I’m not worried yet. When its output is considered as a whole, the Frederic Malle brand remains one of the strongest and most praiseworthy in the business. So there’s no reason to fear the worst and sink into despair just because its latest release, Uncut Gem, is decidedly subpar. You can watch my full YouTube review of it at this link: Frederic Malle Uncut Gem review.
Malle’s insistence on releasing no more than one or two scents per year is commendable. In 2021 we had the much-lauded Synthetic Jungle. 2020 saw no new fragrances, doubtless thanks to the pandemic. 2019 gave us the not-altogether-successful, but nonetheless fascinating Rose & Cuir, as well as The Moon. So perhaps it’s just our bad luck that Uncut Gem doesn’t tick the boxes we’d like our perfumes to tick, and we’re going to have to wait another year for the possibility of being excited by a new Malle creation.
That said, I shall watch intently to see how Gem fares at the tills. Rose & Cuir was not generally well-received; indeed, several bottles have remained untouched for months at my local branch of The Cosmetics Company Store (Lauder’s chain of discount outlets). Synthetic Jungle was critically acclaimed, but greens are always a hard sell. So perhaps it’s possible that Uncut Gem has been designed to appeal to more commercial (younger?) tastes. Certainly, its reliance on uninvolving ‘fresh’ notes and a depressingly excessive dose of ambery-woods in the base would suggest that it’s trying to fit within the mode of Chanel Bleu, Dior Sauvage et al. If it performs well enough to enable Malle to pursue more interesting avenues of creation, then maybe its existence will be justified. But no matter what happens, in aesthetic terms, it will remain a curious aberration: a rare case of Malle being caught on the back foot and giving in to a trend, rather than setting it.
Persolaise
[Frederic Malle Uncut Gem review based on a sample provided by the brand in 2022.]
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I think Malle has had a few missteps regarding their pricing to be honest. Dawn being a prime example of a fragrance that would have sold a lot more if it were appropriately priced. Having said that a designer style woody amber is definitely out of place at the POAL and CF price bracket. If it was marketing to the masses then certainly it isn’t priced for them.
Yes, the pricing of this one is a bit surprising.
Thanks for writing, Hussain.
Is an overdose of woody ambers a problem in itself? As much as I deplore the lazy way such aromachemicals can be used to extend sillage in mainstream perfumery (toy boy by moschino being an example of a great perfume ruined by an unnecessary woody amber), I think this perfume uses it quite brilliantly to achieve a powerful dryness in the leather-amber accord at its center and give the whole thing a fascinating almost plasticky feeling. There are no ugly aromachemicals, only bad perfumers (or bad creative directors as the case may be).
Thanks for writing, DN. I completely agree that no material is intrinsically problematic: everything comes down to the skills of the perfumer.
In the case of Uncut Gem, I personally feel the use of the woody ambers is heavy-handed.