Five O’Clock Au Gingembre Serge Lutens

Hey Posse, Five O’Clock Au Gingembre is my all time most worn Serge Lutens fragrance. I’m into my second bottle, and that’s saying quite a lot considering the amount of fragrance in this apartment. I wore it on Xmas Day this year and it was a perfect fit for our summer but it works equally well in the snow. While not being the most out there or boundary pushing fragrance in the Lutens oeuvre, it was a revelation when I first smelled it some time around 2010/11. Nothing I’d smelled before had prepared me for it, though I’d been a hardcore Gucci Envy for men wearer and that’s chock full of ginger.

Mildly amusing story as an aside: Recently I entered a Western Sydney LGBTQI Writing Competition. This week I was told I’d won and could someone deliver my Cash Prize! Very excited. Not just that I’d won but because the extra money is wanted due to my work being very slow, C19 closures etc. So I went to meet the bearer of such grand largesse today for a coffee and she handed me the envelope. Expecting the hundreds of $$$$ First Prize I was a little surprised that I’d not WON but come third. Still $50 is better than a poke in the eye with a blunt stick. While I’m not complaining, it’s now a bit embarrassing because I’d told everyone I was a WINNER! Now I’m going to have to explain to all and sundry that I’d not won. I should learn to keep my stupid boastful mouth shut.

Five O’Clock Au Gingembre Serge Lutens

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Tea Bergamot
Heart: Cinnamon Woodsy Notes Candied Ginger
Base: Pepper Honey Amber Cacao Patchouli

The opening rush is all ginger and citrus for me. A delightfully zingy sweetness that lasts a few minutes before the dryness of tea arrives. Suddenly a fun and flirty fragrance becomes mature and elegant. A calm space in a hectic world. No white flowers mentioned in the notes yet I always get wafts of them running through the fragrance.

I’m not sure if High Tea makes me think of Five O’Clock Au Gingembre or if I wear it a lot to High Tea. Either way, the scent connection is made and whenever I spritz my memories fly back to spectacular High Teas had in such far flung places as The Ritz Paris (Salon Proust pictured below), Shangri La Singapore, Fortnum & Mason in London, Huntington Gardens in Pasadena, Hydro Majestic and Sir Stamford here in Sydney and more, more, more. Many of those adventures wearing Five O’Clock Au Gingembre. You might guess I do love to High Tea.

The heart of Five O’Clock Au Gingembre is a spicy, sugared and honeyed wood. This main event lasts well into dry down and gets more resinous and darker as it fades to nothing.

100% unisex with moderate to low projection after an hour.

Are you a Five O’Clock Au Gingembre fan?
Portia xx