January. The meh month, as far as I’m concerned. I know a lot of people dislike February given it feels like the ongoing drag of winter, but for me it’s January. And, we’re raining again. Flooding last week; today’s forecast is rain, after heavy rain on Sunday. I’m trying to memorise French verb tenses.
I went looking for some samples at a place I look sometimes. It’s a bricks & mortar shop in London that also has an online offer.
For some reason I decided to look at their Serge Lutens offer. I’m pretty sure they were one of the first places to offer Lutens in the UK way long ago.
What did I find? Seven bottles listed, with only one at full price, and that’s sold out. So, I’m thinking they are offloading the brand, which is interesting. It is pretty easy to get Lutens here – on lots of different platforms. So, makes more sense to go to a discounter than to a generally fancy full priced shop.
I have a lot of time for SL. I didn’t come upon it until I started looking at the MakeUp Alley Fragrance page (where a number of Posse people posted back in the day). Lutens was a big thing back then (maybe early 2000s). My entry into niche/independent perfumery was l’Artisan and Annick Goutal back in NYC. This Lutens stuff sounded very intriguing.
Anyway, I did a lot of sampling and over time the only bottles I ended up with were Ambre Sultan (which disappeared at some point) and Rose de Nuit. I found that quite a few things just didn’t quite work on me no matter how much I wanted them to (eg, Chergui).
Anyway, back to my samples. I decided to get a couple of things just for kicks and giggles and then be able to mooge on about Lutens a bit.
I currently own a full bottle of Arabie, which I love but only visit with in the winter. That heavy stewed fruit thing works beautifully when it’s cold and dry. I also own the dregs of a Belle Jar of Rose de Nuit. My fave rose with that pronounced apricot note, making it a dirty knickers fragrance. Finally, I own a travel size of La Dompteuse Encagee which has to be the stupidest name for a truly lovely, unique floral. I’ve gone on a lot about this but it’s truly gorgeous. Comes out in spring and summer.
The Serges that have never done much for me are the Bois.
I ended up getting samples of Santal Majuscule and La Fille de Berlin. Neither that exciting.
The Santal is sour on me initially and then just sweet cedar more than sandalwood (jasmine, rose, cocoa, honey, amber and sandalwood). It doesn’t do a lot. La Fille de Berlin … well, it starts vegetal/metallic rose and then becomes a fairly pedestrian rose (rose, geranium, palmarosa, honey, moss and patchouli). Someone in a review on Fragrantica actually cited a metallic blood smell and I see what they mean.
So, yeah. As noted I have a lot of time for Uncle Serge’s perfumes and I really do hope that one day I can visit the Palais Royale shop (it was closed last time I was in Paris) just to play – and possibly buy a Belle Jar of Rose de Nuit (current cost around £250 vs £110 when I bought it probably 20 or so years ago). I don’t think we’d have a lot of the niche/independent brands now available without Lutens having started up ages ago.
So, what about you? I know there are the lovers of Muscs Kublai Khan. What else Lutens floats your boat – or doesn’t? If you own SLs, do you remember what the first one was?
Pics: Wiki parfums, mine
My favourite Serge is still, I think, Iris Silver Mist although La Myrrhe is gorgeous too. Like you, I’m not too keen on the Bois series. I hoped Bois de Violette would grow on me as I’d heard such rave reviews about it, but sadly no. My first SL was Bois de Vanille which I still quite like but won’t bother to replace when my bottle runs out. Chergui I blow hot and cold about, like Boxeuses which I sometimes find too much. The final SL I own is Cèdre which for some reason I now like more than I used to.