CuirCuir

Santal de Mysore used to be the most expensive perfume in the SL lineup as the house stocked up with real Mysore sandalwood just before the ban and continued to use it in this fragrance. It is a heavenly blend that opens with food spices. If you like cumin, it doesn’t get much better than this. A touch of tasteful balsamic sweetness, not the overused vanilla or tonka type. SdM is a warm and dark scent. Its drydown will reward all patient niche snobs with subtle but wonderful creamy sandalwood. If you care about sandalwood, this one is highly recommended.

Santal Blanc is a soft spicy musky sandalwood. Musk and iris justify its name - it really gives a feeling of “white sandalwood”. It opens sweet and has creamy woody notes. It’s not a warm kind of a scent but rather fresh, bright and cold. Santal Blanc is easy to like and it’s quite inexpensive. In fact, Lutens moved to the cheaper Les Eaux line together with Gris Clair and Fleurs de Citronnier. All excellent scents with great value for money.

Santal Majuscule is a big sandalwood by name only. It’s a triumvirate of rose, cocoa and sandalwood. There is also a spicy, incensey and gourmand feel to it. It opens with a beautiful fresh rose and woody notes. My favorite part is dusty cocoa and it used to be my favorite cocoa scent (till my discovery of Ore by Slumberhouse). Creaminess of sandalwood and powder of cocoa are like the opposites that attract each other while rose dominates throughout. It is one of those lutenses that aren’t gamechangers but smell very nice.

Jeux de Peau is food in a bottle. Good news is that it’s not an over-sweetened vanilla-packed gourmand. Imagine creamy sandalwood with amber and around it: toasted bread with butter, licorice and sweet apricot. This perfume is so bizarre that it fascinates me. It can be a warm, comforting scent for cold days. I prefer to spray my wrist in the evening and marvel at the abstract art of making French pastry into a beautiful perfume.

Fille en Aiguilles is a darling in the fragrance community. I remember at least 4-5 respected reviewers saying this is their favorite Lutens. While I wouldn’t go as far saying it’s my favorite, I agree it deserves all the praise. It’s spicy, fruity and coniferous with lots of frankincense. FeA has a warm, dark and mysterious vibe with a pine note that’s nothing like those pine scented toilet cleaners. Niche perfumery at its best.