Published On:

October 13, 2022

Updated On:

November 13, 2022

Serge Lutens perfume - Ambre Sultan

Top 10 Serge Lutens Perfumes & Fragrances To Feel Amazing

Serge Lutens at Palais Royal

Amazing, pure, rich and intoxicating, Serge Lutens perfumes are something special!

Serge Lutens perfume - my personal story...

Stepping into the little Serge Lutens salon at the Palais Royal in Paris is like stepping into heaven itself! One enters from the sun-drenched gardens into a wonderland of blue and violet hues and it takes a moment to adjust to this new reality. The air is deeply fragrant. Attendants flutter around the wrought iron central spiral staircase like angels. On narrow counters and along the ornate walls the famous precious perfumes are proudly displayed. The painted ceiling, the intricate floor, every piece of fine furniture speaks of luxury perfume house and magic.

Although I had bought Serge Lutens perfume before – one of my very favorites is “Sa Majesté La Rose” – nothing can compare to a visit to this heavenly little gem in the heart of Paris!

If you are interested in niche perfumes I recommend you also have a look at our collection of Montale perfume for women. And do have a look at our collection of Juliette Has a Gun perfumes as well. 

The Best Serge Lutens Perfume

If you are ready to experience a true perfumery masterpiece, browse through the selection of the best Serge Lutens perfume we have selected for you here - each one is unique and unforgettable!

1. Top Of Sensual Perfumes - Ambre Sultan EDP

Serge Lutens perfume - Ambre Sultan

Ambre Sultan

Amber Sultan EDP can be described as daring, amber, sophisticated, woody, patchouli, warm, vanilla, classical, sensual, intriguing. It is reminiscent of a night in Marrakesh.

According to Serge Lutens: “The point of departure was a scented wax, found in a souk and long forgotten in a wooden box. The amber only became 'sultanesque' after I reworked the composition using cistus, an herb that sticks to the fingers like tar, then added an overtone that nobody had ever dreamed of: vanilla. Why? Because vanilla is sticky, too, and it clung to my memory.”

Ambre Sultan is a unisex fragrance best worn on cooler evenings in fall and winter, or for special daytime occasions. It is extremely long lasting, and the sillage is quite strong. 

This is truly outstanding.
Mediterranean conifer forest on a summer evening. All of the details in that description matter. It has to be summer, because this is how the forest floor (partly because of the pine needles that have dropped down) smells after absorbing the day’s heat. For that alone, Christopher Sheldrake qualifies as a genius!
It is of course a very deep and warm amber, but what makes it even more wearable is the dry down, where pine resins beautifully mix with vanilla and sandalwood. It lasts very long (over10 hours) and projects for most of that time. Ideal for late autumn, winter (it’s currently my signature) and early spring, but I have also worn it in late spring.

Notes: Resins, Amber, Bay leaf, Myrrh, Sandalwood, Benzoin, Coriander, Vanilla, Oregano, Patchouli, Angelica  

2. Best Serge Lutens Perfume - Féminité du Bois EDP

Feminite du Bois

Feminite du Bois

Innovative, woody, generous, oriental, violet, spiritual with sandalwood tones - this is Feminite du Bois Eau de Parfum.

Lutens said of this perfume: "This scent expresses the masculine side of femininity and vice-versa. It's all about cedar. Wood accounted for 60% of the composition. Amazed, people called it revolutionary. The fragrance took on its own identity, which is the one thing that really matters to me."

Féminité du Bois is perfect for the cooler days and evenings of fall. You can also wear it in winter and it is light enough to be worn in early spring. This beautiful unisex perfume is suitable for all occasions. The longevity and projection are moderate.

One of the greatest scents of all time, the next step in the evolution of the Chypre saw the abandonment of oakmoss for cedar, peach for plum, and cinnamon for cumin. Mitsouko is the reference chypre for many of us. A legendary perfumer called Edmond Roudnitska adulterated it with plum and hot spices to make Femme, and his student Pierre Bourdon, in conjuction with the cedar-obsessed Lutens and Sheldrake, created Feminite du Bois for Shiseido. Here the forest is dried out and frozen; the moss is all dead and only the stolid tree is left behind! I've tried the original and the Lutens version, and I actually prefer how it is now! (Less musk, harder edges in the Lutens bottle, more unisex).

Top Notes: Virginia cedar, Plum, Cinnamon, Peach

Middle Notes: Clove, Ginger, Ylang-ylang, Violet, Rose, African orange flower

Base Notes: Sandalwood, Benzoin, Musk, Vanilla

3. Serge Lutens La Fille de Berlin Eau de Parfum

La Fille de Berlin EDP

La Fille de Berlin

La Fille de Berlin EDP can be described as rose, thorny, spicy, powdery, pepper, complex, Berlin, 1920s, beautiful, delicate, strong, independent, and mysterious.

Lutens said: “She's a rose with thorns, don't mess with her. She's a girl who goes to extremes. When she can, she soothes, and when she wants...! Her fragrance lifts you higher, she rocks and shocks.”

La Fille de Berlin EDP is a unisex perfume. Slightly warm, you can wear it all year round, but it is particularly well suited to fall. This lovely scent is suitable for all occasions and can also be worn in the evenings. It is very long lasting and the sillage is quite strong without being too much.

In the first few moments of spraying, this reminds me of a more minimal version of freshly sprayed Coco EDP--initially a bit sharp, spicy, but with an amped up rose note. As La Fille de Berlin dries, I find it gets very sweet and I get the underlying metallic quality mentioned in a few other reviews as well. From a distance this perfume creates a fairly pretty rose scented aura, but smelling closer to the skin allows you to pick up the stranger, harsher aspects. I wouldn't personally classify this as a unisex perfume, it's very sweet and rosy on me. It might be the kind of perfume Judy Jetson might wear, futuristic but at the same time framed by a retro interpretation of modern femininity.

Top Notes: Rose, Geranium

Middle Note: Palmarosa

Base Notes: Honey, Moss, Patchouli

4. The Delicate Of Fragrances - Clair de Musc EDP

Clair de Musc

Clair de Musc

Clair de Musc EDP is protective, delicate, neroli petals, radiant, Tuscan iris powder, lunar, moonlight, gentle, clear, purified, astral, musk.

“Lighter than ever, it holds out the promise of a caress. The musk walks in moonlight, a wild beast tamed.” - Lutens.

Clair de Musc EDP is a beautiful light and delicate unisex composition. Wear it all year round in mild weather during the day. This is a lovely intimate scent that is very long lasting. The sillage is noticeable but moderate.

Notes: Musk, Iris, Neroli, Bergamot

5. La Religieuse EDP

La Religieuse

La Religieuse

The words civet, floral, musky, animalic, balsamic, smoky, jasmine, white floral, and deep all apply to La Religieuse.

La Religieuse EDP is inspired by Serge Lutens' childhood and the conflict between good and evil within his religious upbringing. This pure and mystical fragrance has contrasting notes of jasmine and civet, leaving a delicate scent on the skin and a warm aroma of incense in the air.

This unusual unisex fragrance is best suited to milder spring and fall days, and you can also wear it in the evening. The projection is not too strong, and the longevity of this perfume is moderate. 

Notes: Jasmine, Incense, Musk, Civet

6. Datura Noir EDP

Datura Noir

Datura Noir

Datura Noir EDP can be described as narcotic, seductive, datura, mysterious, fascination, musk.

Lutens says of this perfume: “Like a diabolic trail of smoke left by Satan in Paradise. Some say this fragrance will enthrall you; others that it will make you crazy. Others still that excessive exposure will kill you dead. To be precise, one night I took brugmansia, also known as Angel's Trumpet, and distilled the notes of its lingering memory.”

Datura Noir EDP is a unsex fragrance, but it leans more female. You can wear this seductive scent all year round in mild weather. It is a very long lasting fragrance with moderate sillage.

Notes: Tuberose, Almond, Coconut, Heliotrope, Chinese osmanthus, Vanilla, Tonka bean, Lemon blossom, Musk, Myrrh, Apricot, Mandarin orange

7. Nuit de Cellophane EDP

Nuit de Cellophane

Nuit de Cellophane

Narcotic, seductive, datura, mysterious, fascination, musk - Nuit de Cellophane EDP.

Lutens describes it as follows: “Are you familiar with the scent of osmanthus? The flower is white or tinged with orange. From the tight clusters of its petals bursts the scent of jasmine laced with mandarin orange. On hot summer days, it provides a breath of fresh air.”

Nuit de Cellophane is a unisex scent that leans strongly feminine. This clean, dewy, airy fragrance is perfect for mild days in spring, summer and fall. Complex yet accessible, you can wear it anywhere. Nuit de Cellophane has a moderate projection and good staying power.

Notes: Osmanthus, Jasmine, Lily, Fruity notes, Mandarin orange, Green notes, Honey, Musk, Carnation, Almonds, Woody notes

8. L’Orpheline EDP

L’Orpheline

L’Orpheline

Featuring notes of musk, incense and cedarwood, Serge Lutens' L’Orpheline EDP offers a contemporary take on traditional musk scents. Fragile and intimate, it aims to capture the light of the moon.

This Serge Lutens mysterious and somewhat Gothic unisex scent is nevertheless warm and inviting. L’Orpheline's performance is outstanding, lasting all day, and the projection is excellent. Wear this very special scent in fall and winter during the day or in the evening.

Main notes: Incense, Musk, Cedarwood

9. Serge Lutens Chergui EDP

Chergui

Chergui

Chergui EDP is a masterpiece - heady, haymaking, warm, sweet tobacco, Sahara, sumptuous, Mysore sandalwood, sensual, dry wind, ambery, candied.

The master perfumer says about Chergui: “A fire fanned by the wind, a desert in flames. As if bursting from the earth, Chergui, a desert wind, creates an effect that involves suction more than blowing, carrying plants, insects and twigs along in an inescapable ascent. Its full, persistent gusts crystallize shrubs, bushes and berries, which proceed to scorch, shrivel up and pay a final ransom in saps, resins and juices. Night falls on a still-smoldering memory, making way for the fragrant, ambery and candied aromas by the alchemist that is Chergui.”

Chergui is a lovely warm amber fragrance that is suitable for women as well as men. Wear this beautiful scent in fall and winter - both day and night. It is long lasting and the sillage is quite strong.

Notes: Tobacco leaf, Honey, Amber, Hay, Incense, Sandalwood, Iris, Musk, Rose 

10. Un Bois Vanille EDP

Serge Lutens perfume -

Un Bois Vanille

With Un Bois Vanille Serge Lutens leads us in the footsteps of the conquistador Hernan Cortés and his discovery of the most heavenly nectar, vanilla. This unforgettable perfume takes us on a wood-scented journey to the heart of a forgotten civilization.

This is a classic woody vanilla scent with a touch of toasted caramel - delicious on a man or woman. It is complex yet universally appealing.

A warm and soft scent, Un Bois Vanille is strong and long lasting. The sillage is moderate. It is ideal for daytime wear in fall and winter, or for a special night out. 

Notes: Vanilla, Coconut milk, Beeswax, Black licorice, Sandalwood, Tonka bean, Bitter Almond, Guaiac wood, Benzoin, Musk

Serge Lutens at Palais Royal Paris

Serge Lutens at Palais Royal Paris

A Brief History of Serge Lutens

The Early Days

Born in Lille, Northern France, in 1942, Serge Lutens maintains that his personality was indelibly marked by separation from his mother when he was just weeks old. Living with one foster family after another and seeing little of his mother, as he put it, he lived life at a distance – and through his imagination. His childhood gave Lutens a rich well of emotions and dreams which he would pour into his fragrances later on in life.

At 14 Lutens was given a position in a beauty parlor in Lille. "I turned into a hairdresser without really wanting it; it was an absolute nightmare." Although he says he would have liked to be an entertainer or even a horticulturist, inside a couple of years he had built up his very own style – solid eyeshadow, ethereal skin and short hair flattened down – and took to making-up and capturing images of his female companions.

Life in Paris

Called up at 18 to serve during the Algerian war, on his arrival back in Lille in 1962, Lutens chose to leave for Paris. Here, stretches at hairdressing and as a photographer prompted a job in make-up aesthetics for French Vogue, starting with that year's Christmas issue. Working with photographers, for example, Richard Avedon and Irving Penn, he was soon fervently sought after by titles, including Elle and Harper's Bazaar.

In Partnership With Shiseido

In 1967, he was asked by Christian Dior to create a make-up line to drive Dior’s inventive vision. Lutens has said that by the last part of the Seventies he was "a little tired of being labelled Monsieur Dior" and chose to approach Shiseido in 1979. Around then, the Japanese cosmetics company was massively significant in its own market yet couldn't seem to break into the global market. With Serge Lutens' help, the brand became one of the most dominant of the Eighties.

Nombre Noir is born

Following two years with Shiseido, Lutens created his first fragrance, Nombre Noir, which "burnt a hole into everyone's collective memory ", as per Chandler Burr, previous New York Times fragrance pundit, in his book The Emperor of Scent, with narratives crafted by 'nose' Luca Turin. Turin said of the scent that it was "just too wonderful for words, one of the five great perfumes of the world". No longer being produced, yet at the same time most loved among fans, a 60ml container is recorded to have sold on eBay for $999 at the time of writing.

Les Salons du Palais Royal

Proceeding to make perfumes for Shiseido, helped by the organization's in-house nose, in 1992 Lutens set up Les Salons du Palais Royal – a previous bookshop in Paris' Jardins du Palais Royal, changing it into a house of perfume. Initially planned to launch his second Shiseido aroma, Féminité du Bois, its out of reach area was clearly picked by Lutens to "attract a clientele of connoisseurs, not casual customers ".

At the turn of the new millennium Lutens branched out, keeping up the partnership with Shiseido, to make his eponymous brand of scent and make-up, neither of which came about rapidly. "Sometimes it takes 12-17 years [to create a new perfume]," he says. "Sometimes it takes one year – that is the minimum – and then I will say that's it. Then I'm not interested any more, I've said what I had to say. "

Wood denotes the start of Lutens' fragrance venture 

In the past he has credited his first outing to Marrakech in 1968 as his moment of epiphany. At a little carpenters' studio in the souk he found a bit of cedar, "a quite attractive and a captivating type of wood; tasty, very sweet but also musky". So overpowered was he by the aroma that Serge Lutens realized he needed to make a fragrance from it.

Serge Lutens Today

Not a flashy man, he carries himself modesty, accepting that his most prominent extravagance is having the option to state he can live without "almost everything, except perhaps for friendship ". Initially sold distinctly through the Palais du Royal, his creations are presently somewhat more broadly accessible, with stockists including authority perfumery Les Senteurs and Harvey Nichols. The multifaceted nature of the mixes, the story behind each fragrance and the definition of corrective implies this is a brand that interests people of good taste. "Perfume is just molecules," he says in his contradictory way. "The best perfume-maker was the wind, rivers and pollens… " 

Serge Lutens doesn't believe that perfume ought to be readily available, nor that it ought to be worn each day. To him, on the off chance that you wear scent, "you are giving yourself arms, weapons. Transforming a weakness into a strength, protecting yourself by making a stand. This is the main purpose of my perfumes – strengthening your inner self". Indeed, he explains that he only wears his own fragrance of choice, Cuir Mauresque, very rarely: "I wear it because it makes me feel good on this particular day ".

Still working, today Serge Lutens lives in Marrakech, Morocco: a city of color, exotic fragrances and mystery – the place where he discovered the creative potential of the world of scents. And the rest of the world waits eagerly, always, for his next vision, his next perfume ‘dream’…

More of Serge Lutens Creations

  • La Vierge de Fer EDP - Fragrance notes: lily, pear, and sandalwood.
  • L’Eau de Paille EDP
  • Five O’Clock Au Gingembre EDP - Fragrance notes: Bergamot, tea, cinnamon, candied ginger, honey, cacao bean, vanilla, gingerbread accord, patchouli, vetiver.
  • Fleurs de Citronnier EDP - Fragrance notes: lemon blossom tinged with tuberose and musk.
  • Iris Silver Mist EDP Iris, cedar, clove, vetiver, benzoin, incense, white amber, clove, galbanum, musk, Chinese spicebush.
  • Muscs Koublai Khan EDP- Civet, castoreum, cistus labdanum, ambergris, Moroccan rose, cumin, ambrette seed (musk mallow), costus root and patchouli.
  • La Myrrhe EDP - Mandarin, myrrh, lotus, bitter almond, sandalwood, honey, jasmine, amber, musk, various spices, pimento
  • Santal Majuscule EDPSandalwood, cocoa and rose
  • Santal Blanc EDP. 


In Conclusion

To me the haunting perfumes of Serge Lutens are deeply evocative of childhood - and of nature in all its richness. Like an alchemist, Serge Lutens captures even the most fragile of fragrances and brings them to life in his own distinctive way.

Ambre Sultan is perhaps the most well known of the fragrances by Serge Lutens. Dark and sophisticated, yet warm with vanilla and patchouli, it reminds one of nights in Marrakesh. 

We hope you have found your perfect choice from our list of the best Serge Lutens perfumes!

Interested in niche perfumes? Then check out our Juliette Has a Gun perfumes list.