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Serge Lutens is one of the world’s great niche perfumers. His prolific range of magnificent juices represents the true work of a rarified nose. Lutens was born in Lille, Northern France, on the Deûle River in 1942. Lille is France’s fourth largest metropolitan city behind Paris, Lyon and Marseille. Lutens began his illustrious career in beauty when he moved to Paris in 1962. Having worked at Vogue as a stylist later he was hired by Christian Dior to create a makeup line.
In 1980 Lutens was hired by Shiseido to reinvigorate their branding and image. During the eighties he reinvented Shisiedo focusing mostly on their advertising, makeup range and packaging. His fragrance career was inaugurated when Shiseido commissioned Lutens to create a fragrance called Nombre Noir.
Nombre Noir was a breakthrough; Shisiedo’s in-house perfumer Jean-Yves Leroy, under the direction of Lutens and Yusui Kumai, created this Osmanthus and Damascone rosy-wood fragrance. Luca Turin, one of the world’s best-known perfume critics called Nombre Noir, “one of the great five perfumes of the world.” In 2000 Lutens launched his own brand, Parfums-Beaute by Serge Lutens.
Master perfumer Christopher Sheldrake created the sumptuous Vetiver Oriental in conjunction with Lutens direction in 2004. Sheldrake has composed many of Lutens fragrances including: Mandarine Mandarin, Muscs Koublai Khan, Iris Silver Mist, Datura Noir, Borneo 1834 and Ambre Sultan just to name a few. He is also responsible for Sycomore for the Les Exclusifs de Chanel collection.
Upon first wiff, Vetiver Oriental is darkly mysterious and seduces the senses making everything else around you fade away leaving only the creamy, resinous, balsamic notes wash away the hard edges of the day. The first olfactory register is how incredibly well structured and balanced this fragrance is. The symphonic harmonies between top, middle and low notes are truly breathtakingly beautiful. They each shine simultaneously with a remarkable clarity.
The earthy grass notes of the Vetiver melt into the layers of Benzoin, Labdanum, Sandalwood and are sweetened by Amber and Iris. The whole effect is somewhat gourmand in a superb dark bitter chocolate truffle confection. It engages with body chemistry beautifully, as it molds to the skin its depth builds and the warm Amber and Sandalwood notes come alive with oriental spice.
It transports me to the Silk Road, the exotic silk and spice trans-continental pipeline for the world’s rarest and most valuable aromatic gifts of Persia, Arabia, Somalia and Java-Indonesia. It also invokes a slight biblical cord in me of the time the Book of Esther was sent from Susa to provinces as far out as India and the Kingdom of Kush during the reign of Xerxes the Great (485-465 BC).
Vetiver Oriental is most definitely a nocturnal fragrance. It smoldering darkness should cast its spell well after the sun has set. The Empress of the Tarot also comes to mind, sweet spicy incense wafting around her throne as she wields her scepter and orb. The Empress can either represent life itself or the smothering of all living things until they succumb to the underworld. This describes Vetiver Oriental, a little goes a long way, a delicate application uplifts life although being heavy handed can choke the life right out of you.
This sophisticated fragrance is a luxurious must have for special occasions or the rare evening of solitary splendor of sitting alone gazing at the fireplace with a cognac contemplating what life must have been like along the Silk Road.
www.luckyscent.com
Vetiver Oriental 50ml $140.00
Fragrance Creator: Christopher Sheldrake
Fragrance Notes: Vetiver, Iris, Chocolate, Musk, Amber, Sandalwood, Labdanum, Benzoin
Fragrance Style: Oriental
Recommended Use: Fall/Winter Evenings
Sex: Unisex
Launch Date: 2004
David Parker
Perfume Aficionado
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