Monsieur Léonard
Léonard (1992)

Monsieur Léonard is a pleasant, if tepid, early 90s style dihydromyrcenol, fruity LifeSavers fougère that may feel anticlimactic after smelling the spectacular Léonard Pour Homme. It's fresh, aromatic—generic color-by-numbers, so to speak. It would appear that it ended up lost among so many others of its ilk, with nothing distinct to give it cachet, save for its handsome emerald green bottle.

Monsieur Leonard is a serviceable aromatic fougere, it's barely there own character being a slight salty twist.
Pleasant.
Limp wrist thumb up.

A woody fougère with maybe a touch of Cool Water.
But after four years, the ripples from that particular stone lobbed into the fougère pond had largely faded away - rather like Monsieur Léonard, which after an opening of green fruity citrus, fades in and out like an aromatic whisper.

Another discontinued wonder.
Starts slightly citrusy to turn into this soapy mentholated herbal heart to a musky/floral drydown. Not the fragrance that will set the world in fire, but a decent, well blended masculine perfume that will be missed. It is already hard to find. If you do, get it before it is all gone.

I like this, it is a classy and fairly straight-ahead old-school fougere. It comes in a lovely green bottle. It starts with a refreshing though brief citrus note, and quickly takes on a green/herbal and soapy character. The herbs are fresh and pleasant, well blended and have a charming and comforting character. This seques into a very pleasant mossy note which is green, slightly salty and wears very well. I agree that any florals are strictly in the background; as are the the patchouli and vanilla. This is not a powerhouse, as others have noted. It is a discreet charmer.

Monsieur Léonard is a well made men's aromatic fragrance that sort of bridges the 80's and 90's. The aromatics of the opening (sage, coriander, and lavender) are given, rather than herbal or green emphasis, a fresh and vibrant ambiance. Their lack of “herbalness” allows the bergamot and the basil to form a delicate, fresh, citrus / green accord that so naturally and lightly pleasant. This fresh accord has very good longevity–I'm used to flash in the pan citrus openings, but this one has some nice staying power. The heart of the scent is floral, but it doesn't seem to be–it is not at all flowery. The middle is not a very potent force in the progression of Monsieur Léonard. Maybe because of the extended top notes, the scent seems to move directly from the top to the bottom. At any rate, the florals of the middle are caught up with the musk, cedar and amber of the base. The combination is an attractive accord–it's not very strong; it certainly doesn't throw very much sillage; and, as light as it is, has an old school vibration to it. The base suffers from lack of longevity, so the gains made in the opening are lost in the middle and base–especially in the sillage department. The base does become a skin scent that stays musky and ambery for an hour or two.

I see Monsieur Léonard as a transition scent. It contains very identifiable characteristics of both the 80's and the 90's. It is classically constructed of classical notes, but its emphasis on the primacy of the top notes, its muted accords, its conglomerate concoctions of the middle and base, and its lack of longevity are quite typical of the scents that would come to rule the nineties. If only the makers had given up the natural smelling notes and moved to abundant and annoying synthetic accords, this might have been more successful. As it is, they made the mistake of producing a very nice scent.

Originally submitted April 2007