De Profundis Serge Lutens

Desirability: Full bottle

Source: www.beauty.at

One must love mums. Chrysanthemums that is. 

I digress but don't you love it when Serge Lutens decides to magic one of the deeply coveted bell jar perfumes into an export edition? I know I practically go giddy. So when I heard a rumour that there was going to be a limited release of De Proundis, in the sleek and glossy black flacon of the Le vaporisateur tout noir range that also houses other much-loved scents such as the delicious Rahat Loukoum, the wonderful if weird Silver Iris Mist that is more an experience than a perfume I can wear, my holy grail of all ambers- Ambre Sultan and Féminité du Bois-a warm, sweet and spiced woody scent that's all around perfect.

Chrysanthemum is the dominant note in De Profundis for me. The green yet floral scent that is characteristic of chrysanthemums is clear and vibrant throughout the moderate longevity of the fragrance on my skin. Light powdery floral notes form the background for De Profundis and I detect a clean almost austere note of incense in the heart.

Despite the associations of death and decay with De Profundis, I find it to evoke peace and tranquility, happy memories even. Chrysanthemum tea is a popular favourite which goes well with the lengthy and often boisterous Sunday dim sum brunches, where family and/or friends gather to eat, drink and be very noisy. Red, orange and gold/yellow chrysanthemums are also a staple decoration for the Lunar New Year, the colours being auspicious ones for the celebration.

I have longed to try De Profundis for so many years and it's such a pleasure to finally hold and smell it. For me, full bottle worthy but I am an avid Lutens fan, albeit more of the earlier work than the recent releases.

La Religieuse Serge Lutens

Desirability: Decant

Source: Fragrantica

Sweet, soft and hazy. 

A musky floral- jasmine is there but much toned down as compared to A La Nuit which remains my favourite jasmine scent from Serge Lutens, other flowers I smell are mimosa both sweet and green and narcissus comes to mind too. If La Religious had a colour I won't pick the dark purple it comes in but rather rays of golden yellow and vivid green covered by a gauzy veil of musk that has the slightest bit of naughty, definitely a far cry from the reveling-in-my-sexuality Musc Koublai Khan.

Fragrances from this house have always inspired profound thoughts and triggered waves of nostalgia but La Religieuse failed to convert me into a believer. If I were not an avid Serge Lutens fan living on a tropical island where perfume releases take months to arrive, I would not have blind bought a full bottle but I am and I did. However no regrets and names/labels aside, La Religieuse is a nicely done floral musk that has a bit of a dreamy personality so I would recommend at least sampling it.

Tubereuse Criminelle Serge Lutens

Source: www.supermama.lt

This makes me smile. 

It's Vicks vapour rub with tuberose and I love it. It smells much much better on skin than on paper so don't judge it on paper alone. 

The opening might be a tad challenging for those who are not forewarned but it's not as malodorous as some reviews have made it out to be, like I said it smells similar to Vicks, a mentholated topical cream(cloves, nutmeg and mint with some sweetness) that I associate with my childhood, my mom used to rub under my nostrils when I had a cold. Other people smell camphor(mothballs) instead but I find them to be similar, cool and penetrating. On a side note, methol and camphor are terpenoids and both menthol and camphor are combined in many complementary and alternative medicines to alleviate many conditions from coughs to aches and pains. 

Once your nose gets used to the medicinal notes, the tuberose becomes more obvious and all the notes get along very well together! Combined, they create at once something both startling yet seductive that in a room of nondescript "safe" scents, Tubereuse Criminelle would stand out unique and memorable. Tuberose scents have a positive effect on moods and help to relieve stress, anger, depression etc. I have long adored the flower for its multi-faceted personality, showcased in Tubereuse Criminelle are its calm and cool greenness as well as its lush animalic carnality and hats off to Serge Lutens once again for another dramatic, imaginative twist on what appear to be incompatible notes.

Brilliant and potent, its projection is about an arm's length on me and the longevity is excellent. If you are looking for a tuberose with uniqueness, I recommend this interesting minx. Nothing remotely criminal about this. 

Sarrasins Serge Lutens

Source: www.scentsate.com

I dabbed a little of this exotic purple coloured scent on my arm and it looks like a faded bruise when it dries off so be careful!

Sweet indolic jasmine on a base of powdery musk. I wish it stopped there but I smell something that makes me think of hyacinths and aldehydes or what I associate with them. There's a cold and metallic element in Sarrasins devoid of emotions and that keeps you at a distance, never really warming up even after hours on skin. Austere, aloof. Two words I won't want to associate with jasmine, a much loved flower from my childhood, bringing to mind balmy tropical evenings not the slate grey skies of Sarrasins where the warmth of jasmine is held captive by the coldness of its accompanying notes. 

I find it to have a good projection and longevity on me but then I've not really had a problem with either department when it comes to Serge Lutens. Personally I prefer A La Nuit which to me is a true jasmine lover's dream, honeyed, luminous, fragrant jasmine petals, happier and less haughty than Sarrasins. 

Iris Silver Mist Serge Lutens

Source: flickr.com

I have adored Serge Lutens' fragrances since my first bottle of Ambre Sultan which remains the watermark of amber perfumes, the purchase marking my first foray into the world of serious perfume loving and my eternal fixation with this house and its stirring creations. 

Iris Silver Mist is an oddity even in a house full of the weird and wonderful and I empathise with the multiple polarising reviews scattered across the internet. This wasn't instant love and I'm not sure it is love yet, but after spending a bit of time with it I would say it's a definite like, it's wearable art that's subtle yet long lasting.

Carrots, earthy, mineral, rooty, vegetal, yup I am smelling all that from the word "go". It's unmistakeable and I can never forget it, pardon the pun but it's rooted in my head, the raw carrots that is. After smelling like I've been digging with bare hands in the soil for the better part of an hour, it changes as if I've uncovered something cold and metallic in the soil and it's just this weird earthy yet rusty or the smell of blood would be a better if not more peculiar match. Uncomfortable to say the least and I will admit I felt a little queasy in the stomach and I do not have blood phobia.

Source:herbangardener.com

Thank heavens and everything else in between that the awkwardness passed and like a metamorphosis, Iris Silver Mist rises from its rocky beginnings and it's all smooth-sailing from now on. Roll the credits. Or rather roll out the red carpet for one of the most smooth, buttery suede irises I've smelt yet, delicately sweet like sugared flower petals, subtly spicy (I smell cinnamon) and living wood like a walk in a forest while the weather is cool enough for warm breath to come out as puffs.



I've read comments labelling this funereal, aloof, untouchable, melancholic and the like. I can't say I agree. Iris Silver Mist makes me think of Cabiria in Nights of Cabiria, a prostitute with a heart of gold, on a never ending search for love and redemption. Unfortunately she keeps getting her heart broken and slowly grows bitter and disillusioned about life and love, well until she falls for the next scoundrel. Right after the most recent of heartbreaks while she is still in tears, she comes across a group of young happy people and she begins to smile again.


Maria “Cabiria” Ceccarelli (Giulietta Masina): I guess there is some justice in the world. You suffer, you go through hell … but then happiness comes along for everyone.

Fourreau Noir Serge Lutens

Source: parfumka.pro

Source: eat-spin-run-repeat.com

The one and only lavender for me. That's probably because what I get from Fourreau Noir is a warm gourmand heaven made up of almond and lavender cookies/cupcakes/shortbread/ice-cream (insert desired sin here) and the awakened cravings sent me into a frenzy on Google searching for dessert recipes to try out this weekend which I have shared below. 

Lavender almonds.
Source: www.foodily.com

On one hand I associate lavender with apothecary potions and lotions meant to soothe the soul, on the other hand the scent of lavender takes me back to summer holidays in Provence and the Loire Valley, gorgeous old villages, sweeping countryside landscapes with fields of purple and yellow interspersed with vineyards . In Forreau Noir the lavender smells so realistic as if crushing the buds between your fingers that emit a relaxing scent both floral sweet and herbal with a hint of lemon, blending with bitter almonds, the same almond note that you find in both Louve and Rahat Loukoum but with varying amounts of bitterness. The almond in Forreau Noir is creamy as if ground to a smooth paste with salted butter ready to be made into almond shortbread. The overall picturesque image this conjures up is gamboling about in a Monet-esque field or garden under the sun with a picnic basket filled with all sorts of treats including of course almond-lavender baked goodies. 

Almond-Lemon-Lavender cupcakes.
Source: bostonsweetieblog.blogspot.com

Lavender almond tea-cakes.
Source: theliveinkitchen.com

I tried Serge Lutens' other lavender Gris Clair but similar to the cool medicinal opening of Louve it was too chilly and distant for me to love being more like a frosted morning in lavender fields. It's a personal choice but I much prefer their warmer counterparts Fourreau Noir and Rahat Loukoum respectively. 

Forreau Noir starts quite potent but its trail gets weaker over time, still remaining on skin for the better part of the day. 

Rahat Loukoum Serge Lutens

Source: jetsetfashionmagazine.com

Source: www.auparfum.com

I fell in love with Rahat Loukoum in Barney's New York but thankfully did not buy it (Well on hindsight, at that time I was kicking myself for not getting it but I was held back by the bell jar form, it's pretty but I'm no good with dabbing and would most likely end up pouring the entire bottle in a very costly accident). Back in Singapore and back on the daily web hunt, I found out to my eternal happiness that it's now available in the "Le Vaporisateur" form which is 2x30 ml with an included shiny jet black travel case AND it's cheaper than the bell jar would have cost me in Barney's. 

I had The People Of The Labyrinths' Luctor Et Emergo on my want list, which in short is Coca-cola's Dark Cherry Vanilla coke plus bitter almond with some smoke trails of incense in the background. Anyway, Rahat Loukoum has kicked Luctor Et Emergo off the want list and let me explain why.

Rahat Loukoum is a warmer relative of Louve, the bitter medicinal almond from Serge Lutens. It's much less sweeter than the jordan almonds in Keiko Mercheri's Loukhoum Eau Poudree (I have this out of the Loukhoum trio), doesn't have the powder of Mazzolari's Alessandro and makes me think of Luctor Et Emergo but that's not to say they are similar as they aren't really. To put it in simpler terms and in proportions,

Rahat Loukoum: amaretto + cherry + honey

Luctor Et Emergo: cherry + vanilla + almond

Comparing Rahat Loukoum with Louve, the latter gives the impression of being more aloof and bitter, whereas Rahat Loukoum would be a boozed up Louve, all flushed cheeks and warm feelings. Neither is superior to the other and both have a similar drydown that is nutty and slightly musky, bottled comfort made for snuggling. I find the projection of Rahat Loukoum to be stronger than Louve but the longevity for both are equally good.

I did a side by side testing with another of my almond loves, Hilde Soliani's Conaffetto and surprisingly after wearing Rahat Loukoum the whole day, Conaffetto seems less bitter and I can pick up the lovely orange blossom more strongly. Whereas Conaffetto smells fresh and bright, the Lutens is more boozy amaretto cherries. 

Those looking for an inexpensive substitute for Rahat Loukoum might want to sample Les Nereides' Douceur de Vanille, that is more about bitter almonds than its name suggests, with a drydown that has the equivalent effect of an anxiolytic.

All in all, it's been a fabulous day smelling of almonds.

Five O'Clock Au Gingembre Serge Lutens

Source: Fragrantica

This takes me back to Sunday afternoons spent in my favorite out of many humid and noisy coffee-houses away from the outside cold, with faded peacock colored wallpaper that has seen legions of university students in its time, the massive palms busy exchanging carbon dioxide for oxygen, days when smoking indoors was not yet considered a crime to fellow humans. 

Masala Chai ingredients.

Us bright young things would exchange the previous night's gossip over endless cups of drinks ranging from actual coffee to a few tipples to help tide the hangover. It was here that I had my first Chai latte which became my pet drink for the longest time. I couldn't get enough of the spices-the pepper, cloves, nutmeg and green cardamom pods, the fiery fresh ginger and the decorative cinnamon stick, that reposes in the the piping hot milky Assam tea with a tinge of real vanilla beans. Unlike the coffee giants, this cafe made it all from scratch and the baristas would internally curse at the order of a Chai latte due to the extra preparation required. It's still the best Chai latte I've ever had.

When I met Five O'Clock Au Gingembre, the scent instantly took me back to that period of pure freedom, when the biggest responsibility was passing exams. Unlike a Chai latte, Five O'Clock Au Gingembre has a sheerness despite the bold and luxurious flavors it contains. The green cardamom is dominant among the spices, the others supplementing with some heat and herbal accords. The amber and patchouli add a dark, resinous texture and the honey instead of vanilla, adds some sweetness to the spiced concoction.

It does last for the better part of the day but due to its gossamer nature, you catch whiffs of it now and then, whiffs of nostalgic feelings and coziness like the laid back company of good friends.

In case this triggered a craving for Chai...

Spicy Chai Latte

Miel de Bois Serge Lutens

 "Let me thank all those whose labor contributed to making this fragrance.... in other words, the bees and flowers. 

From candied honey I made an ether to obtain the rich scent of the golden nectar."  

-- Serge Lutens

My signature scent if I had to name one. I have to thank Providence for my bottle actually, can you imagine the shop was going to throw their full tester in the trash since Miel de Bois was pulled from the export line and made a Palais Royale exclusive. I was in the right place at the right time to save the tester. Who throws away perfume, let alone a deity like Miel de Bois!! 

If you are looking for a gourmand honeyed scent along the lines of Tokyo Milk's Honey & The Moon, this isn't quite it.

Don't get me wrong, there is honey in Miel de Bois, but it's way more mysterious. It's a musty, musky and woody honey that is polarising, either you fall in lust and love or you think it smells like cats' piss/toilet spray/urinal cakes etc. Yup I said musty, it smells like an ages old bottle that was forgotten in an attic, musty that brings to mind antiques and marvellous relics of a different lifetime, moth eaten heavy curtains... a little like what Miss Havisham's room must have been like. 

It has a similar vintage and animalistic quality that Jean Desprez's Bal de Versailles or Schiaparelli's Shocking has on me and belongs in the category of scents that I feel require a "Danger" label for it's drug-like effects on the senses, or nausea-inducing if you can't handle indoles or  dark musks. Not forgetting that this stuff is potent and more than one spray can knock out a whole room so caution should be applied. 

I think if one gets past the initial blast of dark, dry woods and heavy sweetness, Miel de Bois dries down to the most addictive mildly spiced, sweet-woody musk, that smells like nothing else and stays with you for hours and hours like a most beguiling ambience. It's the dry down that has this heartrending quality I have only experienced otherwise with Guerlain's L'Heure Bleue, Mitsouko or Francis Kurkdjian's Lumiere Noir Pour Femme, once again a Lutens has gotten the better of my emotions.

Miel de Bois is controversial, unique, passionate and wild (I'll slide in the skank award here too)...please don't ever be discontinued, the withdrawal will be unbearable.

P.S: I don't advise blind-buying Miel de Bois as it's picky with which skin chemistry it gets along with. P.P.S: I'm always happy to adopt more bottles. I leave you here with a song that is as emotive as this scent. 

A La Nuit Serge Lutens

This is the be all and end all of jasmine scents for me. I bought my first bottle in 2007 and have not craved for another jasmine since. 

It reminds me of being a young child of less than a metre tall, curious about my father's garden with hundreds of different exotic plants calling it home. At the back of the garden is a huge jasmine bush, well back then it was huge in contrast to the little me. It is a type of Jasminum Sambac, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, the blooms resembles white roses and they open at night, releasing a super potent jasmine scent, much stronger than the single layer ones. Till this day, it is my favourite plant in the garden and it shares its blooms with me to scent my living space with its unique fragrance. 

Jasminum Sambac, Grand Duke of Tuscany, courtesy of flnurserymart.com

A La Nuit is all about jasmine, from the start, you are greeted with an intense jasmine scent, sweet and clear as if smelling from a just plucked bloom. As you enjoy the fragrance you notice behind the floral sweetness, an animalic note that I usually associate with jasmine and tuberose, although it smells different in each. It is as if the flower has just gone past its prime and is one step towards decay. The scent feels warmer and more pungent at this point compared to its dewy freshness in the opening and stays like this for many hours. Like the Grand Duke of Tuscany, A La Nuit has a huge sillage and I can still smell it lingering the next day.

A La Nuit is both womanly and child-like at the same time, uplifting and yet causes a wistful yearning for past happiness, refreshing yet indolic. There is nothing quite like her.

Jeux de Peau Serge Lutens

The best breakfast in a bottle. 

pâtisserie, courtesy of flickr.com

Is there anything more wonderful than walking into a boulangerie, the smell of all kinds of baked goods from savoury to sweet cavorting in the air temptingly? I think not. The best crusty bread is still in France (with the humidity here, it's just not possible to replicate that crispy sound of fresh bread) and I lived for winter holidays spent at my then partner's parents' home in the suburbs of Paris. I would wake him up unceremoniously at seven am( myself already up by six) and shivering with cold, we would make our way through the precariously slippery roads to the village boulangerie, which I swear has the best bread and pastries, even better than some of the famous pâtisseries in the city. 

French toast in the making courtesy of food52.com

Once through the door, I would stop to enjoy the sheer pleasure of all the different aromas filling the warm room, noisy with orders being taken and the hustle and bustle of delicious treats being baked and laid out all over the place. A daily occurrence for those living there but for me, it was a veritable treat just experiencing it. The smell of the boulangerie was stored in my mind and nothing in Asia quite matched it until I found Jeux de Peau.   

Heidi, Johanna Spyri, courtesy of flickr.com

It will be too sweet for some and is unmistakably a gourmand, but perfect for those days you crave solace. Warm and smoky, dripping syrupy amber-hued honey all over you, loaves of bread being toasted in the background, or waffles or french toast, if it's yeasty baked goods you crave, it's in this scent. If you enjoy spices with your toast and waffles, there's a wee sprinkle of it here. Just as Heidi had fresh goat's milk for breakfast every morning with the Alm Uncle, so have you milk provided in Jeux de Peau, full cream of course, none of that reduced fat crap. So there you go, a comforting and nourishing breakfast in a bottle. Not complex, but original for sure and very tasty. 

Jeux de Peau is a robust scent at the opening and stays linear,  losing its steam gradually. I'm averaging around 6-8 hours of lifespan, but it's a pleasure to reapply and experience it all over again. It's not a safe blind buy due to it's 1) sweetness 2) uniqueness but for me it's as heart-warming as a hug from a loved one.

Datura Noir Serge Lutens

I have loved moonflowers since I was a child, when I would wait excitedly for the night-blooming cereus in the garden to unfurl its flowers and release their sweet heady scent in the still of the dark night. Datura and the night-blooming cereus share the common name moonflower, along with a few other vespertine flowers. Datura is also known as angel's trumpet and is confused with plants of the genus Brugmansia, a major difference between the two being that Brugmansia plants have pendulous flowers rather than erect like Datura.

Datura Inoxia

Datura Noir is a very creamy white floral, so creamy it almost wanders into the gourmand section, specifically full cream milk. 

Citrus tinged, tuberose and almonds are predominant, vanilla and coconut milk contributing to its rich texture, a little bitter, a little resinous as it dries, but ever retaining its luscious, milky texture. It is sweet but a sweetness that is drawn from botany not candy.

Datura Stramonium

I find it a bit much on hot, humid days when I'm running about outdoors, it can get rather cloying. Datura Noir is better appreciated in cooler temperatures, where it shows its romantic side without becoming suffocating. 

The scent radiates around me without being obnoxious and intrusive, plus it lasts a long time, I got through a twelve hour day with its company. Those who love tuberose and enjoy creamy scents bordering on gourmand, would probably enjoy Datura Noir. 

Trivia: Datura plants contain potentially toxic tropane alkaloids such as scopolamine, hyoscyamine, and atropine (used in resuscitation for bradycardia and certain patterns of heart block) which are anticholinergic agents (read more here).

A common mnemonic for the main features of anticholinergic syndrome is the following:

• Blind as a bat (dilated pupils)
• Red as a beet (vasodilation)
• Hot as a hare (hyperthermia)
• Dry as a bone (dry skin)
• Mad as a hatter (hallucinations/agitation)
• Bloated as a Toad (ileus, urinary retention)
• And the heart runs alone (tachycardia)

The drug physostigmine (cholinergic agent) is used to reverse the anticholinergic effects. Benzodiazepines can be given to curb the patient's agitation, and supportive care is indicated until the symptoms resolve, usually from 24–36 hours after ingestion of the Datura.

Arabie Serge Lutens

If Ambre Sultan channels sultry warm Arabian nights, Arabie channels...food. Spiced teas and thick coffees, honeyed cakes and flaky pastries, dried exotic fruit and candied orange peel...and the perspiration from toiling over the gourmand feast.

I applied with a heavy hand this morning but don't find Aarbie to be a loud scent despite its potent notes so no fear of smelling like a walking spice bazaar or sweat shop. Arabie settles down to a sweetly spiced woody base and the cumin to shake things up. A luxuriant and flavorful scent with roots in the Orient, Arabie is an animated guide who takes you on a foreign foodie trail and leaves you giddy with pleasure. It is a must try for lovers of the exotic and the East, gourmand fans and those who love cumin in their perfumes (sweaty beast). 

Ambre Sultan, Serge Lutens

Feeling nostalgic tonight and decided to hang out with the one that started it all. Or the last few millilitres of my first bottle of niche perfume, my first Serge Lutens, my first Amber. Quite a few firsts. 

Up till now, Ambre Sultan is still the watermark when it comes to amber scents. It's like Goldilocks would say, it's just right. Some ambers tend to turn powdery like Calypso's Ambre, although that is a very good amber patchouli for its inexpensive price-tag. Some are too sweet and sedate for my taste like L'Artisan's Ambre Extreme which is anything but extreme, it's soft, polite and a tad boring. 

Ambre Sultan smells like ages past in a land that no longer exists or all that remains is a decrepit pile of rubble of past grandeur and a civilised life...its dryness makes me think of hostile, arid deserts that stretch as far as the eye can see, its spices transport me to multiple places at once, following my mother when I was about the height of her knees, to the market and watching the seller selecting various spices of burnished ambers, a myriad of reds and mounds of yellows, pouring the eye-watering blend into a cone fashioned out of old newspaper.

Or travelling in the Middle East and North Africa, experiencing multitudes of foreign smells and flavours that I never came across before and falling in love with newfound exoticism. The balmy coziness of Ambre Sultan that calms and reassures...it takes me back to around the time we first met, using the scent on rare, precious free evenings spent with friends or just chilling alone by a water's edge, watching the sun in it's last dazzling performance before it goes to say hello to another part of the world. 

This is the potent power that Lutens' have on me, that trigger a slew of memories and create dreams where I surf the olfactory waves to different lands. There's something pleasurable yet poignant about each Lutens' scent that I meet and Ambre Sultan is no different. Yes it is a French interpretation of the Orient but by someone who is not just familiar with it but understands it as well. 

“Some of my old memories feel trapped in amber in my brain, lucid and burning, while others are like the wing beat of a hummingbird, an intangible, ephemeral blur.” 

― Mira Bartok

L'orpheline Serge Lutens

Glacial. Incense is usually associated with warmth and comfort but in L'orpheline the incense does not cast its usual brilliant glow and the scent feels stark and cold, almost grim. If I could give it a colour, I would say it's steel. The musk is no heated up primitive musk, it is a naked musk, stripped of any emotions and not derived from anything biological. It feels sterile...spiritless.

Two notes. Musk and incense. Notes that represent or play a role in passion and celebration. Here, creating such a heavy smog of melancholy, such strangeness, such emptiness...all alone in a bleak land, the sun and moon having disappeared forever, the stars snuffed out like in W.H. Auden's poem.

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come. 

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves. 

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

L'orpheline is a stray waif, so very distant from the opulent orientals from the Serge Lutens line. Strange. Apathetic. Detached.