Note Pyramid
Rum
Écrin de Fumée
Smoke is listed as a material in its own right in Serge Lutens Écrin de Fumée Eau de Parfum, and the fragrance is built to make good on it.
Rum opens, boozy and sweet with a dark molasses edge, and nothing else occupies the top with it, which gives the first few minutes a strange, warm, almost liqueur like quality that nothing else in the house's catalogue quite manages.
Then the smoke arrives properly. It is dry and ashy rather than barbecued, laid over oakwood, which is hard and faintly tannic, and tobacco, which is sweetish and leafy, more pouch than cigarette. Cocoa runs through both, powdery and bitter and nothing like a chocolate bar. This is the heart of the thing and it smells like a room the morning after a fire has gone out. Very little in mainstream perfumery smells like this, and none of it here is accidental.
The base keeps the cocoa and adds honey, waxy and a little sour, oakmoss, damp and green and bitter, and sandalwood for a creamy smoothness that makes the whole thing wearable rather than merely impressive. The finish is sweet, smoky and slightly dirty, and it stays on clothing for days. Expect eight hours and more, with the first two the heaviest. One spray is a decision and two is a commitment. This is cold weather and evening material, it reads as unisex, and it has no business in an office. One to try on skin before buying blind. It appeared in 2023.
A niche house in Paris, run around the taste of one man. The tall bell jar bottles were first sold at the Palais Royal boutique that Shiseido opened in 1992, and a broader range in square bottles arrived in 1999 to reach shops beyond that one address.
Please note: images are a guide only. Packaging and bottle design may occasionally differ from those shown due to manufacturer updates or promotions.
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