El Attarine will be the next perfume to join the exclusive (i.e., Paris-only) collection from Serge Lutens, following last year's Sarrasins.
The El Attarine description:
Solaire.
Traduit tout ce qui est odoriférant.
La route des parfums par un solitaire.
And a longer explanation, written by Serge Lutens, from the press release:
In Arab countries, “attarin” means sweet-smelling, and refers to everything within the realm of the “atar”: fragrance, heart, flavour and essence.
There is no distinction between the olfactory and the gustatory, until the moment when you decide whether to taste or smell.
This ultimate sensory expression fuelled my imagination with visions of a captivated, captive love.
Taking many routes and rarely travelled paths; scent by scent, I wove the fabric of my perfumery.
El Attarine is also a name, one of the world’s most beautiful Koranic schools in Fez, for a privileged few. Its beauty, matching that of the finest palaces and mosques, contributed to the scent of a culture rich with emotion. From my attarinian solitude, the fruits of my imagination were abundant.
Naturally averse to crowds, my route was predestined to be solitary.
This vision, initially neglected, was eventually reconsidered. It deserved closer analysis. And indeed, there was ground to be covered! Conventional wisdom is not necessarily what I think is wise, nor where I feel at home. I must therefore accept the decadences of luxury, even those which may lead to excess!
Attarine is not a closed door. You cannot make a perfume with only your nose. It is an accord born from a disaccord in the first person, wide open to the imagination.
If you are expecting me in one place, I am already elsewhere, if I am not there, I am already far away.
Truth creates beauty in its own image and is instantly recognisable. It is not a question of being caught. You are already captivated. Irresistible, I have captured this essence for your delight.
Today, I offer you gold, sun-drenched topaz, everlasting flowers and saps.
Serge Lutens El Attarine will be available in 75 ml Eau de Parfum, either in the special limited edition bottle shown above (850€, 30 numbered bottles available) or in a "plain" bell jar bottle (110€). (via press release from Serge Lutens) Update: see a review of Serge Lutens El Attarine.
Want. That. Bottle.
I always want the LE Serge bottles — they're always gorgeous. I loved the LE Sarrasins bottle too
Oh, like the sound of *saps*.
Sap sounds great to me too, but immortelle is one of very few floral notes that I really don't care for. I might just be safe from lemming this one…although never say never!
I want this badly. I adore immortelle and can only imagine how beautifully it's done. Immortelle and “saps” are obvious bedfellows, given that immortelle smells like maple syrup and maple syrup is, well, concentrated sap. Plus I just like the idea of saying “my perfume smells like sap.”
LOL — well if you just want to say so, you can buy Annick Goutal Sables, right? But hope a bell jar of El Attarine will make its way to you
OK, I like the bottle too, but is it worth all that money? I think of the empty bottle and 1) I've paid too much to throw it out, 2) I don't want to keep crap. What a dilemma! I think of all the perfume bottles being thrown out and occupying space in landfills (along with everything else we discard.) What I would like, more than any new fragrance, is a generic (think “standard”) bottle opening + stopper attached to any number of well-designed bottle, that can be cleaned, and sent and resent to a perfume house for refill, or a new fill of a new fragrance. I think Bond and TDC has a refill program but it falls short of universal re-use. You know, milk bottles, but for perfume. I know this is not the same as the cachet of owning a limited edition bottle, but maybe we can live without that.
Ah, but unlike most bottles, this is all glass — you could actually reuse it (cleaning it would not require anything special).
But given the price, I'm guessing the intended audience (30 people, after all) could care less.
Doesn't it have one of those clamped-on spray head? I can never get those off. You know, I sounded out the name of this new wonderful bottle … if someone asks me what is that wonderful fragrance I'm wearing, I would hesitate to say it fast and flippantly. The other person is sure to startle and ask me to repeat myself.
No, it's a ground glass stopper bottle. You could wash and re-use (although they don't do refills).
it's a beauty…
I hope WW gets her sap, too. When I think of sap, I think of Seve Exquise. And then I cry. xoxo
Now THAT is sap. I still have a bit left, but what happened to all those rumors that VGD was just looking for a new distributor? As I've said here elsewhere, I used to think her prices were unreasonable, but now that the scents are gone, I've reconsidered. I'd happily (well, not happily) pay $140 for another bottle.
Ow, ow, ow such melancholy..phew. As a Dutch girl standing with both feet in a potatofield: I have been in the soukh of Fez and it stinks there plain and simple. I stinks of the donkeys carrying their loads pressing their bodies agains the pedestrians walking is the same tiny alleys, flies all over the place, the smell of copper mixed with the place where leather is being prepared to the stage of leather and where leather is painted, fresh vegetables, rotting fruits, spices, dust.
El Attarine sounds like a scene from an old fairytale.
It probably smells wonderful, but Serge Lutens: please don't be so heavy.
What a beautiful bottle! What does the fragrance smell like?
I've no idea, haven't read a single thing anywhere written by anyone who has smelled it.
Hello,
I've just smelled El Attarine. Not really immortelle or saps. Rather cumine + abricot (or osmanthus) + woody floral notes. It reminds me of Féminité du Bois. Very different from Sables.
BTW, the other new scent by Serge Lutens is very strange.
It's done.
See above…
Interesting…don't know why they can't release even a short list of notes, it would be so helpful. Thanks for the news!
Reposted to remove long link:
On August 6, 2008 jawhara said:
There's a very nice interview with Serge Lutens about his new fragrances El Attarine and Serge Noire here:
http://tinyurl.com/3ptsta
I don't know whether this link has been posted already….. but it also explains the significance of the name “Serge Noire” (seems to have been quite a discussion in another thread…).
And finally some first hand info from the Salons du Palais Royal: El Attarine will be available in September; and the very nice sales person informed me that Mr. Lutens had spent 10 years working on Serge Noire.
Nice interview. I am curious to both El Attarine and Serge Noir now.. and isn't it wonderful that Feminite du Bois will come back in the square bottle now
Thanks Jawhara!
Looking forward to that new FdB bottle as well!
What I found interesting in the interview is that those square bottles seem to be intended as pocket bottles… I only own Ambre Sultan in a square bottle but no need to lug that one around, since it lasts all day anyway, but I suppose I may be more motivated to buy Serge Noire or finally (after hesitating several years…) Douce Amère.
Douce Amere is one of my favorites! Hope to try Serge Noire soon but I'm behind
Douce Amère is lovely, isn't it?
It has been written somewhere else, but Serge Noire really brings to mind Feminité du Bois. Less peach and plum, more cinnamon and cumin, darker. Very nice.