Perfume-Serge Lutens-Louve

Louve by Serge Lutens starts really sweet and almond-y. It is a lovely literally really sweet start. If you like a gourmand perfume with some depth, Louve is the one to try, it is sweet but does not have the ‘la-la look over here I’m a sugary girly perfume’ kind of smell which most new released commercial perfumes have.

After several minutes, Louve gets a little bit softer, warmer, rich and velvet(I think I can smell silky rose scent here, like the type of rose from Paris spring editions), somehow I find it a bit pink, but not the type of fruity floral girly pink, but a more refined, Victorian lace floral dress type of pasty pink.

Later on, a peculiar tuberose-like scent comes in, it’s not loudly there at all, just a glimpse of its essence there, which makes the rose+almond sweet velvet combo even more lovely.

The final dry down is of the type of clean inky musk which you can find in Lanvin Jeanne Lanvin and some other perfumes, personally I adore such clean musky dry down.

Again, Serge Lutens’ offering has gave me a lovely surprise, what’s more, I find Louve would be easier to wear than many other Lutens’ more grown-up scents and it’s really a Serge Lutens’ beginner friendly perfume.

Lovely as it is, I guess I only fine it a decant-worth perfume, since people’s tastes evolve and I find Louve is more a fling and definitely not the type of perfume that can make me settle down for.

Perfume-Serge Lutens-Serge Noire

Serge Noire by Serge Lutens is a wow to me, it is not that edgy personality-wise, but certainly it is one of a kind.
It starts really spicy, sweet and woody. It’s a really smooth well-blend oriental opening, and the feel from Serge Noire somewhat makes me think of many men’s perfumes made by Amourage, plus a bit essence from Tom Ford’s Tobacco Vanilla without the significant tobacco or vanilla plus Costes’ milky spiciness.

About one hour later, Serge Noire goes warmer, less spicy, tarter, sweet woodier (something smells like cedar) and easier on my skin.

Wonderful as it is, unfortunately I find Serge Noire might suit a man (and ideally no younger than 25) much better and easier than to a woman, especially if you are under 25, in an environment in which girls use mostly celebrity floral fruity or floral gourmand nearly all the time, and by using Serge Noire, you might make yourself smell like an 100+ year old sophisticated professor/witch, emotionally, to your friends.

Perfume-Serge Lutens-Bois Vanille

A cat enjoying his nap on the window seal, this carefree, other-worldly feel somewhat makes me think of this fragrance by Serge Luten, Bois Vanille.

I have to confess first that I have a sweet tooth and somewhat I’m a vanilla junkie as long as the quality of the perfume does not fall below any Victoria Secret’s watery synthetic ones.

Bois Vanille by Serge Lutens is an instant love!

Upon the first spray, I can smell something intriguingly sweet, in a clean sweet but not synthetic sugary way, like the creamy, slightly dry coconut infused edible cupcake sweetness but not that typical vanilla-y.

Soon the sweetness gets more complex, somewhat like brown sugar sweet and dried fruit and resins. Then it gets drier, a little bit spicy as in dried fruits kind of spicy plus a little bit dry sweet woods smell. Later on a discreet gardenia scent comes to play (which is already nicely present there since the beginning, as the fresh sweetness, but I just didn’t pay much attention to), it is nice and unconventional, it give the quasi-tuberose nice blooming summer night feel (but does not go for the white flower bouquet direction or smell of real tuberose at all) plus the cosy vanilla, dry coconut powder and sweet mildly spice accord, all tangled together, which is just like gramma’s hug in a golden sunny autumn afternoon. Everything feels a bit lazy, immersed in a kind of carefree happiness. Somehow it makes me think, if the slightly-fat lazy cat had a scent, she might smell of this perfume,
a weird (good weird) sexy intriguing lazy gracefulness, which is so deadly alluring and which is somehow long gone in our world when nearly everything's sexed up in a rather pornographical way. :S Anyway...

Funny that vanilla is not listed as one of the notes for this perfume, as far as Fragrantica.com concerned (actually according to fragrantica.com, Bois Vanille only has sandalwood, black licorice and coconut milk featured in the notes, well...I guess after all what we perceive as the 'vanilla' or whatever smell it is, is actually just some aromatic chemicals, in most of the case).

Bois Vanilla smells of complex sweetened vanilla with floral and woody hint to me.
Despite how complex it is, Bois Vanilla is still easy to wear.

Worth trying! One day, I guess I’ll get my hands on a bottle of this.

Perfume-Serge Lutens-Fumerie Turque

Fumerie Turque by Serge Lutens starts with a blast of sweet, dry woody sweetness, which makes me think of old house with a lot of wood furniture which hasn’t been open for a while. Within seconds, the monotone clean woody smell is masked by a quite herbal medicine-like, kind of patchouli-infused, slightly tart liquorice candy smell.

Then it goes like liquorice plus a tiny bit hint of burnt rubber (like that from Blvgari Black) for a while.
The dry down is just a tamed, less edgy/pushy version of the above, without the liquorice or the rubber; it smells like an old wooden box which has been used to store potent, earthy essential oils.

Fumerie Turque gives me a déjà vu feel, seems there are several niches smell of this woody dry woods and earthy smell. Interesting experience to try it on, however I find it quite difficult to wear, especially for people in their early 20s, as well as for girly girls (actually I find Fumerie Turque is really masculine, much more masculine than quite a lot of the late releases of the commercial men's perfumes and I don’t normally wear girly fragrances), somehow Fumerie Turque is just a tad too deep, dark and earthy, I would imagine a professor/grandpa figure wearing casual suits, possiblely with a leather briefcase, might smell like this in a cool, grey autumn morning.

Interesting experience nevertherless.
It might be a piece of art to some, but to me, Fumerie Turque is a bit too niche to pull off. What a pity.

Perfume-Serge Lutens-Sa Majeste La Rose

A bunch of roses.

Sa Majeste La Rose by Serge Lutens is like a real life roses in a bottle to me.

After I sprayed on, I can immediately smell the fresh, green, nature, garden rose scent you can smell in a nice cool morning. Real and simple, but as elegant as what a real rose smells to me.

After the fresh start, I get some florist’s rose scent. It’s still elegant, but with a tiny bit added sweetness and smells more refined.

Then Sa Majeste La Rose dries down to some velvet/powdery/warm/rich sweet rose scent. I was worried it might have a slight tendance to be some reminiscent of Paris Printempt By Yves Saint Laurent, but it just stayed in the its own simple but elegant way like that.

It's really a safe and nicely elegant scent that any rose lover shouldn't miss out.

Worth trying, I guess this is the best realistic rose perfume I’ve tried. However, since I’m not a huge fan of rose or any singular flora perfume, Sa Majeste La Rose is definitely a larger decant worth perfume to me.

Perfume-L'Artisan-Dzing!

Dzing! by Serge Lutens is one of those perfumes that I know I should love according to the notes and end up discovering more good surprises upon real-life sniffing.

Dzing! starts with a burst of nearly scentless quite woody sweet smell with a burnt nuance, which reminds me a bit of Blvgari Black, but Dzing! Is much less rubbery-burnt.
After a short-lived quasi-chai sweetness comes and goes for about 2, or 3 minutes, Dzing! settles and smells quite quiet, with a woody sweet wild woody fields smell. This makes me think of absinth without the alcohol smell, plus something rounder in the woods family and a pinch of sweet spice like cinnamon without the cinnamon personality. I guess this is the L’Artisan house accord? Because this comfy woody scent also appears in various degrees in those I”ve tried like Fou d’Absinthe, Bois Farine and Passage D’Enfer.

However, as a typical mundane person who normally go for oriental vanilla type of scent or something fruity floral, I find this type of L’Artisan scent is something I admire, but will not really wear to the public as a part of my accessory. I guess this type of scent need a stronger boyish personality to pull off, someone like Angelina Jolie perhaps?

A picture of dried leaves on the pavement and a partial image of the back tire of a bicycle.

To avoid the quite likely  chance of the perfume wears me, I’d say Dzing! Is a decant worth one to me.
Nevertheless, worth trying!