Reviews of 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.

Looks like I'm the first to love this, but I do! It reminds me a bit of Tea for Two, but more like a gray tea with notes of soft ginger, a touch of bitter cocoa, and touches of smoky patchouli in the drydown. I love it!

Gingerbread cookies, baking and then dried. That would be enough of a review to give you an exact image of what this smells like in it's initial and then final stages, and you can just fill in the gaps of what comes in between.

This has a similar structure and devellopment to Arabie, except instead of an entire soukh, it's just those spices and ingredients needed to make ginger cookies. Like Arabie it starts off honeyed, thick and wet, like baking cookies or cake. And then eventually the moisture dissipates until you're left with dry spices. The aftermath of 5'Oclock is even more dessicated than that of Arabie, which usually makes me want to take a drink of water. The spices here end up feeling like they're *burning*.

This is turning out to be one of my favourites, but really, if you don't want to smell like gingerbread cookies, baking and dry - then you don't need this one! Otherwise, just go for it, you won't be disappointed!

I like Five O’Clock au Gingembre’s bracing lemon and ginger top notes, and I wish they would persist longer than they do. While the ginger doesn’t disappear entirely, it quickly melts into the background of a more-or-less standard issue Lutens mulled spice blend that’s not too far removed from the one at the heart of Rousse. Five O’Clock au Gingembre is supposed to evoke and afternoon tea, and with its black tea accord attendant spices, the scent actually does a credible job of mimicking a warm cup of chai.

For a Serge Lutens scent, Five O’Clock au Gingembre wears very lightly on me. In fact, after an hour or two it’s so transparent that it actually begins smelling a bit hollow. The signature Lutens dried fruit and syrup appears only late in Five O’Clock au Gingembre’s drydown, and even then it’s relatively subdued. While it's hardly a groundbreaking fragrance, Five O'Clock au Gingembre is an easygoing, affable fragrance by the standards of this house, and I think it might make a nice introduction to the Lutens line for those who normally shy away from rich oriental scents.

I liked this, but apart from the ginger, it isn't a lot different to many others in the smoky/rich sort of line and is playing rather safe I feel. The sillage is a bit shy, unlike Fumerie Turque and Un Cedre, but the longevity is ok. Overall, a bit disappointed in the lack of imagination involved in the creation, but if you are new to the SL line you will probably love it.