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I can't wear Lutens ... why oh why oh why????

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11 years ago
Up until last year or so, I had a terrible time with not only Lutens, but L'Artisan as well.

I was either underwhelmed or completely weirded out by both houses. I don't know what happened as of late, but I now can appreciate a percentage of their releases like never before.
11 years ago
Acquired taste, that is... Until not so long ago, I wasn't getting the fuss about Lutens. Now I'm addicted. Many of them are spicy, which is right up my alley.
11 years ago
I have to be honest here and mention that since writing the beginning of this entry earlier this year, I have delved more deeply into finding out which Lutens work on me. I can happily report that I am quite content with Tubereuse Criminelle (which I now own) and have found a similar respect for A la Nuit, of which I have a bottle on the way! I have, however, really come to enjoy Miel de Bois Smile. This will be my next Lutens purchase Smile.
11 years ago
Cryptic:
Right. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think many lines work off a particular base, and if that building block doesn't sit well with you then you'll have difficulty with the entire range.

This would hold true if all Serge Lutens' fragrances were based on the same formulations, but they are not. pH plays a considerable roll in the effect perfume has on an individuals skin. Also, pH changes from day to day and in some more so than others. Generally women have a lower pH than men and pH generally lowers during the course of the day.

See my blog post entitled "Skin Types and Fragrances"
11 years ago
Hey Coutureguru, I thought of you when I read this. A peppery rose!
http://boisdejasmin.com/2012/12/serge-lutens-l a-fille-de-berlin-new-fragrance-and-book.html# comments
11 years ago
Cryptic:
Hey Coutureguru, I thought of you when I read this. A peppery rose!
http://boisdejasmin.com/2012/12/serge-lutens-l a-fille-de-berlin-new-fragrance-and-book.html# comments

Ooooh fabby!!! Ta Cryptic Smile
11 years ago
For me it's an Inquired taste Do i have an Love Hate relationship with
S.L I think that a bit Extreme like all Perfume houses Niche and Mainstream your'e gonna get a few Bad Apples or figurlly a few bad scents

The Ones I Love are
Ambre Sultan
Arabie
Bas de Soie
Feminite du Bois
Iris Silver Mist
Sarrasins
Tubereuse Criminelle
Un Bois Sepia
The Ones i Wanted to Love but Pervented me to do so
Bois de Violette
Cedre
Chergui
Cuir Mauresque
Daim Blond
Fumerie Turque
Muscs Koublai Khan
Rahat Loukoum
Santal de Mysore
Un Bois Vanille
Un Lys

The Ones i Dislike
Serge Noire
Chene

I totally think Body Chemistry has a lot to do with it too
You'll find the Serge you will like just give some time

P.S When i first Got into the Lutens Circle I din't care it was too inbrasive for me but i'm learning to Appreciate the Artistry of the man Himself Smile
11 years ago
I understand how saddening it is when you want to like something so badly but it doesn't work with your chemistry. I have this problem with the Annick Goutal line. They all have something in common that smells plasticky on me and I have to wash it off.

I'm happy and lucky I guess that SL works so well for me. I remember my first trip to the The Ginza boutique in Kyoto in March 2005 to try out SL. I left the store with Clair de Musc and Fleur de Citronnier, both of the more inoffensive kind. 7 months later I bought Datura Noir and Daim Blond. SL is the perfumer that made me step away from florals and be more adventurous. I started appreciating his more complex works, and collecting them. Today, my 2 first SL are the ones I wear the least, they don't impress me as much as his other creations do. My favourites on me are Chergui and Douce Amere, I feel as if they were made for me, they blend so nicely and make me feel good.
My husband who is very picky with perfume wears Gris Clair: a very crisp and clean scent with just a hint of smoke. I can imagine it would work on every man (I don't like it on me). Did you try that one Coutureguru?
11 years ago
Ahahah new to the forum and first thing I bump into is the Big Blasphemy Thread. Twisted Evil

Gawd, it'd refreshing to be around people who actually dare to not like Lutens! Needless to say, I belong to this side of the perfumed world too.
I even used to feel bad about it for a while. I mean - everyone is head over heels about these fragrances, and I just feel suffocated by them, the notes seeming to be plastered together. Then I delved into Monsieur Lutens' other mediums, photography, writing, and on to the biography. And I feel at peace with being deaf to his olfactory creations ever since. This is not my aesthetic, is all. Starting with the boutique designed purportedly to repel the "non-Lutens style woman who stumbled in by accident" and all the way through the claim that perfumery is but an empty world of boring shops and only interesting as a means of expressing Serge.

I have too big of an ego to try and squeeze myself into someone else's. Even if that someone is the revered M.Lutens.
Last edited by ChapeauClack on 22.12.2012, 06:20; edited 1 time in total
11 years ago
Serge Lutens fragrances are incredibly long-lasting- but hard to wear-
I also get this embarassing "too close" body smell from two of them- which makes them oddly appealing but almost embarassing to wear in public-

Miel de Bois

Fleurs d'Oranger
Two of them were just not me-

Chergui

Bas de Soie
One of them was just right- intriguing, but no "body odor"-

Mandarine Mandarin
11 years ago
The only Lutens that works with me is one of my favorites.

UN LYS

It's not typical of the house. But if you like Lily, you just might love it!
Re: I can't wear Lutens ... why oh why oh why???? 11 years ago
Coutureguru:
I would dearly love to be able to wear Lutens and I have tried a significant number of them. For some reason they just turn on my skin ... every last one of them I have tried ends up smelling like I've not showered in months!!! Sad.


First, full disclosure: Serge Lutens is the one house -using terms found throughout this thread- of "eccentric", "chaotic" fragrances I can actually wear. I just have to find the right time to wear them, as I'll eventually explain.

But I do appreciate and fully understand your phrase, "turn on my skin." As odd as this sounds, I'm happy someone has finally described this phenomenon so succinctly!

Here's the typical scenario: I read about a fragrance that seems to possess every quality suited to my personal tastes and character. I shell out my shekels for a decant and anxiously await it's arrival because I just know this is going to be THE ONE. Further full disclosure (can there be such a thing?) I'm a hopeless optimist.

The magic elixir finally arrives, I spritz it on and the worst possible thing happens. No, not that it smells terrible immediately. As a matter of fact, for an hour, maybe even two it smells wonderful, just as I hoped it would. But then slowly it begins to happen: the potion of my dreams "turns on my skin". As much as God Luca Turin decrees from his exalted throne that body chemistry has nothing to do with how a fragrance smells, it damn well does! There is something in the formula that turns to skank and now I smell as though I doused myself in the stuff a week ago and haven't bathed since.

I feel your pain, brother, I feel your pain. From now on if I write a review that involves having to describe this unfortunate occurrence, I'm not going to get out my thesaurus looking for just the right adjective to uselessly detail the stink. I'm just going to say "it turned on my skin".

Now, back to my original point of finding the right time to wear a Lutens. Something I've discovered about two of my favorite fragrances, Fille en aiguilles and Chene, is that they're very environmental. That is to say, the day has to smell like the fragrance in order for me to wear it. For instance, the city where I live is full of oak trees and on damp, rainy, fall and winter days the air is perfumed with the woody, sweet tobacco scent of oak leaves mouldering on the ground. That's when I wear Chene. If I wear it on any other day, then I feel like I smell conspicuously "eccentric" and "chaotic".
Last edited by Greysolon on 06.01.2013, 16:58; edited 1 time in total
11 years ago
Teehee ... so nice to see some interaction from different perspectives on this thread ... I've added another 'like' to my very small Lutens repertoire ... Santal Majuscule (which I have a sample of) is very nice!
11 years ago
Forgot to mention, the one Lutens that seems universally loved that "turns on my skin" is Daim Blond. For the first half hour, it's intoxicating. Then, slowly but surely, a smell that can only be described as an old, stale perfume odor begins to...

damn, I'm already reverting to old habits...

Daim Blond turns on my skin. Wink
11 years ago
It's funny. Reading through this thread I've found that I agree with SL's aesthetic, but his creations do nothing for me, except for Fumurie Turque. And I would be all about chaotic, difficult scents, if only SL's stuff went that way for me. Usually they just fade away into nothing.
11 years ago
Greysolon:
Forgot to mention, the one Lutens that seems universally loved that "turns on my skin" is Daim Blond. For the first half hour, it's intoxicating. Then, slowly but surely, a smell that can only be described as an old, stale perfume odor begins to...

damn, I'm already reverting to old habits...

Daim Blond turns on my skin. Wink

Teehee ... 'turns on my skin' just about sums it up Greysolon Smile ... thanks for the vote of literary confidence !!!
11 years ago
It sounds like you may have an issue with the sandalwood they use. Sheldrake is pretty fond of the wood, I'm aware, and it totally smells like unwashed skin on me, too. Which would be fine, except I'm not particularly fond of most of the Lutens fragrances. They are a bit too sweet and dense overall, but never in a way that just leaves me stunned. They're at the very least composed of very high quality ingredients, and I appreciate that.

Notable exceptions: Bell Jar fragrances and Jeux de Peau. I would love to love Muscs Koublai Khan but I'm anosmic to ambrette which is the entire point of the fragrance.
11 years ago
So wild! For the most part, I can wear Serge Lutens, its a matter of do I really LIKE wearing them!

Fleurs d'Oranger apparently can be an issue for some. One of my friends wore it and it smelled like raw meat on her, it was just nasty. I won't let her wear that anymore!

My problem house is Guerlain...So far, only 2 from that house actually work on me, the rest are just gross, and what I mean by that is they smell great in the bottle, but on my skin its another story altogether.
11 years ago
Oh Serge, why oh why can't I love you?

I think that, in part, it may be some kind of reverse snobbery. I'll, somewhat reluctantly, spend money on an expensive Chanel but, mostly I like my fragrances on the reasonable side of pricing.

I haven't got subtle tastes in fragrances, I tend to like them loud! I haven't got a very good sense of smell either, I mean, how many people can't smell leather fragrances?

Best not to ask me about Bond No9 ...

Cool
11 years ago
I thought I had the same problem with Serge Lutens' whole line a couple of years ago after unsuccessfully trying Un Bois Vanille, Chergui (this smells schizophrenic on me), Fleur D'oranger (actually smelled like vomit on my skin), Feminite du Bois- smells great on some of my friends, but I smell like a gypsy psychic at a carnival, Jeaux de Peau- I wanted to love but it hates me, L'eau and L'eau Froide were also both disasterous! I swore the whole line off. Until one day I found a little Shop that had the whole line and a good fragrance consultant suggested to try the whole line (one by one over time and during different seasons, temperatures and also moods...Now I am the proud owner of 2 Fbs from this line "Five O'clock au Gingembre" and "Daim Blonde"- both of which work wonderfully on my skin...but neither of them work in the Spring or Summer and must wait patiently for Fall. I found SL's Gris Clair and Clair du Musc to be universally good. So I had to take back my earlier declaration that Serge and I would not find a common ground. Keep trying, you may find your pearl yet!
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