Gris Clair

The skies stretch out before you like a stormy sea - there is an electric doom tingling through the air. Beneath the sullen sky lie endless fields of royal purple lavender blowing sharply in the piercing wind. Green lightning arcs across the sky and strikes - the singed stalks of lavender permeate your senses. You are overwhelmed by the smell of dewy grass and ambery vanilla...another arc traces the skyline and your vision goes white. You awake many hours later in a grand cathedral - the incense burning mingles with the majestic lavender seared into your sinuses. You slowly look your half-naked body up and down - a salve reminiscent of tonka beans with a hint of civet is slathered over the burn on your side. You feel euphoric for just meeting death and having survived. You ache to rise but something invisible binds you....you drift off to slumber once again. Many hours or many days later, you wake and inhale what feels like your first breath - the tonka and warm leather and licorice of your singed flank fills the air. You sit up on the slab you were resting on while your memories slowly return - you are no longer among the living. This strange new world, not quite heaven nor hell, is your new home. Off in the far distance you hear footsteps - the scent of a guardian angel surrounds you in prophetic warmth. Resolute, you gather your belongings, wipe ash across your face to mourn your loss, and embark to seek what lies beyond the end - for this is no end, just another beginning. May we all be so brave as to continue on after all we knew was lost. Day 52 - In the end Listening to: Anathema - The Beginning And The End Notes: This graceful and ominous fume opens with potently medicinal lavender that is slowly soothed to reveal the fantastical nuances of lavender - the greenness of the stems and leaves and the rich, vanillic undertone that make lavender such a beautiful note. This is soon complemented by an airy and warm, nutty tonka bean and a slightly smoky incense and guaiac wood. The fume basically becomes a soothing roasted nut and vanilla fume that holds some of the floral properties of lavender from beginning to end. I also feel there is a subtle weaving of cool licorice and skin-like musky leather throughout the latter half. It lasts around 10 hours on my skin and it gorgeous throughout!

I first smelt this on a colleague , one cold November day, as we were on our way to work. There were about 5 of us in the van and I kept getting whiffs of soft, warm lavender. At first I thought it was someone's soap or shower gel so I hightailed it to the shop (Superdrug!) right after work and bought every lavender scented shower gel I could get my hands on but nope. Finally realized it was her and I hesitantly asked her what her perfume was - hesitantly because I do understand that scent is a very personal thing for some people and they may not be too comfortable sharing their fragrance - but thank goodness, she was all too happy to share! "Serge Lutens Gris Clair - like my name, " she told me excitedly in that lilting Belgian accent she had, as she pulled a tiny flask out of her bag. She had decanted it onto a smaller bottle as we were traveling for work at the time. She sprayed my arms and neck as we were all walking to dinner at a tiny gastropub in the lovely Leamington Spa. I felt so chic, so mysterious - like those French It girls that pepper Instagram - tanned noses buried in books, a thin cigarette nestled between crimson lips, idly sipping cafe au laits in a tiny cafe in Paris. Alas, on me the scent was stronger, more masculine, smokier and muskier. We now have a running joke - " We smell like rich, old men." Nonetheless, I scoured the interwebs later that night and 24 hours later I had my very own 50ml bottle - courtesy of Liberty London's online shop. The scent makes me feel like I'm enveloped in a thick cashmere blanket, warm and comforting. It reminds me of autumn nights, sat in front of a blazing fireplace. It is both cool and warm on my skin. I still love it, no matter what and it will forever remind me of my darling Claire and my love for everything British.

Gris Clair is a top notch creation by the nose Christopher Sheldrake. It starts off with a juxtaposition of a smoky, dry lavender and a metallic-mineral-like linen (tonka) note, with a trail of basil and an accord of iris that confers it a powdery, talcate feeling with lavender - let's say a chypre finishing. After a while, the composition sets on a more incense terroir. Lavender is still shining through and gains a more fading trail and an ambery finish. Almost remember a fougère, a true barbershop 'old times' manly cologne, with a feminine, gentle side that resolves in a neutral, mineral and unreal experience. Like a post-apocalyptic experience. 'Like pollen blowing over a lifeless city. As grey as ashes floating through a sky of sunbeams' I love lavender, and this scent is gorgeous. The only downside is that its performances are not in the heavy/ long league, but it's also appreciated as a more relaxing, meditative and introverted fragrance. Gives you a sensation of fresh and clean, and even if the appearances make you think otherwise, this is a more spring/summer oriented fragrance, to use in the daytime as well. All in all, a solid choice, but you probably will spray a lot of it to keep the performances, and price point is quite high, but the experience of Serge Lutens Maison shines through the foliage. Review of an old, narrow and tall bottle. Blind bought.

A cool, dry, melancholy lavender, Gris Clair showcases its herbal, astringent qualities, especially in its opening. I chose to listen to Magnetic Fields' album "Charm of the Highway Strip" before I adorned myself with Gris Clair, and it makes for a complementary soundtrack. "Your eyes are the Mesa Verde: big and brown and far away..." Dusty wafts from the incense note undulate hauntingly as Gris Clair dries on my skin. I do agree with others that there is also this distinct hot iron element as well, which brings me nostalgia for a time where I did need to press shirts for work, now a distant memory as I permanently work from home. I recall when I was young and felt like I was well on my way to being 'upwardly mobile,' not yet 30, wearing a crisp shirt, walking from the train through Boston's Chinatown to my office, listening to Wim Wertens "Struggle for Pleasure" in my earbuds. Gris Clair is bringing forth memories such of this. It reminds me that I was younger, more naive then. Crisp shirts, crisp outlook. Here I am today, 42, no where near upwardly mobile, but more content, contemplating the view through a lavender-tinted rear view mirror, with clouds of dust and smoke and Gris Clair slowly warms, with its resinous base embracing me, as if to say, "you have done wonderfully, so far, my friend. You deserve some comfort." This older bottle will be relished.

Not a technical review. Our family visited Furano, Japan when I was 10. It was summer time and even in the northern Japan we got toasted by the strong summer sun. Furano was (and still is) very famous for its massive lavender fields, and of course as curious tourists we went to check out one of the farms which sold all sorts of lavender-infused products: tea, biscuit, ice cream, pillows, scented bags for decoration... all made of real, high-quality dried lavender. I remember standing in this massive sea of purple with bees buzzing around, and breathing in that strong, earthy, herbal lavender. The smell was so potent it was almost formidable even for a 10 year-old. Gris Clair replicates that exact smell of lavender and, IMO, has done the flower justice. The lavender note is powerful and wild like the actual plant, radiates from the skin with a very dense sillage. In the meantime the extra tonka beans gives the fragrance sweetness while incense and amber provide warmth and depth to cut out the earthiness of lavender just a little bit. Wearing Gris Clair reminds me of my favourite part of the farm trip: enjoying that big, sweet, refreshing lavender ice cream under the scorching sun! This thing lasts days on my clothes and can still be smelled after shower. My lavender holy grail and current most-wanted.