La Religieuse

I really don't think the notes listed here are accurate at all. I purchased this hoping to have a new animalic jasmine, but La Religieuse is anything but animalic, incense, or smoky. Now that I know la religieuse is A PASTRY—a variation on an eclair, it makes more sense. It’s a French play on words being both a sweet pastry and also a (hopefully) pure nun. It smells quite sweet, not like the whole pastry, but the smell of the dough after it has been brushed with a coat of sugar-water and baked. That sugary, sticky layer before the eclair is dipped in chocolat. The scent of sweetened pastry dough is rather persistent, and it quickly blends with a very strong musk, bright lemon or bergamot maybe...and green jasmine buds. This is not jasmine in bloom. It is the jasmine vine when the flowers are just tiny white pearls, and their scent is so sheer that you have to lean in very closely to smell them. I enjoy the drydown the most. Jasmine buds blended with sugar is a totally new concept to me. The verdict is that while it is a nice perfume, it is not remarkable enough. Jennifer Lopez Still is also a nice jasmine perfume, and I would say that La Religieuse is not so much better as to warrant the price. They are both musky jasmine. Sillage is very low, except within the first 10 minutes. Longevity is good at around 8-10 hours. Disappointed with my blind-buy. Edit 03/04/14: Now that I am going crazy sampling jasmine soliflores of all kinds, I appreciate the drydown of La Religieuse more as it offers the tender jasmine buds that other perfumes don't. I may hold onto my bottle a little longer (was planning to sell it.) Edit 03/07/14: I think this has become a huge LOVE instead of a Like. I have been going nuts sampling jasmine soliflores of all kinds, and other than Montale's Jasmin Full, this smells much better than almost every one of them, so I appreciate it more. It does not smell like bitter, stale soap like almost all other jasmines I’m smelling. The jasmine here is unusually sweet and true-to-life. This is better than A La Nuit, which has that unpleasant bitterness. I will keep La Religieuse instead of sell it. I have been “converted”—no pun intended! Side note: I think people have to judge it for what it is not on expectations based on the bottle color, name, or previous releases. When I let go of expectations, I grew to love it. This has turned out to be one of Lutens’ very best if you can finally understand it, the play between “the nun” and “the pastry”.

It's almost impossible to write a definitive review for a Serge Lutens perfume...they have such a life of their own, ever-changing on your skin, your mood, the climate...but here goes. I was lucky enough to secure a sample of Serge's new perfume. I have to be honest, based on the few reviews I found, I was expecting that I might not like it. Like it? I love it. There is a whisper of De Profundis in La Religieuse. There are other whispers ... of jasmine, incence, musk (and as one reviewer noted) mimosa, honeysuckle and narcissus. As for civet, I'm afraid I've never had the pleasure of smelling one! There is something eternal about it ... it seems to grow young as it develops - after a few hours you can detect the hint of a blackcurrent pastille. Fragrantica lists four notes - really? This is a far more sophisticated affair. This perfume alludes, whispers, hints, suggests ... and I think, in this age of candied sameness, we need some mystery. La Religieuse transported me to a little church in the French countryside, then to a flower market full of white flowers, then I ended up window shopping for cashmere on a very expensive street in Paris. La Religieuse is very feminine, classy, but gracious at the same time. It appears to be sexy too (it had a tremendous effect on my husband). There is a hint of Chanel about La Religieuse ... a confident refinement. Although long lasting, it is a skin scent. Interestingly, my husband continued to smell it long after I could. From the launch material accompanying La Religieuse - there's little doubt of a connection to Denis Diderot's 18th century French novel 'La Religieuse' (The Nun), which challenged the practice of putting young women in convents to remove them from society and forcing them to endure a life they were neither suited to nor wished for. In this sense, La Religieuse's disposition towards a skin scent makes a little more sense. Intimacy, a whisper, a secret scented embrace ... Update: Previously the owner of a 5ml sample, now a proud owner of a full sized bottle. I'd say this perfume grows on you - it definitely cannot be judged on a first wear basis.

sweet narcotic bliss found in a field by a church, tainted and holy all the same. grey lace mantilla covering curls kept from view. secret kisses between snow angels, elusive heat emanating amid nippy air. black cherries held by the stem between grinning teeth. the dichotomy of a white flower historically stuck between purity and dark sensuality. such dirty-sweet jasmine, utterly perverse in juxtaposition to puffs of orthodox incense swirling through diffused light from stain glass windows. sweeter in time, with buttered lily peeking through rings of smoke surrounding cold white petals from heaven; drops of cherry syrup red like the blood of martyrs strewn across. beneath the sweet sultriness lies a layer of dust on pews as snow falls outside. cold and grapey, with the heat of warm whispers and spices lurking beneath. i want to bathe in this, perhaps with the helping hand of a generous priest and a sprinkling of holy water; a saccharine baptism. perfectly suited for late autumn and winter. everything from jacques rivette's 1966 film of the same name to borowczyk's 'behind convent walls' nunsploitation comes to mind, bringing forth further memories of robert burton's 1621 book 'the anatomy of melancholy,' reporting that the temperance and repression forced onto nuns leads to debaucherous secrets and bursts of hysteric sexuality (first partition, subject iv). even with such sensuality, a distinctly unsullied purity reverberates throughout 'la religieuse,' a heart so clean not even the filthiest hands could dirty it with their touch. songs for la religieuse: play alone by asylum party, heaven's blade by coil, kissing and kicking by the last laugh, bloody snow by natural snow buildings.

This fragrance contradicts everything I think I love in floral fragrances. It's cold, it's slightly bitter and a twinge indolic-but doesn't smell like odors from the bathroom, thankfully. It's got the most icy cold exterior to an ultra-realistic animalic jasmine, like I would imagine flowers to smell inside the fridge or freezer of a florists shop (never been to one, if you could believe it). This doesn't smell like jasmine + tuberose, jasmine + lily, jasmine + vanilla or any other combination I've smelled countless times in perfumery. Somehow Serge Lutens manages to create an authentic jasmine bouquet plunged into ice cold water placed in a smooth ceramic vase. I don't think of purple when I smell this fragrance, like the juice would suggest. I see a mossy, or jade stone green, with punches of bright white. When I close my eyes, I can almost imagine reaching out my hands to pluck the waxy petals and rub them between my fingers. The dry down presents a delicate incense note, but it's not smoky or tickling to the lungs like smoke of any kind always is for me. It's dried incense ashes on a cold marble table, slightly sweetened. The opening is hard for me to love, but impossible not to admire. I can't seem to get rid of this one, even if I never wear it out of my house. There's something so austere and profound to this blend, it touches me to the depths of my olfactive core. I can't part with this, even if it doesn't feel like something meant to be worn, rather sprayed and meditated upon. A true masterpiece in my mind.

I'm no typical fan of jasmine. I often find jasmine to be too indolic, too screechy, too fecal. But not in this scent. This is glorious, pleasant, beautiful jasmine. I adore it. The jasmine is stripped down to its core. All the burlesque, the boudoir and the carnal is gone - and we're left with a clean, pure, innocent and angelic jasmine. I understand it's name - La religieuse - The Nun. I don't get much of the civet or the incense, or the musk for that matter. They're there, but just as faint shadows in the distance. Some would say that this is a boring and far from sexy scent. I disagree. This scents strength and allure lies in the unpronounced, in the mystery, the hidden aspects. The brighter the light, the deeper the shadow - and this is a radient scent, with the brightest jasmine I've ever smelled. It's sexy because of the story untold. When your nose gets used to the light,and no longer are blinded by it, what hides in the shadows will appear. It's a scent that slowly unravels its secrets. It's a scent that forces us to read between the lines. And suddenly there's a flash of black silk and lace. A patch of naked skin. Arousal. Passion. A single drop of sweat... And there she is - La religieuse - The nun - not as innocent as she first appeared. Sillage is moderate. Longevity quite good. It lasts all day on me. And in those last hours on my skin I feel the incense. A soft, smoky caress before she's gone. On my wishlist for sure. :)

the name and the bottle with its lilac juice and angular lines look so austere and melancholy, but the scent itself is pure buttery jasmine, luminous and cool yet still sensuous, evoking perhaps the ecstatic visions of a mystic, rather than a meek and virginal nun. it is gorgeous, heady, enthralling. as jasmine does, it smells very soapy-clean yet somehow a little dirty and indolic underneath, which makes for an interesting conceptual contrast; one could dissect it as an olfactory commentary on sin and virtue, or simply enjoy it for what it is, beauty for beauty's sake. in most of the SL scents i've tried i've gotten a lot of incense, but here, where i most expected it to come through, it's only an occasional, subdued waft. after the initial profusion of blooms, the fragrance clings closer to the skin, but it is truly so enjoyable even as it morphs into its slightly animalic drydown. i only wish it lasted a bit longer and had a bit more projection at this stage. the artistry behind SL perfumes is always impressive to me, and i am especially fond of their florals; la religieuse is to jasmine what la fille de berlin is to rose, almost a soliflore but with an interesting point of view to offer on its subject. i rank la fille a hair higher only because of my bias towards rose scents. definitely recommend sampling this one if you enjoy white florals.

I sampled first as I didn’t think I would enjoy the civet. Jasmine is my favorite. It was love at first sniff. I didn’t know I enjoyed animalic scents. As someone said, this is a good entry into that category. Anyway, I guess this is the exact perfume of my dreams. It suits my personality & style, dark, gothic edge femme fatale. It’s not too mature, but just sexy & pretty, shampoo, pretty hair floral ... my favorite kind ... with just enough smoky sexy undertones. Smells to me like a lovely mysterious French woman with beautiful hair ... I’m going to wear it to salon tomorrow, perfect for that. Oh, & I love the light makeup powder notes too. I was looking ages for that combination. With jasmine it’s just my quintessential pretty, makeup, hair done perfume. So I purchased a bottle immediately & have worn it every day, day & night ever since. It’s perfect for fall, winter, probably especially pretty in early spring. I think it will my daily perfume, all the time perfume until summer, when I might change it up. My other favorite for evening if I want to transition from this in day is Amryris femme, which I think could be layered over the dry down of this during evening nicely. (It’s so pricy so I wear that on special nights.)

i love jasmine, this one is not indolic nor soapy and it’s a very delicate rendering of the flower. it’s like the scent of jasmine blooms in the morning, when the air is still cool and their petals are covered in dewdrops. a quiet jasmine slowly waking up which one encounters before the sun heats it up and it starts pulsating its odor to attract all the nearby bees and bugs. the other notes are subtle, as is this scent in general. i get wafts of musk and no civet. the incense is in my mind, the quietness of the jasmine feels like a ribbon of smoke but it’s more of a stroke than an actual incense note. i can see how people could interpret this both as a recluse contemplative scent and as a clean laundry smell. something about some of serge luten’s frags feels very open to interpretation, and their name sets a mood which again, opens windows into multiple worlds. for me this religieuse is a pious woman turned anchoress who removed herself from the world to read theology and pray at all hours of the day. but maybe also, she’s simply the devout jasmine, head bowed down in reverence for the beauty of a calm morning.

I ordered a sample because I thought I might not like it due to many of the reviews and especially due to the civet note, but I found the note doesn't take over and I in fact love the note here. Who knew? Is the fragrance polorizing? No. It's a soft, slighly sweet, sensual and enveloping musky fragrance. Slightly similar to De Profundis, which I may add I absolutely love. -damienthoresson couldn't have said it better... "Watery, dewy ... dirty, animalic. All facets of jasmine, all present in one scent. Does it overload? Not like one would expect. Smoky incense, almost overly dusty. Sits too close to the skin, but in a weird way. You’re very aware that you’re wearing the scent but it sort of dances out your nose’s reach. When it does smell, however, it’s truly glorious. Don’t put this to your nose often and you’ll smell it in full swing. Stunning. A lovely incensed jasmine. Wait an hour before letting it’s charm wash over you." It's gorgeous on my skin. I'm ordering a full bottle right away. Before you pass this baby over, order a sample and give it a try. Update: I have a full bottle! :)

"Deliver us from Good! Jasmine petals are as white as snow. Black is my religion." This is great and only keeps getting better as it sits on the skin. I had no expectations for it, but loved the name. Jasmine and I get along so well. Here it is quiet, it starts cool and shy and warms up into something very inviting. This is probably the most "wearable" SL perfume I've tried so far. It's not telling some complicated story in my mind, or conveying a unique environment. It's a polite and lady like jasmine with a warm, slightly sweet, slightly sensual underbelly but very moderate in all regards. Really I think that there is conveyed here the sense of being in an empty church with the windows wide open during a spring time rain, as jasmine blooms outside. It's a bit dry, a bit dusty, and conveys that sense of old wood and old paper. But really the jasmine remains always the focus and pulls anything else to itself. I think it's remarkably lovely, very feminine and delicate. Not groundbreakingly interesting or weird, certainly it's not weird at all. It's nearly conventional. 8.5/10

Calming, luxurious, alluring scent in the opening. Unusual, but very impressive combination of notes, mostly sweet juicy bergamot and jasmine, backed up with silky smooth incense. Unfortunately even houses like SL are not immune to latest annoying trends, such as only listing 3 notes on the official website, when anyone with a nose can say there is a lot more going on under the hood. Unlike most of their Jasmine fragrances, this one is not dominated by it, its much more about the clean musky-incense combo, that at least on my skin works wonderfully. The drydown is all about that creamy, smooth, calming sensation - the jasmine goes darker, a bit skanky even, but the musky incense envelops and controls it so it doesn't go beyond its place as a supporting note. The incense here is not smokey nor "churchy" its very much in the room freshener aromatic sticks category. Overall, i love this scent. Its not as complex and does not develop significantly as Sheldrake compositions usually do, but what we have is still very impressive and works very well.

This perfume reminds me of an old marble statue wrapped in jasmine flowers. It opens with a pretty natural jasmine, smells like jasmine flowers, not jasmine perfume. At first, I got a slight baby wipes or Nivea body lotion vibe. After a few minutes it settles into a natural jasmine, with just a hint of incense. As it dries down i can smell something like salty skin mixed with jasmine. It smells like enhanced skin (?), skin thats a bit salty but also a bit sweet or sharp. This perfume reminds me of an old marble statue wrapped in jasmine flowers. The jasmine is always present but it loses intensity as it dries down. The perfume starts as very feminine and delicate and turns more neutral or androgynous in the drydown. The longevity is pretty long on me, it lasts 6 to 8 hours. The projection starts with moderate and then becomes more like a skin scent, more intimate. I use it on summer because the jasmine is quite fresh and it doesn't get overwhelming. I find that it also makes the incense a bit more noticeable, but its still quite subtle.

This is a Lutens for those who are into fresher, lighter fragrances as opposed to his usual bolder and much more obscure. It starts off with a touch of mysterious incense that quickly fades into a musky, somber jasmine. It is indeed very floral, not in a springy, happy-go-lucky way, but more introverted, melancholic. It doesn't make me think of a nun literally, but I consider it to be the nun among the SL collection: conservative, cloistered, discreet. It does not call for attention like other SL yet you know its there, it is also not as dark, yet it feels tainted. Longevity is not amazing (lucky are those who've praised it), but you don't need more than a couple of spritz to feel its presence for around 2/3 hours in glorious, ethereal wafts of everything people below have described. If you're into florals this is a must for cloudy, rainy days and cool autumnal strolls.

I wouldn't describe this as a strictly feminine fragrance, but the image it brings to mind is Sister Jude: a nun wearing red lingerie hidden beneath her habit. It opens with a bright sweetness of jasmine. I don't really get much indolic bite here, if any at all. The jasmine is woven together with incense, which, to my nose, is what creates the faintly soapy quality. At this stage, it comes across as a fairly conventional "clean" scent. As it settles on the skin, though, another layer slowly begins to emerge, a clearly animalic undertone. And that's where it becomes genuinely compelling. This animalic facet is overtly carnal, almost indecently bodily, even a little dirty. The longer the fragrance wears, the more pronounced this aspect becomes. From both a conceptual and a technical standpoint, the composition is outstanding. A tully niche creation.

The opening for me is pure and fresh, with a very smooth jasmine, muted bergamot, and green lily bud, reminding me a bit of Bergamusk by Hermetic. The green is soft and vibrating, not sharp at all but with a sense of late winter emergence. About 20 mins in this smells like Bergamusk layered with Baiser Vole and L’Artisan’s Passage D’Enfer, the latter of which I always wished had more Lily, so this is wonderful for me. The name La Religieuse is very relevant, in my mind. The incense is just a memory, and settles in as a resinous presence in the back of my throat, almost separate from the scent, contrasting beautifully with the solemn flowers. It’s green and white, solitary prayers in the morning with fog outside. It conjures a feeling of longing. I do think this would also be magical on a man.

I love how cold this fragrance smells. I tend to dislike white florals (and florals in general, most of them mix very poorly with my skin chemistry), so I knew La Religieuse was going to be a gamble for me. Luckily, this time it worked. It opens on my skin with a punch of a very, very wet strong jasmine... is this what being hit by a nun with a ruler in Catholic school would feel like? Then the jasmine calms down, and incense and musk come through, but cling close to skin, which I prefer, as I do not enjoy strong scents. I definitely get the melancholy, I don't get the "youthful and sensual" jasmine scent that some other reviewers report. This fragrance to me is unlike any other jasmine scents out there, and you can very much tell that this is an SL scent. Beautiful.

I imagine sniffing a bush of dewy jasmine near a pasture of grazing horses in the spring. There is a little white church nearby burning incense with all its windows open, and the cold spring breeze is barely strong enough to carry the horseshit and incense across the field. The jasmine note is soapy, rich and very ripe, while the incense adds sweetness and the civet note is brief. It is a tiny bit poopy like a paddock but also animalically sweaty, like removing a horse’s saddle pad after a hard ride. For some reason, this fragrance makes my throat hurt in a hayfeverish way, but I suppose this soreness adds to the realism of the jasmine and the religious themes this perfume invokes. I adore it and will wear it regardless.

A wonderful, delicate fragrance. The white flowers here are very fresh, cold, and seductive. If this is a "nun", then she's be ashamed. The warm saltiness in the drydown feels to me like a slight sheen of sweat on clean skin, a kind of clean, non-dirty animalic touch. The balance is impressive. I love wearing it in summer because, on my skin, it feels very fresh and cooling. It also wraps you in the sensation of glossy magazine paper, which is funny: i can't really smell that directly on skin or on a blotter, only in the trail (Later i realized that E'crin de Fumée has something similar, but in a more aggressive way) One of my favorite perfumes from the very first test. Versatile enough to fit almost any event.

With a name like that, I was expecting lots of incense. But it’s an incense so subtle it’s barely there. Incense blurred by jasmine. This is the most gorgeous and intoxicating intertwining of that pair possible. Well-balanced, but jasmine is the star here. An inoffensive, reserved jasmine. Delicate, fresh, green jasmine. Not dirty or indolic at all. Even the civet behaves. A delightful, understated, versatile, mass-appealing floral. Beautifully candied and tart. Lush and warm. There’s a soft, soapy clean. A wisp of smoke. A perfect, gentle white musk. So lovely. Sensuous, alluring, and soothing. Went from a mere like at opening to the top of my Full Bottle Wishlist within 15 minutes.

A very badass gothic jasmine. It smells like the colour of the juice. The jasmine is rendered in an elegant, slightly animalistic way. I'm wearing it right now and I smell like a cat, sitting in a jasmine tree in the inner yard of a gothic cathedral. Of course this cat is very intelligent and cultured - she's up in the tree because the birds are chirping poetry and she's there to listen and enjoy. She first walked through the interior of the cathedral and her fur picked up some frankincense (she tried to lick it off of her fur, but the dampness made it stronger). A bit too musky in the drydown, but I'm still in love with it.