With De Profundis, Serge Lutens, now 70, says ADIEU to the world of perfumes and unofficially signs his retirement, symbolically 20 years after the launch of Féminité du Bois (1992). There will not be any new creation after this ghost lily-chrysanthème perfume with a violet color, like the first boutique which represented the début of the tremendous adventure which changed the perfume industry.
De Profundis is a ghost perfume with a mortuary symbolism which doesn't really smell under the appearance of the strong green and fresh element on the blotter. It is the opposite of 20 years of creations when all the perfumes tested only on skin at Palais Royal were infusing the soul and the body of the wearer with strong and never "seen" before scents.
De Profundis doesn't last at all on the skin. It is vanishing like the real presence of the creator. From Palais Royal to Colette (maximum 15 minutes) it was gone from my wrist. leaving only a very faint synthetic green jasmine trace. At home, I was not even sure I tested the perfume but the blotter preserved the "burning" dimension, like a metal attacked by vitriol. It is dissolved, it disappears in strong corrosive vapors in other dimension leaving no "ashes". Is Serge Lutens tired of perfumes? Was his watery non-perfume a symbol for the holy water before his departure? Was his mortuary Vitriol d'Oeillet a sign of transformation and departure?(carnations were used in funeral rituals in Europe during WWII when he was a child in 1942, after 20 years in 1962 he arrived in the "highly aldehydic" Paris). A symbolic reference to a real transmutation 300 years after the first attempt of Magnum Opus? Did he lose the appetite for scents, the ability to smell the world and to perfume a new generation which is so different from those who discovered the emotion of Palais Royal in the 90's?
But the more surprising aspect is another one. If all the earliest creations of Serge Lutens where highly new, different and without obvious relation to other perfumes (with very exceptions), De Profundis is the ghost of Must de Cartier EDT - Obsession - Dune preserving only the green lily note on top with elements of rose and carnation, and without the heavy oriental bones. It gives more the impression of a room spray because of its highly fresh aldehydic dimension. The "body" of Lutens (the oriental sweet embalmed accords) is not in the bottle, it rests only in the souvenir of his perfumes and in the heart of those who knew the Serge Lutens era (1992-2012). What I smell are the perfumes from the 90's I detested before discovering the amazing Palais Royal perfumes. It is the detergent cleanliness of Escape, Eternity, Cool Water and all Unilever products (and now represented by the hideous freshness of Atelier Cologne and Byredo fragrances), hidden under the lily-dahlia-chrysanthemum accord of the perfume. All that violence on the blotter, but not on skin. The combination of delicate flower notes like magnolia, champaca, rose, suggests Panache without the emotion, structure and opulent floral body delicately spiced of the recent Del Rae perfume. The strong detergent aldehydic cleanliness is inside, terribly burning the nose and the combination with the green elements suggests the scent of chrysanthemum. The delicacy, sweetness, tenderness of the earliest Lutens creations are gone with their tenacity. Like Dahlia Noir (Givenchy), De Profundis doesn't smell on skin after a very short period of time. It is a ghost.
Serge Lutens said in many interviews he did not like the green notes. In De Profundis he used a powerful chrysanthemum green note, opposed to the violet colour and this evokes the myth of Ossiris (death and ressurection).
De profundis, used in liturgical prayers for the faithful departed, is also the long letter written by Oscar Wilde ("the man with the white carnation" see the dandy theme of Vitriol d'Oeillet) from prison to his lover in 1897.
ADIEU and thank you Serge Lutens for opening the gates of the Paradise of the 8th ART!
Serge Lutens said in many interviews he did not like the green notes. In De Profundis he used a powerful chrysanthemum green note, opposed to the violet colour and this evokes the myth of Ossiris (death and ressurection).
De profundis, used in liturgical prayers for the faithful departed, is also the long letter written by Oscar Wilde ("the man with the white carnation" see the dandy theme of Vitriol d'Oeillet) from prison to his lover in 1897.
De Profundis comes with Vitriol d'Oeillet, both sharing a lot of "burning" notes, and are not exactly perfumes. They are messages and the sign of the departure from our world. De Profundis is NOT a perfume to be worn and was never meant to be a "dark fragrance" (smelling the perfume you"ll understand why it lacks all the qualities of a real perfume).
De Profundis was the last creation of Serge Lutens. It is a symbolic urn meant to be collected and preserved or a bouquet of chrysanthemums offered every 1st November when something dear has recently passed away.
De Profundis was the last creation of Serge Lutens. It is a symbolic urn meant to be collected and preserved or a bouquet of chrysanthemums offered every 1st November when something dear has recently passed away.
ADIEU and thank you Serge Lutens for opening the gates of the Paradise of the 8th ART!
De Profundis was the 53th Serge Lutens perfume since 1992.
"Si le Diable croyait en Dieu"
Serge Lutens was born in Lille in march 1942. He arrived in Paris in 1962. He signed his first perfume in 1982 Nombre Noir (Shiseido) and in 1992 with Feminité du Bois he initiated a new type of perfumery ressurecting the lost scents of nature and culture inside Palais Royal, built by cardinal Richelieu in 1622. His perfumes are the spirits of Palais Royal and they hide a terrible 17th century legend about a forbidden secret. He was one of the most important creators achieving the mutation of the XXth perfume industry into the new millennium With Serge Lutens the perfume became mythical like thousand years ago.
Serge Lutens: "Quand d’un deuil, un souffle impalpable soulève la crêpe, des couronnes et croix, glaïeuls, chrysanthèmes et dahlias libérés se détachent."
"Si le Diable croyait en Dieu"
Serge Lutens was born in Lille in march 1942. He arrived in Paris in 1962. He signed his first perfume in 1982 Nombre Noir (Shiseido) and in 1992 with Feminité du Bois he initiated a new type of perfumery ressurecting the lost scents of nature and culture inside Palais Royal, built by cardinal Richelieu in 1622. His perfumes are the spirits of Palais Royal and they hide a terrible 17th century legend about a forbidden secret. He was one of the most important creators achieving the mutation of the XXth perfume industry into the new millennium With Serge Lutens the perfume became mythical like thousand years ago.
Serge Lutens: "Quand d’un deuil, un souffle impalpable soulève la crêpe, des couronnes et croix, glaïeuls, chrysanthèmes et dahlias libérés se détachent."
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
