[Serge Lutens Ecrin De Fumee review based on a sample provided by the brand in 2023.]
Last year, Serge Lutens gave us the rather underwhelming Poivre Noire, which meant, if his current pattern was to be trusted, that this year we were right to expect a treat. And sure enough, Ecrin De Fumee is an intoxicating return to the styles and codes generally preferred by fans of the brand. Here’s a link to my recent video review of it: Serge Lutens Ecrin De Fumee review.
I confess had I not been told that this composition was inspired by Gatsby’s hedonistic parties, the scent wouldn’t have coaxed me into Fitzgerald’s milieu of champagne-drinking excess; instead, my mind would probably have opted for a series of more ‘eastern’ images, somewhere between Lutens’ own Fumerie Turque and Chergui. But the booze, the tobacco and the gold-edged vanilla make perfect sense within the Gatsby context, and they’re all presented here in suitably sparkling style. The denouement is perhaps less legible – and therefore less satisfying – than what precedes it, but perhaps that’s all part of the point. As the evening progresses, boundaries dissolve, until all that’s left is a haze of experience: a memory of a time when lines were sharper. But which of the two is the illusion and which the reality? That’s the question Lutens and Sheldrake clearly enjoyed expressing in olfactory form when they were putting together this lively piece of work.
Persolaise
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I’m very sad about the movement in the Serge Lutens catalogue.
Why are Chypre Rouge & Jeau de Peax still available, whilst Tubereuse Criminelle & Boxeuses have disappeared?
Why has Koublai Khan lost it’s musk?
I have so many questions about what, to me, seems inexplicable!
From your comments Ecrin de Fumee seems a partial return to form. Though an indistinct base might be squeezed into fitting the Gatsby schtick, to quote Megan Trainor so many early Lutensian scents were “All about that base”.
Sorry, melancholy rant over. I’m almost over the ugly crying, sniff
Rant as much as you like.
As you know, there are many reasons why scents have to be discontinued, some of which are totally beyond the control of the brands.
There is actually a play on word in French. Smokescreen is écrAn de fumée, but here we have écrIn de fumée, which sounds very close but means something like “little box, jewelry box, precious box”
Thank you so much — I should have known a Lutens name wouldn’t be simple.
Yes écrin is a box for something precious, a precious smoke in this case I guess.
Thanks very much indeed.