Uncut Gem
Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle (2022)

This one certainly grabbed my attention, mostly because it was a Malle that perfumistas hated and general consumers seemed to quite like - an encouraging sign. Polarization, especially amongst the proletariat and the elite in either direction, is a healthy thing. Some of the uproar was because the former group were (and still are) stinging from the realization that our temple-destroying Messiah turned out to be easily swayed by money, capitulating as so many have in this failed industry-experiment called niche, and he wasn't going to put up much of a fight with Estee Lauder on the change of creative direction for the brand.

Another reason it caught my attention is because it is Maurice Roucel's personal fragrance that Frederic Malle 'begged' him to let the brand produce. Roucel has made numerous perfumes over the decades that I love, so the idea that we were going to smell something he created for himself that either he didn't or couldn't make for a brand at any point in his long career was certainly intriguing. If we are to believe this, and it's not a load of marketing BS, what has to be concluded is that Roucel loves wearing synthetic, minimalist, and old school scents. This smells like a very old-school aftershave, in the vein of fifty+ year old British and American EdCs. Though not that similar in terms of the notes presented, I'm instantly reminded of things like Old Spice, Brut, and the like, due to the roughness of the spices, woods, and green notes.

The bergamot in the opening is not citrusy fresh and juicy, but plasmatic - like you described bergamot to an alien and this is what they came up with using some device on their spaceship to create it. The angelica is the star player here, very green in a geranium sort of way, and quite spicy and woody. As they dry down they link quite effortlessly with a green, salty, and swampy vetiver, freshly tanned and chemically leather, and a massive overdose of ambrocenide at the base. This seems to be where it loses people. Unlike some of the old school scents it's pulling to my memory, there is very little of a natural feel to these heart and base notes. Ambrocenide, in particular, it what drives so many (terrible) woody ambers in today's masculine perfumes, but, whereas Sauvage, Bleu, Davidoff, more recently Tom Ford, and others try to cover it up with other synthetics in effort to trick you (unsuccessfully) into believing you're smelling something vaguely naturalistic, Uncut Gem leans right into it and doesn't try to hide it. There are no heaping doses of vanilla or amberic balsams to round out the rough edges, it's straight chemicals and it wants you to know it.

Roucel has done this to us before with Malle: Dans Tes Bras - a perfume I love - was formulated in a very similar way, with a striking and synthetic opening and a quick leap to an overdose of a particular synthetic at the base (cashmeran). Therefore, I want to check-in-their-place the perfumistas who say that Roucel's formulation is a failure but who like Dans Tes Bras (of which there seem to be many). Those are people who like cashmeran, but don't like ambrocenide; there is a big difference between not liking a particular material and a failure of formulation. Double check your assessments, please.

To this point as well, Uncut Gem is a great name for this perfume. Some people only like diamonds when they are cut, polished, and held in place by precious metal. Uncut Gem is a perfume for geologists then. But - and there is a "but" in my assessment - even uncut gems have the ability to bend light a bit. At some angle light will pass through and throw a beautiful color your way, but this perfume never does. Dans Tes Bras at least gave us some violet and heliotrope as a colorful salve to the massive synthetics, but Uncut Gem is so zealous in its attempt to subvert the masculine perfume paradigm by reveling in the synthetic, the raw, and the unrefined, that it forgets that it's a perfume. In its effort to be so impenetrable, manly, extreme and all-conquering, it never shows that bit of vulnerability necessary for you to have an aesthetic or emotional connection. So, it's not going on my list of favorite Malle perfumes, but it's not going on the list of ones I dislike. I'm not sure I will ever purchase it, and I will think back on it in a mostly fond way but only for fleeting moments. I think maybe the perfume is its own worst enemy in that regard: it's apathetic, and it encourages the wearer to be apathetic as well.

My favorite FM, no doubt, fresh leather like no other. any season, any occasion. I can't see my collection without it.

I absolutely love citrus dominate fragrances, so Uncut Gem is quickly becoming one of my all time favorites. I absolutely love the fresh and leathery opening followed by the heavy ambroxan and woody like smell. It’s uber masculine but yet refined. It can be worn super casual or to a black tie event. I find it unique in that it doesn’t smell like anything I’ve encountered out there. Longevity is off the charts with all day performance but it’s not in your face and doesn’t scream of cologne guy. In an odd way, it resembles the classic British colognes (but modernized) of another era. All in all, I really like it. Uncut Gem took me a few wearings to fully appreciate it. It’s a true work of art. To top it all off, Malle makes one of the best atomizers out there and I love the bottle design.

Give it a few wearings. I find it works well in all seasons. I often wear Molecule 02 (that stuff is amazing with its light salty vide, Wow!). In fact, I think Molecule 02 works really well with Uncut Gem as an evening and lazy-around-the-house scent.

After all the negative reviews I got a sample and thoroughly enjoyed it. *shrug emoji* —- must wear on a hot dry day so the ginger and citrus shines but yeah… nothing dazzling but smells great. (In damp climate it’s a one note ambrox-style watery mess)

Chemical Hazard

I avoided trying this perfume after it was badly received by more seasoned noses in my circle. I knew it would smell bad, but my God, I didn't think it could be this bad. This is one of the worst perfumes that I have tried in many years. As soon as I sprayed it I got hit by a massive Ambrocenide that burnt my nostrils and hurt my brain cells. I thought to myself, "Let it settle down, it's Malle, have faith" but nope. This stuff is straight-up garbage. Stuff like this one would smell in all designer/commercial boutiques, and airports, heck, drug stores, supermarkets. The fact that Malle put this one out, and all the blabber about this being Roucel's personal scent and the price. Outrageous. This one should have been called Synthetic Jungle, or Synthetic Mess. Or Outrageously Bad. This house is going down full throttle with these sorts of releases. The Moon was also a synthetic beast, Promise the same, then Superstitious. Small flickers of hope then with Rose & Cuir and Synthetic Jungle, and then this epic failure, and now the boring Heaven Can Wait. It was a great house, but shit started going way South around 2017 for them. Used to love this house.

The scent is not bad but it leaves me perplexed.... The opening is very beautiful, citrus, spicy and sparkling and you can immediately feel the base that will be the protagonist of all the evolutions. Just the base makes me think.... essentially it's a musky plasticy leather accord, very very similar to the one heard in the Gualtieri such as Bergamask, Cuoium, Nudiflorum etc... in short, it sounds to me like I've heard before, a sort of Blu de Chanelle with a Gualtieri base, it's hard for me to imagine it as Rouchelle's personal perfume... It didn't strike me, not at all.... It's not bad but today I wouldn't buy it because I find there are better in the genre , at least for me. Discreet projection, good durability thanks to the leather base