Fragrance Notes
Benzoin
Tonka BeanLa Favorite
Jean Paul Gaultier La Favorite Eau de Parfum is built on three materials, one of them genuinely unusual: queen of the night, benzoin and tonka bean, with the flower the reason to pay attention. Queen of the night is a cactus bloom that opens for a single night, and in perfumery it reads as a heady white flower with a cool green stem quality and a sweetness that is more nectar than sugar. It is richer than an ordinary white bloom and stranger, and it gives the composition a nocturnal character the name is clearly reaching for.
Benzoin sits underneath as the sweetener, a resin with a warm balsamic smell, faintly smoky and dusty, closer to scorched sugar than to syrup. Tonka bean works beside it with a powdery sweetness and a bitter finish, and the two of them turn the flower into something enveloping rather than merely pretty.
A short list like this makes for a scent that is immediately recognisable and does not change much across a wear. It deepens rather than develops, and the pleasure is in how dense it becomes on skin after an hour. This is a strong eau de parfum. It projects clearly for the first couple of hours and lasts the day, so two sprays is the right dose and more would be imposing. Cold weather and evenings suit it, and it reads as emphatically feminine. Amelie Jacquin and Quentin Bisch composed it.
The house is French and came to fragrance from couture. Jean Paul Gaultier showed his debut women's collection in 1976 and opened a boutique in Paris in 1984, with perfume arriving in 1993. Puig has been majority owner since 2011 and the fragrance arm has operated in house since 2016.
Please note: images are a guide only. Packaging and bottle design may occasionally differ from those shown due to manufacturer updates or promotions.
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