Serge Lutens Bas de Soie is a vintage black and white photograph of a scent. It's "retro", not in a funny-nostalgia way, but with that unruffled elegance that no one seems to possess any longer. Many of the reviews refer to it as cold, with the two major notes battling for control. I see it as warm and sunlit and soft, with the iris and hyacinth napping together like intertwined cats, so that you can't tell where one ends and the other begins.
I initially made a proper and sensible decision to spend a few days with a sample, and think about a possible, someday, eventual purchase. Then I caught a whiff of it from my arm and scurried back to the shop - where Himself bought it for me. He does a very fine job of keeping me smelling green.
Review Roundup: The Scented Salamander and 1000 Fragrances and Grain de Musc and Bois de Jasmin and Fragrantica and Perfume Posse and Cafleurebon and Perfume Shrine and Perfume-Smellin' Things and MakeupAlley and Now Smell This and The Fragrant Foodie (scroll down) and I Smell Therefore I Am and The Non-Blonde.
Images: Wikimedia Commons.
Have not yet tried this one, but now I'd like to. Yes, the reviews have been mixed, but it sounds like a fit for you.
ReplyDeleteI'm wearing it today - and I can totally see the name-association. It goes on cold, like silk stocking straight from the drawer (or like mercury)..then it warms up to a lovely green iris. I wore it to yoga (sparingly) and it really amped that cool mint lying underneath. A gorgeous scent. My first Serge Love.
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I have come round to this one more and more - it goes on cold on me too - all the mercury/icy tentacle analogies are spot on - and otherwise it reminds me of La Pausa, but lasts longer.
ReplyDeleteI am not a big SL fan, so this is a real turnaround! Now there are three I love: Un Lys, Bas de Soie and Chergui...
Hey, Josephine! I can see how it could _just_ shift into too sweet and therefore boring, or _just_ shift into too shrill and therefore, well, shrill. On my skin, its perfect.
ReplyDeleteMusette! Yay! Everyone needs a Serge love. It's a crazy line, but there ought to be _something_ in that craziness for everyone.
ReplyDeleteYo, flittersniffer! Heh - I don't get the cold at all. I should pick both a really hot day, and a really cold day, and see if I ever do get the cold.
ReplyDeleteAh, Un Lys is so gorgeous. I've always had a troubled relationship with Chergui - there's a sort of sweet-sneezy-tobacco-peppery thing going on that makes me want to shy away - but based on my last wearing I'm really hoping that I've finally reached love.