French Oud Jean Paul Gaultier 2026

I’m going to use these first paragraphs across the six fragrances of Jean Paul Gaultier Les Ateliers Gaultier collection.

PUIG continue to push premium lines across their brands. First was Rabanne, now JPG gets the treatment.

JPG gets a private line priced at £235 per 100ml. Star perfumers Quentin Bisch and Jordi Fernández put their names to French Oud and Musc Terrible while Fabrice Pellegrin lends his name to Santal Paname.

I purchased the tester box for £35. Redeemable against a full price purchase of Les Ateliers Gaultier collection (although I could not find a code or any obvious way to redeem the value).

When my son and I tested the six scents there was one feeling that dawned on me strongly. All six scents have a heavy synthetic edge. I would say, quality wise, they do not seem a higher quality than, say, the Le Male line. Currently discounted (or usually discounted!) at £65 for 75ml or say £130 per 150ml. That makes it roughly half the value proposition of the Les Ateliers collection. I don’t doubt these will also be heavily discounted in due course. I do not see the sense of limiting the retail of these.

The point is, I strongly suspect these fragrances are designed to be an intermediate step between the high street/mall fragrances and someone’s next step to a higher end. Usually Parfums de Marly would be a popular choice when buying into ‘niche’.

This collection is cheaper and lower quality providing a clearer pathway as those niche brands price themselves forever higher. A clever strategy from PUIG.

As for French Oud is smells quiet basic. A pleasant scent that has very little in the way of an Oud accord or even Cypriol. It is quite jarring quality wise next to something like Oud Stallion Maison Crivelli, to be fair that’s £220 for 50ml which is also (by their own admission) notably synthetic. The quality different is huge Crivelli is leagues better when sampled one next to the other.

French Oud opens and dries down in a fairly linear fashion it is really nothing special. It feels designed to be a nice office scent, mass appealing and inoffensive. I had high hopes for this line liking some of the Le Male line. It is ultimately just ok.

Like that film you saw but forgot an hour after you saw it. Really not worth the price. You would be better with PdM or Crivelli