Reviews of Fumerie Turque (2003)
by Serge Lutens Les Salons du Palais Royal Shiseido

Vanilla sticks one can find in an Indian shop. A friend of mine asked the other night, 'guys, can you smell those horrible vanilla sticks. G, I hate those', and I was like, 'oh yeah. That's my Fumerie Turque'. Silage, projection, staying power? Forget about it. Not worth the money.

Notes: currants, white honey, candied Turkish rose, Egyptian jasmine, smoked leather, beeswax, Balkan tobacco, Peru balsam, patchouli, tonka bean, styrax, juniper, vanilla.

The Sheldrake-Lutens extreme oriental duo is at it again. Look at the notes. You can already guess whats coming up.

Fumerie Turque starts off smelling quite pleasant. Fresh notes of currant , rose and honey meld with hints of tobacco and leather to create a pleasant aroma. And then suddenly it all goes downhill. The tobacco increases in intensity, as do the syrapy notes. The notes of styrax, patchouli, vanilla, rose and tobacco join forces to hammer your senses. Its sweet pipe tobacco - make it very sweet. It just doesnt smell right - tobacco if used correctly provides depth and richness to a composition. Here its cross-dressed in fruity syrupy notes. Its like Arnold Schwarzenegger being handed the role of John Nash in the movie The Beautiful Mind. Its just not right. It doesnt remind me of a gentlemans club in swanky Manhattan - rather the image I get is of a grumpy old man smoking a pipe in an ethnic candy and sweet shop. Oh, and the longevity is less than impressive; 4 hours max.

Let me quote a sentence from a blog review: "..tobacco leaves soaked in honey and caramel redolent rum". Bam! A perfect and succint description of Fumerie Turque. People were actually buying back up bottles of this tobacco candy - really, what are you smoking people ? (pun intended). If you are a fan of Serge Lutens' earth-shaking orientals, and would like tobacco with 'em, change the rating to a thumbs up.

I am glad this remains an "exclusif", locked up far away in a chamber in Paris.

Very tobacco. The floral honey drydown is lovely but still overwhelmed by stale tobacco scent. Doesn't wash off easily either!