Our take
What does Scandal smell like?
Scandal, launched by Jean Paul Gaultier in 2017 in its upturned-legs bottle, revels in cheerful provocation. Daphné Bugey, Christophe Raynaud and Fabrice Pellegrin built a gourmand floral centred on honey. Blood orange, mandarin and pink pepper fizz in the opening. The dense heart melts a thick honey over gardenia and jasmine, giving an impression at once sweet, floral and faintly animalic. Caramel, tonka bean and patchouli stretch that sweetness further into a sticky warmth that never goes unnoticed. The whole is rich, sensual and fully owned. The honey is thick enough to feel almost waxy, like the inside of a beehive in late summer.
When to wear it
For festive nights and winter dates; it suits women who love powerful gourmand perfumes.
The story of Scandal
Scandal arrived in 2017, when the Jean Paul Gaultier house belonged to the Spanish group Puig. The new feminine had to stand next to Classique, whose 1993 torso bottle set the house taste for bodies and provocation. Scandal took the joke further. Its cap is a pair of stockinged legs pointing skyward, perched on a domed bottle. The image is meant to make you grin. Daphné Bugey, Christophe Raynaud and Fabrice Pellegrin built the formula around a thick honey, a material rarely pushed this far forward in a mass-market feminine. Gardenia and caramel keep it company. The honey idea spawned a series of flankers, including the more intense Scandal by Night and later Scandal pour Homme, which moved the concept toward caramel and clary sage. Those extensions show the direction the house chose: a perfume you recognise from across a room, happy to be too much.
Our detailed review
Blood orange starts things off with a fizzy, almost soda-like sparkle, and pink pepper barely stings. It does not last. Within fifteen minutes the honey pours over everything. It is thick and golden, a little waxy, with gardenia and jasmine lending a fleshy and sometimes animalic edge. It is spectacular and very well made. We give it credit for impact, since nobody forgets it. By the third hour caramel and tonka stretch the sweetness, and patchouli adds just enough earth to keep it from turning into candy. The trouble is the dose. On us the honey becomes sticky after six hours, and insistent to the point of fatigue, especially indoors. It will please fans of powerful gourmands and anyone who wants to leave a trail. People sensitive to sugar will dislike it outright, and it is best kept away from public transport and open-plan offices.
Scandal vs its rivals
Mugler's Angel is the obvious ancestor. It shares honey and caramel, tonka and patchouli. Candy floss and chocolate make it a stranger and earthier gourmand. Angel divides people, while Scandal wins them over more easily thanks to its white flowers. Choose Angel for a historic, polarising scent and Scandal for a more legible floral honey. Paco Rabanne's Lady Million is the closest in structure. Gardenia and jasmine sit over honey and patchouli in both. Raspberry and orange blossom make it fruitier and flashier, with less caramel and a slightly lighter base. Mugler's A*Men also pairs honey and caramel with patchouli, yet coffee and mint turn it into a darker masculine gourmand. We mention it for women who like borrowing something drier.
Longevity, projection and use
Maximum intensity in eau de parfum form: Scandal easily lasts eight to ten hours on skin, often longer on clothes, where the honey is still there the next morning. Projection is strong for the first three or four hours. One or two sprays are enough, never more than three. Aim for the chest or the back of the neck rather than the wrists, which will send out honey with every gesture. It is an autumn and winter scent for evenings, parties and dates. At the office or in closed spaces it overwhelms. Skip it in summer, when heat makes it truly heavy.
It belongs to the Floral, Oriental / Amber family. Scandal is one of 3 creations by Jean Paul Gaultier in our encyclopedia.
