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

I get a strong leather accord in the opening, even before all the smoke. I was told Sheldrake draws inspiration from the places he frequents including a particular Moroccan marketplace; here I can thus picture myself at a stall which sells leather goods. Bitter sweet smoke arrives next as I walk pass a group of men sharing a hookah between them. Then little notes of rose and some unidentified fruits waft in and out of the dense tobacco smoke before honey and amber make their presence felt albeit lightly. Indeed, there are countless stalls in such a large marketplace.

Unlike By Kilian's Back To Black, FUMERIE TURQUE leans closer to the masculine at least for the first hour or two before it softens. It is also more evocative and multi-layered compared to Tom Ford's Tobacco Vanille. Yet I don't find it particularly compelling; maybe I'm just not romanced by the whole 'marketplace-inspired' concept.

This is one of the finest tobacco notes I've ever come across - powder-ish sweet/dry smoke.. almost the feel of being surrounded by a circle of smoke machines all going full blast. Very mysterious and nocturnal feeling without coming off as alarming. Unisex with ever so slightly below average sillage/duration compared to other Lutens fragrances. I find it incredibly impressive.

One of my favourite Serge Lutens. A very unique, dry and smoky masterpiece that is indeed intoxicating. The initial blast is somewhat medicinal but, with just a little patience, its charm soon emerges from its complex notes. Ideal for cooler weather and one of the few SLs that is definitely bottle worthy.

UPDATE:

I'm changing my rating from a thumbs-up to a neutral as, for some strange reason, it fails to last on my skin for more than a couple of hours.

[Original submission date: 10 April 2008]

I once wrote of Fumerie Turque:

“I understand the love that some have of this fragrance, and I understand the detractors, too.

On my skin this went on with a blast of brilliantly rendered tobacco smoke, which settled slightly over the first few minutes to reveal powerful notes of spiced amber and honey, not too far removed, in fact, from this house's Ambre Sultan. Honey underpins Fumerie Turque's heart, but this honey is not so heavy and enveloping as that found in Miel de Bois or Arabie. You're not likely to drown in it.

At about wo hours into its development on my skin, Fumerie Turque loses some of its balance and complexity. Some pleasing notes, including the currants and the rose, recede, and I'm left with honey, cigarette smoke, and amber. The tobacco smoke in Fumerie Turque doesn't seem to me to be as fully blended as in scents like Palais Jamais, Vintage Tabarome, and Habanita. In fact, when Fumerie Turque's smoky accord is in the forefront I smell like...well, like a smoker. As the drydown progresses the smoke and the sweet base notes alternate in dominance, until all that remains is smoke.

If I wanted to smell like a smoker, I would smoke. It's cheaper than wearing Fumerie Turque, if perhaps a bit less healthy. So while I appreciate Fumerie Turque's stature and quality I have no desire to wear it.”

I’ve since (to paraphrase Kubrick) learned to stop worrying and love the smoke. Having fallen successively for Black Tourmaline and Or Black, coming to grips with Fumerie Turque was perhaps inevitable. I'm now happy to wear it whenever I need a dose of olfactory warm and cozy.

Allow me to reiterate the notes in my own review: currants, white honey, candied Turkish rose, Egyptian jasmine, smoked leather, beeswax, Balkan tobacco, Peru balsam, patchouli, tonka bean, styrax, juniper, and vanilla. I had to do that because when I look at those notes it is like reading poetry to me.

I can only describe Fumerie Turque as it occurs to me and what I sense is a very tightly constructed, compact and dense incense fragrance. Not incense as a note of course, but rather, a composition which might yield the perfume used to scent incense meant to be burned. For me the impression of Fumerie Turque is that of an ever so slightly smoked sweet amber mixed with an earthy, leathery, tobacco accord. A beautiful and contemplative fragrance.

Sirupy leather with a dirt ash note.
Disgusting.

A most interesting composition, a startling contrast of heavy smokey intensity and shy reticent old-world balsamic, honeyed sweetness. It is, to me, really startling in how the ingredients constantly play a slow, shifting game of hide-and-seek so that sometimes it is bitter and woody, sometimes faint and extremely reserved and sometimes outright Anatolian Latakia tobacco whore. I love it. It immediately conspires to slow down one's frenetic 2008 pace and to breathe deeply from the navel the way one is meant to do.
It brings up pleasant, comforting memories of comfortable autumn or winter days spent in huge comfortable leather armchairs and then just as that image is feeling solid it does a sly turn and you're inhaling some candied sultanas and imagining sipping musked tea out of a Turkish tulip glass....
It is a very personal and intimate experience wearing this.. but it is a powerful beast and if you apply enough you'll have half the room slowly edging their way closer to you wondering WHO is this intriguing man....?
Nothing boardroom decided or market-survey planned about this.
Some are going to miss the subtle pleasures of this thick, Mahler-esque composition.
But do I care?

It`s definitely not bad, but very neutral fragrance for me in the end. The list of notes brings water to my mouth, and the aroma is certainly pleasant one, but still, it just doesn`t move my heart in any ways. Its just a nice scent, but that`s about it.

Maybe I find FT too flat, maybe its annoyingly close to being something really special. I`m not sure.
Also, for some reason I have always found Fumerie Turque very artificial, very phony. I`m sure this doesn`t make any sense to anyone else, but this is how I feel.

On my skin FT is not a complex scent by any means. It very smooth and syrupy scent without anykind of particular development. Stays on skin for a long time.

I get a smooth blend of smoky tobacco, honeyed amber, benzoin, jasmin and sticky raisin-like sweetness.

Nice and warm scent which leaves me cold. I still have plenty of this left on my decant, and when I`m done with that, I`m done with this fragrance for the rest of my life.

Where is the tobacco? All I smell is ash.

An ashtray full of the remains of cheap cigars smoked down to the last quarter inch, a splash of cheap rum to keep the ash pungent, and a vanilla candy floating (and then dissolving) in the mess.

What a disappointment.

Old dust, smoke and vintage leather. My girlfrinds says it smells like a sweaty me. I am so egocenric that I will give this a thumbs up.

Smoky stunning opening is so rich that the notes in it made a short scene in front of my eyes. A man on a horse comes out of the steppe and getting off the horse, handles a leather pouch which is lying between the horse and the saddle. A well flattened bundle of tobacco leaves; dark and bitter comes out of pouch and the man shreds the tobacco on stone with an heavy knife. Really dark and harsh tobacco from east of Anatolia . Umgh yummy... (if you quit smoking recently, you should keep away from this. )
After an hour smoke goes away and it becomes sweet and delicate leather-tobacco perfume which is one of the best. I cannot stop smelling my wrist

I actually get great staying power with this. Sillage is close to the skin, as perfume should be. If I want to blast my perfume all over the room I'll spend $10 on Red Door. (Not gonna happen.) Fumerie Turque is a very layered and complex blend with woods, vanilla, tobacco and smoke. It goes through oddly gourmand stages, but mostly is just as the name says: Turkish Smoke. There is a stage that I don't care for much where the wood is a little sharp and sour, but it lasts about ten minutes and then becomes divine again. Definitely a unisex scent, I get far more compliments from other women than men. While the men don't flock to it, I still find my nose glued to my wrist.

I tried this at Barneys and immediately got a whiff of Messe d Minuit mixed with smoke. Lots of honey and vanilla. After the dry down I am getting smoke and more smoke. When mixed with Spanish Leather by Truefitt & Hill, it makes for a most incredible scent.

Deep and elegantly smoky, this complex scent is a great creation which is worth its price.

Somewhere in a forest, as the earliest winter chill starts to bring lifeless leaves to the earth, there sits a cottage...

I can't pretend to be poetic. Seriously, unless I'm being graded by a professor wearing a skirt short enough to let me know if "commando" is more than just a movie to her, I have absolutely no inclination to try my hand at creative writing.

Let's sum this up right quick...

Fireplace, smoke, baked treats.

Fumerie Turque is a fantastic, cool weather, unisex work of art that you'll enjoy. Not only that, you will pique the curiosity of people around you, and they will want to get closer for a better smell, and maybe even a taste.

So, ladies and gentlement, groom yourself, spray this on, and bring some game...

Honey, smoke, tobacco. A bit sweet for me, but nice. I don't think I would buy it, but it was pleasurable to test.

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.

Sweet, smoky tobacco. Will whisk you away into a dream world.

From the vax sample I couldn't do justice. One should have a full wearing from at least a decant to see every faces of it. As I'm getting older, my fond memories from my childhood in a nice small village do come back more and more often. This scent brings me back to the autumn evenings where the sweet and sour smell of the burning leaves would find its way to the courts, mixing with the cigarette smoke of my grandfather. There are rosebushes, too, the petals of which evaporating the last molecules of summer.
The calmness and the relaxation, which we so miss in our speedy everyday life - this can be found if you envelope yourself in this scent.

Wonderful opening. The current gives that sharpness to the opening honey accord – a sharpness that is needed to tone down that signature sweetness, which almost immediately is too much…almost. But there is a soft, textured element in the opening that gives it depth – I think it’s the jasmine, which is very soon replaced by a modicum of leather rising from the middle. This opening seems to be a little less Lutens than the usual Lutens fragrances. I find the opening more controlled in its honeyed sweetness. It is complex: its sweetness is in contention with some rougher, edgier, and more aggressive notes such as the aforementioned current and leather – smoked leather. And the opening is as compelling as it is edgy. The middle is rich and luscious with the smoked leather joined by the tobacco, and it holds for a respectable time. The drydown lacks the sweetness that the other Lutens’ scents present, and, come to think of it, I find the total fragrance to be much less sweet than most of the other Lutens offerings I’ve encountered.

As others have noted, Fumerie Turque is complex and very well constructed, and it pushes the envelope a bit. It has too much leather for me so I won’t be buying, but I do admire its depth and breadth. I also admire the Lutens consistency in providing drama and passion in these fragrances – creative variations on an easy-to-overdo theme... but hardly ever being overdone...

Wonderfully smoky, enveloping fragrance. Like Chene, but sweeter.

Fumerie Turque is my favorite SL fragrance by far. The honey, hay, tabacco, and leather notes are blended beautifully. Whenever I wear this I just cant stop smelling myself. This is a great winter scent that I believe everyone should have in their collection.

Fumerie Turque is Topkapi Palace in a bottle! Smoky & sultry leather-tobacco scent with a superb sillage.

So many tobacco scents smell dry, almost papery to me. I'm thinking specifically right now of Habinita at Jolie Madame, but I know there are many others. Fumerie Turque is nothing like this. It is deep, sweet, thick, and enveloping. It is the scent of the silk lapel of a rich man's smoking jacket (is he wearing MKK?), or the beautiful lady on his lap, sitting in his favorite leather chair, with wafts of the finest cherry tobacco, fresh out of the canister, billowing in the air. Swoon...

Big, thick smokey sweetness -- the best from SL that I've tried anyway and there are subtle changes happening on the journey -- variations of silky smokey spices. Really lovely to wear -- longevity excellent on me.

Kaern

Very nice, but too much honey, too much Macedonian pipe tobacco, not enough "supporting" notes. Reminds me somewhat of Lagerfeld Classic.

My former neighbour used to be into artisinal perfumery when I lived in Sydney, and He and His wife used to create beautiful scents in the most beautiful bottles. I remember a scent of their's much like this, but less intense, "freer" and "lighter", but just as lingering and dark. I belive their perfume contained a cockatail of bergamot, lemon, jasmine, carnation, rose, neroli, vetiver and sage as the basic construction of the supporting notes in that fragrance.

Overall, Fumerie and that other frag (I for the life of me can't remember what they called it) are very similar, but, sorry to say, their's is better...

I know this has turned into a talk about another fragrance, but I am meerly pinting out how it could be made better! lol!

When you inhale this you can *see* the leather, and the sweet cherry tobacco pipe smoke.

This is probably *the* most wonderful thing that comes in a bottle that I can remember breathing in.

Along with A La Nuit where you can see the jasmine flowers, so complete and full bodied is the scent, this is my favourite fragrance.

Now this is a fragrance - an olfactory opera of the Fin de siècle; think of Richard Strauss, e.g. the most sexual "Salome" - I can wear almost exclusively on evening or night occasions. Fumerie Turque, at least to me, always seems willing to escape the unholy sun which spotlights all the undeniable ugliness of the world and its people. Not so at night... Worn then it is a sheltering scent that gives the wearer utmost self-confidence (if he lacks the last mentioned).

However, it seems to be subtle, although longlasting. The effect on others, we may call it "sillage", tends to be low. If applied sparingly it will speak only exclusively to the wearer, not to his environment. But once noticed by others it certainly conveys the message: "Leave me alone, don't interfere with me." So Fumerie Turque, like many of Serge Lutens' fragrances, communicates a concept that is rather not communicative: The concept of self-chosen solitude, of break-away from fellow creatures. "Garnering compliments", an often used phrase, is not the agency of Fumerie Turque.

On the other side: This is n o t a scent of ennui or Weltschmerz. This is the one that creates an entire world for the one who is wearing it.
A world, better than ours...

I was beginning to despair with the Serge Luten range but Fumerie Turque restores my hope. After sampling Ambre Sultan this is a welcome relief. Fumerie Turque is smoky (and yes with suggestion maybe it is a little like an ashtray but i like it and i dont smoke) It is honeyed smokiness. You kinda need the ashy smoke to remind you the world is not all beautiful. It adds contrast and complexity. I want a bottle.

My first SL scent was Chergui and I fall in love with it.After having read the characteristics of Fumerie Turque on basenotes the temptation to smell and wear it were too strong.So I have buyed a bottle on a shop on line.My wife first smelled to it just because when it was delivered I was at work and she sent me a message on my phone : "At first it smeels like Etro's Gomma, but then it is another wondering story...".
The richness of the notes are outstanding and I can't resist, when I must make my choice of the scent to use in the morning before go to work, to it.
Everyone near me,when I wear it, can't resist to make me compliments about my perfume.
Thank you SL!

This is a powerhouse, but you need to like Latakia tobacco (not sweet at all in my mind), at least for the first hour. Otherwise, let someone else vote Balkan Sobranie. But then the rich development after the strong topnote is worth the wait: exotic all day (12 - 15 hours for me).

An angel of opulence to me. She's a vision, gilded head to toe, draped in diamonds, rubies and pearls, the image is backlit to emphasize her voluptuous silhouette. As the scent dances off my skin, her dance is smooth, slow...beguiling. The music is somewhat familiar, I shake my head in denial. I have definitely heard it before, but what is it? Catchy, but nowadays only recognizable to those who know classical composition. Suddenly, it's all clear. The composition is Chanel's No. 5 ... yes, No. 5! The familiar and voluptuous notes of rose and jasmine, more powdery, more aldehydic. The only reason I didn't catch it at first was because of a totally different beginning overture, currant, honey and tobacco created a different rhythm, deceptive as well is the vision of my angel, she wasn't a 20-something platinum blonde, the hair definitely darker, her presence more smouldering and surprised she was clearly and even more sophisticated, making a No. 5 woman look like an innocent girl playing with her mom's clothes. Fumerie Turque...she's absolutely amazing!

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.

Well, I guess it is just not what I had hoped for. Tried it several times, wanting to love it, but simply don't. It is complex, there are many notes to discover, but to they just don't fit together.
First of all there is no smoke (I love the smell of pipe tobacco - pure and burnt), what I get here is just tar and perhaps ash! Then ther is a very strong rose component and honey mixing in to this.
To my nose it is just too strange, not smooth at all!
I guess there is more to discover, not for me though.

In case you are tempted to order this one blind: be warned, you may not like!

I love the smoke, I love the leather. I wish it were less sweet. If the honey were reduced by half, I would adore this. It smells like walking into a darkened smoking lounge, where men in business suits are sitting in overstuffed leather chairs and couches, reading newspapers beneath Tiffany lamps, smoking pipes and drinking rum. It conjures up dreamy, imaginative version of Men's Territory. It smells like snuggling into the suade vest of a man who has smoked a cigarette--how sensual. I wish the men weren't wearing so much sweet cologne, though. It detracts from the dryness of this scent.

One of my top five scents for sure, and likely to stay there for a long while. Think of sitting in a lavish palace, rich, thick, smokey tobacco notes waft in the air, somehow mingling with the smell of honey and flowers, all with some sort of exotic spicy cuisine being prepared in the background. It's a lot for one image, I know. It's a lot for one scent too, but it all comes together harmoniously, gloriously. Often folks want to compare this to L'Artisan's Tea for Two. I don't know why, since they are different scents, but here's what I had to say about that comparison on the boards some time ago:

"To my nose FT is more complex. I get little bits and pieces, where a note pops in for a bit, then disappears. T42, to me, is more straightforward, with less evolution. With the former, I keep sniffing to see what I am going to smell this time; with T42, I feel like once the topnotes have faded and the heart notes set in, I've seen the whole show."

That still rings true to me. When it comes to full-on richness and complexity, as well as dark, exotic beauty, Fumerie Turque is in a league of its own.

This one is just unreal. I hate tobacco scents but I crave this. The tobacco is very dominant, naturally, but other notes play and intertwine and do all sorts of magical things. I've really never smelled anything like this before and it's well worth the retail price from Paris. Just save up and get it!

Fumerie Turque is wonderful and comforting like Ambre narguile or Idole. Gourmand, sweet and so warm it's almost hot, with a decidedly dry, smoky note. It's like smoking sweet pipe tobacco and eating loukhom and other oriental delights in the dark of a stone house sheltering you from the heat of the desert outside.

Now, don't get too upset...but something about this reminds me ever-so-slightly of the core notes of Joop! Homme. perhaps it's the honeyed currants and candied rose with vanilla and styrax, but...

Fumerie Turque is one of the highlights of the SL collection. Rich, full of character, perfect for cooler weather, longlasting and absolutely intoxicting. It would almost seem as if this scent were made expresly for me!

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

This Lutens fragrances annoy me - they somehow my ability to pin them down as they seem built out of binary opposites. Fumerie Turque is both dangerous (you can imagine some animal threat lurking in the scent) and comforting (it envelops you like the best winter clothes). It's heady (the florals really do work with the smoke) and subtle (you want to keep smelling to extract every nuance). It's a dream of a fragrance and with that bottle it arrives in, the best present I've ever given myself.

Not the smoky choking image its name suggests. Instead a very soft and mysterious honeyed tobacco with woods in the background that is actually very wearable.
Fitting a well-to-do house decked in fluffy rugs , leather bound books , crystal carafes and mahogany furniture in Sunday morning mood. Lazy and pensive , but full of the joys of restfulness. Very sexy too in a nonchalant , rich way.
Fits well in any weather and any occasion

Fumerie Turque is my favorite Serge Lutens fragrance. It’s a rich and smoky fragrance with hints of rose that are barely tangible through the thick and rich smoky tobacco notes. It’s not really sweet per se, but it has just enough to make it the richest and deepest oriental I’ve ever smelled. It’s all put together by a warm boozy base. There is nothing like it.

Night is falling down at Topkapi and a hot wind keeps jasmine sweetness from far. Lustful dancers scented like Damask's roses rotate their hands in the air as the thick smoke rises. Tobacco, fruits and spices are offered to let you slide in this empire of senses.

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

Another one of my fave Serge Lutens. I love the play between the smokey aspect and honey notes with the rose just peeking through. Drydown is superb. I find this scent elegant & refined and is reminiscent of Carons as it has a sultry dark accord.