When my sister came to stay with us in Berlin two years ago, she was clad, beautifully, in Daim Blond: a fuzzy, apricot-led nuzzle of suede that surrounded her, elegantly, like a warm, sunlit halo. Top notes of hawthorn and iris were wedded, velvetly, urbanely, and suggestively, to spiced, ambered, heliotropic effects that had a real, three dimensional dust-mote texture (the actual imagined olfactory texture of suede; blonde suede, the name of this most successful, in commercial terms, of the Lutens range).
I bought a new bottle of Daim Blond for her yesterday at Shinjuku Isetan, Tokyo, as this is a perfume she likes to go back to, and which she has been getting a lot of compliments on. But I should have trusted my nose before I reached into my wallet. Strangely, I thought the version in the tester I sprayed seemed thinner, less lush and smooth than the one I knew somehow, and I really knew that version because it filled our apartment deliciously for the entirety of those days that Deborah was staying with us; I also surreptiously sprayed a whole load of the perfume inside a CD cover as a remembrance, something I often do with perfumes that strike me as meaningful in some way and that I want to lock in place in my mind, and it was so thick and perfumed, so reeking of that time that we were hanging out in Berlin bars and clubs all night and of the brunches we were having all the days after, that the case still smells of it.
I stupidly handed over the yen anyway, I suppose, because I thought that it might have just been my imagination – anosmic from all the things I had been smelling and thus not able to properly judge – and also because I need to be getting on quite soon with the family Christmas presents. But I should have trusted my instincts. Naughtily, I have just opened this ‘Daim Blond’ just to check, to be sure, before sending it off to England, and I am quite sure that this is not the same perfume. Yes, the base is the same lovely suede, and I hope she will still get a kick from that stage of this scent. But all the ripe fullness of the perfume that I remember has gone. There is no apricot, no hawthorn: people, this perfume has been stripped.
Perhaps I am naive to be so surprised. Exactly the same thing happened to my beloved Un Bois De Vanille, which was also shaved and defluffed, all its creamy, wispy pink coconut top clouds skimmed, knived off and replaced with harder, less dreamy, woods; and also the great Ambre Sultan, which is just nowhere near as strong and extravagantly gorgeous, as ambered, basically, as it was when it was first released (when it was almost embarrassingly opulent and strong to wear out in public). Yes, I know all the crap about IFRA and all the regulations and everything, but this is embarrassing. It cost too much to not send, I can’t take it back now I have opened it, and yet I feel I am sending my sister something second rate. I can see her expression on Christmas Day when she puts it on, a quizzical look on her face as she tries to mentally compute what is wrong, why it isn’t ringing quite the same bells. No, I don’t know the reasons for this reformulation. But I do know that it seriously pisses me off.
The Black Narcissus 
It’s infuriating. Probably something in the beauty you remember was outlawed, lest perfume kill us all and devastate the countryside. Recently I remarked on Kafka’s blog that I thought the main reason why botanicals are so carefully (crazily) controlled and scent chemicals are not is that botanicals come from small independent producers and crafters, while scent chemicals come from large corporations with millions of lawyers and dollars. Unfortunately I have never encountered an all-natural perfume that smelled really wonderful on me, because I would love to support the backwoods producers, the moonshiners of perfume, and thumb my my nose at IFRA. I don’t recall my mother and her friends ever being harmed by their perfumes.
Exactly!
Death By Miss Balmain (DBMB) was not a well chronicled medical condition of that generation I am sure.
The patient is in the final throes of BA… Bandit Asyphxiation, or what do you think doctor?
Could it be VVVS? Ventricle Vent Vert Syndrome? Or even…..come to think of it……FE? Femme Emphysema?
Since unfortunately we have to die of something, I think I would choose ORDS, Opium Respiratory Distress Syndrome. But only the vintage strain!
And I’ll be there on the same ward with Cardiac Cabochard and a Vol De Nuit drip
First time I’ve ever looked forward to a hospital admission. We will go put smiling.
!
Sigh! It’s true. I have noticed lately there’s a lot more filler and less flavour in the Luten’s line 😦
In fact I was trying DB just last Friday and didn’t recognise it. A friend who knows it well was similarly nonplussed.
Sorry…
Glad to know I am not alone in any case….very disappointing, though!
Sadly, it seems these once great perfume houses are just watering things down under the pretext of IFRA, just so that they can make bigger profits. I am a huge fan of Serge Lutens and they have also tampered with Iris Silver Mist, which used to have a cloudy coloured juice and is now clear. ISM is only interesting for the first half hour, before quickly evaporating into a very thin, soapy musk. Amouage’s Homage has also gone the same way, with the Jasmine,Rose & Oud now removed and it’s now a very pallid Neroli/Citrus.
I hate it!!!!
This point is well taken. I attribute most bad things to IFRA, including head colds and inclement weather, but much perfume is made by corporations with every possible incentive to increase profits and, by and large, a cynical view of what their buying public wants and/or will tolerate. For them, pointing to IFRA can cover a multitude of sins. I’m glad to have found a few indie perfumes that I like, and hope that there will be more in the future. So far, my beloved Mona di Orio Vanille hasn’t been touched, as far as I know. But who knows when the corporate jackals will get hold of that one? Or, if they can’t, their lobbyists will get something in it outlawed.
I agree with all this entirely; it is just skinflinting stinginess. It’s easy to blame a regulatory board when you just want to make the formula cheaper. It was so sad though, because the version that my sister was wearing in Berlin had that lip-smacking brilliance that the diet-lite remix simply does not. It is but a diuretic facsimile.
Do you have an idea when all this hollowing-out of SL perfumes really took hold? I have some older decants that I’ve really enjoyed and now I’m worried that I won’t be able to replace any of them. -Then again, every time I get sheepish about how much I’ve spent stockpiling my favorites in the last few years, I remember that I won’t be buying any more in the future because too many of them have been butchered!
Butchered is the perfect expression!
I don’t know exactly when they changed, but I suspect it was when the packaging itself changed a couple of years ago or more. The old tester of Bois Vanille was in the original bottle, with a different label, but the box they gave me was different, and so was the smell….
This is exactly why I continue to search out vintage scents as I want full-bodied, intelligent scents that really evoke something. I’m sorry to hear that Serge Lutens has jumped on that IRFA bandwagon and dumbed down and cheapened their scents. I used t love Serge Lutens, but the last few samples I ordered left me thinking “so what?”. I thought it was just me, but apparently the company thinks it’s now okay to just put out anything and sail along on the reputation they once had for being daring. That doesn’t work for me.
I feel like I have opened a can of worms with this post!
I am not trying to be defamatory, but it does seem that I am not alone in simply using my nasal intelligence to sniff out that something is very amiss! And I agree, completely, actually – the daringness has been leached out, and that is a very sad thing.
So sad! I remember reading something on Bois de Jasmin where Victoria was saying that you just have to think of reformulations as completely different fragrances. The problem is that they still evoke so much of the old scent that it’s almost impossible not to compare and be disappointed.
I know! Because the base of this is still definitively Daim Blond, but the overall disturbing impression is of a low calorie doppelgänger.I dread to think what they might have done to Borneo and Louve, my other favorites. Actually, to be honest, Louve DID slightly burn my skin, so there probably was something that needed to be taken out of it. But that cherry love was so gorgeous that I didn’t mind suffering…..
Bacon, what SLs do you like?
I love Tubereuse Criminelle and La Fille de Berlin so much I own bottles of both. Would love to own Fille en Aiguilles, Chergui, and Jeux de Peau. If I won the lottery tomorrow, I would snatch up Iris Silver Mist, De Profundis, and El Attarine via the US site because money would be no object 🙂
Chergui is definitely not what it was; I have had bottles of both that and Fille En Aiguilles. I love Criminelle as well, and was mulling over Fille de Berlin the other day as well. An intriguing rose I thought. What a fascinating perfumer to have us so gripped by so many of the scents. And thus what a CRYING shame if these blends are then ruined!
Most of the SL’s with the new SL logo (rather than the older Palais Royale one) seem weaker to me than their vintage counterparts. Not weaker per se- that’s the wrong word- but harder almost. Thinner. Like I would need 5~6 sprays and then wait for an hour to enjoy it- because the softness and plushness that used to accompany the monstrous intensity of these wonders is gone. I used to spray two sprays of Ambre Sultan and reel back – but I could still smell the whole thing with my nose and feel each note. Now it feels like the I need to hold back from smelling it in the first couple of minutes because the increased intensity comes with a plain-ness and hardness that almost feel surgically instrumented to replicate through pain the same intensity without the richness. Cuir Mauresque when it came out in the export line was the same. Chergui too. Don’t know what is causing this- except I imagine the SL line would have been very expensive to produce if they wanted to expand the whole line into the US market like they did. So it has to have been a cost cutting measure.
PS. I love love love your blog. Long time reader and lurker.
Thankyou. Lurk no more!
And you describe my own feelings much better than I can myself on the subject of the Lutens reformulations. yes, a hardness, a surgical brutality, a de-plushing. Depressing, but gratifying to have my suspicions confirmed.
New label, new juice.
Reblogged this on The Black Narcissus and commented:
And Has Datura also had its gonads clipped?
I just seriously began testing Uncle Serge’s perfumes in the past year and this may be the crux of the problem. I have an entire bottle of Chergui that I layer with other fragrances because I find it so thin and disappointing. I seriously hope my Borneo sample is a new iteration or I see heartbreak down the road. On the positive side, there is so much exciting perfume made by American independent perfumers that I would pit Kerosene R’oud, really a rich, complex amber against the new Ambre Sultan any day!
In the battle of the ambers I should have referenced the correct perfume which is Copper Skies and not R’oud, just love that name…..
I am so glad I have an extra bottle of Chergui (bought a couple of years ago) along with a few others. I am also happy to have discovered Indie perfumers and have been delighted with each one I have purchased.
I love my Rousse and my Arabie, both of which are older formulations. I just search eBay and try to find what I need; hubby bought me a new/old Rousse for Christmas on eBay and it is lovely. Sad, these stupid IFRA restrictions, put in place I feel just for the chemical companies to profit.
I’m less severe towards the Lutens brand about the reformulation.
I mean, the reformulations are hurtful, and we are double-hurt because the prices have increased,
but the brand always acknowledged there had been reformulation, “they always has” said uncle Serge.
In a strange way, Lutens perfumes are more risky than other brands, like, say, Guerlain, when you’re buying a new bottle of a classic.
In the 1990, by reputation :
– “Fleur d’oranger” was more opulent. By reputation, it had tuberose and jasmine. It was note only a dark orangeflower with cumin.
– “Bois de violette”, praised by Turin, is said to have had a lilac sheen.
I got hooked on perfume around 2008.
– Chergui is my barometer. It changed so many times. Mainly, the sandalwood. (I can’t bring myself to wear “santal majuscule” or “jeu de peau” for them australian sandalwood).
But also, it has a core of iris and rose, and that’s expensive. Originally, one can compare it to Dune, but with an aromatic verging on barbershop, and a more ardent and dry amber (like former ambre sultan) (and a similar desert inspiration).
– Féminité du bois is really not the same. Gone is the dose of violet and cinnamon of the beginning, and the coca-cola like volume of amber. Nowadays féminité du bois smells like a place (a temple of a sort), not of a person.
– Ambre sultan is very tame now. I’m not sure to have smelled a proper one, ever. I’ve god a mid 2000 bottle, and the oregano and myrtle is a bit to much. I hope the ardency and cistus would live more to the course of the perfume (cistus is a way to call about an other way to extract cistus-labdanum).
It was at the time of the “vapo tout noir” creation. I really like this item. No brand, all black, sturdy.
– A la nuit had a mastic, “eau de lentisque”, (pistacchio) beginning.
But I don’t think that Iris Silver Mist has changed that much. I did not like it at the shop in late 2000. I fell in love with the remaining of second-hand bell jar bottle.
There’s a little variation on it, but it doesn’t bother me at all.
Maybe there is some evaporation, and increased intensity, in bell jars.
The lately gratte-ciel transition :
Tubéreuse criminelle, MKK, etc. felt less intense when I tried them, despite the inflated price.
La myrrhe, Sarrasins, et pretty much all the other, seemed untouched. (I browsed the dipped paper samples with a friend last year)
I liked “De profundis”. I bought a used “vapo noir” version, that seems to have more radiant natural jasmine.
I liked “une voix noire”. “La fille de Berlin” is also a very good mainstream.
I’m happy to have some “une fille and aiguille”, “cuir mauresque”, “louve”, etc. if not in the best formulation.
Strangely, because we like strong Lutens perfume, the new one wear hard to appreciate. And somme accord (apricotty, amber, etc.) were hard to tell apart from other perfumes.
But I warmed up to “la religieuse”, that smells like true to life white petals, yet not strongly odorant ones.
Some have warmed up to “l’orpheline” “la couche du diable” … My next one to try again is “L’innomable”, because the allergen ingredient seems to translate that there is narcissus in it.
The new “Fils de joie” seems to be very good, from what I hear, a honeyed jasmine.
The “la section or” were very palid. But now, one can find them for 200-250€ on Ebay or Vinted, from other people.
I’ll try them again in shop, putting a lot of spray on skin and fabric. Because they were quite weak too.
“Veilleur de nuit” is appealing to me, for it’s cocoa absolute. I did not like Bornéo. But I really love Cartie “VI l’heure defendue”, when cocoa smells like alcohol in the beginning, like a rich burgundy wine, and not like sugared milk chocolate in powder.
Then may-be “Bourreau des fleurs”.
I’m realizing, that I can now sum up my untold feeling :
Lutens’s perfume don’t feel like “a given” anymore for me.
Over a decade, they disappear (they change drastically) or became overpriced. (They remain all available in the flagshipstore, though). They are very transient, as we are mortal. So let’s enjoy them.
But it sure doesn’t help when it comes to be giving perfume advice, because the juice can have changed when people reach their hand to test it on the shelf or buy one.
“If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter”. (And for that, I do apologise)
P.S. : Right now, the Lutens website is doing -20% for two products (any product, even the 15€ paper as second item) as a “back to school” offer.
P.P.S. : Maybe the price increase of the exclusif was to unify the worldwide price ?!? (I heard stories in the past of Americans paying something like 100$ more for nothing)
To make up fo the price, in the Paris flagship store, you’d be easily given gift with one purchase : even the 30ml box of mini vapo noir with “fille de berlin / nuit de cellophane”, or empty vapo noir, or an array of three 5ml samples. I’ve talk a little with the SA, but I haven’t tried. I’m cheap.
There are several reasons why perfumes are not what they used to be. The desire to increase profit by watering down the ingredients seems an obvious reason but I doubt it is the main cause. It is a myth that high end perfumes are expensive due to the exotic ingredients. In reality the ingredient cost is very small in relation to the retail price. Ingredient regulation is a more important reason why some perfumes change radically or have to be discontinued. Another factor is that perfumes change over time, some more than others, so that the cherished old fragrance will smell different from the newly purchased bottle simply because of ageing. Lastly, reformulation can sometimes take place in response to changing consumer tastes, annoying though this is for loyal devotees of a classic brand.
Well said !
To this we could add decreasing availability of certain materials – absolutes produced by enfleurage for instance. Sometimes acceptable substitutes can be found, but sometimes not.