Eau No! Serge Lutens L’Eau Froide

I think I am one of the six people who actually liked the first L’Eau.  I figured it was his “Oh, yeah” (Eau yeah?) to all those who complained that he was forever navel-gazing, forever giving us yet another variation on the woody-plummy-musky that we’d seen so many times before from him.  It’s a light and fresh scent, to be sure.  It is in my mind the Apollonian ideal of what a light, fresh scent should be.  The sixteen-cylinder Cadillac, the Chrysler Building, the (insert whatever ultimate thingy you like) of light and fresh.

Not that I bought a bottle..

Well, the sequel Serge Lutens L’Eau Froide has arrived at my local Barneys.  I spritzed.  Others have gotten ginger and lemon.  I got mint.  Mint like gum.  Like Dentyne Ice.  I also got a literal chill from it.  Having trotted to Barneys courtesy Shanks Mare in what turned out to be a rather ill-advised cashmere sweater, it was a delightful surprise.  After the chilly opening the scent warms considerably with the addition of incense, but never loses its rather hard metallic sheen.  I have to write that I kind of liked Serge Lutens L’Eau Froide.  It’s different enough from L’Eau that I can see it having a place at the table.  It also does that classic Lutens thing of changing from one to another, from cold to warm.  Well in this case from cold to warmer.  But still cold.  I can imagine on a really hot day it would be as pleasurable as putting a really cold can of soda at the base of your neck.

But I’m still not buying a bottle of Serge Lutens L’Eau Froide.

Because if I want to smell like a fresh shirt I’ll put on a fresh shirt.

I assume it’s $150, at the usual suspects..

Image: Wikipedia Commons

  • tammy says:

    Engineers have tears? I thought they just had slight head tilting capabilities that indicated something was not quite computing, but they hadn’t had time to properly process the information and draw a conclusion yet.

  • Musette says:

    Wow. ‘A whole team of project engineers to the brink of tears!”.

    I am in Serious Awe

    xo >-)

  • kizzers says:

    My free sample direct from SL arrived this week. I havent tried it on skin yet, but there is a huge whallop of ginger in there. Overall impression is of really expensive old fashioned shaving soap (the kind my Dad used to use when shaving with a proper bristle brush and razor). I’m wondering if that’s what the metallic edge is – a shaving razor?

    I bought the original l’Eau on impulse, and it was anything but tame on me! More like Napalm Musk! I wore it to an audit (one spritz I swear!) and either I was being particularly mean that day, or it brought a whole team of project engineers to the brink of tears! I sold it on evil bay last year for buttons :(

  • Eldarwen22 says:

    I can’t stand perfumes that give off a metallic vibe. I haven’t had much experience with Serge Lutens’ perfumes. But I do have a decant of De Profundis coming to me in the mail. I’m always excited when I get a decant in the mail.

  • Francesca says:

    Haven’t smelled the new one. The first one was a big Meh for me.

    LOL on your fresh shirt comment.

    Happy weekend, all.

  • Musette says:

    That first Eau made me want to slap him. This one sounds better! I haven’t looked at your weather lately, being up to my neck in our own psychotic heatwave, but it’s sounding just as weird as ours was. Hope you get rain so you can flush your toilet and take a shower, come August! The Eau F would be a rather expensive alternative! 😀

    xo >-)