Louve (2007)
by Serge Lutens Les Salons du Palais Royal Shiseido

Total Amaretto upon spraying. After the initial sharp, sweet, candied (almost synthetic?) almond note has faded, it turns into a vaguely medicinal concoction on my skin - which has nothing to do with almonds and everything with a memory I can't quite put my finger on. Cough syrup, an alcoholic bitter... something similar to that. Unpleasant.
As the scent progresses, I'm picking up the original almond opening again, but mellowed, powdery and devoid of all the sugar and the candied wetness. This is the part of the scent that I like best, I wish it would smell like that for the entire duration. Alas, it fades soon into an inoffensive musky odour.

It's a wild ride, I'll have to give it that. It has me intrigued, but I can't say it's an entirely pleasant experience.

Comfort, comfort and more comfort! There's no intrigue and no mystery, but the comfort is all-encompassing. It is like a bowl of Middle Eastern confections: almond nougat, pistachio loukhoum, and cardamom kisses rolled in dried rose petals. On the drydown is a soft powdery white heliotrope, true to the fresh blossoms, is warmed with amber and vanilla.

When you wear this, don't expect romance. It's more for those flannel pajama nights.

Louve is a sickly sweet sugar bomb that ends up smelling like musk.

I was really hoping to love this one but, alas, this is not the case. I admire Hypnotic Poison but have problems detecting it on my skin after 30 minutes, so I considered this to be an ideal alternative. Unfortunately, after applying, all I smell is marzipan and that’s not what I want to smell like in public...

Vidal Sassoon shampoo it is, with enough almonds and cherries to make a marzipan factory worker swoon.

Lovely drydown, though, and yes, ubuandibeme got it right -- very in the Chergui vein.

Wouldn't pay the outrageous price per bottle, though -- I don't like almonds THAT much.

In the late 1970's Vidal Sassoon went retail with their hair care products. Their original salon shampoo was packaged in a brown cylindrical bottle and smelled of almond and maraschino cherries...this is how SL's Louve smells to me! It is sweet and powdery. I do detect a bit of rose in this mix. Dries down a bit like Chergui on my skin. Interesting.