Lumiere Original

This is why I buy vintage scents. One whiff and I feel like I'm smelling an organic concoction of incredible ingredients that make up a Lumiere or a Habanita or a Poison. It's intense. Lumiere opens really big and I'm immediately transported to my tropical home town in 1985. (Seriously, for a whole hour the first time I smelt this I'm just reminiscing and I have to force myself to leave that place and do something useful.) It's bright and hot like being out in the sun. It opens quite strong, very green, a little bitter. It starts off soapy to me, A bitter, soapy, slight smokiness that reminds me of my dad. The flowers are in there and they slowly move to the front. The smokiness leaves after about 15 minutes and the greenness and bitterness slowly subside over the next three or four hours as the fragrance gets softer. This brings the flowers to the forefront and it gets sweeter and sweeter with the flowers. It's lost its soapiness for me hours in. Very well blended. Very well balanced. Sometimes it even reminds me of Poison! I get more sandalwood than ceder. Not much musk, but the vetiver and oakmoss are heaven. This lasts all day on me as a gentle soft sweet floral and then I have to shower. This is not a manicured garden. It's a freeform garden that's growing a bit wild. My joy in Lumiere is in the realism. It's not antiseptic. It makes me feel like I'm outside in the sun rummaging through our farm for elephant grass to feed my rabbits and Guinea pigs. I'm checking up on the chickens and the parrot, making sure everyone has food and water and company. I stay out in our lovely garden until sunset with my cat and dog because the house is big and empty and scary, till my mum comes home. For the first time in years I remember *all* the animals I had growing up and I miss them. Then it occurs to me that most of them were brought home by family who weren't actually there ninety percent of the time! I was the only one there!! I'm not complaining. They brought joy to my life and kept me company in the years I spent 'alone'. Now Lumiere can take me back there anytime.

Having a passion for "oriental" fragrances, when I was offered a 3/4 full ORIGINAL Lumiere 100ml (EDP? EDT?? It does not say!), I just could not say "no"! I have never smelled the "newer" version, and have to say after smelling this one: WHY would I ever?!? Lumiere (torch, or "light" in French) opens with your typical (but never generic) 80's aldehydes and powdery florals, with just a kiss of fruitiness and something vaguely cool underneath, resembling mint or eucalyptus (this fades quickly though). The composition of the flowers in the heart is similar to other Rochas releases, but here the heavier flowers (jasmine, rose and ylang) overpower the softer ones (muguet and daffodils) to result in something thick and almost boozy in the way it smells. Not like alcohol itself, but having that same "vapory" glow and heady warmth. After these "drunken" flowers have passed out (calmed down a bit), the lighter ones do come out to play, honeysuckle and hyacinth being the most noticeable to my nose. And then tuberose has her solo and sings a raspy sultry number (think "Fever") to introduce a wonderful woody melange of cedar, sandalwood and vetiver; kissed with musk and dry green moss. Lumiere may be for women (as far as to whom it is marketed), but I find it to be a stunning male scent as well. Despite the abundance of flowers; the fruits, greens and woods balance this very well. This is a wonderful "80's" perfume...without all the shoulder pads and big hair vibes, that retains all of the richness of that era and none of its tackiness. Sillage: very good Longevity: great Overall: 4.25/5 WOW! I cannot believe that I actually own the original Lumiere, and owe a very big THANK YOU to cisco, who swapped this to me. I just adore this fragrance and cannot wait to wear it on the cooler summer nights and warm fall days to come! This scent definitely lives up to its name, it is bright and warm (like a torch) but is not "light" by any means, and it is definitely something that would attract me like a moth to a flame...

A masterpiece. It's so sad that perfumes like this get discontinued. I guess this is due to the fact Rochas is not such a fashionable house anymore. If Lumiere had been a Guerlain or chanel fragrance, believe me it would be still in production. Lumiere is a bold, floral fruity perfume, offspring of the eighties. It shares some vibes with Byzance and Poison. I remember stealing sprays from my cousin's bottle (i was a kid and could not afford buying bottles but i had my tastes and nose well delevoped in the field!). It is, as many recall, a ray of light. The light that perks in through the blinds in a late summer afternoon. That light is warm and smells of ripe fruit and summer flowers it's comforting and reviving. Lumiere manages to be fresh with hyacinth and jasmin, then gets sweet with a honeyed rose and ripe fruit. It never sickens, unlike the fruitchouli disasters we smell nowadays. Lumiere is bold femininity, but not cloying. It remains airy, like that ray of light. I wish i still had a bottle of this glorious perfume.

Finally got this beautiful gem. She has born the same year my eldest child. This is a beauty that needs time to develop on Your skin. This is art in a bottle. Ouuuu it make ́s me wonder---- just to refer Led Zeppelin ́s text from "Stairway to heaven". She gives You all the time in the world, settles into your skin tenderly, comforting You the hole evening and early night whispering everything ́s gonna be allright! She ́s a skin scent. Reminds me of Fidji by Guy Laroche and eau de JLO, but much much more tenderly- is this a trip to Eden gardens? Thank You so much Nicolas Mamounas for creating this beauty! This and Mystere are the very best creations made by him!

It's like opening a grave. The original box. The shimmering flask pristine. The liquid still clear. This almost 40 yo bottle gives me crushed, rotting white flowers, a fallen down structure of what once was a unique beauty. Still sharp, almost green, and sweet like death. For almost 40 years I've kept her in my memory, but now, I am fully accepting that she is gone. An hour in, shadows of her flutter by, ghost-like. Elusive in a sour, bitter, chaos of fragments. And, at the end, the softest woods and musk. I feel like a necrophiliac.