Frédéric Malle had always been fascinated with walking a tightrope. He has always understood that in impeccably sure hands, a hint of flamboyance can have more power and élan than anything more restrained. Hence, his quest for what he describes as “an almost-too-obvious, in-your-face cologne”: a scent that plays with the tired codes of masculinity while extracting their telluric force to make something beautiful and irresistible.
Uncut Gem walks up to the line of good taste, ties it into a lasso, and casually ropes a bucking bronco.
Maurice Roucel is a legend in the world of perfuming — one of Malle’s first collaborators, a good friend, and the author of several of his most iconic scents, including Musc Ravageur. And for years, Malle had been intrigued by Roucel’s own signature scent, a unique blend he’d created in the lab for his own use.
It was like Maurice Roucel himself: uncompromising, bold, technically brilliant, and filled with warm charm. “He seems rough around the edges at first glance,” says Malle, “but it’s a deliberate choice! He’s a force: incredibly refined intellectually and filled with humour and love of people. I’m not the only one who thought that he smelled good, but I am the only one he’d work with to evolve the scent from a rough sketch into something refined. And I’m honoured because it’s so autobiographical, personal.” After five years of persuasion, Roucel agreed to work with Malle to create the cologne that would become Uncut Gem.
The Frédéric Malle brand has always been synonymous with chic. While Malle gives total creative freedom to his collaborators, he sees it as his job as publisher to maintain a certain overarching sensibility, which has historically been highly refined. Yet innovation, reinvention, and interpretation is his raison d’être. “There was something not only cool, technically – especially that mad overdose of ambrocenide – but completely irresistible,” says Malle. “With a lot of fresh naturals, and musk, it was not only magnetic, but chic.”
Clear spicy top notes of ginger, bergamot, mandarin, angelica root and nutmeg lead you to the fire within: a leathery accord, vetiver, frankincense, generous amounts of amber, and a musk that vibrates with the skin. A muscular corollary, in a sense, to the classic Musc Ravageur.
The result is both straightforward and enigmatic: raw sex appeal gives way to a lingering subtlety. The result somehow renders the smell of skin deeper, warmer, cleaner. Uncut Gem is a study in contrasts. It’s rugged and sensitive, classic and fresh, first impression and haunting echo.
