Description
El Attarine is a perfume from the exclusive series launched in August 2008 and kept only in Salons Shiseido du Palais Royal in Paris. This luxurious edition is available only in 30 splendid bottles with black entwined ornaments. The previous edition of this series was Sarrasins. El Attarine is described as: “Solaire. Traduit tout ce qui est odoriférant. La route des parfums en un jus solaire.” – “Sunny. Translates everything that is scented. The road of the perfumes into a solar essence.”
El Attarine is a fragrance inspired by the sun, the idea behind it being an old one and renewed, dedicated to Serge Lutens perfume history and Morocco. Serge Lutens explains: “In Arab countries, “attarin” means sweet-smelling, and refers to everything within the realm of the “atar”: fragrance, heart, flavor and essence. There is no distinction between the olfactory and the gustatory, until the moment when you decide whether to taste or smell.” El Attarine also stands for one of the world’s most beautiful Koranic schools in Fez, for a privileged few. It is a perfume filled with Serge Lutens’ personal thoughts and memories that opens a door in your imagination.
Bugor22 – :
I love this stuff. One of my all time favorites.
Темный_Лес – :
I don’t think I’ve ever smelled cumin, but I do get a syrupy fruit smell from this. Something is fruity. Also has a bit of a mixed soap. Like I was drinking a smoothie in a cup that someone recently washed with soap but didn’t rinse properly. This isn’t unpleasant though. I really enjoy this, just not enough to pay niche prices for it, but very nice. I’d buy a celeb or designer fragrance that smelled like this. If this is cumin then I like it!
Smells classy too, not trying to say it’s not worth its price and the comparison I made wasn’t to say it’s unsophisticated btw, just having a hard time putting my nose on what it is I smell because these are all unfamiliar notes, this is a unique fragrance and It’s not something I am looking for in my collection personally, but I’ll keep and enjoy this decant!
MAXIM270787 – :
El Attarine is a seriously strange scent in that there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. I smell all kinds of things, and they fade out then come back in, they mix together, and then they don’t. There is no top/middle/base pattern with notes that make any sense. It’s like someone just threw this together at the last minute.
The first thing I notice is an odd velvety scent, kind of like sueded violets, and it’s mixed with tangy, unripened peach and sweet apricot skin. The notes conjure a texture, versus a recognizable scent profile. And you’d expect velvety, suede notes to make up the base, but I only get them in the top. I’m in love with what I smell at first! It smells shabby chic. Kind of vintage and pretty. Dusty but innocent violets.
At very random times I feel like my nose is playing tricks on me, because I smell something nutty, almost like chopped pistachios that have been cooked in sugar syrup, like there is a drop of PHI Une Rose de Kandahar mixed in by mistake, but take away the rose, and you get that nutty, syrupy, orchard fruit scent.
The heart smells entirely different from the velvety violets I fell in love with at first. It’s like wildflowers with a touch of aromatic cumin. Either my chemistry is drastically different from that of other people, or perhaps a reformulation has taken place, but this is most definitely not a cumin nor curry bomb. There is really nothing foodie about El Attarine, mostly it is a Fruity-floral. I have to really press my nose to my skin to smell any cumin at all.
I own a bell jar, so I can splash to my hearts content, but sillage is truly abominable for something that costs $315 + tax. It annoys me that I have to splash because this is not a body splash for babies, it’s perfume with a matching price tag. At this price point a couple of dabs should do the trick. While I like the scent, messy and disjointed as it is, I would never repurchase something so weak. Longevity is not great, about 2 hours before I need to refresh.
arogen15 – :
None of the notes are anything more than very vaguely identifiable and El Attarine does not smell like free-standing cumin at all. Unmodified cumin smell would be revolting as a note. This is a completely abstract scent that smells like El Attarine and nothing else. It has no cognates. I have to believe its purpose is to aid hallucinogen use or at least evoke past trips or even cause them on its own. Perfect for reading Flaubert’s Temptation of St Anthony or for visiting the Wadi Rum or Timbuktu. Its attributes as a perfume are completely inconsequential; you might as well complain about the quality of lapis lazuli used in the Last Judgement. Not applied art but art applied to the skin for display.
minor – :
The cumin here is of the foodie/curry variety and not the human sweat variety. It plays very well with the honey and dusty yellow floral vibe in the background. I can be sensitive to sweet, and this is just a touch too sweet for me. But it is very close to being something I would really enjoy. Truly unique.
Serj(RUS66) – :
El Attarine starts off with a big blast of cumin with a dash of sweet honey.
But after about fifteen minutes the cumin makes way for a nice and sweet, honeyed and woody violet, the same violet from Bois De Violette, along with some stewed fruits. Apparently, this is apricot, and I do remember a similar fruity note from Daim Blond, the apricot suede perfume from Lutens.
In the end, El Attarine smells very soft, like honeyed apricot skin with a woody violet in the background.
The only thing that’s wrong with this perfume is longevity, I wish I could enjoy here a bit longer than a few hours.
Nonetheless a lovely soft perfume.
marina98 – :
To me most of Luten’s Export frags are simply unbearable sweet, over the top and with a distinct overpowering smell of dried fruit. Actually, I always think I should like them, but feel often really repelled by them.
The Exclusive Line is different. Here Luten’s manages to keep it simpler, which really makes a lot of them interesting and wearable. El Attarine is no exeption. The cumin is there and it is paired with a hint of honey, without it’s distinct honey-ness, if you know, what I mean. You won’t smell queen bee. With it’s immortelle I find it to be close to L’Occitane’s Immortelle de Corse. But only so, because the spices and the woodsy notes – Luten’s added the more elegant ones (sandalwood?) – are subduing the sweet impression. The dryness is there, which I am so fond of.
To me the cumin is not the only spice in the mix, only the most recognizable. Luten’s speaks of saffron, which might be true, as it adds to the “round” feeling this perfume gives, but I don’t pick it out. The overall impression is very natural, as if you smell a combination of smells, which you can find in real life (don’t tell me the world smells like Arabie, Chergui or Daim Blond). And I’m not talking about men’s body odour, because cumin does not smell like a smelly man, at least to me. Curry, ok, but why does everybody wants to smell like vanilla (me, too, by the way), but thinks smelling of cumin is odd?
The down side and the deal breaker: It weakens much too fast, give it 1-2 hours and all the gloriousness is gone, left is a weak base of wood and slight spice with this unappealing whiff of undiscernible flowers.
Lutens, get your base straight! Than we’re talking…
woomeopaypows – :
I actually splashed out and bought the bell-jar and what a mistake that was! All my skin seemed to project is cumin, cumin, cumin! I despise walking around stinking like I had been to a gym with a heavy workout and then flown into a curry house and spent a few hours scoffing!!!
I could get the woodsy notes and feint whiff of honey but that is all. It might be my skin that is projecting the cumin so screamingly? But, for me this was just a tad too masculine – sweaty masculine. I decided it wasn’t for me and sold my jar to a male perfumista who is happily enjoying his purchase!!!
(I think the wax composition is quite different to the bell jar so do keep that in mind if you have decided to purchase a bottle!)
FriendIsaiah – :
The whole composition is overshadowed by the curry and comin note up to the point that it resembles the scent of sweaty male skin, but i prefer a bathed man and cumin only in my food.
So i give this perfume 5/10 points.
pjv001speagoessenda – :
Cumin, coriander, vanilla, dried apricots, musk, and a little sandalwood make for a sweet and spicy opening, but a muted one, almost like Arabie lite. As it dries down I smell a cardboardy note that might be Iso E Super and/or a hint of tuberose. The honey and immortelle are muted in the mix, overshadowed by the spices, musks, and other stuff. Sillage and longevity are average, with about 6-8 hours of wear from start to finish. This is nice, but not my favorite in the fruity-spicy Serge-esque genre.
alla30 – :
I was able to obtain a sample of this perfume (liquid, not wax) and have been wearing it all day. It was a surprise to me. I expected something much more spicy, incense-y in Lutens’ famous style, but in fact this is a glorious, rich floral/oriental. I detect rose and amber, it’s a little bit gourmand, and reminds me of Turkish delight. I think it smells somewhat similar to Liaisons Dangereuse By Kilian, but it is more linear (the scent hasn’t changed much since I put it on). Good sillage, seems to be lasting very well. This is not my usual style of perfume, but I am really enjoying it. Lovely. I think it would be hard not to like, even if it isn’t your thing.
Addendum: have been wearing it on and off all week. The curry note is there but it’s subtle, actually just adds something fun & mysterious. My husband, who is very fussy about women’s perfume, really loves this one.
yulyus – :
I had the wax sample also. It smelled like sweet incense to me. Then I detected a little curry, maybe cumin, I know from cooking with it a lot. It was very soft and I would have to try the liquid in the future. I’m hoping the curry/cumin note is lighter in it.
grimnn – :
in my opinion this is an expensive perfume for the smell it gives out.many others in the sl range to chose from
dyuwckreti – :
I only smelled this one on a wax sample, and I’ll never own it because it’s a bell jar scent (I hate you, Serge), but I liked it a lot. Almost gingery, a bit gourmand, with a hint of rose. It would go well with short black cocktail dress, the one worn with black silk stockings, and an ankle bracelet that says “Heaven’s Above”. Subtly sexy.