The scent of almond essence is an acquired taste. For some, its sweetness may repel, the confectionery connotations of marzipan and amaretto seemingly unsuited to perfume. For others, myself included, and especially in colder weather, a good almond scent is a delightful, childlike refuge – a nuzzling cocoon.
This sweet, encapsulating, underrated, and delicious perfume is a sleet of confectionery: the snow powdered almonds; the rain, almond essence….
Louve, the fluffed-up white she-wolf, sniffs the cold night air of her marzipan wilderness. Comes bounding across the flaking hills of her snowdrift landscape; and dissolves; slowly; painlessly.
Only her scent remains.
Beginning exactly like annindofu, the Chinese almond dessert popular in Japan made with the ground down kernels of apricots, tofu, and almond essence, Louve at first might seem like a joke (Lutens is famous for pushing, pushing his perfumers – ‘no, more iris, more musk, more almond, until they give in and produce the bacchanalia he is famous for). But with the poignant, vanillic roses; the hint of jasmine; and the dirty, voluptuous hint of animal musk that salaciously lines the cherry, the joke pays off. For almond lovers there is nothing better.
The Black Narcissus 
Beautiful.
You make me want to wear perfume again…
Thankyou!
This one is difficult to carry off, as it is thick, and syrupy, and animalic, but it also happens to be gorgeous.
I remember wearing a red cashmere scarf and this on New Year’s Eve once and the cold of the air combined with the fluffiness and depth of the scent was sheer heaven!
This is one of Lutens’s releases that has got the worst reviews and I really don’t know why… As far as almond-cherry perfumes go this is the least girly, least childish and most complex out there. Thank you for loving it 🙂
Glad to see there are a few of us who do love this!
It sounds delicious.
It is! But very sweet, and disturbingly musky, just like the animal it represents….I love it, especially sprayed on a red cashmere scarf….
Me too, me too 🙂
So happy to meet you!
Is this our first ever rendez-vous?
Reblogged this on The Black Narcissus.
Beautiful review…I have always loved this perfume and never understood the bad rap it gets. I am happy to know that I am not the only one who loves it.
I am fervent in its defence. Louve is GORGEOUS.
Another wonderfully poetic review – it was also a pleasure to meet the she-wolf again … 🙂
I admit I did regurgitate her for whatever perfume it was I was reviewing the other day, but at least this time she was bounding across the snow fields, not just an animal under glass….
x
I am intrigued and repulsed at the same time. I know I will love the almond but the animal musk, not at all. An uber generous swapper included a FB (yes!), rather unexpectedly, along with an FB of a Guerlain I had been seeking for a while (but not at FB price). Anyway, I have this as yet untouched bottle of Louve languishing in my bedroom. Your review may have just moved it up a notch in my Try Next list. I’ll report back in a week or two as skin time is at a premium.
AAAGH a full bottle? You don’t want to swap it for something, do you?
D got me Fiore Di Riso for me by mistake for my birthday ( I really wanted Vaniglia Del Madagascar…..)
Nah…not giving up yet on it…I will try it one of these days. I bought a FB of Vaniglia del Madagascar from my recent visit to MinNY. And BTW, I just read up on Fiore Di Riso and it actually sounds really fabulous (and thus a lemming was born and you don’t even like it!
It’s quite nice, but I wanted my VANIGLIA! How could he have ordered the wrong one?!!!!
I am not into neroli, and there is a neroli note in the top which doesn’t work on me. If you decide the Louve is too cough mixturey and cherrylicious, and change your mind…..