Description
SECTION D’OR
I use the word section to describe a breakaway, a separation. This departure from a black world brings forth a bright new division.
This divided version of me awakens a forgotten yet timeless image from the very first moments of my life. To the right of me, touching the edge of my shadow, in another light, it illuminates a crown, one that could belong to my other.
I am the protagonist in this story, turning my anger into passion. My aggressiveness hides my fear and mends my courage. L’incendiaire provides me with the spark I need, and by declaring my flame I ignite what burns within me, and consumes me. My heroine surges from deep within my cowardice and my flaws reveal the golden brilliance of her virtues. It is the love which sustains me in my darkest hour, even as I grieve for its loss.
Your crimes are mine, and I take them with me to the guillotine, where the executioner is waiting to cut the ruffian’s – my – story short.
But my destiny is entirely in your hands!
Serge Lutens
L’incendiaire was launched in 2014.
Osciproro – :
Slight disappointment – this is cosy, not smouldering, let alone incendiary.
Only going off a used partial bottle bought off eBay, which I do believe is legit, but might have suffered from wrong or over-long storage – and all I get is a very pleasant but frustratingly low-key (I mean like almost imperceptible) assembly of very gentle, powdery, sweet resins with a tiny tang of leather. Slight shades of something dark-woody, a little honey perhaps, but nothing at all threatening, outlandish or remarkable. True unisex for those who like resins and so discreet I can’t see many colleagues or passers-by even detecting it, much less objecting to it.
Could perhaps be compared to Cuir Mauresque but with the volume turned down to 0.5. So, it’s very nice indeed, but disappointingly weak… and if I’d paid full retail, I’d be raging. Possibly I’m anosmic to a bit of it. Try before you buy – and don’t pay the insane list price – in my opinion.
kaluoctra – :
This smells exactly like Tom Ford Tobacco Oud Intense to me. Same projection, same sillage, im pretty much getting the same everything. Not as “dark” as some may think. I like it, but wish the somewhat “intense” opening would last longer. Its gone within 20 minutes, drying down to whats an average good scent for me. Even dry down similar to fords tobacco oud intense to me
evol – :
Probably the most beautiful combination of frankincense and oud created in the world, this is an out of this world scent that is one of those where luxurious beauty is achieved without any concerns to price. The oud (in sap form) and incense (the most beautiful I have encountered) are beautifully blended with amber, castoreum, and a bit of tar to achieve a real otherworldly effect. Like the Phoenix emerging from the fiery ashes, this one really glows on your skin with with its beautiful and very pronounced sillage and projection. The beauty of this one lies in its understated refinement like Bois d’ Encens.
Next I need to address the issue of the price. I obtained the bottle at half of its retail and it still feels like an overindulgent luxury, even though it is so beautifully blended. But I think that was the point of the house in creating this perfume in the first place. Enjoy!
marishka.888 – :
The Serge Lutens brand trajectory within the world of perfumery can be compared to that of some musicians who start with a more alternative commercial image and who end up making the transition to pop culture as they grow and their audience grows over time. It is true that from the beginning the brand and its author had indications that Lutens was not restricted to only dramatic and intense studies of the aromas and this can be seen in compositions like Clair de Musc, Gris Clair and Fleurs de Citronnier. But in recent years this has never been so clear and in 2014 the Section D’Or collection certainly marks the beginning of a new chapter in the brand.
Serge Lutens considers Section D’Or a departure from a darker world. Not only that, it is the beginning of a saga where the artist and his brand look in the territory of exclusive/selective perfumery, where image, positioning and price are crucial to sell the luxury to a clientele willing to pay the price. Certainly there is a greater risk in this, and the idea of counterbalancing darkness and light is a way of making the darker and saturated lutens side an easier luxury to be consumed.
The first perfume of this saga, L’Incendiaire, is a perfect way to start this. I see that here there is a concern precisely to ally darkness and light, luxury and instincts, and this attempt is certainly something that may sound less interesting to those who like the most radical perfumes of the brand. There is no disclosure of notes, but L’Incendiaire in my impression does not escape much of the arab perfumery influence in Lutens, here converted from conceptual to luxury.
L’Incendiaire has a strand, an animalic aroma that looks like a combination of nuances of agarwood, castoreum and musks. It is an oily scent, with leathery nuances and something that refers to sweat somehow. However, this is balanced with hot spices and a boozy naunce, which helps to create the idea of the flame that is sold in the perfume concept. As it evolves, the more arab/animalic/ dark side is softened and the scent surrenders to more creamy woodsy tones and a subtle hint of flowers that brings more balance to the idea. It is curiously a scent that seems to rely heavily on base notes while it removes the weight of them and tries to bring luminosity to that and balance to its more aggressive side. This has a price, however: despite the parfum concentration, L’Incendiaire after the opening becomes a much more delicate fragrance, which certainly can disappoint some. Despite this, it is a well made composition, elegant and consistent with the luxury market to which it is directed. It is a perfume that, unlike other lutens, depends more on the whole of the work to be appreciated than just the perfume itself.
kovdenyr – :
‘Betsywoodbright’ the only thing you should be sorry for is entering a review WITHOUT even sampling the perfume which you seen to know nothing about so how can you put forth a review JUST ON THE PRICE TAG?
Deemed ridiculous, because of the price tag!
The line clearly sells,
I’m not the only person to enjoy over priced things. The perfumes are amongst the best I’ve ever encountered! Obviously, some people are ‘OKAY’ with their favourite fragrances. That’s great but I want to feel more than OKAY, I want to feel and smell like a goddess and for that, you need to aim higher than ‘okay’. And seriously, you want some bang for your buck, by smothering the occupants of large rooms and suffocating yourself for a solid week at a time after each application? Inducing headaches etc?
That’s what you’d want for the price tag? Hmm.
Xeroxshyqd – :
I’m sorry, but for a perfume to be worth a whole paycheck or more, it would have to project about 20 feet, and last a week with only one spray.
Obviously high quality perfume will be expensive, but under cost or no, my cheap ass thinks this price is ridiculous.
(Disclaimer: I’ve never smelled any of Serge Lutens’s Gold line. Only his normal line for poor folk like me. But Chergui and Arabie never did wrong by me, so I’m OK with those!)
beeaver – :
I read somewhere that this gold line is being sold under cost. The range is stunning, I hate the price tags, (and they’re all slightly different from $720 – $955AUD) but I’m in love with this as well as the Renard Constrictor (best jasmine/fruit fragrance I’ve encountered) so NO, as the price is just too outrageous but I would dare say I would come at half the price which still thenwould be a very high priced perfume indeed but not considering it’s quadruple the price of an expensive bottle.
I worked out that at $1000/50ml bottle, each spray will equate to a full dollar!!!!
May have to settle with my free store samples. One can dream though! 🙂
lexa63_63a – :
I bought a 5ml spray decant to get a better feel for L’incendiaire after previously sampling a tiny vial. It’s not as strong as I remember from the first time but I do like it alot. It’s a slightly chocolatey oud-musk-leather scent that by second wearing is very addictive. I don’t get as much smoke or charred wood as I remember or as others mention below. Perhaps there never was any of that and my mind is playing tricks on me. Anyway, it’s very pleasant and I think the most remarkable takeaway from L’incendiaire is that it’s a perfectly balanced, luxurious, modern leather and oud fragrance. If it were a new Saint Laurent release that retailed for $90, with an ad campaign featuring Javier Bardem, it would be a hit. I hope it gets heavily discounted before it is discontinued.
serega_ra – :
Houdini4 may state this better than I. He nailed it. Here is what I think
Retails for…….
$600 for 50ml
WHAT???
If you look you can find it as cheap as $475
You cant find much on the notes on-line. Here is what I could find
From Serge Lutens website quoted from Serge Lutens
The fire is not within the perfume but within me. I want to ignite the smouldering embers of the perfume world, to put the fire” back in perfume!
From Twisted Lilly also stated from Serge Lutens
“I use the word section to describe a breakaway, a separation. This departure from a black world brings forth a bright new division.
This divided version of me awakens a forgotten yet timeless image from the very first moments of my life. To the right of me, touching the edge of my shadow, in another light, it illuminates a crown, one that could belong to my other.
I am the protagonist in this story, turning my anger into passion. My aggressiveness hides my fear and mends my courage. L’incendiaire provides me with the spark I need, and by declaring my flame I ignite what burns within me, and consumes me. My heroine surges from deep within my cowardice and my flaws reveal the golden brilliance of her virtues. It is the love which sustains me in my darkest hour, even as I grieve for its loss.
Your crimes are mine, and I take them with me to the guillotine, where the executioner is waiting to cut the ruffian’s – my – story short. But my destiny is entirely in your hands!”
The notes listed on Twisted Lilly
Resin, Sap, Amber, Tar, Incense, Woods
The initial spray screamed quality to me and is nothing like MiP IMO. MiP is sweet leather and tonka and this IS NOT THAT!
This is a smoky heated wood. Not like the smell of burning wood but more like a dense hardwood charcoal burning bright. This is incense with a smooth note of Amber. I don’t get much in the way or Tar. I like it a lot! It remind me of a cleaner non barnyard Oud. The hot dry variety.
The performance is already letting me down and I am kind of glad in a way. I mean $475…. I don’t think so!
Now I am feeling a little stuffy today(thanks to my sick wife I am sure). So this maybe impacting my opinion some.
Overall I think he nailed what he describes. It does make me think fire and hot embers.
Now should you run out and buy a bottle. Maybe if you drive a Ferrari or Bentley Brooklands.
pji626intitytek – :
Spotted on Twisted Lily for $475 so… progress? Come on Lutens, drop it like it’s hot!
reductil – :
Update. It’s just occurred to me that Incendiaire smells like Serge Noire but! without the cloves note. I have now both perfumes on me, one on each wrist and suddenly I realised what was going on.
Denis Derish – :
Nice frag. If I had met this a couple of years ago, I would have bought it. But nowadays I prefer white florals so I pass.
Seriously it reminds me very much of Bvlgari Black that I used to wear through years: incense; ebony; guaiac wood; vanilla; musk. It smells really nice, I couldn’t take my nose off my wrist for hours – but maybe because it reminded me of the good old days of total happiness. The longevity is more than 8 hours on my perfume-eating skin. After that something metallic and rather unpleasant came out… but then disappeared as suddenly. I spent all those hours in a Vietnamese cafe with a friend and she kept on repeating that she was feeling it all the time! Despite all those Vietnamese food smells that are very far being subtle.
I understand all the complaints about price but… try it. It’s so beautiful and comforting and cosy… I don’t know, when I love a perfume, I’ll buy it whatever it costs. Merry Christmas to everybody!
Асмодей – :
I keep saying to myself that there must be something very special about this to warrant the price tag. I’ve even sampled it and said it smells amazing. But logic keeps bringing me back to “what’s so special about this versus so many others I’ve tried”? I guess the answer is that it isn’t. It’s precisely as noted below in just about every other review, overpriced for what you get. Plain and simple. People must buy it because they’re convinced that price = quality. Never more untrue than in the world of perfume.
AVTUNICH – :
L’Incendiaire is surprisingly straightforward on my skin. At its core, L’Incendiaire is an oud. At first, it disguised itself with a plum-like decadence, resulting something at the intersection of Féminité du Bois and Boxeuses sans spices. It then sheds away the sweetness with time, revealing an animalic oud in the end. There’s some incense aspect of the oud, but more prominent is the leathery, almost horse-like aroma of the oud.
The sillage of L’Incendiaire is quite close, and the longevity is around 9 hours. I loved its animalic characteristics in the dry down. Its intimate sillage also allows it to be worn without too much effort. However, its high price also made me expect something more complex and opulent, which L’Incendiaire ultimately comes up short. I think it’s worth a try if you’re interested in a remix of Lutens style sweet wood and animalic oud, but I would hesitate to recommend it otherwise, partly because of its high price, and partly because I don’t think it’s among the most interesting Lutens offerings.
vova2026 – :
Serge lutens has one thing going for them, they have the best niche selection to price ratio in the game, then I see this.. It’s almost like a trend I am seeing and now the designers of the world are doing the same thing…slap a prive label on it, make a sexy bottle, and charge a ridiculous amount for it.
I have no problem paying for the best of the best, I.e. Roja Dove where he explains why the fragrances he produces are so expensive and breaking down the price and process of the most ultra rare materials he uses, but these other houses….we are just taking
Assuming or putting faith in what is in that bottle has the best of the best. I would really like to see more, proof / breakdown of these extravagant prices on this new prive trend……
веня – :
I honestly don’t get it. What’s so special about L’Incendiaire?
If you like amber + incense, it surely smells good but I don’t find anything about L’Incendiaire to be so *sumptuous* or *exclusive* to warrant the vulgar price-tag it goes for. Luxury is one thing, vulgarity is another altogether. In the end, let’s face it, this is really just another amber incense in the same mould as Sahara Noir.
B#*ch please!
Rating: 5/10
khabib76 – :
I sprized this at les Salon,and wound up buying several bell jars instead. It was lovely and nice, but the price (which was comparatively lower in Paris)…! So all of you have me laughing (below). You all now have even more balloons, and the reviews are generally right on. Luxury scents are one thing, but insanity is another. And I’m right there with the reviewer who said Barney’s would have to burn down….lol!
VALERY-SS – :
I tried this yesterday. I love it. And now that the last trace has left my skin I feel a bit bereft. It is the gentlest and least aggressive incense I have smelled. It is peaceful and harmonious and multi layered and I really, really want it!!! Unfortunately, I don’t have £380 to spend on 50ml of perfume. and actually I think it’s a truly obscene amount to spend on such a small bottle. But, it is stunning and felt like a perfect fit so I feel like it’s inevitable that I will have to buy it and that I’m powerless to resist. Que sera, sera.
ShotheCon – :
I get the $600 pricetag now. I bought a tiny sample of this and when I first opened it, I really loved the impression of rich, nuanced smoke that it gave me. I went about my day, took a nap, and when I woke up I looked up L’incendiaire on Serge Lutens website. As soon as I saw the bottle (quite different from the usual SL bottles) and recalled my earlier impression of the fragrance, I began conspiring to buy it. Suddenly, $600 made this a superior fragrance, an ultimate SL of penultimate quality. I rationalized that I could decant it on Ebay and make my money back. And I was certain that this very expensive perfume would become my signiature scent. I took the sample vial out and applied a tiny amount to my hand. It was at this point that I realized that this perfume had been priced high on purpose to make it transcend the very large SL line in prestige and desirability. I suddenly realized that this perfume smells nothing like a typical SL and, instead, resembles a number of other smokey cuirs already crowding this category at a measely 1 to $300. I also realized that the same psychology was at play in my endless quest for Guerlain’s discontinued Iris Ganache (a perfume I’ve never even sampled and yet I have bid as high as $400 for it on Ebay). So, while this is a perfectly gorgeous fragrance, I doubt you could identify it in a blind smell test if it was sampled alongside any of it’s much cheaper cousins. Enjoy it but know that you paid an extra $400 just for the hell of it.
basmanov1975 – :
It’s pointless to even review such an overpriced perfume. 600$ for 50 ml?? Like, dislike nevermind. Such big words used in the description. I love Serge lutens but now this is just making me angry.
Unless it contains hand-picked flowers from the top of Mount everest, resins from war-torn Iraq and incense sticks from the moon GUESS WHAT it’s disrespectfuly overpriced! period. 🙂
wpnaafp – :
Oh wow! This is a stunner.
Very much in the vein of those heady, sweet leather fragrances like Tuscan leather, Clive Christian C, golden boy, AdP leather….etc etc… But crucially this has much more of a delicate touch. When I say that don’t get me wrong it’s just as deep as the counterparts I’ve mentioned but possibly has more dimensions in that I definitely smell more of an incense bias.
It’s sweet, warm, smoky and I can surely see why the name is becoming. Additionally it’s more wearable (on a regular basis) than a Tuscan leather type scent. It has a touch of the noble incense about it, saffron smoothness and although not dominated by frankincense I definitely get that from L’incendiaire too. The only negative I can think of is that I didn’t buy it in the spot.
I do have Clive Christian C and have had the chance to get others (I view as pale in comparison) but for all it’s likeness this new Serge Lutens still has merit and I suspect when trailed side by side the differences will be even more apparent.
I loved it.
Top marks from me.
hmmmm…Update. Well I say above “…not dominated by frankincense…” ??? yeah…that’s wrong. After a turbulent and opulent opening this fragrance dries down to a perfectly high quality and slightly darker Olibanum than usual…but it is just that….olibanum. I must’ve been nose blind first time out, I stick to what I said about L’incendiaire it gives a complex impression when first applied but doesn’t take long to die down to a heady frankincense and I’m so sorry to SL and Sheldrake but I can get that (I except not quite this) elsewhere cheaper. It shouldn’t be about money but in this case I have to pass on this fragrance.
ches123 – :
Incense, Oud, Cedar, Benzoin, Amber, maybe Saffron, IMHO.
Smoky, Sweet, Oudy…
I would recommend get three black or baige label, not this one thing at same price. Two Bel Jar is also better choice.
dennisska – :
Were I given to titling my reviews, this one would be called “The Prattle and the Price.” And it would go like this:
Gentle readers, who does Serge Lutens think he is these days? Is he having an identity crisis? A midlife crisis? Why can’t he just buy a convertible and get an inappropriately young girlfriend and deal with it like a normal man, and spare us, his paying public, the ridiculous half-baked fairy tales that now stand in for sensible press releases? And the laughable, unjustifiable price? Does SL actually want to sell perfume, or simply to make a statement about perfume-the statement in this case being something like “I have entirely divided material reality from common sense” or “I think my customers must be fools?”
This is not to say that L’Incendiare isn’t a good perfume. It’s a very good perfume. It simply isn’t $600 worth of perfume.
L’I opens with carnation and incensy resins before doing a quick change to smoky, smoky leather. It smells ripely of candied fruit and has an old-wooden-church saturated-incense quality in the drydown that is delicious and reminds me a bit of cedar. The sillage is very good, and the longevity is too.
But the price-! L’Incendiare doesn’t do anything that other smoky incense perfumes don’t do just as well for less money. Try Tauer’s Incense Extreme, or anything from the Comme des Garcons incense series. Try Encre Noir!
All in all, a lovely perfume that I think is destined for a quick extinction due to inept handling by its marketing department.
Kylie_fromAD – :
This is a lovely perfume – chalk, oud, smoke. I really enjoy the dusky haze over it all. The price of course is laughable.
I have a large decant of Songe d’un Bois D’ete by Guerlain, love the smell but I never reach for it – it’s too syrupy, heavy, and balsamic for actual use. L’Incendiaire is more restrained, dustier, a much better option for wear. Would be worth the price if it cost $150-200. Short of that, an arson would have to break out at Barney’s that allows me to make off with a bottle in the ensuing confusion.
KABASY – :
I have been wearing this today, an early Christmas treat for myself (I know it’s only October) I took to plunge and bought it.
It’s well blended and balanced, sweet, smoky, oudy, musky and gourmand in construction. It has great longevity and sillage. And I confess I am a fan of almost every component of this perfume, the packaging is sublime to boot.
I say ALMOST every component – but the price – wowzers, it’s hefty. So, is it worth the price tag? – well I am a sucker for SL perfumes so I intended to buy L`incendiaire regardless. I would say there are probably better SL frags, Arabie, Ambre Sultan, MKK for example.
Don’t get me wrong, it is lovely, really lovely but not AMAZING.
Slam – :
I will uncharacteristically keep this short.
Plummy incense with apparently some oud in it. No oud in sight imo.
Absolute waste of money and Bond has a plum scent that does this better 😉
Oh and the price is in the three figures lol
skandalloffuck – :
I bought this last Thursday after sampling it on my skin for approximately one hour. Because of the unseemly high price tag I chose another more modestly priced fragrance. I left Barney’s NY to sit in the seating area of the mall. I noticed that after an hour the fragrance was still transitioning, morphing in the most beautiful ways. I left my seat to return to Barney’s and purchased L’Incindiarie. I still cringed at the price tag but I do love it. A dark, resinous, intense, incense. Beautiful.
Anton17041982 – :
Priced at $600 for 50ml, L’Incendiaire (The Arsonist) marks Serge Lutens’s contribution to the fairly recent trend of obscenely expensive perfume. Alongside fragrances such as 777’s Ô Hira, ERH1012’s Dead of Night, and the entire Roja Dove line, this new Barney’s exclusive wears its exclusivity on its 200-count sleeve. While the more cynical of us might view these price points and cloistered releases as a last-ditch effort to resuscitate “niche”—a term that no longer signifies in a meaningful way—the most apparent question is “is it worth the price?” Well, that’s relative. Although I doubt there’s anything in this fragrance that warrants such a lofty tag, L’Incendiaire is a nice enough scent—albeit one that doesn’t quite resemble a Lutens.
Listed notes are largely pointless these days, and the accompanying gloss seems to suffer from a dodgy translation. Consequently, there’s little in the way of context or pointers as to what the goals for this scent were. Style-wise, it’s in a comparable camp to Serge Noire—largely due to the smokiness. But where Serge Noire is a tad unkempt in its phenolic camphor, L’Incendiaire is primped and groomed with rigor. Barney’s provides little assistance, claiming “rare resins, saps, and ambers” as the main components. However, what stands out is the mention of “tarmac”—a fantasy accord (I hope) that one might ordinarily picture as being more up CdG’s urban alley—but it certainly comes through in this perfume in an evocative way.
Upon application the scent smells charred and a bit rubbery; an array of charcoal greys and deep brown oils against a textured canvas. There are various woods present alongside an oud that’s neither western nagarmotha nor eastern cheese. There’s an incidental chocolate and some delicate musks that I’d place in the ambrette family. Furthermore, there’s a weird watery note running beneath the surface (weird in relation to the namesake, not the composition). It’s not bilgy, but is a bit dank—a part-petrichor, part-oakmoss kind of touch. But what guides the scent primarily is the scorched effect that sits somewhere between smoldering wood and fire at the tire yard. It’s all folded together in a busy yet relatively civilized blend, sitting close to the skin for a good few hours, getting mossier as it goes. If I were forced to give an ultra-reductive description, I’d go with exotic wood, sprinkled with chocolate, singed by a blowtorch.
What’s puzzling to me, though, is that the scent feels more like something Amouage might have released prior to their recent westernization. The scent’s reflective of the kind of cultural tourism that’s at the heart of the oud-wave—a wave that probably should have crashed on the shore some time ago. Furthermore, the charred effect spins it a bit more avant-garde than we might expect from Lutens. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice enough, but it feels like a bit of a vulgar attempt to appeal to specific audiences rather than creating an object of beauty unto itself. It’s well-rendered and structurally sound, but the level of polish sends it skidding a bit too close to the Liberace-opulence of its high-ticket brethren—a point not lost on Barney’s PR department who describe it as “insanely elegant.” While plenty of Lutens’ releases have conveyed their fair share of elegance, could this extra adjective perhaps relate more to the uber-exclusive pricing that’s, for lack of a better term, insane? While there’s a lot to like about L’Incendiaire, it does feel a tad ostentatious which, again, affirms suspicions about who this is aimed at and in what ways. But this is nitpicky, really. While it’s certainly not on the same level as some of the bell jars, it has its charms. But does it warrant $12 per ml? For me, absolutely not. But for someone else, it just might be the perfect Lutens.
karasik – :
just tried it today at barneys.
$600 for this boring oud ? seriously Lutens ?
FroZenBoY – :
@zohaib248:
According to Ca Fleure Bon, the main notes are Incense (hence the name, incendiary), musk, and carnation.
@Sherihan:
Save us the nagging! I suggest you use your Lutens, since logic exige that you bought them because you liked them…
xboxemu – :
notes.. anyone?
preocloneBlog – :
I have som Lutens’s regular perfumes, so is this gold ones are of better quality? What should I do with my expensive bottles? Sell them out, add mor money and purchase the Gold Line?
cdb991Unlogrere – :
If you did not test or fully wear L’Incendiaire, then please: Tais-Toi (shut up! In French…).