El Attarine

Tragically, it has been discontinued. Like, really discontinued (people say this a lot about SL fragrances, and it's not true in 99% of the cases). Very hard to find, virtually unobtainable, and I am one a a few lucky ones who does have it, not just the decant, but the entire thing. This fills me with joy, although it will take a while to financially recover from this. Brand spanking new it came to me from France, it a box that has been produced and sealed 17 years ago. I only smelled it from the tiniest 0.5 ml vial 12 years ago, but I remembered it, just because it was so unique. I did not love it 12 years ago, probably because I was used to and wore stuff like Flowerbomb and Light Blue. It came to me with other Lutenses, namely Sarrasins, De Profundis and Jeux de Peau. El Attarine was my least favorite one. I opened my new bottle today. Consistency of it is unusual for a perfume, it is thicker and "oiler" than most perfumes. And it smells... I can't even find the words. My eyes did roll to the back of my head. It smells so damn good, that's all I can say, for I am not a master of words. Perhaps it's the very long maceration, but it is so, so much better than I remember. A gourmand, but a different gourmand. No vanilla, and no cake. Dried honeyed apricots (apricot is the most prominent note to me here), immortelle with its curry like vibes, cumin, perhaps thyme a bit? Maybe bay leaf as well? It is sunny, warm, kind and homey scent. One of the kindest Lutenses. Yes, not long lasting and probably one of the lousiest among Lutens in terms of projection.

Interesting and very unusual Oriental scent. The perfume opens with aromatic notes of cumin, immortelle and violet leaves. The heart is orange blossom and heavy honey. The perfume settles on a woody base of cedar and sandalwood. The unisex sweetish scent has moderate sillage and projection and good longevity. Overall, not for everyone (those who hate cumin please stay away) but those into unusual gourmands or Orientals will find this to be a real sophisticated treat. Enjoy!

for me, this bewitching honeyed cumin scent is one of the best fragrances ever created. its a crime that they discontinued it

El Attarine, created by my favorite duo, Serge Lutens and Christopher Sheldrake. This one took me a long time to grasp. I didn't like it at first. However, I sensed there was something different about it. It was an oddball. I wasn't put off by the cumin blast from the opening that likely scares most people, heck, I LOVE cumin. The opening of this perfume is arguably the best showcase of the spice I have encountered. It almost smells like pure essential oil. It wasn't that part. It was its build that felt unfamiliar. I find that Serge Luten's perfumes possess a traceable DNA, for the most part. And so, you have the cumin and immortelle cousins in Le Participe Passé, Bourreau Des Fleurs, and L'innommable, and while they are not identical, there is a similar pathway one can trace in all. My mistake was approaching El Attarine and expecting it to be in that vein. I was wrong. And once again, setting false expectations had me dismiss a perfume upon the first few attempts. This one, like a few others in the line, almost feels like a "Non-Lutens" or "Anti-Lutens" composition. You look at the notes and picture a syrupy-sweet and heavy concoction, only to be greeted by something that feels rather airy and transparent, more like a watercolor painting instead of heavy brush strokes. El Attarine feels like the Moroccan desert breeze blowing over a buffet of apricots and honey, carefully decorated with fresh immortelle flowers on the side and generously flavored with cumin, left to dry in the sun. Golden is a fitting color for this perfume, with shades of brown. These are the most prominent facets, although there is also a shy violet and perhaps even violet leaf next to some cedar and sandalwood that make a transient appearance and help round up the perfume. To my nose, El Attarine unfolds in two major acts. First, there is the cumin. This opening can be a deal breaker or pure bliss, depending on your affinity for this "controversial" spice. It almost has an oily texture and plays on the savory aspects of the material. The immortelle-honey-apricot pair is subdued at this stage, only gently whispering from underneath. Suddenly, a shy violet pokes its head only for a brief to introduce the second stage of the perfume, and my favorite, the "Golden Phase," where immortelle, apricots, and honey work together to portray this exquisite Oriental buffet seasoned with cumin and baked in the sun. What feels different from the other immortelle-cumin Lutens creations is how these accords are displayed in the composition. They seem rather fresh, not syrupy and cloying. The Immortelle feels herbaceous, dusty-dry, and unfaded. The honey feels diluted with water, and the apricots are crisp, almost making me picture their skin with a slight zestiness rather than dried apricots or overripe fruits like in perfumes such as Slumberhouse Kiste. This golden triangle is constantly supported by the culprit, cumin, while gentle woody notes infuse creaminess to the base and help provide a grounding layer for the composition. I love the dry-down. It goes like this forever at a low volume in the most sophisticated way, never cloying, always elegant, feeling like an everlasting sunny day. I believe El Atarine is one of the most special perfumes in the vast catalog of the house, one that requires more time to understand and appreciate, especially if one approaches it expecting to encounter the typical Lutens aesthetic. While undoubtedly it feels like a Lutens and Sheldrake creation, it bears a more emotional and contemplative execution and view. IG:@memory.of.scents

El Attarine is a seriously strange scent in that there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. I smell all kinds of things, and they fade out then come back in, they mix together, and then they don't. There is no top/middle/base pattern with notes that make any sense. It's like someone just threw this together at the last minute. The first thing I notice is an odd velvety scent, kind of like sueded violets, and it's mixed with tangy, unripened peach and sweet apricot skin. The notes conjure a texture, versus a recognizable scent profile. And you'd expect velvety, suede notes to make up the base, but I only get them in the top. I'm in love with what I smell at first! It smells shabby chic. Kind of vintage and pretty. Dusty but innocent violets. At very random times I feel like my nose is playing tricks on me, because I smell something nutty, almost like chopped pistachios that have been cooked in sugar syrup, like there is a drop of PHI Une Rose de Kandahar mixed in by mistake, but take away the rose, and you get that nutty, syrupy, orchard fruit scent. The heart smells entirely different from the velvety violets I fell in love with at first. It's like wildflowers with a touch of aromatic cumin. Either my chemistry is drastically different from that of other people, or perhaps a reformulation has taken place, but this is most definitely not a cumin nor curry bomb. There is really nothing foodie about El Attarine, mostly it is a Fruity-floral. I have to really press my nose to my skin to smell any cumin at all. I own a bell jar, so I can splash to my hearts content, but sillage is truly abominable for something that costs $315 + tax. It annoys me that I have to splash because this is not a body splash for babies, it's perfume with a matching price tag. At this price point a couple of dabs should do the trick. While I like the scent, messy and disjointed as it is, I would never repurchase something so weak. Longevity is not great, about 2 hours before I need to refresh.

On first application, El Attarine smells like a hybrid between the Les Eaux Boisees and Arabie, being reminiscent of Feminite du Bois with an increased dose of cumin running through it. It's a surprisingly hard thing to imagine and, apparently, hard to maintain in the scent, as the cumin seems to quite rapidly (within minutes) disappear on me and is replaced with a surprisingly floral balm-like scent. I'm not sure if it's violets, or simply the way the wood, fruit and spices are playing with each other, but it ends up smelling soft and gentle like a kind of floral wax you'd apply to a burn, in the best possible way. Sweetish amber provides a backdrop. At this stage (30 minutes in) the scent becomes nigh impossible to pick apart, smelling paradoxically spicy and soft, woody and floral, sweet and dry... The cumin resurfaces and then disappears, while the fruit and florals also come and go. It's a quiet, low-sillage dance on the skin which doesn't, to my nose, culminate in anything clear, or an obvious answer, fading away over the next 3 hours or so into an unexpected silence. Overall this is a pleasant and richly complex scent, but ultimately falls short of Arabie in my honest view.

I rarely react to Serge Lutens with a “meh,” but that was my takeaway when I first tested El Attarine. I smelled some honey and fruit up close, then disregarded it as nothing special. How wrong I was! (Uncle Serge, please forgive me.) On skin, El Attarine flies under the radar much like it does amongst its siblings in the Lutens collection. It’s best not smelled nose-to-wrist. Sure, you’ll get that honey/fruit hit, but that’s not where the magic lies. Instead, let this elixir warm on skin. Don’t rush it. Before long, tendrils of precious nectar will woo your nostrils (and if you’re like me, your credit card too). The secret weapon here is cumin, a deft and masterful use of cumin. It mingles with the perfume’s sweet notes to produce a disarming musky aroma. El Attarine is discreet and seductive, as though it’s melded with its vessel, as though it only speaks in the most velvety of hushed tones. Damn my initial impatience and rush to judgment. This is GOLDEN!

I was able to obtain a sample of this perfume (liquid, not wax) and have been wearing it all day. It was a surprise to me. I expected something much more spicy, incense-y in Lutens' famous style, but in fact this is a glorious, rich floral/oriental. I detect rose and amber, it's a little bit gourmand, and reminds me of Turkish delight. I think it smells somewhat similar to Liaisons Dangereuse By Kilian, but it is more linear (the scent hasn't changed much since I put it on). Good sillage, seems to be lasting very well. This is not my usual style of perfume, but I am really enjoying it. Lovely. I think it would be hard not to like, even if it isn't your thing. Addendum: have been wearing it on and off all week. The curry note is there but it's subtle, actually just adds something fun & mysterious. My husband, who is very fussy about women's perfume, really loves this one.

Cumin, coriander, vanilla, dried apricots, musk, and a little sandalwood make for a sweet and spicy opening, but a muted one, almost like Arabie lite. As it dries down I smell a cardboardy note that might be Iso E Super and/or a hint of tuberose. The honey and immortelle are muted in the mix, overshadowed by the spices, musks, and other stuff. Sillage and longevity are average, with about 6-8 hours of wear from start to finish. This is nice, but not my favorite in the fruity-spicy Serge-esque genre.

If you love Miller Harris's La Fumee, Theo Fennels, Theo or Salome by Papillon, then you will love this fragrance, as the skank-O-meter rates a huge 8 out of 10.. This would be or rather it is, a beautiful fragrance,but the cumin note spoils it for me and all I get permeating the beautiful: immortale, honey and woods, is a rank, funky, body odour and urine smelling note. And if I wanted to smell like this. I wouldn't purchase this fragrance, or any other like it; when going a few days without washing would do the trick. Not to mention it helped trigger a migraine, so sadly it's a no from me 😪

The whole composition is overshadowed by the curry and cumin note up to the point that it resembles the scent of sweaty male skin, but i prefer a bathed man and cumin only in my food. So i give this perfume 5/10 points.

To me most of Luten's Export frags are simply unbearable sweet, over the top and with a distinct overpowering smell of dried fruit. Actually, I always think I should like them, but feel often really repelled by them. The Exclusive Line is different. Here Luten's manages to keep it simpler, which really makes a lot of them interesting and wearable. El Attarine is no exeption. The cumin is there and it is paired with a hint of honey, without it's distinct honey-ness, if you know, what I mean. You won't smell queen bee. With it's immortelle I find it to be close to L'Occitane's Immortelle de Corse. But only so, because the spices and the woodsy notes - Luten's added the more elegant ones (sandalwood?) - are subduing the sweet impression. The dryness is there, which I am so fond of. To me the cumin is not the only spice in the mix, only the most recognizable. Luten's speaks of saffron, which might be true, as it adds to the "round" feeling this perfume gives, but I don't pick it out. The overall impression is very natural, as if you smell a combination of smells, which you can find in real life (don't tell me the world smells like Arabie, Chergui or Daim Blond). And I'm not talking about men's body odour, because cumin does not smell like a smelly man, at least to me. Curry, ok, but why does everybody wants to smell like vanilla (me, too, by the way), but thinks smelling of cumin is odd? The down side and the deal breaker: It weakens much too fast, give it 1-2 hours and all the gloriousness is gone, left is a weak base of wood and slight spice with this unappealing whiff of undiscernible flowers. Lutens, get your base straight! Than we're talking...

El Attarine from the house of Serge Lutens is made by the legend him self.Mr.Sheldrake.Its a quite good perfume, but i wonder how DR1414 can claim it smells like the morrocan desert? Does he know how the Moroccan desert "smells" ? I would also like to ask him if the Moroccan desert smells anything different from the African desert or the Egyptian desert? This kind of ferrytales give a fake impression of the El Attarine....It also gives the impression of a perfume reviewer with supernatural smelling senses😆 Grab a tester folks and try it out, instead of blindbuying it after reading a hyped up ferry tale from a selfproclaimed perume enthusiast, DB 1414, who thinks he can sniff better than the custom dogs at LAX😁

I actually splashed out and bought the bell-jar and what a mistake that was! All my skin seemed to project is cumin, cumin, cumin! I despise walking around stinking like I had been to a gym with a heavy workout and then flown into a curry house and spent a few hours scoffing!!! I could get the woodsy notes and feint whiff of honey but that is all. It might be my skin that is projecting the cumin so screamingly? But, for me this was just a tad too masculine - sweaty masculine. I decided it wasn't for me and sold my jar to a male perfumista who is happily enjoying his purchase!!! (I think the wax composition is quite different to the bell jar so do keep that in mind if you have decided to purchase a bottle!)

None of the notes are anything more than very vaguely identifiable and El Attarine does not smell like free-standing cumin at all. Unmodified cumin smell would be revolting as a note. This is a completely abstract scent that smells like El Attarine and nothing else. It has no cognates. I have to believe its purpose is to aid hallucinogen use or at least evoke past trips or even cause them on its own. Perfect for reading Flaubert's Temptation of St Anthony or for visiting the Wadi Rum or Timbuktu. Its attributes as a perfume are completely inconsequential; you might as well complain about the quality of lapis lazuli used in the Last Judgement. Not applied art but art applied to the skin for display.

El Attarine starts off with a big blast of cumin with a dash of sweet honey. But after about fifteen minutes the cumin makes way for a nice and sweet, honeyed and woody violet, the same violet from Bois De Violette, along with some stewed fruits. Apparently, this is apricot, and I do remember a similar fruity note from Daim Blond, the apricot suede perfume from Lutens. In the end, El Attarine smells very soft, like honeyed apricot skin with a woody violet in the background. The only thing that's wrong with this perfume is longevity, I wish I could enjoy here a bit longer than a few hours. Nonetheless a lovely soft perfume.

OMG I love this. I really really love this. First spray on I was like "yes.". Nothing else, just yes. This scent kinda sums up what I'm after in a scent. Weird, but familiar. Similar, yet foreign. It's all about tweaking a familiar theme and literally creating a whole new world. Sweetness, cumin, woods. It reminds me of something, true, but so far I'm a BIG fan.

I only smelled this one on a wax sample, and I'll never own it because it's a bell jar scent (I hate you, Serge), but I liked it a lot. Almost gingery, a bit gourmand, with a hint of rose. It would go well with short black cocktail dress, the one worn with black silk stockings, and an ankle bracelet that says "Heaven's Above". Subtly sexy.

I had the wax sample also. It smelled like sweet incense to me. Then I detected a little curry, maybe cumin, I know from cooking with it a lot. It was very soft and I would have to try the liquid in the future. I'm hoping the curry/cumin note is lighter in it.

I blind-bought this cause I'm a big fan of Serge Lutens (more precisely, a fan of Christopher Sheldrake) but this one is too much cumin... If you want or need to take a good interpretation of Cumin, other "Bois de" lines are better.

in my opinion this is an expensive perfume for the smell it gives out.many others in the sl range to chose from

I'd love to purchase a decant of this. I'm in the EU.

I love this stuff. One of my all time favorites.