Tuesday, January 26, 2010

UPDATED: Perfume: Ack! Serge Lutens discontinuations!

In the unlikely event that you read my blog and don't read Perfume Shrine (yeah, right), this is to point you to an article about four Serge Lutens discontinuations.

Douce Amere! I only have a decant! The budget forbids it! What do I do?

Update: Phew! It's not as bad as it sounded. See the Perfume Shrine update, but the summary is that they're just being taken off the export line - they'll be harder to get, but they aren't vanishing from the face of the earth. However, the list of fragrances has changed - replace Clair de Musc with Santal Blanc, on the list of those that will no longer be exported.

Image: Wikimedia Commons.

13 comments:

  1. Even if they are discontinuing it won't disappear from their storeroom immediately. Perhaps if you become a famous perfume blogger, they will present you with your own limited edition bottle.

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  2. I have had a sample of DA and had to slather some on tonight w/the news. It didn't wow me until two hours later...oh big sigh!

    Which begs the question - should we wait for the perfect essence of perfume? Are we used to big teases/facades in life so that we feel comfortable with the annoying top notes?

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  3. But, Enchanter, wouldn't I then have to report myself to the FTC?

    Frida, yep, it's a drydown scent. A lot of my favorite Lutenses are - especially Serge Noire.

    Hmm. I'm willing to tolerate compromises in top notes simply because they're so brief - and I also have some respect for a perfumer who doesn't make the perfume _all_ about the top notes and ignore the rest of the development, given that more and more these days, perfumes sell based on top notes on a paper strip.

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  4. No way! I actually ended up here before reading Perfume Shrine but I'm scared to go read now. Is it only Douce Amere or are there some others as well?

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  5. I've been a SL hater for a while now (Notes on "Miel de bois": Robitessen+tea rose+ beeswax--> Why?) Then, like so many before me, I was smitten: Although I didn't like "Arabie" on my skin, and it didn't impress me at first, I had some on a sweater after I left the perfume counter, and I spent all the next day, and the next ten days, sniffing that sleeve until I went and bought a whole bottle!!

    So now I can't say nasty things about SL any more. I guess I'll have to skoodle to go check out what's what before it's all gone...

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  6. Ines, you've probably gone to read by now, but there are three others - Miel de Bois, Clair de Musc, and Chypre Rouge. Lucky for me, Douce Amere is the only one that I love.

    LCN, yep, Lutens scents seem to me to be really strong "love 'em or hate 'em" scents. I hate Miel de Bois. Passionately. Vehemently. I quite possibly hate it more than I've hated any other scent. So (as I think I burbled on Perfume Posse, too) I suspect that that means that the possibility exists for me to love it just as passionately. But I'm not going to buy a bottle just on the chance. :)

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  7. There are very few scents of SL's to which I am emotionally attached, Un Lys and Chergui being two notable exceptions. Oh, and Fumerie Turque. I think that is all. So this news goes right over my head, I have to say!

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  8. flittersniffer, I'd say that you don't have to worry the least little bit about Chergui - I've seldom seen a scent so universally loved.

    I don't know how safe Un Lys is, and I do love it, so I think that it may need to be the next on the purchase priority list. Except there's that wrestling match between it and Number One. Oog. It would be wrong to own them both, right?

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  9. I see you are talking about Chergui so I just have to add - I don't like it at all - it turns my stomach and makes me feel nauseaous. Which makes it really strange that it is the bottle I ended up with when I was in Paris SL boutique. :)

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  10. Not wrong - I own Un Lys and DKNY Gold and Penhaligon's Lily & Spice!

    But if you wanted to go for One, I could send you emergency sample rations of Un Lys - as a person not suffering from postal regulation phobia. : - )

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  11. Oh, dear - about the bottle of Chergui. I assume it is oh, dear? Or are you fond of the bottle anyway?

    I'm not an unconditional Chergui lover - I find it pretty smothering for the first couple of hours, and there's a note that somehow doesn't seem to belong. I seem to smell the same note in the Gingembre one.

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  12. Thanks, flitternsiffer. :) But I suspect I'll be buying Un Lys. One won the comparison when it was real and Un Lys was memory, but as memory ages, Un Lys is coming out the winner again.

    Though I should wear both one day so that I'm comparing them in reality, not memory. Probably on a warm day, as a handicap for Un Lys.

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