L'Eau Serge Lutens

This is a review for the 2022 version. I have not experienced the 2009, although word on the street is that they’re the same fragrance. I rather doubt the validity of this claim, but again, I wouldn’t know. I cannot understand the amount of vitriol this fragrance has and continues to receive. Yes, there are a lot of fragrances out there with a similar profile that last longer and/or are more affordable. I even own a few of them. But there’s just this deeply satisfying but undefinable “SOMETHING” about L’eau that I can’t resist. Whatever that something is in L’eau, I find myself actually thirsting for the scent of it the way my body would for a draught of cold spring water, especially in summer. There’s a very addictive “hot pressing iron”quality in L’Eau. It’s not unlike the similar and equally addictive “hot metal” smell in Baccarat Rouge 540. I’ve tried many of the scents that are similar in style to L’eau, and I have so far found none that contain the same addictive quality. I wish I knew what that particular ingredient or accord in L’eau is. It remains a mystery to me, and I simply must own it. I love wearing L’Eau when I feel I need a break from the olfactory warfare being waged on my nose, and I start smelling a strange chemical “sameness” to current fragrances. As well as being a beautiful scent, a week or two wearing L’Eau presses a reset button. It’s a curious irony that it takes a scent to help my nose process scent, sort of how smelling coffee beans is supposed to do the same. This juice is the best in my collection at helping me feel joyfully zen. Clinique Happy, Elizabeth Arden Sunflowers, Armani Acqua di Gioia, Versace Bright Crystal Parfum, D&G Light Blue, it doesn’t matter. Nothing else I wear smells as crisply ironed and “put together” like this. Spritzed upon my skin still damp from the shower, I feel myself stand a little straighter and feel more focused and centered. If a business suit required a scent, L’Eau is a perfect choice. You may not have your sh*t completely together, honey, but no one will know that because you’ll smell like you do. You’ll smell like the old 1980’s Enjoli commercial, a woman who brings home the bacon, fries it up in a pan, and never, ever lets you forget you’re a man. Baby, you can do anything. 🤗 Starts with a burst of citrus, aldehydes and hot metal/steam underscored by a crisp aromatic pepperiness. L’eau then settles into a soft clean musk with a touch of sage, fresh brine and sweet powder. This is a scent that is solidly unisex, and would smell great on anyone. When I wear it with the accompanying scented body lotion, I find L’Eau lasts about 4 hours before I feel I have to touch up. For a freshie scent, that’s fairly respectable, given that fresh scents are notorious for fading quickly. Not a beast in terms of projection, this scent is perfect for work and anyplace where you might be in close quarters with others. However, L’Eau is also very enjoyable at home while sipping hot tea, reading a book and rockin’ some comfy pj’s. Can’t be without my L’eau. If it weren’t so expensive, THIS would be the one and only fragrance I’d wear to work. As it is, I can barely afford Starbucks.💸💸💸

Clean and musky. An absolutely beautiful fragrance that keeps things simple.

Nuclear freshie to give MFK a run for his money. Similar to Le Perce Vent

How can something so weightless be this tender, this beautiful? I laughed; there’s no way I’ll love this; and then I kept returning, nose to wrist, again and again. A hush of musk: soft, ethereal, pristinely clean. You’d have to bathe in the bottle to make it speak, yet I’ve fallen for this downy, heaven-light veil. I, who love perfumes that shout, have lost my heart to a whisper. Tag(s): tender, pure, clean

Clean detergent like scent intended for when you want to be truly minimal with your scent wear. The main players are mint, clary sage and aldehydes. Also present faintly are traces of citruses, magnolia and synthetic musk. The unisex scent has soft to moderate projection and longevity. Not intended to be a show stopper, this is a calming discrete scent for hot weather officewear. Enjoy!

L’Eau by Serge Lutens is described by the brand as “a moment of serenity,” meant to evoke the smell of freshly laundered clothes beneath a hot iron. An anti perfume. So the question is whether it creates that comforting warm feeling or if it needs an extra cycle. Right from the opening, L’Eau gives you exactly what you would expect. Bright aldehydes sit over an airy aquatic backdrop that immediately smells clean and fresh. As it dries down over the next twenty minutes, a light watery magnolia starts to appear along with touches of that signature soapy sage accord, although the sage never becomes too strong. I hardly get any citrus at all. After about an hour, I realized the fragrance was not really developing much further. What remains is a dewy aquatic laundry musk that stays fairly linear for the rest of the wear. Clean, simple, and very understated. Personally, I think there are better laundry style fragrances on the market like MFK 724 or Lazy Sunday Morning from Maison Margiela, both of which feel smoother and less damp than L’Eau. The best way I can describe this fragrance is that if the scents I mentioned before smell like freshly cleaned laundry, L’Eau smells like the water you pour into an iron or the runoff from a washing machine. To its credit, it does create a very convincing wet laundry effect. The issue is that instead of making me feel like I am wearing freshly pressed clothes, it makes me feel like I forgot to hang them up to dry and decided to wear them anyway. Unfortunately, that is not the most enjoyable experience for me.

Transparent, light, marine-salty, fresh. Is that calone? Serge! L'Eau Serge Lutens is mainly about the airy musk but I do get a faint whiff of bergamot-like citrus as well as a noseful of aldehydes before it dries pleasant and musky on the skin. It's refreshing and infinitely more subtle than the calone beasts of the 90s that I associate with that note. This is a clean, functional and understated cologne that summons the freshness of newly-laundered linen. Ideal for daytime on warmer summer days and holidays in hot places and totally unisex. It could be deemed boring though if you're wanting more than a fresh musk daytime staple.

im a little bit alottabit drunk so this might be really dramatic but : eeeeeeewwwwwwww get it off get it off get it off ,, i dont know what it is about aquatic perfumes but something about every single one of these "fresh" scents makes me feel like i put on something perfectly nice and then someone blew their fucking load all over my wrist ,,, i think part of it is the fact that my nose is pretty sensitive physically , so heat and coolness tend to give me a very specific "texture" when i breath in air ,,, since most "beachy" scents are designed for hot weather , they tend to be airy , fresh , and almost mentholic ? even in the cold , the beach has a different feeling than the snow or the cold air , less numbing than it is roughening ,, more stainging than throbbing . perfumes just never really smells like the beach to me (or any watery setting for that matter [except for maybe secretion by eldo , which strangly contains the most obvious pool {as well as seaweed /salt - i find these notes in s.m. is still too traditionally fresh , leaning more towards dried kombu than the stinkysalty reek of seaweed shriveling up on sunny seashores] which is funny because it purposely exploits the "semen accord" that makes me hate so many other attempts at ocean freshness [note: i never thought secretion magnifique would be a sample i reordered but i want to review it so badly and its not nearly as fresh in my mind as id like it to be,,, also if anyone wants to recommend a perfume that also smells like cum and blood and nasty bathroom (none of that scrubbed tile , cold air bullshit ,,, i want thick , warm clouds of decrepit bathroom stench) , id love you forever]),,, this feels like it attempts to capture the same olfactory experience that inspired s.m. , without recognizing that the amateur nose might find it distinctively "yuck!" . it wants to be trangressive but it's scared of being unrefined , resulting in something i find dull - and not in the drab , wilted sense some way associate with this house ,,, most to me this is the smell of the besch lingering on washed clothes , which my formally-ocean-dwelling ass hates because it reminds me of childhood ,,, on top of that i cant STAND laundry scents so this is just like some evil fucking witchcraft in my book . i feel like some of the aldehyde freshness here could be replaced with something like charcol or pepper , just to create a more acute textural sensation ? laundry machines often produce a ticly sort of nose sensation to me , which i hate in real life , but i think would add an interesting element to this otherwise straightforward idea ,,, it bothers me that most perfumes that attempt to be "subveribely simple" do this with a rather staightforward compositional texture ; i expected more oomph from serge lutens "anti perfume" , seeing as the two (notably discontinued) fragrances ive tried from this house each have distinct and complemetary olfactory textures : fils de joie is sticky and sun-hot , an enveloping scent-trail of honey hiding in a shabby wioden bee box , sweaty jasmine about to start wilting & de profundis , a 65% degree spring drizzle , desperate attempts to relight incense at a gravestone , taking no mind to which flowers youre trampling while doing so , its smoke are no means warm but they resemble the same contrast of cigarette smoke wafting faitly from an alley on a cold winter day , its watery in a way l'eau isnt , dewy if not slightly steamy , damp and not wet ,,, mildewy in texture rather than scent ? i usually relish in "gross scents" , but l'eau is nasty based on personal taste rather than because of any attempt at bring daring — that being said , i do still consider it an extremely well crafted composition , if i didcard my adult experiences : timeless carride home from the beach , neuteal car-smell (not "new" nor "musty" nor crusp and leathery,,, does it make sense to say theres an overwhelming note of sunlight-on-dust ? ) mom said your hands are too damn dirty so she subjects you to a slap in the face of handsanitizer herbals and bright spring greenery , sticking to your hands as your hands so much you can smell it more than the bread and mustard 9n your sandwich (im getting a very faint , very strange saviry smell , i think for some reason the citrus note here us reading as mustard and/or pickles [especially because i think most "watery" perfumes trnd to smell , whether intentionally or not , like cucumbers ,,, to me it is never just cucumber though lol , i love cucumbers probably more than any other fruit but sonething about aquatic & vegetal notes is always more musty se(men)aweed than my beloved fruit] , the linen as bread ? maybe its just a weird take on both , as i cant really smell any citrus nor linen) you scoff when your mom says that you smell , you dont notice it wafting from your own body , but crushed up in the backseat , you notice your siblings reek of something rather suffocating - trapped beneath the haylike scent of their matted hair is every thing you just saw at the beach , their salty board shorts create moisture on the vinyl seats and the milky secretions of broken iceplant come out to play as they grind their flip flops into the floor ,,,, the relief of getting home , scrubbing down with ivory soap & dressing in a nightgown still warm from the wash , disappointed to find that you keep getting ghostly whispers of your aquatic day-trip ,,, i could imagine that if your skin didnt make this shit smell like cum , this would be a pretty pleasant sniff iverall , but im not especially impressed by it .

The idea of Serge Lutens making an “anti-perfume” that is as simplistic as it is clean and invigorating is a tantalizing creative brief. Of course the Lutens-philes are going to take issue with it, and sure enough they have bemoaned the existence of the Eauxs since the start and ever since. I don’t have much time for “slippery slope” arguments when it comes to a brand’s creative direction change, but, at least as far as L’Eau Serge Lutens is concerned the nay-sayers are proving correct. Bursts of aldehydes and ozonic notes open the perfume, creating an impenetrable mist around citruses and a cool and earthy sage note. Everything aside from the ozonics are quite nice, but that watery marine note is atrocious. It has the texture and comfort of cling film. Unfortunately, it has no intention of leaving us quickly and it strings down to a layer of magnolia and soap musks where the perfume stays for the rest of its rather remarkably long life. The magnolia is lovely, creamy and citrusy white floral, but the musks are not. Kudos to Lutens and Sheldrake for getting these notoriously short lived materials to last quite a bit longer than they do in most other applications, but you’d rather wish they hadn’t. L’Eau is certainly “clean” smelling in the way the best soaps and laundry detergents are, but I cannot get over that nasty texture that goes straight to back of my throat. It delivers on the brief’s criterion of simplicity as well, but it also seems to go too far in that direction since we know that Lutens and Sheldrake are perfectly capable of giving us simple yet captivating, and the latter L’Eau is far from. Rather than making you feel clean, fresh, and invigorated, you wonder how much more time do you have spend smelling it before it moves on. But, yet again, it does disappear more slowly from your skin than you would think though relatively speaking it is fairly quick as it should be, but you will wish that it was faster still.

Horrible. Smells like some kind of rancid milk with sour rotten lemon, maybe vomit or unwashed genitals, etc. I don't know how to describe this. I've smelled exact the same perfume before, but I can't remember what it was. I need to wash my wrists. 🤢

Serge Lutens #17 – Floating on magnolia water. Im fortunate to have been able to experience almost all of the Matin Lutens line. First was Parole d’Eau and its green, refreshing eucalyptus and pine notes. Then there was Point du Jour, the one i have a full bottle off, which is a more meditative, herbal creation also based on Eucalyptus with added Thyme. Unfortunately, Dans le bleu qui petille eluded me for now and im really curious about its allegedly interesting combination of incense and marine notes. Its no secret that im a sucker for incense so i really have to try that one out someday, somehow. In the meantime, i’ve managed to acquire a sample for the one that started the line, called simply L’Eau. Admitedly, the Matin Lutens collection isn’t known for complexity and i believe that was precisely the point. A series of airy and relaxed, refreshing offerings made to broaden the portofolio by bringing light into the often darker, deeper creations Lutens is known for. With L’Eau my main concern was that it would be too simple in a line thats already relatively simple. Many reviews here on Fragrantica fuel this concern but with that said, before i sprayed L’Eau, i’ve decided to simply go with the flow and ignore the negative reviews. I will interpret it just the way it presents itself to me and perhaps see how it connects to the others in this collection. The first spray made me raise my eyebrows and question if, for once, Sheldrake and Lutens were inspired when they created L’Eau. I said about Parole d’Eau that its a more stylised and refined, niche Acqua di Gio but i feel like L’Eau took a page directly out of Alberto Morilla’s book. The similarities are even closer. There are familiarities with You or Someone like you aswell through the mint and florals. Luckily, in the end, Lutens still manages to showcase his own artistic direction here aswell. With Ambre Sultan i imagined feeling numbed by a great campfire in the dead of winter. In a similar fashion, L'Eau makes me imagine weightlessly floating on a completely still lake, surrounded by waterlilies and other fragrant florals. Think of the scene in The House of the Dragons where Alicent takes a dip in the lake. That scene comes to my mind, or the painting of Ophelia. L’Eau is all about an aquatic base intertwined with citruses, a delicate, softly sweet magnolia and a humble, feeble mint. Luckily there’s no jarring salt that gives an unpleasant, rough texture aquatics often have. L’Eau maintains the refined airyness i’ve found in the other two Matin Luten’s but places more accent on the weightless aquatic accord, delicate florals and citruses compared to the accent on herbals that the others featured. Its not a completely unique scent but for what it does, it does it with extraordinary smoothness and quality. I believe that L'Eau doesn't get enough positive feedback because people don't give enough artistic credit to it and the Matin line as a whole, as they do with the other Lutens collections. People analyse it more from a fragrancey point of view but this is serenity in a bottle just as the house describes it. Despite owning a clone of Acqua di Gio done by Perry Ellis, admitedly a more spicy interpretation, in the back of my mind and in the long run i’ve always wanted to get an actual Giorgio Armani and i was inclined towards the original EDT. Once again, i recognise the fanboy coming out of me and i asked myself “Why get that when you can get this?”. To be honest? I might aswell, as long as i can pick it up for a similar price on alternative markets. 2026 Edit: Call me crazy, laugh at me but during my first testings i felt like there was a distant echo of De Profundis in L'Eau. I ignored that inkling because i thought its my mind playing stupid tricks. I've revisited the sample since then and i still cannot shake that touch of similarity so there has to be something and i believe its the way Sheldrake does the dewy/wateryness.

I am getting to know the Serge Lutens brand for the first time and I am liking what I am smelling so far. I find this perfume very classic, like something that my mom, who didn ́t like heavy scents, would wear in the 90 ́s - somewhat nostalgic, but in a good way. It is fresh, I smell the citrus and maybe a bit of aldehydes, but it also has this balmy quality, that melts in beautifully with my skin. It is easy to wear, morish scent, but it ́s not banal. It is elegant.

I agree with the people saying it is soft, nostalgic and laundry like scent. It is very calming, comforting and brings back childhood memories of grandma's laundry. Definitely a scent you wear for yourself in quiet moments. The musk is very strong and gave me a bit of a headache.

I love a clean laundry fragrance when it's done right, but this is not it! This is a headache inducing laundry scent with rancid citrus notes.

Too heavy on the laundry musks for me verging on sour when smelling up close definitely more palatable in the air though

This just smells like dish soap to me