Gris Clair (2006)
by Serge Lutens Les Salons du Palais Royal Shiseido

Oh joy! A lavender scent that doesn't turn into stuffy-old-man soap! I love fresh lavender in the garden, but tend to steer away from lavender scents. Unless they have strong animalic components - like Jicky or Ungaro II - they become oppressively soapy on my skin. Not Gris Clair.

My experience is that almost every time Sheldrake and Lutens break out of their obsessive sweet oriental groove, they strike gold: Sa Majeste la Rose, Chene, Un Lys, Tubereuse Criminelle, and now Gris Clair. The element of success in this scent, I believe, is balance. The lavender is palpably real and three-dimensional, but not overwhelming. Instead, it's perfectly offset by smooth woods and soft spices, enlivened by a mild camphorous note, and rounded out by just the merest dab of sweetness in the base. It's not sensuous in the manner of most Serge Lutens scents, but rather quite reserved and formal.

Gris Clair is a scent that I would turn too when I'm dressing well in warm weather and want to project sophistication, poise, and confidence. Better than average lasting power and adequate, yet controlled sillage and projection add to its charms. Bravo!

My favorite winter scent (though it works just as well in warmer weather).

This one is an enigma to me - cool and warm at the same time, crisp and mellow, refreshing and comforting. It reminds me of looking out of the window from the kitchen on a bright winter morning, with a cup of tea in my hands. The mineralic-woody-oriental base is just gold. Perfect sillage & longevity.

In my opinion a really good example of what not to do with lavender. It is not featured in a natural way nor integrated in a complex way. Instead the scent strikes me as over produced, sacharin sweetened, de-medicinalised. All the purple roundness is removed leaving a monochrome two dimensional flatland.

I get no pathos with this, it is too technical and has no flow. It would make a good flavouring for a travel sweet in a tin. It lacks in depth of conception and execution to me.

My favourite lavender scent.

Its crisp and sharp accords make this perfectly suitable for the warmer months (if worn during cooler weather, it’ll fail to fully bloom). Gris Clair is fresh, unapologetically dense and possesses plenty of charisma – at no point does it ever develop into generic blandness.

It’s a superb summer staple for anyone’s wardrobe.

Extremely different from most Lutens scents, Gris Clair is somewhat brutal, quite one- dimensional and very masculine. It definitely breaks the mold regarding what we´ve come to expect from this house. Neither ambigous or an oriental-candied fruit-honeyed-sweetness-meltdown, Gris Clair is a modern, sharp and quite dark take on lavender.

The lavender has a clear metallic edge to it that is very special - reminds me a bit of the small spice sachets that grandma had lying around drawers with linen.

But it´s also easy to argue that Gris Clair in fact is a stronge move toward the mainstream. It´s miles less original than most Lutens fragrances, and elements of it are extremely reminiscent of widely available stuff like Lanvin L´Homme or Rocabar from Hermès. Perhaps this is the route many niche houses will be taking? At least Fredric Malle´s Outrageous and many of the latest L'Artisans seem to indicate such a development.

To conclude, Gris Clair is a cool (literallly)and macho spiced juice with some serious bite. Mellow and subtle it is not, but an accesible lavender that'll work great in a professional business enviroment assuming it is applied with moderation. A nice fragrance on it´s own but only okay granted it´s maker and niche status.

Sharp, crisp and melancholy use of lavender here. I see blustery moors and snow-covered hills when I wear Gris Clair - it's not a warm and fuzzy frag, no. It's pure wintertime crispness, with no prettified edges.