Sunday, December 23, 2012

Ceci n'est pas santal - Santal Majuscule by Serge Lutens

I was griping about the disappearance of Mysore sandalwood six months ago - how fitting, that Serge Lutens would now release a perfume ironically title Santal Majuscule - ironically, because there's no CAPITAL LETTER sandalwood here. In fact, it's hard to make out any at all. Smelled blindly I would have taken this to be Amouage Jubilation XXV, or maybe Paestum Rose by Eau d'Italie, two perfumes (by Bertrand Duchaufour) I briefly owned. I sold them, because I found the gourmandy rose just a bit too much, both in terms of the actual smell and its ubiquity - that sugary floral accord has been all over the place in the last couple of years, it seems (I also perceive it in Cannabis Rose). So this is a spicy woody floral, but the wood is just another conventional accord dominated by the soft textures of cashmeran, iso-e-super and the likes. There is nothing here close to an actual Mysore sandsalwood note.  "Santal" "Majuscule" smells nice enough, though its confectionary intensity is not my cup of tea at all subjectively, but it's aesthetically redundant and misleadingly named - making Uncle Serge's schoolboy reminiscences a bit beside the point. Wasn't it nice, when a perfume named Rousse matched a redhead (like my wife) perfectly and Arabie actually smelled of 1001 nights. 

4 comments:

Barry said...

I liked SM on first sniff, but then having acquired a sample of it and giving a full day's wear, I decided against a purchase because it was headache inducing.

dukeofpallmall said...

Truth be told I have the same problem; to me SM thus smells best from a distance. I have a headache problem with several Lutenses, notably Chergui, Fumerie Turque and Santal de Mysore.

Barry said...

Appears that we have a similar problem with a number of his scents. I try to like them, but don't like me.

AbdesSalaam Attar said...

news about Mysore sandalwood http://www.profumo.it/blog/index.php/2013/07/the-return-of-sandalwood /