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NakLedaneni – :
I have a bottle coded 2017. I get lush incense and spices. Very wearable, IMHO. I don’t think I would pay the new Gratte-Ciel collection price, but it is still around on the discounters. I say: carpe diem.
ONIX7 – :
It makes me smell like a kind of gothic pencil.
._.
Bombargio – :
OK. can i preface this review by asking you to imagine the 90’s sitcom friends’s Chandler saying “Could this be more Serge Lutens?”
I’ve read reviews that claim this has a B.O. facet to it, very strong in clove, overpowering, not unisex.
I can see all those points. but can’t agree with any.
I got my package of perfume whilst a friend was visiting and tried it on her. She loved it, ‘spicy’ it went on.
As she left i checked her wrist to find it had turned very feminine.
On me later, I can sense the b.o. trait but it smells more like lapsong tea. then very clove-y. then burnt woods.
on her it projects pretty well. but me,quiet masculine and it lays close to the skin, well, so far into the scent story – whats around the next bend on this scent trip?
I’d call it exotic, witch-doctor scent. Pagan night perfume.
Serge Lutens…Never Boring!
senmen – :
Oh my, oh my, oh my. I’ve been looking for a clove-centered frag, ordered a sample of this, and found my home. It’s so warm, spicy, delicious. I can’t praise the smell enough.
But as Professor Oak says, “There is a time and place for everything.” Noire is a good indicator. Don’t wear this on a hot day or you’ll smell like BO for half an hour and it’ll go away. In the cold, however, an absolute dream.
Sillage is 6/10, longevity 5/10.
Варелка – :
Having read the polarised reviews of Serge Noir, I was a little disappointed to find it wasn’t as extreme as I expected.
Yes, when first applied it is almost overpowering, but the drydown is quick and the longevity nowhere many other SL fragrances.
After the initial harshness, there’s an appealing dirty sweetness to it yet it doesn’t have woody/earthy sexiness in the sillage. It simply fades to a small cloud of pleasantness. All in all a bit underwhelming on me…
tiomkin – :
The best scent ever you could find, if you love gourmand, spicy, strong perfume. BUT sadly stays on my skin for 2 hours. So dissapointing for such a gorgeous cocktail of a scents. I need stronger long lasting version.
Lexsey – :
The dislike button is not good enough to justify how I feel about this stuff. It literally smells like a full catbox in a humid, dark basement. This is not a review based off of one smell. I have tried this on my skin over a couple years to see if there would be any change. Alas, as I am only writing this review now, there was no change, and this is probably one of if not my single most hated fragrance to date.
mybuhowo – :
FULL ON B.O. I couldn’t scrub this off quick enough. It sticks to you like badger poop too… which is always the way with the bad ones. Very unpleasant.
vitor4 – :
I finally got around to sampling Serge Noire and I like it. It’s a spooky, intriguing mix of poison sweets, antique cabinets with mysterious spices forever radiating from the wood, and incense smoke passing by a small sliver of daylight in an otherwise dark room. It’s bizarre mostly because it comes across dark but in an unfamilar way, not in anyway like we all expect when we think of a dark perfume. There is a compelling tension between moist and dry, sugar and spice, and perfume and body odor. I am excited and at the same time a little wary of respraying this on my skin and trying it out again. It’s certainly dramatic and a great example of a “challenging” perfume. I think it would take a little bravery and several weeks of wearing to wrap ones head around this.
sirobahamut – :
This one.. well, it’s complicated. An initial burst of spices, an almost stew-like impression. However, I would describe this stage as rather warm and comforting. There is something which reminds me of Christmas and chimneys.. After a while the stewiness starts to fade away and there is this cool and dusty phase with a hint of spice. As if you have entered a cold castle or a cellar where spices are stored. But there is also that salty note.. The fragrance quickly becomes a skin scent, but that’s not a bad thing. Otherwise, it would have been too exhausting to wear, considering all that spice. It may be a bit too challenging for some people, but I personally love it. It perfectly fits a gloomy rainy day.
erohin – :
I wanted something to project a “Don’t mess with me” vibe, so wore Serge Noire to work today and was surprised to receive a few compliments from my students. They don’t suck up to me about my perfumes. In the past I’ve been told “No offence miss, but I don’t like your perfume.” I like to encourage honest and open dialogue. It backfires occasionally.
VERY misleading sillage on this – I honestly thought this was wearing quite close to the skin, but at the end of the day, one of the students came into the library and said how “nice it smells in here – it’s your perfume, miss.” I was about 8 metres from her, but I had left my jacket on my chair. She was two metres from that as well, though! I had sprayed (on skin) twice about 4 hours before.
Spray with caution!
Longevity is moderate.
sxscxtziokt – :
For those familiar it smells like a Santería botanica with freshly pounded herbs. It’s a bit intense at first but settles into something deep but sweet. At first impression I thought I couldn’t wear this but 10-15 mins in and I’m appreciating it’s development and reconsidering it.
**Resprayed this morning and the opening is so off putting that I had to come back to my review for its further development. The opening makes my stomach close right up. Uy
Ereraphoharry – :
“In your face” opening, “Sweet” sillage… a great night winter fragrance.
4.5/ 5
Appoisyrils – :
I will start by saying that I do enjoy a scent that has a bit of a challenge to it. Having said that, Serge Noire was a very challenging scent. Upon first spray I get an intense Body Oder. Like I just got thru completing a very competitive tennis match. It was all I could do NOT to get back in the shower and scrub this off me.. ASAP! But I fought off the urge and left the scent on.
For the first hour SN is an unbearable scent. After that it settles down on my skin, It goes from excessive BO that projects loudly to a mediocre woody skin scent. The dry down is not a bad scent, but it is nothing special and I have to press my nose against my skin to smell it.
What a bizarre fragrance. I am not sure where this fits. For the person that wants to offend everyone for about an hour and then fade away into obscurity perhaps?
Bottom line: If you want to try something completely different, git this a try, otherwise I would pass.
DIMom – :
I tried to love this, even like this, but it’s just too much. The cumin is way too overwhelming for me. I never thought I would find a scent that I would call too spicy, but here we are. It really is a shame because I can smell what lies underneath and it’s beautiful, but the heavy hand interrupts and refuses to leave. I received this bottle in a trade and I’ll be offering her back up
genrih2277 – :
Review from a 2008 ‘mansion” logo bottle.
Sharp however calm clove first bursts through, with gentle help from cinnamon and patchouli, together with the edgy incense creating a metallic punch almost like a cutting blade! I’m tasting the cold folk/spoon from the freezer, for a moment I feel the blade is cutting a hot buttery spicy wrap, the inner though not known,I am sure the exotic filling is going to reveal itself in the later stage then swamp the entire sensation with maybe a far east spice bazaar, or maybe some Indian cuisine. But one is certainly anticipating a dramatic twist from this opening, something is for sure lurking about!
It’s not a sudden bomb, but a slow motion that Luten’s signature oriental base then slowly flows, silent flow, like a black/white movie, with however dramatic development it strikes, remains silent and super calm, composed.
A forever misunderstood fame, flapping away and swirl, surging the ashes and laughter, dies down to a puff of illusion.
BAnatoliy – :
Updated review:
I spritzed a little SN onto my wrist yesterday afternoon and gave it to my husband to smell after about 20 minutes. He wrinkled his nose and said he didn’t like it at all. This morning, I sprayed my arms more liberally and let it dry down for 45 minutes before asking him to smell it again; I didn’t tell him what I had applied, to ensure an unbiased response.
He sniffed once (cautiously – he’s tolerant of my perfume addiction but finds many of my true loves repellent – bless him, he puts up with a lot). He sniffed again, much more deeply and said, “Ooooh… That’s really nice!”
This perfume is VERY reactive to skin chemistry. Do NOT be put off by the first 20 minutes after spraying, which is a full frontal clove and spice punch to the face. Give it a chance to dry down, and you may be rewarded with a delightful creamy, spicy and woody fragrance which is – almost – sweet.
Siseimmeria – :
I am testing this from a decanted sample provided by nexangelus (THANK YOU, my lovely!).
Serge Noire seems to inspire outright horror & revulsion in most of the reviewers below so therefore – naturally – I had to try it.
I sprayed once – cautiously – to my inner wrist, taking care not to get any on clothing, bedding, innocent passers-by or my cats.
The only way to describe the initial momentous blast of cloves, cinnamon and spices is “a full frontal assault”. It’s almost a physical punch to the nose. I don’t pick up on the cumin other reviewers have remarked on, and have never experienced this note as BO anyway. But not since Mitsouko have I had such a violent antipathetic reaction to a perfume – clearly the only sane option was to SCRUB IT OFF – IMMEDIATELY.
I caved with Mitsouko after 30 minutes and scrubbed… and scrubbed… AND SCRUBBED! Why do perfumes I loathe have such incredible staying power???
20 minutes in, I took another cautious sniff. Hmmm. The overwhelming cloves and spices had subsided to manageable levels, so I sprayed again, two blasts this time to both inner wrists.
45 minutes in and – having sprayed neck & decolletage as well now – I am left with a stunningly beautiful incense, amber and wood perfume. It’s creamy and almost sweet. Sillage is moderate. I rarely comment on longevity as my skin soaks up perfumes and I don’t think it’s a fair comparison.
I LOVE this.
Caveat: I own and love a number of Bertrand Duchaufour’s creations (and Mugler’s Womanity); so please take this into account.
zStrelok – :
This is such a strange experience for me. Serge Noire opens with a massive hot blast of cloves and pepper, to the point where you seriously wonder how you’ll be able to keep wearing it without choking yourself or other people. What’s surprising is how quickly this spice attack fades on me, drying down rapidly into a fairly inoffensive woody, spicy, almost creamy blend. The fairly average longevity is amazing considering the loud opening. Not sure I could go for a full bottle of this, but I do keep returning to my sample – it’s quite intriguing.
Чувик – :
this isn’t inherently bad, just a bit flat considering it more or less smells like a melange of a bunch of older, better lutens. they take the amber of chergui, honeyed cinnamon of gingembre, cloves and dried fruit of fille en aiguilles, and the smoke of l’orpheline, add some nondescript wood and patch and bottle it. it is more or less the house’s signature style in a scent–hence the name. as an introduction to the house, its a bit polarizing but a good idea of what lutens’ woody, resinous scents have to offer–just at the trade off of personality and character, which make all the other scents in that genre from lutens my absolute favourites.
edit: i also seem to dislike this for entirely different reasons than the reviewers below–i love the naughty, animalic spice factor but it never, ever goes stinky or body odour on me.
crazydriver343 – :
This scent humbled me – but not in the way Serge Lutens was aiming for, I think. Because I used to believe there was nothing “too weird”, nothing “too much”, very little “too masculine” for me to try or to give a chance – I’m a niche girl with a taste for the extreme and unusual. There’s not much I’ve smelled from SL I didn’t like, whatever the notes or where it sat on the male/female spectrum. So when I read here about it being ‘polarising’ or ‘clove overload’, that just made me want to try it even more. When I got wind of a discount FB I ordered it right on up.
And ACK! I was expecting/hoping for a deep rich spicy seducer. Instead this triggered my inner coward – I literally RAN AWAY with every sense screaming “get it off me, get it off me RIGHT NOW.” Others’ remarks about gorillas’ BO, dead meat, and rotten things, are dead right – but it’s kind of almost worse than that because of the highly chemistry-lab-like camphor notes and above all the intense stickability of this thing. The first scrubber I’ve ever, ever experienced and it seemed to linger on for HOURS whenever I turned my head.
I was so baffled by the way it repulses me I thought it must be a skin-chemistry issue – and there certainly IS one of those with me – but it turns my stomach even on sprayed on clothes.
Somewhere there will be a much bolder man – or even woman – than me who can tame this beast and make it work for them, but for my money it’s a horror.
LiliMinerva – :
The Scream by Edvard Munch 1893
;jhf – :
Beautiful in it’s strangeness. Like Edward Scissorshands, first appearance scary, freaky quite jarring. But after you become acquainted, you crave the acquaintance and want to run straight into his arms, despite the fact that he might just draw blood.
Yuli – :
This smells like a college town. Eastern spices representing the Indian/Middle Eastern eatery so ubiquitous in most college towns. Patch and amber reppin the head shops. Dry-aged wood coming from the small guitar shop that inexplicably is loaded with high end Martins. And everywhere, the slight odor of funk that comes from people free from parental shower schedules. There were days I didn’t like wearing this stuff. And days I couldn’t get enough. I still haven’t purchased it again. But I do want to see some back on my shelves in the future.
marlboro – :
same smell to my herbal tea
EstuaspTush – :
Serge Noire has notes of patchouli, cinnamon, amber, woody notes, incense, clove, spices, and ebony wood. A very bare triangle indeed, but then again, that’s about all anyone (myself included) seems to be able to pick up in this. Serge Noire was created by Christopher Sheldrake, and one of the two perfumes in the entire house that has Serge Lutens himself as a co-creator (the other being L’eau Serge Lutens. I would class Serge Noire as a woody, aromatic Oriental fragrance.
For those of you who have not yet smelled this, there’s probably a good reason why Serge Noire has such a polarizing reputation in the perfume community. Usually when people say that they can detect a body odor note due to the conspicuous presence of cumin, I almost never pick it up; this, however, is a completely different story. Right off the top, I get a sharp, aromatic, bright cumin note which isn’t wholly unpleasant or repulsive, but remains nevertheless quite medicinal and greets the nose as a bit unexpected, at least in a perfume. As it warms on the skin a bit, cinnamon and clove begin to make themselves known, the combination of which sort of gives off the essence of the clove oil that you might use for a toothache.
This is the quirky, bohemian cousin of some of the big, aromatic fougeres for men that came out of the 1980s – one of the cousins that considers bathing a bourgeois luxury. But like many bohemians, Serge Noire settles with time, into something of just woods and incense, leaving the harsh man-funk spiciness behind. There’s something about the mixture of incense, cinnamon, clove and cumin (there has to be cumin in here, or some cumin derivative, despite its absence from the scent pyramid) that is an interesting cross between a dandy and the stultifying miasma you would encounter upon entering a head shop. The structure – an aromatic, spicy fougere – says “dandy” all day, but the spices are far out of proportion from a more traditional perfume, or are completely different altogether. Cinnamon, clove, and cumin aren’t uncommon at all in fougeres of the 80s, but I’ve never smelled them presented so … up front and center. The dry down comes on rather quickly, revealing a base of woods and patchouli, still with a trace of incense. I don’t pick up any amber anywhere in the development.
I won’t pretend that I’ve smelled everything on the market, but I can say that I haven’t smelled many things like this. Whether you like it or not, it’s quite unrepentant in what it is and doesn’t many any apologies. Whereas this might seem like something that’s big and bold and jumps off the skin for hours, I’ve found that it’s pretty tame if you give it a bit. After a couple of hours, it’s mostly a skin scent; for all its seeming brazenness at the opening, it’s pretty well-behaved. As much as it makes me roll my eyes when other people say it, this will probably be a love-it-or-hate-it kind of perfume. For me, it’s a bit forward, medicinal, and strange, but if we can depend on Serge Lutens for anything, it’s a body of creative, borderline recherché, perfumery – and that’s certainly what this is.
iszlexus – :
After a couple of wearings, this is a winner! I enjoy cooking with various herbs, spices and spice blends. This does not smell of cumin or sweat to me at all. At the start I get a huge camphorous/mentholated/eucalyptus bay leaf hit. Then the spicy cloves along with a hot, burned sweet something and then a dark, woody, gingery incense. So glad I have been reading the Best in Show articles, as this came up in “Seasonal Spices – Cloves”. Serge Lutens has captured my heart no less than 11 times, at last calculation.
Markers0162 – :
God! This is one incredible fragrance. I can’t do it justice by trying to describe it, and anyway, some of these fantastic reviews here do the job for me, MUCH better than I possibly could! I don’t get the BO smell at all, lucky me, and for the rest? Phew! and WOW!!!
I love it!!!! It’s completely thrilling…..and beautiful…..and Noir. Perfect.
Ldblue – :
Overwhelmingly dense and not at all pleasant to my nose. Serge Noire is very opaque; it’s as if it’s made entirely of basenotes and the wearer doesn’t get to enjoy the notes opening up, but rather the scent just seems to get more cloying when mixed with my body chemistry. I’ve heard people describe Serge Noire as sinister and honestly, I don’t what I had expected. If I had to choose a word for this one, well, “bestial” comes to mind.
vint1260 – :
I thought I was going to love this but oogh, there’s a bizarre, almost meaty note on my skin! Yep, that’s what it is, it’s BO. Even though there’s no cumin I’m definitely getting a meaty, sweaty smell. I’m really sad about it but I guess Serge Noir just doesn’t work for me. 🙁
seaspirit2002 – :
This is a very polarising fragrance. I think depending on body chemistry you can definitely get a BO smell, but I don’t sweat much and so I don’t get this smell at all.
Serge Noir is a man wearing a tweed jacket to a funeral, a somber scent. It’s a woman in black with French netting hiding her tears. It’s the smoky quiet of a parlor where guests gather to honor the dearly departed. It’s the smell that haunts European cathedrals, the scent of something ancient and awe-inspiring, older than most can possibly imagine and yet becoming unappreciated for its beauty in an age that abhors it.
I bought a sampler on the advice of a reviewer here so I could test it before buying a full bottle. It’s my new signature fragrance for when I get a little more gussied up, I love it so much. When first applied you smell clove and rich patchouli incense, with an undertone of cumin that makes the scent strangely interesting. This will tone down after a few minutes so if you don’t much enjoy this initial scent don’t worry! When dry the scent comes out with patchouli notes, and after an hour you finally get the richness of amber and ebony. This is ill-suited to the summer; wear this fragrance in Autumn or Winter for the best results!
As for myself, I will be purchasing the full-size bottle of this. It’s a beautifully haunting scent, you won’t regret this elegant and sophisticated niche fragrance.
inolipinskks – :
When you read the reviews it is as if you are talking about two different perfumes. I experience nothing of BO over it. Rather, it makes me think of a scented candle of the luxurious kind. The same sweet spiciness. Lovely scent.
stizilmincith1995 – :
cumin, licorice, menthol in the opening; becomes herbal then the clove comes up; at dries down to decomposition and rotting garbage
OMG, I just sniffed myself yet again and figured what the decomposition smell is: rotting fish. My arm smells like FISH!
gaidpark – :
A gently swaying gibbet, you know, those iron body shaped cages that hold the corpse of a thief as a warning to anyone contemplating crime in an era when the book came down on you like the wrath of the almighty. Like the sweet alluring scent of the midnight flowering plant of death, the evening breeze carries decay under your nose as visible as the Bisto kids advert for gravy. And this is the gravy a gifted perfumer’s brain squeezed dry. I can be basic and say that looking up the gibbett contains your fat sweaty woodwork teacher. It does. However it’s not only demise I sniff, it’s the un-floral kiss of a friend that you always trusted and half wanted to be.
WhiteWolfik – :
Serge Noire was launched in 2008 and its name actually has a kind of double meaning. That’s because the name of Serge is also the name of a fabric (In Portuguese, Sarja; in English, Twill). So, it seems that Serge took advantage of this duality, when naming this fragrance, but also to show a darker side of his personality, a kind of “Dark Serge”.
In terms of concept, he says: “My first name is the name of a fabric. It strikes the right note for this fragrance. In a similar vein, nothing can capture this scent’s spirit better than subtle “snapshots” from the past, like a forgotten glove lying on an antique chair. Incense stirred by the smell of burnt wood”.
Serge Noire has notes of patchouli, cinnamon, amber, ebony wood, cloves, incense, ash, resins and mix of spices. Some say that it took more than 10 years to be ready.
On the skin, Serge Noire is one of the most powerful fragrances of the House, no doubt. And because of that, it is also of the type “love it or hate it”. During the first hour, the smell scares! There is a vivid nuance of clove, with medicinal aspect (reminding the medicine used by dentists) and a sour smell reminiscent of sweaty armpits, especially on the areas where the perfume was sprayed. Maybe that part has something to do with the importance of twill in the late 19th century, when it was widely used in the manufacture of military clothing.
After this stage, a dark phase begins to emerge. The incense does not arise smoky, but pure, as if ready to be put on the coals. Still, a strong smell of spice mixes with incense, making me remember of cumin. And the wood seems dense, but not dry.
Then, a certain contradiction between the spicy and creamy begins to appear. The cinnamon starts to become more present and the incense starts to burn and leave its fragrant smoke. At this stage of evolution, Serge Noire doesn’t remember, in any sense, that fragrance of hours ago.
Serge Noire evolves slowly and it is a smoky, spicy, strong, uncomfortable and quite masculine perfume, even though it’s unisex. But don’t think that the simple fact that you like spicy or smoky fragrances will be enough to appreciate this one. Not everyone can handle this more obscure facet of Serge.
I see darkness, ashes and pain fading out through the air, as the smoke of a fine incense, which burns slowly, perfuming and pushing away evil spirits.
digorik – :
This is not exactly the stuff of nightmares everybody’s talking about, but it certainly isn’t very appealing either. The sweaty and oily spiciness that appears soon after the opening is simply too much to handle! It smells like you’ve been eating tons of extremely spicy food (loaded especially with cumin) and for some reason you’re literally sweating the spices out of your pores with massive perspiration. 😀
That sweaty phase lasts a good 1-2 hours and it’s followed by a bit more pleasant incensy-woody drydown. Unfortunately it’s too late because by that time the scent is just a faint whisper with minimal projection (overall the longevity is about 4-5 hours). In this case the drydown doesn’t justify the suffering caused by the first couple of hours. I have to admit that I’d never go out in public smelling the way this one smells on me; it would give out a sense of seriously lacking personal hygiene. A reasonable level of dirtiness is fine by me, but Serge Noire goes way beyond.
There are much better creations to be found on the Lutens line! This one is definitely not for me.
owe848bedyWelty – :
I just received a sample of this and it’s a resounding NO! When people describe the cumin and cardamom in Declaration, this is what I think they’re thinking of: this overpowering, choking, visceral scent. It bears a very strong resemblance to something I would order at an Indian restaurant, but without the redemption of being able to taste it, or at least slather it in chutney. I just can’t see how this is a scent that anyone would find attractive on either gender, regardless of time of year or occasion.
Shcokk – :
I can`t believe I always evaded trying this before. Even today I sprayed 3 different Lutens before this and when I noticed I had some space left on my right hand I said: well… ok… let`s put this one that receives so many bad reviews…
And to be honest the first seconds it felt bad as if I had applied a rotten thing, but after some minutes I got bewitched. Dark, very sexy but somehow aloof and hard to grasp. It was definitely the one that i felt I had to have at some point and I think it is not an easy one but very unique nonetheless.I have to give it another go before I get it but it is definitely on my mind and can`t forget its charm. May it become my new signature? we`ll see.
The fact that it gets too soft in an hour or so is a bit annoying given its initial strength and presence, but it helps make you feel you can tame it a bit. Really really a nice finding!
DrZoltsberg – :
Ordered this blind mainly because of one review (by Dark Lady), and the curiosity to find out what could be so polarizing about it. The bottle took a month and a half to arrive, and tracking information for the most part of that time just wasn’t available. I onestly thought the seller had fooled me, but he hadn’t. And then at the post office they couldn’t find the package and I waited for half an hour thinking it got lost… but it hadn’t. So when I finally took Serge Noire out of the box I was so afraid I had gone through all that only to be disappointed by the actual fragrance…
I was lucky! There’s something haunting about Serge Noire. It smells of childhood, like the cola-flavored candies my grandfather used to bring me; it smells of comfort, like the embrace of a man I’ve loved and lost; it smells of safety, like spending a rainiy day beside a fireplace…
Can’t really tell the notes apart, but I surely love Serge Noire, and don’t want to wear anything else for a while…
mela – :
Smells like smokey tea leaves. I don’t hate it but it’s not especially great. If I’m being honest, this one, like a couple other Serge frags, don’t smell very wearable, they’re more like candles and functional fragrances. Just not really my thing.
Jambazi – :
One of very few fragrances that I simply can’t tolerate. This stuff seriously makes my stomach lurch.
Do NOT blind buy this.
Invismivy – :
I found the initial hit of wood and cumin a little off-putting (not bad, I’m just not a fan of woods, generally). As others have said, the dry down was remarkably different. I got incense, smoke (whiffs of something actually burnt), leather and perhaps a little camphor. Somehow the smell feels a little too distant or proper for me, but I could imagine men and women on whom it would be very intriguing. Serious, bookish (obscure books!), but darkly sexy. Like a very orderly and together librarian with a curiously obscure knowledge of occult books.
Progressor – :
This is my first serge lutens frag and oh my God you really have to stick with this one as for me the opening has a kind of weird leafy green scent that I can’t help thinking that it smells of Brussels sprouts and I noticed above that this is compared to black cashmere but to me the latter is the better of the two but once you get to the smoky dry down it’s lovely but that green smell I’m really not sure where it comes from at first I thought it was an over dose of oak moss but its not even in this scent I just hope chergui doesn’t turn out to be this challenging. X
Dj-Striker- – :
What an interesting fragrance. It evolves and changes, from a dirty blob to a magnificent ashy phoenix.
This scent is anything but linear.
At first spray, a dirty spice bomb: a blast of clove, cumin, cinnamon, combined together on a sweaty base. Quite difficult to handle during the first 5 mins. Then this spicy sweatiness suddenly morphs into a dusty scent, very much what Serge states as “a forgotten glove on a polished armchair”. Very evocative in its strangeness.
This doesn’t last long however, and the true heart of SN starts to emerge, stronger and stronger: camphorous incense, then more and more incense, burning away the dampness of the spices, turning them warm and dry. And then comes the glorious final: mystical clove and cinnamon wrapped in clouds of frankincense. Mesmerizing. The cumin spiciness still stands in the background, dry and behaved, giving the overall fragrance an edge that makes it definitely unique.
In its dying phase, a sweet and soothing clove lingers for a while.
As for perfomance and usability: moderate sillage, but its barely tamed and can show up when least expected. I experienced a good longevity but I got to say, one of the few fragrances I prefer on clothes than on skin: it will skip the pungent start and fast forward to the dusty smokey clove stage, making you feel like an elegant vampire wearing rich dark velvet, even though you are just a poor mortal wearing cotton: Dark, refined, seductive without trying to seduce. Also on clothes this one definitely lasts for DAYS, as if it was made for fabric.
I don’t usually rely much on day/night or seasons for wearability, yet this one is absolutely a creature of the chilly nights. Perfectly unisex, alluring on a woman, compelling on a man.
There is something deeply esoteric about this fragrance, and it has an intimidating but majestic presence that reminded me of a religious totem or a sacred statue. It has almost a personnality on its own, it feels alive.
One word: transcendence.
Максимельян – :
Upon application I pick up hefty doses of frankincense, clove, and cumin. The more I sniff the more I detect a strangely sheer layer of woods that gives it a metallic edge. This, paired with the dryness of the aforementioned notes is definitely unique and instantly identifiable. I have difficulties with cumin and this does not smooth it out, in fact it kind of reminds me of spanish food, or perhaps some strange, cold, metallic spice cabinet. It’s odd to me, and I don’t think I enjoy wearing it, but it’s uniqueness is certainly intriguing. So far, out of the lutens I’ve tried, this is the weakest in composition, longevity, and projection so I’m going to say that this is nonessential for the Lutens line but certainly a worthwhile curio for those who are feeling dark, spicy, adventurous and perhaps a little bit hungry for some tortilla chips.
5/10
EDIT: This grew on me a TON. This definitely takes some patience, but over time I found myself sort of cr