a pleasant scent that rings especially appropriate in the summer, but as others have pointed out can probably work for colder weather as well, since, in my opinion, it's dense enough to work through the winter air. However, it largely suffers from the same deficiencies as other City Exclusives---namely, not enough projection or longevity for the exorbitant ($290 for 50ml) cost, which is difficult to fathom. I'll attain more perspective when I try some of Le Labo's non-exclusive standouts (Bergamote 22, Santal 33, etc.), but for now, Limette 37 is another fragrance that, while doing lot correctly, nonetheless cannot be considered worthwhile due to the price. If it were cheaper, I might consider it.

7 out of 10

I love the way this opens with bright citrus, but that quickly fades. For me, this quickly becomes a vetiver scent with some citrus (probably the petitgrain) undertones. The musk adds a little soft powder, but the vetiver is the focus. I like the smell, but I've had better vetivers at lower price points.

An interesting oddity from Le Labo, Limette 37 kicks off with a sparkling mineral water smell, fairly salty and a bit eggy from the aldehydes, mixed with sweet artificial-smelling lime. There's a quiet floral aspect, which hints at the smell of walking past a citrus tree in bloom, and a licorice-ish anise providing a bit of a darker backbone.

It's interestingly put together, with the anise providing a day-long foothold for the synthetics, while still remaining a weird enough juxtaposition to keep things a bit strange. The floral lime hints at naturalistic smells, but they're evenly matched by the mineralic eggy plastics of the supporting notes.

If this were a discounted Kenzo or something, I'd likely give it a thumbs up for creating an artful mix of synthetics and citric realism that's actually wearable (most of this genre, like Malle's Outrageous for example, are just awful). But, this is an incredibly expensive exclusive from a line that's already really expensive. With years of sniffing, I feel like I have a sense of what a really expensive perfume should smell like (high concentration, big doses of expensive ingredients, and a distinctive formula created by a master perfumer at the top of his game). While Limette 37 is a decent enough formula, it's no Guerlain extrait or top-of-the-line Duchoufour. And it smells like it's mostly aldehydes and calone, which aren't expensive, and it's fairly weak, requiring a fairly large application to really sing. All in all, it utterly fails the price test, so it only gets a neutral, but if price is no object and you're looking for a fun summer scent, it's worth a sniff, though I'd honestly recommend checking out Happy for Men on sale for $20 for an orange version of this for A LOT less money...

Bergamot, a nice lime and petitgrain are in the summery top notes, but this is not a fresh opening, more an attenuated restrained gentle citrus impression. After half an hour a fleeting floral moment and then it's gone. It lasts about ninety minutes on me - its shortevity is not as bad as that of Eau d'Orange Verte (nothing probably is), but the latter's incredible gorgeous opening blast make it a great scent nonetheless. I can find no such redeeming feature in Limette 37.