Sniff Fest - Serge Lutens
9 years ago
SERGE LUTENS
Jardins du Palais Royal
142 Galerie de Valois
75001 Paris
With the intention of sniffing every scent in the line, I’ve been collecting Serge Lutens samples for the past couple of years. In this thread I’ll share my long-awaited joy of sniffing my way through them. Comments are very welcome. I think I have them all, now, arranged in alpha order per our database. To whit:
À la nuit | Ambre sultan | Arabie | Bas de soie | Bois de violette | Bois et fruits | Bois et musc | Bois oriental | Bornéo 1834 | Boxeuses | Cèdre | Chêne | Chergui | Chypre rouge | Clair de musc | Cuir mauresque | Daim blond | Datura noir | De profundis | Douce amère | El attarine | Encens et lavande | Féminité du bois | Fille en aiguilles | Five o'clock au gingembre | Fleurs d'oranger | Fleurs de citronnier | Fourreau noir | Fumerie turque | Gris clair... | Iris silver mist | Jeux de peau | L'Eau Froide | L'Eau Serge Lutens | L'incendiaire | L'orpheline | La fille de Berlin | La myrrhe | La Religieuse | La vierge de fer | Laine de Verre | Louve | Mandarine-mandarin | Miel de bois | Muscs Koublaï Khän | Nuit de cellophane | Rahät loukoum | Rose de Nuit | Rousse | Sa majesté la rose | Santal blanc | Santal de Mysore | Santal majuscule | Sarrasins | Serge noire | Tubéreuse criminelle | Un bois sépia | Un bois vanille | Un lys | Une voix noire | Vétiver oriental | Vitriol d'Œillet |
I have FBs of the ones in bold. The rest are decants.
Serge Lutens has been a major visionary force in fashion photography and design (Vogue, Dior, Shiseido, etc) since the 1960’s, producing iconic imagery and memorable perfumes. He launched his own perfume brand in 2000, housing some in his now-famous bell jars.
My first was À la nuit, bought blind. It’s the one that sold me on SL. Classified as a floriental, it made the finals in Yasmin’s 2013 Jasmine Sniff Fest when I was first discovering perfume genres:
“I’ll take three with mustard, also air, or anything else. What a fragrance! Moroccan, Indian and Egyptian Jasmine, green shoots, white honey, benzoin, musk, clove. I recognize everything but benzoin. What in the world does that smell like? It’s not in the kit. Okay, wiseGeek says it has a vanilla-like fragrance. So whether chemically or otherwise, this is another fragrance that contains or simulates notes from nature. A La Nuit is milder than heady Imperatrice Eugenie. It’s closer to Sarrasins in its appeal, though the clove, vanilla and honey produce a less fruity, more “I dropped my Jasmine in the pie crust dough” scent. It’s not so blatant that it actually smells like the kitchen. Far from it. Like its name, À La Nuit belongs to the night.” Two years later, I still appreciate and wear À la nuit.
Ambre Sultan. Somehow the notes simulate oud to me, if a milder one, which makes this fragrance aptly named. Oud isn’t listed among the notes, but this reminds me a bit of one of the oud oils I smelled from Agar Aura. It was called Kristana Pa. Perfect for westerners who want an oud adventure without going all the way. Another Serge Lutens quality scent.
Arabie. This one is a pungent gourmand, dates and figs mixing with cumin and tobacco—an interesting blend that, to me, smells like Christmas and an English pudding aflame. It’s a richly dark, plummy, and yummy smell.
To be continued...
Last edited by ScentFan on 03.06.2015, 21:58; edited 1 time in total