L’Homme Idéal Extrême by Guerlain

It’s already my second bottle, bought at the end of 2022, and I’m back for more today. It’s a masterpiece: powerful, soft, sweet, spicy, leather-y and sexy, yet with that shy elegance I choose. It smells like a specialist perfumerie, using fine and pure ingredients, just like the houses in Paris; notes of bee, honey and almond. It’s ideal for the ideal man. Although I prefer Mediterranean and blue essences, sometimes the occasion and sophistication call for something less relaxed. I live in a warm, dry climate, inland in Mexico, near the desert. I don’t use it much in summer, but for a night out or a wedding, say if you live in the Bajío or the West, it’s not too embracing. I have worn it at the beach and the scent of almond, honey and sea is unique. I work from home, have few social events, but this makes me feel like a bourgeois in the corporate niche of a family brand. I’m smelling it now, hahaha, and it brings back very good memories; on for more. Peace and well!

A generally very good fragrance, with well-balanced notes and no excesses like in previous red-cap versions. The downside: performance. Thirty minutes of trail, then two or three hours of goodbye to the sillage and projection; there’s no more fragrance on the skin than what you detect by pressing your nose against it. For what it offers, it should cost half the list price. I don’t recommend buying it unless you have a decant and reapply every two hours to keep the fragrance alive, which, I repeat, is very pleasant to smell. If you want to smell very good with ample sillage and longevity, the Habit Rouge Parfum from the same house is the best of all.

Second review after a year. *Review for the black cap/grey label formula. The opening has improved significantly; oxidation/maceration did its job, as it now projects quite well straight from the atomiser. What stands out most is a rather intense, citrus-fruity and spicy scent, quite dense. This lasts approximately 20 minutes, after which the projection begins to drop drastically; it is less intense now and honestly, at this point, I start to appreciate the scent much more. The sweet spicy facet emerges and the very distinct IDEAL family DNA becomes noticeable. It lingers with a moderate-to-low sillage for another 40 minutes, after which the projection plummets; by an hour and a half, the scent is barely skin-deep or on the clothes, and unless you have applied more than six sprays with a light breeze, it becomes difficult to detect. By two and a half hours, the sillage is practically non-existent; it is only perceptible if you press your nose right where the fragrance was applied. The scent evolves quite rapidly. The new formula seems designed with planned obsolescence, like most current European fragrances; the only improvement from oxidation was in the top notes. Otherwise, I get the impression that now, regardless of the stated concentration, we are being sold COLOGNES: wonderful for the first few minutes (top notes), before giving way to a super-fast dry-down, so quick that by three or four hours all that remains is a residual scent as if it had been applied several days, even weeks, ago. There is no logical way a composition of this nature can disappear almost completely in a few hours, and to prove it, we have all the reviews from people mentioning that the first formula (red cap) lasted much longer and even smelled better, of higher quality. I recommend NOT BUYING, or at least not buying at the official price, which in Mexico hovers around 170 dollars. It is a pity the current strategy of PREMATURE FORMULAS from the European industry. What is the objective?

A rather pleasant fragrance; personally, I like the opening with its powerful leather and almond notes. As for the dry-down, it is somewhat fruity with the cedar notes. In my opinion, it is a fragrance that is not too difficult to wear and certainly smells unique. The opening reminds me quite a bit of the Tom Ford Ombre Leather opening, but the dry-down develops very differently; the fruity aspect rates a solid 10 for me.

I tried to buy the red bottle version but could not, so I had to purchase the reformulation. An exquisite scent with such mediocre performance that it seems insulting, especially coming from a house as expensive as Guerlain. If you can find the red bottle, go for it head first; if not, think twice. It lasts 2 hours.

Strong opening, but dries down to a sweet, fresh scent with a distinct masculine tobacco note. Perfect for cool nights, autumn and winter; avoid wearing it in summer as it becomes overwhelming and suffocating to the nose.

Today, about those things the crowd says are the absolute best when they’re not even close: L’Homme Idéal Extrême by Guerlain. At first it’s pleasant, fruity and almond-like with a slight boozy note, but as it dries down it smells brutally of plums, like an old cologne with tobacco, soft leather and plum sweetness. It almost seems more feminine than masculine to me; it reminds me of a Uruguayan basketball game with a whole bunch of older people playing.

Wow, I’m impressed, unfortunately with a poor impression. Quick review: the new version with the black cap and grey label is incredibly diluted. I don’t recommend buying it unless you find it at a significant discount. Today I opened this one, and luckily I bought it at a considerable discount. Honestly, I remember the original version (2020) having a great scent and acceptable performance; I knew it that year and loved it, but I couldn’t buy it. Finally, a few weeks ago I had this fragrance in my hands and was very disappointed by the non-existent performance. A fragrance of this type was one where you’d spray it three times and smell it all day, with your clothes retaining the scent for several days more. Unfortunately, Guerlain’s decisions, like those of many other houses, have been to super-dilute everything and sell us heavily discounted colognes. Is it worth describing the scent? It’s perceptible for about 40 minutes with eight sprays, and what remains afterwards is a scent stuck to the skin/clothes that you can barely smell when bringing your nose close or generating airflow. It pains me to say this about a house like Guerlain, which used to have niche quality and, although they didn’t have extraordinary performance, it was very acceptable, and they sold us the idea that a luxury fragrance should be discreet. Well, they’ve gone too far with discretion. I recommend the classic EDT in any case, although they also ruined the formula (in ingredients and performance); overapply it, it projects a bit more, and lasts vaguely perceptible for about five hours. How bad that we now have to choose between the lesser evil and not the best. Extreme? Eau de Parfum? No. Eau de Cologne.

Until now, the Eau de Parfum seemed the best in the line, but I think this Extrême surpasses it. It’s a delight to the nose, one of those fragrances you can’t stop smelling.

Very good fragrance, with all the style of the classic, I love the pink pepper accords.

My favourite fragrance right now. Sensual, elegant, sweet and masculine. The blend of almond, plum, cinnamon, tobacco and leather makes it a jewel. I have the pre-refurbishment batch and the performance is decent: 7 or 8 hours on skin, projecting well at a metre and a half for about three hours, then it becomes more intimate, with the last hours barely detectable. It doesn’t go unnoticed, everyone likes it, and it’s neither invasive nor cloying. It’s very pleasant, but its Achilles’ heel is versatility; it’s better for cold weather, suitable only for special occasions in summer and at most two sprays (there are always better options for heat). But like all in the L’Homme Ideal line, it’s a distinctive fragrance with the plus of plum and tobacco, giving it a more masculine and elegant development.

I thought the EDP was unbeatable, but this Extreme has silenced my doubts. The combination of tobacco leaf, plum and that characteristic almond note from the line makes this perfume a fruity and spiced delicacy. It smells very original and doesn’t rely on that overused vanilla note. In my opinion, it’s a more masculine version of the EDP. Without a doubt, it’s my favourite flanker and one of the top designer scents 🙂

Do you really think this has tobacco? What an insult. It’s just a mix of the EDP and the EDT. I don’t understand what makes it ‘different’, plus it’s expensive and projects very little. This fragrance is for a candy factory and children. Smell L’Homme, Polo Green, Havana and you’ll see what real tobacco is.

Very tasty, slightly different; for me, it boils down to almonds at the start, then cinnamon, and finally soft leather. A sweet and woody aroma, perhaps with a subtle touch of tobacco. But what a great disappointment; I bought it blind with a lot of hype. I received a 2021 batch with a new black cap bottle that isn’t worth it due to the performance. I searched everywhere and I don’t know if it’s been reformulated or what, but after four hours I have to press my nose against my arm to smell it. Reviews talk of 10 hours of longevity, but on my skin it’s nothing. It’s a shame because it smells very good and it’s a perfume slightly pricier than average. I wouldn’t recommend it.

The best in the Ideal line, and that’s saying a lot; incredible that they are going to discontinue it…