Serge Noire (2008)
by Serge Lutens Les Salons du Palais Royal Shiseido

Smoky, incensed and slightly sweet cedarwoods. Hmm... smells like someone's burning a bottle of Declaration and 2 MAN! Towards the end, it ends up smelling like ash but not like cigarette ash. I like the smell as it's truly unique but I'd never wear it daily, but highly formal times when you want to impress people up close as the sillage and longevity is lacking.

Mikeperez23 has written my thoughts on Serge Noire very accurately! I will add to his review, that SN reminds me of how the final crackling embers of a bonfire smell, and for all the notes of smoke, spices, and honeyed woods it possesses a remarkable balance!

Now I can finally have a scent to complete the olfactory experience of "being grilled alive" in the Bangkok heat. Very ashy and dry honeyed woods and incense that feel like they're smoldering right in front of you.

Well, they got the “noire” right, at any rate. Even within the first few minutes of wear, Serge Noire establishes itself as a dark, dark scent, with a dense blend of spices, incense, and aromatics that even suggests some of the big, burly masculines of the 1970s. The composition resolves into a bold, rasping accord of peppery spices and incense that’s held together by a huge dusty cedar note. The impression is one of simultaneous heat and darkness.

Notably absent is any of the familiar Sheldrake-Lutens dried fruit and syrup accord, so Serge Noire is dry as well as hot. With all the spices and cedar, Serge Noire gets me thinking about Shiseido’s Basala, which I believe Sheldrake may also have worked on. The two scents are cousins, if not siblings, though I remember Basala as a somewhat richer and more rounded scent.

All of these impressions come within the first hour of wearing Serge Noire. Soon after that, the entire structure collapses like a house of cards, so that only the dry, dusty cedar remains. The development, if you can call it that, is one of the most bizarre I’ve ever encountered. The fragrance shrinks away so fast I can actually smell it imploding. It’s not clear to me whether Serge Noire’s transformation is an inherent property of the fragrance, or due to my own olfactory habituation. All I can say is that over the course of five or ten minutes all of the spices and incense that comprised Serge Noire’s heart are crammed into a cedar box and the lid slammed shut on top of them. Utterly baffling.

My husband dismissed it as "clove cigarettes", but the dark spices with incense make this persuasive for me. I find it somber but not melancholy.

One smell on the tester and I had to have this gothic masterpiece. A rich, spicy, woody wonderland. If this had been part of the CDG Incense range, it would have been the best by a long way. The best offering from this house for quite some time. Longevity and sillage are both outstanding. This will be amazing for the winter months.