Five O'Clock Au Gingembre (2008)
by Serge Lutens Les Salons du Palais Royal Shiseido

I love the top note of gingerbread. This is a gingerbread that is strong but not in a bakery sort of way. Unfortunately, the following notes go downhill and the wearer is left with a nondescript, slightly woody perfume.

The ginger here reminds of the dried, powdered spice rather than the fresh living root. I have a strong preference for the latter, so something like Five O'Clock wasn't meant for me anyhow, but it's a decent if uninspiring rendition of ginger with a woody-gourmand base. Surprisingly for a gourmand, it's not especially sweet. I don't smell tea in this, but perhaps that's the woodiness I smell here - it does have a rather tannic quality.

Apart from delicious lemon-honey cookie-like opening I find this utterly disappointing.
It just doesn’t satisfy like some other Lutens releases. Simple as that. I find it too subtle, too vague and fairly lame after all, to be honest.

I was hoping for something savoury, crunchy and full-bodied scent, but no; this dries down for a weak and quite thin scent that in addition of having anything to get hold off, smells very ordinary and boring.
After one or two hours of application I get this wimpy ginger note out of it that’s mixed up with some patchouli and a couple drops of honey. Distant whiffs of that peppery cocoa. It leaves a very subtle dry incense-y trace after some time. Overall FoCG is quite long lasting and it is able to put out decent yet very gentle sillage.
In this stage this scent lingers on as it starts to fade away. Very simple scent – no layering’s, no special nuances or any depth.

This time Sheldrake obviously failed to create anything particularly special.
Not terrible scent no, but the question is how the one would like to spend 80euros for this scent since there are so much more interesting perfumes available, from Lutens as well as many other houses.

Two stars out of five and thumbs very much down.

Very much like Rousse but with the emphasis on ginger rather than cinnamon (and they were released roughly a year apart!). It's also not up to the usual Lutens' standards, in terms of sillage and longevity. Its subtle quality is very uncharacteristic of this house but, then again, this sense of 'playing it safe' has been painfully evident in most of its creations for the past couple of years now.

A very disappointing release.

[Original submission date: 21 July 2008]

I was lucky enough to be given a spray sample of this in an exclusive scent boutique on Avenue Louise in Brussels. It seems more suited to men than to women and indeed is also known as 'The Gentleman'.

My first and lasting impression is that this is similar to Gucci Envy for men, but drier, smoother and without all the sweetness of Envy. I have worn Envy for several years and therefore think that Five o'clock would be a suitable upgrade for someone who enjoys a smooth gingery scent. Decent loglivity on my skin, a good 6-8 hours.

Pick your spice… make it cinnamon or make it ginger. I agree that Five O’Clock Au Gingembre is similar to Rousse, which has a similar background to the background in Five O’Clock Au Gingembre. I like this one better because the ginger retains its bright and refreshing character without developing that scary schizophrenic second personality as the cinnamon in Rousse does. The ginger is very nicely done – this is as nice as I’ve seen ginger done. The honey is well done, too, and complements the ginger. The patchouli and cocoa confused me at first, but it wasn’t long before I accepted them, and realized that they act as pivotal elements in the fragrance – they form an excellent counterpoint to the ginger and honey, but the fact that I had to reason this out hints at a lack of smoothness in the movement. The drydown is excellent: a bite of bitter chocolate and a patchouli with a smoky aura giving it a deeper, more ethereal personality than patchouli usually presents. The drydown seems lacking in longevity on my dry skin. I like this fragrance, but that’s as far as I can take it: It smells very nice, it performs well on my skin, but it is a bit rough in its assembly, and there’s something missing that would otherwise make it compelling… I can’t find the love.