Serge Lutens Fourreau Noir – perfume review, a hot mess.
Hey, th
ere – I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving, for those of you who swing that way. I got my husband back safe and sound, and I’m still sleeping off the turkey, in addition to getting a fair amount of reading done. Including your comments on the Thanksgiving post – I was a little verklempt reading some of them. I’m kind of awed that such interesting, intelligent people even read this blog, but then again – that’s perfume (and not entirely the awe-inspiring writing of yours truly). Perfume folks are cool.
Today’s review was going to be of Serge Lutens Fourreau Noir I finally got around to smelling, but I’ve decided to broaden the topic a bit. You see, I hadn’t rushed to smell it because a) it’s lavender, and b) the reviews I saw weren’t exactly stellar.
Notes for Serge Lutens Fourreau Noir are tonka bean, lavender, musk, smoky notes – as Patty says: *rolls eyes* Let´s assume his next scent will be released with the explanation: “Made of some stuff that smells.” It definitely smells like immortelle to me as well.
Our own Lee said: … Serge Lutens Fourreau Noir for all its masculine posturing, is a sad little scent, a front of machismo hiding a well of tears… It´s the 80s writ large. All front up front: the male fougere smells of lavender, coumarin, and synthetics such as dihydromyrcenol to give the thrusting metallic edge, the purr of the engine. All sadness beneath: smoky melancholy, myrrh, quietude.
Patty said: Think of it like this, it´s the Sonic Drive-in where Encens Et Lavande, Chergui and Fumerie Turque all show up, their brakes go out simultaneously, and they all wind up in an incredibly interesting jumble on the menu, something like: “Lavender Pancake Syrup with Hookah.”
But here’s the thing: I’m kind of loving this train-wreck of a scent. I think much of my advantage stems from the fact that I’m not a guy and have never dated guys who wear much cologne, and so I don’t have endless personal memories of choking on some nasty sharp 80s fougere, the man-whore equivalent of, say, Giorgio or Poison. Instead, the lavender and metallic-freshness-plus-Comet-cleanser smell prompts a whole different and kind of novel scent-tableau for me. It’s the virtual-reality version of standing at a stainless steel kitchen sink, steel wool in hand, with the hot water blasting into a skillet squirted with lavender dish soap, and the faint remnants of some kind of dessert (pancakes? almond cookies?) hanging in the air.
I can’t stop smelling Serge Lutens Fourreau Noir. I don’t want to own it, and I don’t want to wear it, but as an aroma it’s fascinating. I had no idea that one day Serge Lutens would be able to capture the bouquet of wan despair as I stand at my kitchen sink over a giant pile of dirty dishes after some major extended-family meal, wondering why in hell I ever thought kids were a good idea, and if I should just throw a bunch of crap into an overnight bag and split. (Once I switched to orange-scented dish soap I got a whole new, cheerful perspective.) Now, though, thanks to Serge Lutens Fourreau Noir I can experience that feeling any time I want (even when I’m out on the town!) not just at eleven at night when I’ve had one too many glasses of prosecco. The drydown after the first hour or two is actually quite pretty, a very light lavender at that point fading to reveal a combination of immortelle and almond cookie with a resin/incense undertone. If that were the whole scent I’d be contemplating a decant, it’s very soothing in a second-skin kind of way.
This thing is a hot mess. But I’m giving it two thumbs up just for engaging weirdness, like one of those outfits on Project Runway that are utter FAIL but sorta mesmerizing at the same time. More than one of my hot-mess fragrances eventually became something I like (hello, Miel de Bois!) and even when they don’t, at least they’re interesting. At this juncture, I can’t see waiting through the top notes of Serge Lutens Fourreau Noir for that tasty drydown, but I could very well change my mind.
So today I invite you to name something from your own head-scratcher list: a fragrance that you think is (possibly) an utter failure as a scent, at least for you, but one you keep around a sample or decant of, just because you like to smell it. (Note: this is slightly different than a sadly misunderstood scent that you adore, even though everyone else hates it.) Or: name a scent that you initially loathed that you’ve come around to, and why your feelings changed.
You can buy a Serge Lutens Fourreau Noir sample at Surender to Chance
Man, I have been racking my brain for an age, and N.O.T.H.I.N.G. fits into this category for me. If I like to smell it, even if it’s weird, I wear it.
Signed
Lee, who’s happy to get his freak on.
It took me the entire day to think up an answer to the question posed, but I’ve finally hit on it. Bois Farine. I periodically whip the cap off my decant in order to delight in this bizarre little number. I don’t wear it often, because it generates a real possibility that I will dash into the kitchen for a vigorous round of cookie creation. (And I do love Martha’s chocolate chip cookies! Perhaps *too* much. :”>)
Leslie, I tried Bois Farine on the weekend for the first time adn immediately had a childhood flashback of eating Pirate cookies. I HAD to rush to the store for a package. 😉
I love the fact that a good portion of scents that don’t do much for me on initial trial, can later evolve into favorites. Today I’m wearing Natori and really, really enjoying it. A few weeks ago it was mildly meh.
I haven’t been at this long enough to (gasp) pitch samples. I do have a sample of Vetiver Dance that I ordered after reading a beautifully evocative ode to it. But it is terrible on me. Horribly terrible. Tried it on the hubby too. That was the day he learned the word scrubber. I know there are those who would walk through hot coals for it, but me – not so much.
Might do that–I really like it in winter!
I like Tabu but am ashamed to let strangers know I wear it. So I wear it at home.
Hee. You could lie. Tell them you’re wearing something you picked up in Paris, you forget the name…
Bulgari Black. I think it’s fantastic and I hate its guts. I have a full bottle and I have been wrestling with it for a couple of years now and will probably go another million rounds before it pins me to the mat and makes me cry uncle :((
I’m so afraid ever to wear that again as the last time i did I was sick as the proverbial dog all day. At least I have just a little decant so it’s not like I’m wasting much. I’m also afraid ever to eat pine nuts again after suffering the fairly new and dreaded “pine mouth” after scarfing some down last summer.b-(
I’m pretty sure that I sent you that decant just to get it out of the house, so I’m sorry I made you sick. Unfortunately, you’re not the first. As for the pine nut issue, I am at a loss. Again, hardly an isolated incident…
Hah! Black is a perfect one for this list, I love to sniff it. But I can’t wear it.
Is pine mouth an allergic reaction?
Congenital.
I thought I had finally found a Bvlgari I liked (other than the Eaux de Thé), but the small decant I own turned on me and revealed its underbelly: some sort of nasty Bvlgari base that makes me sick and which I like to think of as “Vulgar-ade”. I’m askeered by I really want to pull out that little atomizer again. I’m probably better sticking with Dzing! and Cumming for my leather/latex fetish. 😮
Sigh. I love Cumming.
Don’t say it.
/:) Anyhoodle, I wish I saw it more places, it’s such a great scent.
I could interject here, but I won’t…
I didn’t interject here, or at your own “congenital.”
Every Serge Lutens I have tried has made me shrug, so it does not look like it’s the line for me. Well, the nose has its reasons that reason knows nothing about.
Last summer I bought ELd’O’s Rien unsniffed because it was a) half price and b) had heard so much about it. The first hour of wearing it is horrible, but I like it after that. I have gotten around it by adding a spritz of Demeter’s Gingerale on top, which makes it okay and then disappears in an hour. Perhaps something similar can be done with FN..?
Hm. I probably could bury that lavender under something, but it’d have to be the right scent, something that would leave…
Oh cripes. I keep samples around of almost EVERYTHING, several of which I think may be utter failures.
The only vial I moved on to another victim as fast as if it were Uranium 235 was Secretions Magnifique. But I wish I had kept it. Sick, right?
Serge Noire is what first came to mind before I saw the other mentions of it. You’ve reminded me that I haven’t pulled the vial out in awhile. If I get over that utter joke and Bhopal-industrial-accident of an opening and make it to the drydown, I can’t stop sniffing my wrist. It reminds me of some kind of patch-based incense my mother used to have in the 70s. I’m actually going to gift my mom a decant for Xmas and see what she thinks.
The other frag that I’m not sure isn’t a total failure but that I love to smell is Le Feu d’Issey.
Secretions… shudder. I am pretty sure I gave it away because I was so terrified of spilling it. But I ALMOST sprayed myself with abandon in Bendel, having grabbed the wrong bottle. Good thing there’s that giant … uh … member. On the front of the bottle. Yeah, try Serge on your mom! See what happens!
Oh no you didn’t [-x
My submission: Hot Messe de Minuit. Sometimes it smells to me like basement, dirt, and mildewy orange peels. Sometimes it smells like all that with a thousand rays of celestial light that elevate its oddness. I have not braved a day in public in it yet, but keep sampling and sampling from my large decant.
Now there’s a great frag name…right up there with Bois du Matin.=))
It’s the perfect name for it! I didn’t even notice the joke at first, just nodded my head.
I think Bois du Matin should smell like … coffee? Hint of clean bedsheet? (shudder). And some skank. 8-| Have I forgotten anything?
I’ll never understand why, but every time I smell it I think: “Mom’s pot roast.” 😮 And yes, mom was a terrible cook, but really …. pot roast?
Nonetheless, I can’t bring myself to swap or give my decant away.
Pot roast? Man, that is weird.
:d Not quite so weird when you consider that the nasty nesting gods are at work again! My comment was supposed to nest under 2scents comment about Hot Messe de Minuit.
Otherwise, my comment makes about as much sense as a conversation I had once with a coworker. I told her I’d be in late the next morning because I had to have a pap test and she thought I said I had to have a Baptist. 😕
I had a Baptist once. In college. Perhaps that’s why the blog has been cursed by the nesting gods.
Fresh sperm :d
SPERM?!? I can’t believe you wrote that shocking word on here. I have to read the comment above … pap test?
At the feet of the master ^:)^
Yes, sperm. There, I said it.
Phooey, I replied to the wrong post. Bois du Matin should also have a note of expensive little reconstituted little dried Italian mushrooms. Y’all know what I’m saying.
It should have a sperm note, shouldn’t it?! Also, we are indecent.
Did you speak the word as you typed it? I can just see you now, sitting at your computer going “Sperm! S-P-E-R-M spells SPERM!=))
Elderflower could replace the sperm note. But only a particularly spermy variety.
And there’d have to be a besmirching of civet too.
My personal pet peeve with MdM is that it smells better on many other people than it does on me. I definitely bring out that mildewy bit. But if you smell it on an array of innocent victims, you discover that on many it’s the celestial thing (more incense less cryptkeeper.) 🙁 Sounds like you swing both ways.
Ok, the Posse was unavailable for a time, but I am thrilled to see that Carter’s and my ladylike but filthy thought processes work the same way.
Who you calling a lady?
o:-)
One I keep sniffing because it is interesting but can’t quite figure out as a perfume is DKNY Women. (Women? Is it that one? The bottle isn’t labelled, except to say “DKNY”; it’s a clear squished trapezoid of an obelisk, frosted on opposite sides.) Sure, I get the tomato leaf sometimes…the smell that is supposed to be wet pavement…some sheer but rather miasmic totally made up by a mad scientist smell…hint of something traditional and nice…the whole thing sometimes reminds me of Madame Rochas gone sci-fi. I dunno; sounds right at this moment…am working on memory…I have a largely full partial bottle, and am very happy to have picked it up at a relative song, but like certain songs you listen to for reasons beyond the music (Blossom Dearie, anyone?), it is on the shelf more for experience than scented enrobing.
BTW, I thought that the impulse to run like heck was some secret motherhood thing that you only discovered another mom with whom you rarely shared intimacies also felt AFTER all your kids hit the double digits in age. I was shocked, simply shocked, when my mother confessed her runaway fantasy to me…I mean, fascinated, but shocked when the ego-centric part of me said “heeeyyy, wait a minute…you’d have run away from ME???” 😉 Like many fantasies, both a relief and, weirdly, a bummer to discover that you are not alone (oh, rats; looks like I’ll have to slog through like everyone else)…:-? But knowing you are in the boat helps make the trip a little easier… 😡
Oh god, I am violently lemmed now:
“Sure, I get the tomato leaf sometimes…the smell that is supposed to be wet pavement…some sheer but rather miasmic totally made up by a mad scientist smell…hint of something traditional and nice…the whole thing sometimes reminds me of Madame Rochas gone sci-fi.”
Madame Rochas gone sci-fi? Be still, my heart.
Is it this one? I NEED ot sniff this one.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000XE682C/ref=asc_df_B000XE682C974116?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&tag=googlecom09c9-20&linkCode=asn&creative=380341&creativeASIN=B000XE682C
Kristy … email me. I have it, it was in the swaps.
The prob. I’m having with Woman is (and I never know upfront) some days I get a HUGE clean laundry smell. You know, the absolute Fresh Breeze Tide. I don’t care for that at all, I wonder if it’s more so than it used to be, or maybe my bottle?
Hmm, now that is interesting…yes, yes, that awful fresh clean smell. That sits in my nose in a similar way that MR does just betwixt the aldehyde opening calming down and the flowery something taking over. I think I am nuts. It is not exactly the smell itself I refer to at this moment, but more how thick and how/where it sits in my nose. OMG, I have totally lost it.
I sprayed some DKNY woman on the back of my hand to write this response, and I am getting the extreme distress signal that says “prepare to scrub!” I was migraine-prone this morning as it was…
…which shouldn’t scare you off, Kristy V. I just have those days. b-( You will notice I keep the bottle, and keep on coming back to it, at least once a season. It’s hard for me to know for sure if that image is the same ‘fume; it looks like it could be, but a tweaked bottle. Mine is smooshed in, and does not say “Women” down the side, though it does say “DKNY” on the cap, and looks otherwise similar. I’ll send a pic to March; she can compare it with hers/the one you posted, and weigh in.
HOW IS YOUR HEAD? Bless your heart. I didn’t want you to get sick over it … it’s supposed to have the scent of a tee shirt or something? sometimes it’s really pretty though.
Well, I had to go underground. Hate that. But I’m back…you never know; sometimes, on rare occasion, smelling something will jolt me out of the path…generally, though, the best I can hope for from scent if the train has left the station is comfort. Like Eau Imperiale. Even then, the sniffing is dicey.
Yeah, t-shirt and wet cobblestones? Something like that? Oh, I’ll be back for it at some point. Like a date you know is going to go bad but you just can’t break…
Shelley, totally off the subject, but you mentioned Blossom Dearie…
I’m curious about her, after hearing Rene Fleming sing “Hold the Hand of Love” on the Yo-Yo Ma Christmas album “Song of Joy and Peace”. It’s so very beautiful and so very sad at the same time. I try to sing along but I always end up in tears. Just who is Blossom Dearie? Sound like an English music hall performer.
Hey, Claudia–it’s not totally off topic, because Blossom Dearie (her real name), a bona fide jazz pianist and singer, has a nearly surreal little girl-ish voice that tempts you to think her performance is some sort of joke. She played clubs in New York City for decades, was the sort of treasure that people in jazz (performers and fans) knew about, but was rather below the radar otherwise. I brought her up because of that thing with her voice…initially, you might think she was more a gimmick than a musician. But she was the real deal.
Which brings us back around to March’s question…failures at what they purport to be (perfume/scent), but are still somehow compelling. Blossom Dearie, I am comfortable checking as “yes, she deserves the label.” I am still not sure about that DKNY Women. 😕 😉
Loved her. But I’m one of those New York jazz club pipples.
Do you know Stacey Kent? She sounds a little bit like Blossom Dearie.
I don’t…but somebody whose thoughts I pay attention to, somebody with two dogs, culinary menace, and a keen sense of books and humor JUST mentioned her, so of course I’m going to find out what I can… 😉 @};-
SK is gooood. and lyrics on her latest album by Kazuo Ishiguro. C’mon… does it get any better? She’s one of those Americans who seems bigger over here than back home, or so it seems from over here.
She’s big round these parts…;)
My secret should-be-all-wrong-but-is-somehow-oh-so-right is IPDF Terra di Sienna. I don’t know anyone who wears this, but a nice swapper sent me a small decant and I’ve been dithering about, trying to decide whether to buy a bottle ever since. Here are the notes:
top notes of bergamot and mint; heart notes of Florentine lavender, cumin, cinnamon, orange blossom and a seductive woody finale of sandalwood, cedar, tonka bean and vanilla.
Three of those notes (mint, lavender and cinnamon) should have me shuddering in skin-crawly repulsion, but this is just a wonderful guilty pleasure scent for me. :”>
You are right, it doesn’t sound like you at all, to me. It sounds like one of those Floriental Fear scents. (I’d probably lurve it.) How interesting.
I’m ready to fall over the edge and buy it….
Can I sniff it the next time I see you?
Absolutely. I’ll be interested in your reaction. It has a good dose of lavender, which I usually hate, but I just can’t stop sniffing my wrist when I wear it.
Fascinating to smell, failure on skin: 100% Love. Chocoroseberrychouli weirdness that has me shaking my head and thinking, How in the toothpicks did they DO that?
Another one that’s so wrong it’s interesting: Delrae Bois de Paradis, at least on my skin. First off, there’s this weird accord that smells like citrus to everyone else, but smells like the evil offspring of mint and turpentine to me. And then something that smells like what I imagine the meal-in-a-piece-of-gum Violet took from Willy Wonka’s product development room might smell like – you know, the one that turned her into a blueberry? Then it’s a very sugary amber (and I LIKE amber, but not this one). Failfailfail. And yet I keep trying it.
I loved that 100% stuff. Loved it. Wore it for days and weeks. Then we had that One Fateful Day where I put it on and wanted to saw my own head off just so I couldn’t smell it any more. I have never sniffed it again. I laughed that they came out with {MORE} for people who didn’t find the original strong enough. 😮
I love your description of Bois de Paradis! It sounds like failfailfail, and I can totally see why you keep going.
They scent I can’t leave alone is Angel. It smells wonderful for maybe 5-10 minutes–all floral chocopatch– then slowly and insidiously the florals are annihilated. Fifteen minutes into it, Angel grabs me by the throat and throws me to the ground, growing larger and louder and attempts to engage me in a cage match. By then, my stomach begins churning and I make a wild run for every scent killer known. But Angel has me, and remains in my nostrils for days. And yet……I am fascinated by it and am compelled to sniff it whenever I pass near. Surely, one tiny drop won’t hurt…maybe, just maybe the extrait…
Bleh. You are made of sterner stuff than I am. >:p Chocovomit, I start out at the cage match. But it smells amazing on some people. Like Louise.
Here’s some Borneo for you, March :d/
I knew the FN was full of DHM; I just knew it! Actually I wore it the other day and really liked the drydown and so did the DH (unusual). But that first half-hour or so reeks of mass-market men’s cologne, which Is how I always perceive that note.
I agree with Francesca about L’air. Rien by ETLO is the same. My current scent I like but don’t wear to the store is Nuit Noire. Barbara Bui is a wonderful sleep and alone-scent, but when I wore it to a party store just before Halloween, I could smell myself and felt that it might be a little too, um, too for strip-center shopping. Femme can be a little much too. I have lots of samples that would fall into this category, but it’s early here and I can’t remember all of their names.
Honestly, it kind of amuses me to smell that big ol’ honking mass-market wallop coming out of a bottle of Serge. It’s just weird. The drydown is so nice, though… sigh. I just don’t think I can get through that top on a regular basis.
The Etat I’m mad at myself, I meant to resmell it in NYC, I remember really liking that one. I should check, I probably have a sample around here. Really, the BBui felt too much? I love that one for its subtlety. And (new) Femme can do that too too much dance, with all that cuminy goodness, but I love that smell.
Hi March!
Yeah, the B. Bui smells like a vanillic musk-monster on me. I think my skin amplifies that musk note. The clerk was looking at me kind of strangely and I could really, really, really smell myself. Or maybe I just put on too much? Both of these are sleep-scents for me.
If you can’t find your sample of the Rien, let me know at olfactarama at gmail dot com and I’ll send you the one I have. Nice stuff but I probably won’t actually wear it.
Thanks so much. I think I kept it just because it was such a curiosity… that’s interesting, Babs is so QUIET on me. ery well behaved.
Well, I’m curious about Fourreau Noir; I don’t care for many of the Serges, but there are a few I love, and one of those is Serge Noire, which I think smells great on me, but as we know, rates a giant “EWW!” from nearly everybody.
And this doesn’t quite answer your question, but I recently had my first experience of thinking something was very interesting,but wouldn’t want to wear it, or even necessarily want to keep it around to sniff again. That was l’Air de Rien, which made me think of the smell of burnt dust you get the first day the radiators come on, and musky skin. Actually I did wear it briefly to give it a chance, but then decided I really needed to wash it off.
And another vote for Serge Noir, which I love too. We can all sit together in the corner and sniff it and chuckle.
The Rien … the Miller Harris? Man, I don’t get that thing at all. It’s very manure on me… people love it though, and I love that radiator smell. I think you should wear it around Mr. Fussy and see what he thinks! 😉
Yeah, the Miller Harris. I don’t have that any more–I put it in a tiny skank package and packed it off to a friend who shall remain nameless (and no I wasn’t playing a trick on Mr Fussy.);)
Mr. Fussy! [-( Give him a squeeze for me. Wear your Party in Manhattan while you are doing it!
OH! I am terrible. I got my book and am enjoying it, I think I forgot to thank you?!? :”>
OH, So glad you got it, I sent Carter a different book and it hasn’t arrived yet. ARGH.
(sits up, wiggles nose)
Well, here’s the thing: I like the reformulated Coriandre bij Couturier. Loathed by everybody else on Planet Perfume, reviled as THE Remakemonster of all times. But I like it. Whereas my other tastes seem to be impeccable: L’air du desert, Mitsouko, Yatagan, Knize, Knowing, etc, etc.
And o – I like the new Dioressence too.
Not quite what you asked though – those are not utter failures to me, but they did get remarked as utter failures in the quality department.
I should smell Coriandre, the remake. And why shouldn’t you like it?! Wave your freak flag, honey. Isn’t it nice to have something in your arsenal that everyone hates? It probably smells great on you. :)>-
I’m not sure that everyone loathes the reformulated Coriandre as much as hating the fact that it was changed when the original was so perfect. As someone who has been wearing it for over 20 years, I am sad that my signature scent is a shadow of its formal wonderful self… but I still wear it in memorial.
I’d better not smell the original then – a matter of selfprotection.;)
Ummm….I beg to differ with y’all on the Black Fur. I like this hot mess. The lavender is of course challenging, but quickly lightens on my skin. Then it goes smokey licorice-y, with a long-lasting vanilla/tonka drydown. It’s my current favorite no-plastic-doll head vanillic. So there 😮 !
Ambivalent-making perfumes? Rue Cambon-some days very elegant, others soup-pot vegetables. Oy!
Really, Rue Cambon gives you veggies? How odd. I find Coromandel and 18 a bit hard to take (I think 18’s the pickle-juice one, right?) And finding the vanilla sans the plastic doll-head is a neat trick. :)>-
31 RC is the number one fragrance I get compliments on, and thank Goddess, I never get soup veggies from it, nor does anyone else apparently. And Coromandel works well on me, too, and that’s a good thing. And a certain silver fox of our acquaintance always goes into a mock swoon when I wear it, so that’s gratifying…
The silver fox is a better nickname, isn’t it.
I think that’s what the 24 year olds in the office call him. 😉
har har har. I wonder how he feels about that?
I think a head scratcher comes, again, from Serge: the dreaded Serge Noir. Hot mess? I think so. Yet, I still keep going back to it. I’m like, do I like this, or don’t I? I certainly like the drydown, but man that opening with all of that hot cumin. Still, it’s like working in a monastery in the middle east or something where the robes make you all hot and sweaty and you still smell all that burning incense! Weird. But….kinda love it……
I was wondering if Serge Noir would be on here! I love it too, although I concede it’s completely peculiar. I love your description. The sweaty bit is perfect, innit?
It’s posts like this that keep us coming back to the Posse, wondering how we could possibly live without it. :d
I have not tried Fourreau Noir yet, but since I also use lavender dish soap and tend to wash up late at night when I run out of excuses NOT to do it, I can totally relate to your take on it. Lavender and I have an odd relationship-I love it in almost anything except when it tries to dominate a perfume, then it seems like too much and I want it to quiet down.
I do keep some oddities around that I never intend to wear again, mostly samples acquired along the way that I can’t bring myself to trade away because I might “need” them someday. Among them is Lorenzo Villoresi’s Teint de Neige, and I hang on to it because of the slight chance that someday I will understand just why it is the line’s most popular fragrance, despite its terrifying overdoses of sugar and powder. Obviously, many people love it. I find myself being drawn to it for some reason, but I only wore it once in public as a test drive for a review, and NOT to work. I hate myself for even thinking that I like it. I just happen to like… sugar. Lots and lots of sugar, in waves of blinding whiteness. Just not to WEAR. How is this one different from something like the ghastly Aquolina Pink Sugar? It is composed of far superior materials and it does not smell burnt or cheap. It’s like drowning in a vat of sweetness, yet it’s compelling. Does anyone out there own a full bottle and actually wear it regularly?
Lavender is really hard in perfume. It tends to dominate, at least on me, and I don’t know. I suppose I associate it so much with household cleaning products that I don’t find it a particularly soothing smell. However I am quite fond of Encens et Lavande. So who knows.
Teint de Neige!!! Ack!! That thing scares the bejezus out of me, but I know people who definitely love it. To me it’s like drowning in a vat of baby powder.
=))
OMG! Me, too! That thing (LdV) nearly blew the top of my head off! But I keep it around and keep sniffing it for the same reason. My head barely stays on and I have to sample it in the bathroom, in case i spill it or something….
My big ‘guilty’ one is L’Heure Bleu. All would indicate that this is a fragrance I should adore and it is Guerlain – old Guerlain – which should make it a no-brainer. But 90% of the time it just gives me choking, heaving fits, esp in parfume strength. yet I go back, again and again….,like poking a sore tooth with your tongue..
…maybe I’m just an idiot.
xo >-)
ps. try as I might, I just can’t seem to get on the Serge Lovemobile. None of his frags do much for me, unless they are totally ookalicious – but on the whole, I just get a giant ‘meh’ from the line.
Teint de Neige, I remember you smelling that. hehe
You’re not an idiot. You’re a perfume masochist. 😡
Well, missy, you’re the one who sent me the TdN in the first place…. 😉
:((….uuuuugh,ick…..whatever is the matter with Serge????….and believe me,I’m as low-key as they come,and I feel any dept store frag is totally intolerable(I’m talking Macys,etc,not high end(I have to go to Cincy for Saks,etc,and just will not do it anymore,with the Perf. Ct online,as well as others….when I visit my diva-princess grand-daughter in NC…WE GO EVERY WHERE,AND I LIE TO THE POSTAL PEOPLE,AND SHIP IT HOME…..DECEPTION AT ITS BEST….LOVE IT….I ordered a sample of Shalimar perfume,not from the PC(hangs head in DEEP shame),and it smelled like BABY POWDER…if they’ve reformulated my fav. long time love(I just wear it to bed,now)…I will smack them,HARD…this is soooo disturbing:(…carry on perfumistas….
Well, Shalimar has never been my thing, it hates me, and I love Guerlain. Sort of. If you can wear it to bed, that’s not all bad, though.