Note Pyramid
Pour Lui
Wormwood is the reason to try Mauboussin Pour Lui Eau de Parfum 100ml. It is not a material you meet often on a shop shelf, and in a three part composition it has nowhere to hide. Lavender comes first and does the expected thing, herbal and clean with that slightly soapy, cooling lift that has anchored men's perfume for a century. It is pleasant and familiar, and it lasts perhaps a quarter of an hour in full voice.
Then the wormwood. It is bitter in a way almost nothing else in perfumery is, green and medicinal and dry, with an absinthe like pungency that makes the lavender above it suddenly look tame. Some people find it difficult. Those who get on with it tend to get on with it completely, because very few mainstream fragrances are willing to be this austere in the middle.
Ebony wood finishes it, dark and smooth and faintly smoky, with none of the pencil sharpness of lighter timbers. It gives the bitterness somewhere to settle and turns the last hours into something sombre and polished.
Violaine Collas composed it. Three materials, no detours, a scent that states its case early and holds it. It wears best in cold weather and after dark, and it suits a man who already knows he dislikes sweetness. Longevity is good and projection modest after the first hour, which suits a fragrance this bitter: it is better encountered than announced, and a single spray is a sensible starting dose. The other thing worth saying is that nothing else the house makes smells remotely like it. If you have tried the sweeter men's bottles from the same shelf and written the brand off, this is the one that deserves a second look.
Mauboussin is a Paris jeweller with an Art Deco reputation, and perfume was an addition to the business rather than its foundation. The house came to it in 2000, with Pour Lui among the first names it put on a bottle.
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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