Christopher Sheldrake

De Profundis by Christopher Sheldrake for Serge Lutens 2011

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 29 Comments

.

Gabriella

.

Hello everyone! Hope you’ve all been well and had a lovely fragrant month.
.
Today’s post is part review and part confessional. The confession is that, until recently, I have somewhat overlooked the Serge Lutens line. Pre-perfumista days, I tried Fleurs D’Oranger and thought it was nice, but a little too much for me at a time when Marc Jacobs was my perfume of choice.  Once on my perfumista journey, I tried a few, but the whole stewed fruits and woods thing that Serge Lutens is famous for scared me a little. Somehow, I also got busy trying other things and the rest is history. Thankfully, I’ve now righted my transgression and have been delving into Serge’s world quite seriously of late, so much so that it now ranks as my favourite line with as many full bottle wants as the line which incited my passion – Frederic Malle.
Photo Stolen marathi.wunderground
Exploring Serge has also been a wonderfully informative journey. The perfumes I thought I would like and that get a lot of love in the blogosphere – Chergui, Ambre Sultan – simply don’t work on me. However, Serge’s weirder florals that I’ve tested with ambivalence are the ones I’ve swooned over and are ones that simply bloom on my skin. These include Datura Noir, Vitriol D’Oeillet and the magnificent Paris exclusive, De Profundis.

De Profundis by Serge Lutens

Photo Stolen zuzafun

De Profundis is a composition based on chrysanthemum, a flower traditionally associated with funerals and death. The name, translated from Latin means “out of the depths” or “a cry of appeal expressing one’s deepest feelings of sorrow or anguish”.  Indeed, literary and biblical references of the term emphasise feelings of melancholy and despair: Oscar Wilde’s letter written during his imprisonment, Christina Rossetti’s poem and Psalm 130, which starts with the line: “From the depths, I have cried out to you, O Lord”.
The copy accompanying the release also emphasises morbidity, stating: “the chrysanthemum invites Death to leave the cemetery and offer us its flower.” For me, however, this fragrance is not so much about death, but a story about the cycle of a complete flower, from the first signs of buds to petals bruising, brown and overripe.
 De Profundis Serge Lutens for women and men
Photo stolen from Fragrantica.
De Profundis’ notes are chrysanthemum flower with additional notes of violets, green and earthy notes.
The perfume’s opening is very sumptuous, green and radiant. It is the smell of a garden after a winter’s storm, a cold wind against dew on stems, bright and chilly. It is reminiscent of other green florals, but here the green notes are voluptuous and full, not austere or astringent in nature. The vivacious opening is tempered by the slight pepperiness of the chrysanthemum and powderiness of violets.
The composition is fairly linear in character, but as it warms on the skin, the wood notes become more prominent, giving the perfume a richness and earthy feel.  It becomes a portrait of flowers left in their vase too long, their blooms now pale and wan, the stems slightly fetid and decaying.
Photo Stolen paranoias
But De Profundis is not nearly as melancholy or moody as I expected. Whilst somewhat haunting, it still manages to have a fresh, sparkling quality that is joyful and bright. What I love most about it is that it full of contradictions: bright but dark, happy but sombre, elegant but vampy, restrained but voluptuous.
De Profundis is a must try for anyone who likes green scents or for those who appreciate some of the stranger Serge florals.  For me, it’s very much full bottle worthy. Mr M and I are now hatching a plan to try and secure one of those bell jars from Paris.
For other reviews, please see Bois de Jasmin, Perfume Posse, and The Non-Blonde
Samples available from Surrender to Chance starting at $4/ml
Have you tried De Profundis? What are some of the more bizarre Lutens creations that have worked for you? Is there a fragrance line that you’ve overlooked and then come to love?
With much love till next time!
Madeleine x

Santal Majuscule by Christopher Sheldrake for Serge Lutens 2012

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 31 Comments

Hiya Lovelies.

I have been over at FacebookFragranceFriends and was lucky enough to be involved in a split for Santal Majuscule created by Christopher Sheldrake and Serge Lutens and released recently. Such a great way to get a good sized sample, thanks Andrea!! I don’t know if you have read much about it or even smelled it but it has been eagerly awaited as a sister to the 2 other Lutens Sandalwood offerings Santal Blanc (sweet) and Santal de Mysore (smoke) but this one is quite a different take.

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords: Sandalwood (That’s it? R U FECKING JOKING!!!!)

I smell honey and spice, flowers that could be rose, wood, butter, smoke, sweet whipped cream on warm cinnamon honey cakes. This is not quite as gourmand as all that sounds and has some definite musky tendencies as it wears into the 2nd hour that sing alongside the woods beautifully but not intrusively. There is also a slightly sharp greenness lurking that raises its head and gives you a saucy wink every so often, as if they have tried to capture the sandalwood from bud to burning and every moment in between. I find this an infinitely more varied ride than expected and am enjoying the flow. The longer it wears the more buttery it becomes, really woody and animal fatty. So nice. I’m at around 4 hours now and Santal Majuscule is starting to lose its strength and go quieter on my skin, not a bad run so far. I get about 6 hours till it is really a skin scent that stays around till morning.

Sandalwood Cross Section Photo Stolen austoils

I have just knocked over my 10ml split and broken the glass atomiser, the place smells GORGEOUS! Looks like the office will be off limits for fragrance testing till next Friday 2015. Interesting that even though 10ml just went AWOL I am not overwhelmed by the fragrance, yes I can smell it and the room when you leave and re enter is awash in fragrance but it’s lovely and luxe and exquisite, not Pow! WhaM! Bam! at all. There is a sheerness to Santal Majascule that is fully fragrant but also full of spaces and air so that you can breathe, deep but not dense. Well there has been a good development come out of all this, I am to have a full bottle. It has been agreed. YAY!!! Went to Escentual and grabbed it, ON ITS WAY. HOORAY!!

Photo Stolen en.wikipedias

TheAlembicatedGenie, BoisDeJasmin and Patty at ThePerfumePosse all review it much better than me.
Escentual has 50ml for around £80 ($125) delivered worldwide!

Have you tried any of the Lutens sandalwood trio? How do you rate them? Is there another sandalwood that I simply MUST try? Leave me a note in the comments, I love to read your ideas too. Even if you just want to say HI, do it. I’ll be thrilled,
Have an excellent day till we see you tomorrow,
Portia xx

Borneo 1834 by Christopher Sheldrake for Serge Lutens 2005

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 32 Comments

Heya Perfumistas,

I have had a decant of Borneo 1834 for some time. I would look at it and pass it over for something else. I don’t know why, clearly its pedigree is good and people rave about it but it just never got picked. An interesting name, Borneo is divided by 3 countries Indonesia, Malaysia and the Sultanate of Brunei and I think they plucked 1834 out of their arses because I can’t find anything interesting to do with that time and Borneo on the net. (edit: It was the year patchouli first arrived in Paris, and thus perfume, from Borneo)

Photo Stolen Borneo.com

So today I bit the bullet.

Fragrantica gives the featured accords: Patchouli, white flowers, cardamom, galbanum, french labdanum, cacao

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Someone somewhere wrote that this is like chocolate covered raisins and I can’t get the scent image from my head. It’s uncanny! I love the uber bitter chocolate here with forestry patchouli, this is not sweet at all to begin with. The cardamom and crackly green galbanum work double time under the radar to keep the whole dusty, smoky, murky; like being in a cold furnace with only the memory of woods or being in an underground cellar. I completely miss all traces of white flower on my skin until about an hour into the fragrance life and then just almost wafts, like they are outside a window. The labdanum is slightly vanilla but still not sweet until about 3 hours in when it gets an extremely low hum of a bakery feel to it but very quietly, just huffs every now and then, like those chocolate sea shells that are vanilla chocolate. Borneo 1834 is gloriously bitter sweet and has a dark resinous quality that is maintained through the 7+ hours I get of real and fully apparent lifespan, I feel like I’ve made a new friend. Sometimes you just have to wait for the right time to test something.

So now it’s 16 hours after I triple spritzed, I’ve worked, slept, woken, done my emailing and breakfasted and there is still a fabulous soft spicy vanilla presence on my skin, astounding.

Will this be a full bottle in my collection? I have a feeling it will be very soon gracing the fragrance fridge here in Sydney.

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

TheNonBlonde does as great review as does AnotherPerfumeBlog
FragranceNet has 50ml for $112 after discount
SurrenderToChance does decants starting at $3.99/.5ml but for only $12.99 you can have a 2ml spray.
Thank you for dropping by. I’m not sure if you know how happy it makes me that you do? Very Fecking Happy!
Don’t forget to come check out my Guest Post on ThePerfumePosse it’s one of the biggest frag blogs on earth and I am so proud and honoured to be a regular contributor.

Till tomorrow, loads of love,

Portia xx