Gris Clair (2006)
by Serge Lutens

Gris Clair is a great lavender fragrance with tonka and iris that bring a sweetness to the greenness of the lavender. I like it! It's been a very pleasant day with Gris Clair. If you like lavender fragrances, this is a nice one to have in your wardrobe. It's at least worth a sample in my opinion.

You know that boiled water has a smell?

Put an old rusty cast iron kettle full of water on stove, when the it begins to sizzle, open the lid, that rusty metallic, simultaneously hot and cold smell of boiled steam will hit you like a punch in your face.

This is what the opening of this perfume feel like.

Gris Clair has an interesting opening, and smells a little like the fumes coming off a skillet warming up on the stove, or the smoke from a candle, but it peters out into a grainy, unappealing scent in about an hour. It continues to fall apart and becomes borderline offensive and possibly headache inducing around the two-hour mark.

just nice, perfectly fine.not enough for me. that being said i like very bold scent i thought this would be good for summer and it was.
but it left me feeling mousy.

The initial burst of lavender here is quickly taken over by an acrid oud-like wood note with touches of amber and tonka to soften it.

To my nose, the lavender disappears almost immediately, leaving just the wood and amber/tonka for the dry down, which is linear on my skin.

It is incredibly dry and acrid, rather than steamy or hot as some reviewers have described it.

Another of the Lutens scents that relies on the unpleasant and sharp wood note that ruins all the fragrances it is used in, as it takes over and dominates.

Not for me, but for fans of this wood note, it is I suppose worth trying.