Serge Lutens Une Voix Noire: fragrance review & draw

The melancholic timbre of Billie Holiday's voice, the "black voice" behind the inspiration for Serge Lutens's latest Paris-exclusive perfume, is reverberating through the unusual paths of the fumes rising from the bell-jar bottle with its beautiful brownish, maroon almost, shade of juice inside. The waxy, thick petals of gardenia with their irresistible browning that is poised between sweet rot and carnal abandon have a way of capturing hearts like mine...and Billie's too, who wore one tucked beneath her ear as a trademark. But to designate just gardenia to Une Voix Noire would be doing it a disservice.

Guy Bourdin photo via thinmoonsugar.blogspot.com

Gardenia and tuberose are olfactory allies in crime. Both nocturnal creatures with creamy white blossoms which exude a kaleidoscope of weird and wondrous facets, from sharp greenness that recalls camphor, to blue cheese and mould, all the way to meat rotting in the heat to help attract various pollinators, they're fascinating flowers to cultivate in a warm climate that oozes with the dangerous atmosphere of a film noir. Lutens and his trusty perfumer Chris Sheldrake have been no strangers to tuberose's wiles thanks to Tubereuse Criminelle with its jarring contrast of rough edge against smooth silk.
But Une voix Noire is to gardenia a new take on the flower, less simplistic and more complex, with an abstract background that brings it closer to a Bois variation than a fleshy, photorealistic photo of the opulent flower with its blue cheese timbre that Tom Ford put in the forefront for his (now discontinued) Velvet Gardenia or the spring-like styralyl acetate greenness it exhibits in Lauder's life-like, budding Private Collection Tuberose Gardenia. The candied plumminess of the cedar & fruits base is certainly progeny of the Feminite du Bois school of mock dilettantes (posing as less serious than in reality) and the rich, satisfying, warmly honeyed core to be explored on further wearings would be most pleasurably received by those who have enjoyed Mary Greenwell's Plum, Botytris, Jar's Jardenia and -naturally- the rest of the Lutensian series of "woody" cedar & fruits melange fragrances.

The perfumer and the art director play in chiaroscuro with extreme grace in Une voix Noire, bringing on an opening tuberose-gardenia note that is fresh and real but dissipates fast into clean and metallic notes that ring like cold air in the stillness of the night. Smoky and indolic, almost animalic facets slowly reveal themselves, darkening the proceedings through a sweetish, leathery, tobacco and boozy (rum, according to the official notes) phase which creates an effect worthy of a blues singer velvety sighing her pain into hard vinyl.

Like Billie's voice, Une Voix Noire is indelible...lasting a lifetime and then some.



Une Voix Noire is a Paris-exclusive Lutens fragrance available as Eau de Parfum 75ml in the bell jar bottles.

For our readers, a generous decant of the new Une Voix Noire is available. Draw is open internationally till Friday 28th midnight. Just answer in the comments what "a black voice" conjures up for you to be eligible. Draw is now closed, thank you!

Related reading on Perfume Shrine: Serge Lutens news & fragrance reviews

Robert Piguet's Bandit to be Reformulated (Again)

The Robert Piguet company is compelled to revise the formulation of one of their beloved classics by perfumer Germaine Cellier, the bracing ‘Bandit’ perfume due to compliance with the latest regulations on allergens/irritants in the fragrance industry.

                                           

According to Basenotes: The current formulation was praised by Luca Turin and Tanya Sanchez in their perfume guide, but with changing regulation the company says it needs to address the issue: “The IFRA regulations on oakmoss make things so difficult for that perfume” says [Joe] Garces [CEO of Fashion Fragrances & Cosmetics] “If you keep changing and keep tweaking things you could end up with a different thing. I don’t want to spoil it so I’ve asked [perfumer] Aurelian [Guichard] to look at the whole thing again, to go back to the very original formula and take it from there.”

 Given Guichard's delicate impressionist hand as opposed to the brutal fauvism of Cellier, could this pose a risk on effacing the sharp character of Bandit? Remains to be seen. Let's be hopeful and hope that we can sample for ourselves soon.

Related reading on Perfume Shrine: Bandit by Robert Piguet perfume review & history, Robert Piguet news & reviews

Odin 08 Seylon: new fragrance

Niche fragrance brand Odin New York is introducing a new perfume with a play on Sri Lanka and its vetiver harvests. 08 Seylon is a vision of vetiver accompanied by notes than enhance its unique character.

According to the blurb:

"The creation of 08 Seylon communicates a new understanding of vetiver through a calming blend of rich, earthy aromas. During the initial stages of development it was essential that the fragrance represent actual vetiver, extracted from the root. With this in mind, not only is the finished concept an authentic interpretation, it also reflects perfumer, Phillipe Romano’s idea that imposing structures such as orientals, woods, spices with exotic shades should transport you far away."

Notes for Odin 08 Seylon: Yuzu, Bitter Orange, Bergamot, Nutmeg, Resinous Elemi, Wormwood, Benzoin, Damp Oakmoss, Vetiver

100ml of Eau de Parfum will retail for 165$.

We Live in a Miasma of Scent

Two more articles belonging to the polemic on scent. Actually inferring a good point all the same, that having everything scented around us is contributing to a major sensory overload that means increased exposure to potential irritants and allergens. Too bad they're throwing the baby out with the bathwater too!
Plus there goes again the common misconception: allergy is actually an auto-immune response and a medical fact, oversensitivity to stimuli/sensory overload/sensitivity to scents is something different (though totally real, mind you).

via www.nyspender.com

Read the first article in the Daily Mail here and the second one (very misleadingly illustrated, if I might add) on the Huffington Post on this link. 

Related reading (with interesting comments from readers on the subject) on Perfume Shrine: Allergies & Perfume. 

Random Images

the three Graces for Elsa Schiaparelli's vintage perfumes 

Obey my silence....Silences by Jacomo

the revamped Ivoire by Balmain (circulating under Interparfums)

dark glamour for Dita Von Teese's Femme Fatale perfume