Serge Lutens' Arabie: A Review

I used up my decant as a room spray. Works really well.

I love it and find it pretty low on the sweetness. It was my gateway into the niche world and there's a beauty to its excesses that I've yet to find elsewhere.

I'd agree with your assessment. It's a fascinating fragrance but wear it? No.

Agree with most of your review Matt. I had similar 'experiences' with Arabie:

First time I wore it: I sniffed my hand all friggin afternoon - I had never in my life smelled a fragrance like this. I had just bought my bottle of Ambre Sultan and perhaps I was floating on that pink cloud that one gets, when they experience their first Serge Lutens rite of passage. When it dried a little, I thought it smelled like chicken curry - which I thought was pretty fascinating for a fragrance. It just smelled like a hot Middle Eastern dish, on the stove. I yearned to own a full bottle

Second time I wore it (from a decant that a Basenoter shared with me): Same as before - but this time (maybe because I applied more, or maybe a different climate), the sweetness was more pronounced. I think it smells like icing, like white icing thats on a cinnamon roll perhaps - that confectioners sugar note mixed with spice. I got less of the chicken curry note and slightly more dried fruit.

Thereafter: The sweetness and the food note made me slighly nauseous - I have learned that if I am going to ever wear Arabie I will need to apply only about 1-2 sprays. However, like you Matt, the food aspect of this scent has started to annoy me. The same thing has happened with my Sake by Fresh - at a certain point it went from, 'oh - this is cool..it has the neatest sake note folded into the florals...' to 'oh my god, I smell like I spilled sake all over me and forgot to wash my shirt'.

I am so glad I didn't buy a full bottle of this.

I love it. It is the only Lutens I like. It is properly over the top and very beautiful and there are some evenings when only arabie will do.

I agree, and I wish I had bought Arabie instead of Ambre Sultan.

To me, Arabie smells like gingerbread and lighter fluid. It's incredible on a really cold day-- especially for wearing outside, maybe walking the streets bar hopping during the week between Christmas and New Years.

Being that I've only applied Arabie from small sample vials, I've never gotten the effect of a spray application-- which is probably why I like it (I enjoy stronger fragrances much more when I dab them on rather than spray them). I'll probably never get a full bottle, because I want to save my sample for rare occasions (like only that week between Christmas and New Years) or maybe some time in February when a cold snap blows through.

Probably my favorite Lutens, next to Encense et Lavande.

It was my first Lutens and I still think it's amazing - it dares to go where no oriental has ever gone before.

Arabie is among my top three SL scents - it's a truly unique fragrance that has nuclear strength, is thought-provoking and smells very masculine (well, to my nose). However, it has to be said that it took me a long time to appreciate it. At first, I wrote it off but, somehow, always found myself going back and testing it once more. At first, a decant seemed more than enough but, in the end, I went out and both a full-sized bottle of the stuff.

Test it out a few more times, especially during colder weather. You never know, it may eventually seduce you as well.

When I first tried it I was very confused and could not process all that olfactory information. I did feel though, that you had to be a rrreal man to wear it, like a big burly hairy guy. I eventually got some, and love it, though wear it selectively. Some people love it, but others can't deal with it.

The people who love it most were all indian or pakistani for some reason. One girl told me that, that's exactly her idea of what a real man should smell like!

I love it, though I wear Ambre Sultan much more frequently. But just sniffing the Arabie bottle can make my day and that alone was worth the purchase. Despite the powerful dried fruit opening, I do not perceive this as sweet in the way that many contemporary frags are, to me, nauseatingly sticky, and while it's intense I don't think of it as heavy (as opposed to, say, Mazzolari Lui). It actually dries down to a nice spicy masculinity. I should wear it more often.

tvlampboy, I have never experienced a souk but I'm with you on this one. I just got a decant of Arabie yesterday and its interesting, etc but not what I want to smell like.

I do agree with you, tvlampboy. When I sampled Arabie, the spices were rather overwhelming and without doubt very authentic - but just not something I'd wear on my skin. Made me think too much of food, I guess.

Somehow I don't think Shirley Temple smelled of Arabie.

It was the first niche perfume I bought for myself. I have later tried almost all of them, but this is still my favorite Serge Lutens. No other has such a unique start, and the dry-down feels like made to measure. The limited popularity of this perfume makes it even more precious now!

Like most Lutens, it was just too much, too heavy, too syrup-y for me. Dates, almonds, something maple-y; I felt like I rubbed a danish all over myself.

Frags that have, as Trebor aptly describes it, "nuclear strength" seem to just wind up having diminishing returns if sprayed the way you'd spray most other scents. Arabie, Gris Clair, and Chergui among the SLs, much like Carnal Flower, work better for me as a single dab at the base of the neck, rather than as the fortissimo blast that inevitably results from even just two sprays. While Arabie is never going to be subtle, it works better as chamber music than as a symphony.

Where do you get Lutens for $92? So far, I haven't made the jump to Lutens but my girlfriend has a problem that when she sees a Lutens bottle at Barneys, out comes the credit card.

Most orientals are too sweet for me to wear anymore but I can wear this one with ease.

It's another one that became something completely after I owned a bottle. It's a phenomenal drydown full of smooth spice and long burning embers.