Serge Lutens

Uh-oh. I seem to have found a very expensive new lemming. I was a little concerned when I had ordered samples of Serge Lutens perfumes from The Perfumed Court, but now I'm in trouble. The samples (Chergui, Bois et musc, and Fleurs d'Orangeur) arrived yesterday and from the two I've given an honest try, I'm in love. So I pre-face this with the fact that I am a perfume newbie and I suck at explaining perfumes but I will do my best. I also wanted to note that I was quite impressed with the size of the TPC vials. I was expecting a small tiny cheapo vial..the type you get at perfume counters..but these are bigger than expected (or maybe it's an optical illusion?) and very nice looking..like mini mini mini beer bottle looking things.

I tried Bois et Musc first. Opening notes are quite nice and un-offensive. Slightly powdery, floral..slightly sweet, soft and very feminine about this perfume. I think I also detect something slightly woodsy in the mix as well. There's something in there that I don't particularly LOVE but don't really hate either, I think it's the powder, but like I said, it's a very un-offensive smell to my nose. I'm not particularly fond of powdery scents, but holy moley the dry down on this is AMAZING!!! Very "your skin" smelling. I can't describe how the dry down smells, but it's very soft and comforting. LOVES! Unfortunately this is one of the non-export perfumes, which means it's only available in Paris in the bell jar as shown in above picture. Fortunately, there are ways around it, but you will be paying a bit more..or less depending on how you look at it. Shipping and handling vs going to Paris yourself.


Next I gave Chergui a go. It is described as having notes of: honey, musk, incense, tobacco leaf, hay sugar, amber, iris, rose and sandalwood. Initially I wasn't liking this one at first blush, very spicy, smokey and woodsy. I do smell green-ness..kinda like a tea leaves kinda smell. Initially there's this very masculine scent about this perfume, but it's tempered by something that makes it quite feminine. I can't seem to put my finger on what note does that though...perhaps the sweetness of honey? There's also something a little powdery to this as well. To my untrained nose, I don't really smell floral in this at all. Once again, the dry down to this is amazing! Very creamy, comforting, sweet and warm. Thankfully this is part of the export line and is thus easier to aquire.

Ok. So the whole export and non-export thing is very confusing and I think it gets even more confusing because within the export lines there's something to do with the lable colors. I am not even going to attempt to explain all this because I am not quite sure myself. If you really care to know, http://sergelutens.blogspot.com/ has a comprehensive list of all all things Serge Lutens. (I'm not affiliated, yadda yadda yadda).