It’s been a long time since I've loved a new Serge Lutens perfume release. Today, I’m reviewing an eleven-year-old Lutens, a personal favorite. I’ve referenced Fumerie Turque1 in almost every tobacco-perfume review I've posted over the years, yet never got around to writing about it. I’m down to my last half-inch of Fumerie Turque, so it’s now or, maybe, never!
Tobacco perfumes are varied, but the actual tobacco note I smell most often in colognes is domineering. Even when surrounded by other strong fragrance notes, eventually, tobacco will triumph. Three oft-used tobacco themes are: sweet (cured tobacco with dried fruit “flavoring,” honey, vanilla, sweet florals, especially rose), dirty (tobacco augmented with black pepper or another pungent spice, cannabis, leather, or musky notes) and smoky (cured tobacco on fire or turned to ash, maybe with some frankincense/incense). Fumerie Turque (alluding to Turkish opium dens) falls into the first category: sweet.
Fumerie Turque goes on smelling like vodka-and-honey-soaked dried fruits (I'll take Lutens' word that what I'm smelling is currant). Next up is caramelized leather with some singed edges. All these sweet and scorched notes blend seamlessly: nothing to make the teeth or nose ache with excess sugar or char. Cured tobacco leaf, with a hint of Peru balsam, arrives in mid-development. An added layer of smokiness in the heart of Fumerie Turque may be the cade oil, which can smell rough/earthy and "burnt." On some days of wear, I think I detect a deep/jammy rose aroma, especially in Fumerie Turque's sillage (but, strangely, I do not smell rose when I put nose to skin).
Fumerie Turque's base smells heavenly: liquor-y, sweet, full-bodied tobacco mixing with balmy patchouli, benzoin, and background tonka bean (and not the obnoxious tonka-bean-on-testosterone that I smell in so many contemporary men's perfumes). Appropriately, Fumerie Turque dries down to almost "pure" tobacco; its presence is soft, caressing, airy, without being insubstantial (the perfume lasts all day on me).
My bottle of Fumerie Turque was purchased seven or eight years ago when it was available for a brief time in the U.S. in the Serge Lutens spray bottle. I hope the current version, available only in cloches/bell jars, smells as great as mine. Do comment if you've smelled Fumerie Turque recently from a new bottle.
Serge Lutens Fumerie Turque Eau de Parfum is available in 75 ml Eau de Parfum, $300 or €145. For buying information, see the listing for Serge Lutens under Perfume Houses.
1. Perfumer Christopher Sheldrake; listed notes of rum, white honey, dried currant, jasmine, crystallized “Turkish” rose, Peru balsam, beeswax, smoky leather, tobacco, patchouli, styrax, tonka bean, cade oil.
Note: top image is Wild Tobacco (Nicotiana rustica) [cropped] via Wikimedia Commons.
I had a sample of Fumerie Turque and loved it. I’m a sucker for tobacco scents like this. I just wish it were available in the export line.
SG: I know…it seems perfect for the export line!
I love Fumerie Turque and left it on my to-buy list too long and now the 50 ml spray is gone. (Same thing happened with my other love: Borneo 1834)
I’m not a fan of the cloche bottle and I hate to decant into generic looking bottles. So I don’t now if I’ll ever get to enjoy this one again.(or Borneo).
platinum: The bell jars have never thrilled me either since I prefer sprays…and would decant into a plain spray bottle. Truly, ALL the SLs should come in spray AND bell jars.
They could at least offer empty export bottles for sale.
Hmmmm…. I guess I could just check eBay and all for those…
Plat…don’t give them ideas! A decanting bottle or attachable sprayer should be “FREE”!
I agree! If they’re going to charge $300 for the bell jars, it doesn’t seem like it should be that big of a deal to throw in a sprayer or a decant bottle.
We(or rather me!) over here in South Africa are always soooo jealous about the easy access most perfumistas have,in the US and Europe,to niche perfumes and all the MOST WANTEDS.Luckily,true perfumistas are few and far between over here,so EXPORT Fumerie Turque is still readily available at my local Niche perfume shop!AND I LOVE THIS FRAGRANCE!a Religious experience!
Johan…lucky YOU, then! Ha!
Liked this when I had it, but I rarely ever found the right occasion to wear it. I’m not sure exactly why that is – but I seemed to have soured on Serge Lutens’ scents over time; much too heavy/syrupy for my liking. I actually find something like Lanvin’s Avant Garde much more wearable (and a HECK of a lot cheaper, too).
Bark…I seem to wear it most Dec. through February. I’ve never seen Avant Garde in a shop, now that I think of it.
That’s about when I did, when I lived in Las Vegas. Perhaps I made the mistake of wearing once when I had to lay someone off and it left a negative vibe. Avant Garde – I don’t recall seeing it in a shop, either, and bought it blind for (3.4oz for $21 and change/shipped.) Really nice tobacco and beeswax scent with some spice and lavender thrown in. I liked it from the start, but it’s really grown on me to my amazement, having had everything from Vintage Tabarome to countless other higher end tobacco scents (Le Dandy, pre-reform still being one of my top 10’s).
Bark…I’ll have to find a sample…sounds good.
I bought the bell jar at the Paris boutique in 2010 and I love it to a ridiculous degree. Tobacco and its smoke, honeyed baklava, rosewater, leather upholstery, maybe a bit of manly sweat: it’s astoundingly good. I hope it hasn’t been reformulated too severely in the last few years, but I’ll probably never find out because my bottle is going to last me for a very long time.
R, curious…do you dab/dribble from the bell jar…or decant into a sprayer? And how true…a 50 ml bottle as lasted me 8 years and counting!
I decant it into a sprayer. Not gonna dab from an expensive bottle, that’s for sure!
Ah, that is what I expected.
Glad you reviewed this one – I really like it, too, and am looking forward to wearing it soon. Perhaps it’s cool enough tonight, even.
The other tobacco perfume I really like is Ys Uzac Pohadka, which is lighter and complements the tobacco with mint and narcissus. Dominique Dubrana makes good use of tobacco in some of his La Via del Profumo line, also.
Noz…yes, a huge fan of DD!
Isn’t this the SL scent that allegedly Serge himself said he “douses” himself with ever so often? Anyone else remember that?
I have tried twice to get this one to ‘click’ and I just can’t do it. To me, the leather note is too strong and combined with the sweet tobacco it just drives me batty.
Tobacco love: Chillum by La Via del Profumo
Cuir Mauresque – I read a quote or interview somewhere indicating he put on a whole bottle (!?) when he went out. I hope that was a mistranslation of a French figure of speech!
Noz…hahahahahaha!
Mikep…I will try that one then.
I have to revisit this the next time I’m at Barney’s. I remember this as being meh but it could also be because I may have smelled this after I almost passed out with one whiff of Tubereuse Criminelle
Hajusuuri…could also be because some Barneys ‘boil’ their scents under hot lights. Drives me crazy.
This is my absolute favorite tobacco scent and it smells heavenly on my husband. Last bottle we bought was in 2012 and it still smelled great. I have heard it is somewhat changed with reformulation, but still good and eminently wearable. I plan to stock up again next year in Paris. He goes through about a bottle every 2 years.
cazaubon…wow…he sure beats me in bottle use…but probably has fewer bottles, lucky man!
I thought this one was wonderful until I got to the drydown, which was heavily animalic on me. (My teenage son, who’d liked it up until then, sniffed me and suggested, “Cat butt? Yak butt? I dunno, something furry that stinks.”) It *might* be the honey, but possibly not. It really did have a “hairy” quality to it, which honey usually doesn’t manifest itself as.
Mals…doesn’t have that effect on me at all…the base is rather quiet on me.
I love tobacco scents and Fumerie Turque, although it is its best on me in the height of summer – one of the few times my skin ever radiates sillage. Once into the mid notes it takes the warmth well, in winter the opening smells powdery on me. Weird. Still, the dry down is the best. Gorgeous and smells just like an incense stick that I can no longer import through Australian customs – and this is still cheaper. Given how terrible Chergui smells on me… I was so pleased to find this just matches.
I bought my bell jar this year and it doesn’t seem that different from my older sample, but the sample might still be different or reformulated. Still smells like tobacco, honey, patchouli and benzoin in a way that makes me ridiculously pleased.
Enname: thanks…good to know!