The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
L'Autre Moi translates from French as "the other me," a title that frames the fragrance as an alter ego made tangible. Conceived by Nicolas Bonneville and released in 2025, it belongs to Mayhap's Odysee collection, a series the brand unveiled as part of its early lineup. Bonneville's composition explores a tension at the heart of the scent: what does it feel like when your sharper, more guarded self shows up at the same time as the warmer one? On skin, the answer arrives not through contrast for its own sake, but through coexistence, two distinct registers held in the same accord, waiting to see which one the wearer trusts first.
What makes L'Autre Moi structurally interesting is how the spice stays cool rather than tipping into chai territory. Cardamom and ginger could easily pull the composition toward something overtly warm and sensual, but instead the elemi resin in the opening bends them toward a mineral, almost architectural register. That resin does quiet, essential work in the first hour, lending a lacquered brightness that reads less like a spice jar and more like cold metal catching light.
The evolution
The first ten minutes belong to cardamom and ginger, but they arrive strangely clean, almost metallic, more the feel of a chilled blade than kitchen spice. Elemi resin sharpens that opening, adding a peppery brightness that reads cold against skin. As the top notes ease back, rose oxide enters with something translucent and papery, not the sweetness of a rose garden but the dust off an iris powder compact. Cashmere wood and nutmeg warm the middle, but the warmth is contained, held tight. Then the base takes over slowly. Frankincense brings the incense, dry and resinous, while leather and patchouli ground the whole thing with something darker, almost mineral. Amberwood arrives last and lingers longest, a woody warmth that stays close to skin for hours. By the next morning, it's still there, quiet, on the collar of whatever you wore.
Cultural impact
L'Autre Moi has drawn attention from niche perfume enthusiasts for its unconventional treatment of the woody-spicy territory, a category that often defaults to warmth, sweetness, and overt sensuality. This composition refuses those defaults, holding its spices at a cool distance and substituting a metallic, translucent character for the usual ambered depth. Actual user reviews describe it as a woody fresh scent rendered in a particularly synthetic register, with one reviewer noting it reads as a pale, metallic wood scent, very synthetic in character.
