L'Artisan launched Méchant Loup in 1997. Like yesterday's Dzongkha, it was created by perfumer Bertrand Duchaufour; it is usually described as a "deep, spicy, woodsy scent" and the notes include pepper, star anise, licorice, sandalwood, honey, hazelnut, myrrh, tonka bean and cedar.

The L'Artisan website translates "Méchant Loup" as Big Bad Wolf, and it is very nearly just that. It has a kind of roasted hazelnut and burnt sugar accord that is vaguely reminiscent of Hermès Vetiver Tonka, but Méchant Loup is darker and richer, and the hazelnut mingles with honeyed woods, musty dried leaves and a touch of something that smells like whiskey and cigar smoke and old leather chairs.

I don't suppose you can get more masculine than whiskey and cigar smoke and old leather chairs, and Méchant Loup probably vies with the now-discontinued L'Eau de Navigateur as the most masculine L'Artisan scent before Fou d'Absinthe. I don't find it unwearable, but some women might. At any rate, it is a lovely scent, with a very appealing warmth that works perfectly with the rainy and generally dismal fall weather we are having here today. As an added bonus, the lasting power is very good, which is not always the case with the L'Artisan Eaux de Toilette.

Méchant Loup is available in 50 and 100 ml bottles of Eau de Toilette, or in the Men's Charmer Trio (shown above, in a 15 ml bottle packaged with Navegar and L'Eau de L'Artisan) or in the Men's Discovery set (5 ml bottles of Mechant Loup, Navegar, L'Eau de L'Artisan and Tea for Two).

For buying information, see the listing for L'Artisan under Perfume Houses.