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.

As a regular lavender lover this is right up my alley ! Sooooo good , very aromatic and soothing herbal sweet lavender scent. I am in love ! This is my first bottle and won't be my last. It's not far off another favourite of mine , taste of heaven by Kilian , they share many notes and have the same character for sure. Oh how to describe this beautiful perfume ??? It's a perfume for people that love the outdoors and nature. It's the smell of my childhood in the Austrian Mountains. It brings me back to happy carefree moments in my life. My father and mother and siblings ,not having a worry in the word. It's happiness in a bottle. Gris Clair has a minty , medicinal sweetness of lavender and a herbal balsamic woodyness. It's almost a gourmand lavender , just like TOH ,I love the vanilla ,amber , Tonka smell , it gets so warm and rounded and cozy it's hard to describe. It's definitely soothing relaxing and happy to my senses , it's very aromatic and I would say one of my favourite lavenders ever. Jersey being the other and taste of heaven . Gris Clair even tops them all it's just so mesmerizing it feels like a warm mountain breeze , also a good snuggle scent after a long hard day. I am in heaven when I smell this. It's aroma therapy for me. Truly one of the best !

I am not a huge lavender fan, there are only a handful of fragrances with a dominant lavender note that I care for and this is at the top of that list. Lavender oil has never been my thing because I do not like that type of lavender. It hits me between the eyes and is too herbal and something grates on me...so please do not dismiss Gris Clair if you normally do not care for lavender because this is a whole different animal. It is a smooth, cashmere like lavender....not screechy or sharp...very smooth and luxurious. There is a hefty dose of tonka bean and incense smoke that completely changes the feel of this from the usual bath product smelling lavender. It is absolutely nothing like lavender essential oil. The woody smoke mixed with the lavender is quite addicting! When I initially tried this I felt it was too masculine and something I probably would not feel comfortable in but I have completely changed my mind. I can't stop sniffing it. If someone thinks I smell like a grandpa when I am wearing this, let them! Because I think it smells heavenly and I wear scent for myself and nobody else. They can hold their breath if they don't like it because I plan to drown myself in this all summer. They can call me paw paw for all I care. Because I LOVE Gris Clair!

This to me does indeed smell of a steamy, hot iron, but very faint. Vibes of a crisp, white, just-ironed cotton shirt. The first comparison fragrance that came to my mind, and it was an immediate association, was Hermès H24, but much fainter. The starchy iron smell of H24 is too intense and nauseating for me, whereas in Gris Clair its pleasant and comforting, but overall too faint. I'm surprised I didn't see the Hermès in the "This perfume reminds me of...." section. The lavender manifests differently in this than most lavender scents. I don't think the lavender should be the top-listed accord. The incense note, which I assume is represented by the 'smoky' and 'balsamic' accords, seem most dominant to me. And its probably the incense that manifests the lavender differently. The incense is what really gives the hot steamy iron vibe. Gris Clair is nothing like Ferrari Pure Lavender, nor is it anything like Penhaligon Sartorial, both of which I have. I don't think Gris Clair is an out-and-out fougere. But all in all I like the scent profile of Gris Clair, although its performance is way too timid. That timidity, along with pleasant, clean vibe, renders it an ideal "office scent".

Chill, foggy dawn in a field of lavender. Bracing, yet hazy. If it were a color, this would be a marled heathery lavender-gray. My favorite lavender is the pure soliflore by Caldey Island, and I often have trouble with it in other perfumes that do not do it justice--but I grow four different types in my garden, I am a fan. And I like this perfume. I wasn't expecting it, somehow--it was outside my frame of reference for Lutens. And despite Lutens' usually voluptuous sillage, I was expecting something more sheer, perhaps misled by the name, and so the first time I wore this I oversprayed and what a mistake! Bracing, INDEED, and the lavender really gets into the same spicy register as cinnamon or pepper and wakes up everyone around you. The second time I applied more carefully, and was able to relax into this more. It's got a touch of the masculine about it, but not astringent as some poorly-handled masculine lavenders become. I feel it's definitely unisex enough for me to wear. It's classy, clean, I like it on a gray day particularly, and feel it will also work well in summer and be a refreshing change from my citruses and figs.

Gris Clair ("Light Grey"): A vignette It's early morning, the sky is grey and misty, and the earth is just waking up. You're sitting in a field of lavender leaning against a tree, wrapped in a grey blanket and sipping on some vanilla chai tea. You inhale deeply, and you smell the lavender, the tree, a hint of the vanilla from your tea, and a faint trace of smoke from the bonfire last night. There's a chill in the air, for the sun has not yet risen, and you pull your blanket closer around your body. It smells powdery and clean, probably from the laundry. As you take it all in, you smile and realize just how wonderful you feel in this moment. You can't quite put your finger on it--you're not feeling particularly special, or amazing, or excited, but just...content. Yes, that's it--calm, comfortable, and content. Happy to be there, taking a moment for yourself to enjoy the beauty of the early morning. For this quiet, peaceful moment is not full of noise, bright lights, and color, and it's not the starkness of black or white. It is simply....light grey.

Lavender is an incredibly comforting scent for me. I've used the same laundry liquid all my life and it smells of lavender so I associate it with childhood - climbing into bed and burying my face in fresh linen. And yet I disagree with others who have said that this smells 'clean'. This sits so well with one's natural body smell, working with it instead of swamping it in synthetic musks. Lavender can be a little sweaty, and perhaps that's why this works. Like a well worn woollen jumper, the slight sweetness of the tonka bean brings warmth into an otherwise cool composition. Gris Clair is also wistful bordering on melancholy. What others have described as incense to me smells like wood ash and smoke - the faintest hint of an Autumn bonfire lingering in your clothes. It's rather fitting somehow that the first time I wore this I got lost in the woods on a clear, cold night and only found my way home by walking in one direction until I saw lights at people's windows emerge through the trees.

buying this perfume marked the first time i actually started looking for a scent that felt like it was me. i won’t lie though, i think part of the seduction was in its name. i walked into a dept store in the south of france and this was maybe the second thing i smelled. i knew i loved it, for its notes but also because the suggestion of a synesthetic perfume really got my imagination going, it felt so romantic you know... anyway that year i was living in paris and i ended up getting a bottle. over the years and after i realized the formula had changed, then later on it had been entirely discontinued, i gradually started using it only sparingly. i still have the bottle, it no longer has the same effect it once had on me and i can’t tell if it’s because i changed or if it changed but it will forever remain my first love ! it also nurtured my love for incense, tonka beans & iris !

I have always been a believer in aromatherapy and its therapeutic benefits. One of my main go-tos for relaxation and rejuvenation has been lavender. I actually grow several types of lavender just for the smell when the wind sweeps past it in the summer bloom. This scent is like a beautiful bouquet of fresh lavender straight from my garden for the first hour or so. But it isn't masculine or feminine in its nature - just natural, from the earth. There are hints of tonka and amber that warm it up and through the dry down, those become more prominent. However, the lavender continues to bring its fresh natural beauty throughout. I LOVE this scent. While I enjoy many of my super "manly/earthy/woody" scents like M7, and Gucci pour Homme etc., I find myself wearing this and loving it when I catch a whiff drifting up and I keep smelling my wrist for that rejuvenating lavender!

just getting around to sampling this, quite a beautiful fragrance, wearing this in the office, some positive comments. very impressed with just the overall presentation of notes. very classy, elegant and trying to figure out if it really leans one way or another. I think one of those fragrances I will just not worry about it and just enjoy it. I would be proud to own this. looking at price, seems very reasonable for a scent of this caliber. thanks Plat for mentioning this one. I am so glad I sniffed this one out. I have enjoyed many of the Serge Luten's fragrances I have tested, this is so far at the top of the list. just so elegant. would be wonderful for dressing up or what the well dressed man is wearing. I say that as I sit here in levis or maybe it dresses you up. worth sampling, beautiful use of lavender in a fragrance. two thumbs way up.

First impression: lavender scent. Nothing wrong with a good quality lavender but even so this was kind of expensive I thought, Oh well, off to work. By the end of my shift I had almost asked two customers what wonderful scent they were wearing only to discover I was smelling Gris Clair on myself. The lavender note settles but never leaves entirely but what it turns into is magnificent. Unisex yet undeniably floral, I don’t think a man or woman under 30 could pull this off. It’s a very grown up scent. It has moments of a granny vintage like vibe if your granny was Zsa Zsa Gabor that is. This doesn’t feel sexy; it’s too refined to be naughty. Too cool to be cheeky. . What a winner, I spritz some on and turn to the mirror to tell myself with full confidence “Now I smell fabulous”.

One of my favourite scents of all time; but keep in mind that I do not like white or yellow floral scents but prefer clean, fresh unisex scents. The only florals I do like are lavender (which I adore) and iris. This fragrance starts out as a crisp fresh and very clean smelling simple lavender, never gets soapy, and dries down with a bit of white musk, subtle incense & iris, but the lavender still remains true throughout the day. Many reviewers note that it is cold - I do not disagree - but quite like this aspect, as it makes the lavender feel more modern. I have a 1/3rd full bottle of this iteration which I use sparingly, and am trying to get my hands on the newer iteration, but as I'm in Australia, its proving quite difficult. Alas!

One of my favorite Lutens scents! The idea of hot iron on freshly washed linen with lavender sachets wasn’t appealing to me at first, but after I got to wear Gris Clair for a few hours, I knew: I must have it. There are perfumes that make you wear a little black dress with pearls (like Eau de Soir), there are perfume that make you wear leather and super high heels (like Dzing!), but this is a go-to scent that sits close to your skin - warm and powdery and just the right amount of wood notes, just letting you be you. It helped me through a very cold and rainy week in Istanbul - the smell of Gris Clair on my scarf calmed me down and warmed me up, reminding me of an afternoon walk from the beach through Cours Saleya in Nice...

One of the most beautiful lavender fragrances around. (if not THE most beautiful) It opens with a strong blast of lavender, the main player here. Shortly after, the lavender will be rounded by the tonka and balanced by a slightly acrid woody note, as well as a subtle iris note. The drydown is dominated by an ash-y/metallic incense, with the lavender still present as a subtle supporting note. One of the many Lutens hits. A masterpiece imo, that does not have proper recognition nowadays because of the lavender note, which is often - unfairly - perceived as dated. I wish it performed a little better though. Still, a love for me! Unisex leaning slightly masculine (imo), spring/fall days, 25+

My French isn't great but from reading previous comments I see that Gris Clair translates to Light Grey... which is a fairly good description of this scent. It makes me think of strolling through a quiet park on a grey, gloomy autumn morning... Gris Clair, to me, is a relatively simple scent which opens with a hit of pure cold lavender followed by a dry down of warm woods and incense. The lavender still plays a part and is comforting, slightly relaxing (which lavender is often said to be). Longevity is good, projection is light, but this, to me, is not an issue - it makes for a very subtle and satisfying skin scent. This is my first SL fragrance and I am now very keen to try many more...

well, this was a revelation. the steamy, hot iron is indeed very present. there is a comforting, buttery sweetness in the drydown-- like cookies baking in the distance. a solitary, cozy cottage welcomes you after an arduous winter trek; the warmest melancholy imaginable. "The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep" (Frost) i even get a little bit of that decay accord from lutens' de profundis. am i alive, or asleep? the cold warms my tired bones; perhaps i'll linger awhile... "And this is why I sojourn here, Alone and palely loitering, Though the sedge is withered from the lake, And no birds sing." (Keats)