L'innommable

L'innommable or "the un-nameable" is a deliberate self-reference, incorporating elements of Lutens' perfumery that the brand is known for in a more sleek and elegant way than the other big self-reference (Le Participe Passe, which is burnt sugar, pine needles and fruit). L'innommable is fundamentally a sweetened (amber more so than syrup) caraway seed fragrance. There are many Lutens fragrances which take a given material to its absolute extreme (almond in Louve, orange blossom in Fleurs d'Oranger, herbs and amber in Ambre Sultan). This follows on from those themes but the new fetish is caraway seeds, tempered with sweet amber. Cumin and caraway notes have both been mainstays in Lutens' line ever since the original launch of Feminite du Bois, which used these spices with a restrained hand (although a liberal hand by standards back then). Both plants (cumin and caraway) belong to the carrot family and produce tiny, curved (like a scimitar), very similar looking (and smelling, tasting) seeds which can be ground into a spice for curries or used whole, generally into spice-breads. Speaking from my own experience, cumin smells innately sweaty, dusty and savoury and is essentially a complete perfume in and of itself. Caraway, I feel, is distinguished primarily by its strong mentholated taste, which offsets the spice to give a delirious mix of hot and cold - it is also less pungent/ sweaty to me and is even a touch soapy in its own way. It is for this reason that cumin is typically favoured over caraway in making stews, soups, curries etc., as caraway would yield too much of a 'mint-like' element. If you can smell some caraway seeds (or ground caraway) and imagine steeping it in something very sweet like honey or liquid amber then you can estimate the scent of L'innommable. This perfume recapitulates the caraway seed right down to the mentholated note I mentioned, which appears as a short-lived burst in the opening half an hour. The faux-mint note then fades away to leave behind a very spicy, sweet and sclerotic scent which wafts with modest projection for around 8 hours. It's sweet, yes, but somehow not sticky and not cloying: L'innommable follows a similar dance as Ambre Sultan by vying two opposite elements, sweet and savoury, against one-another and culminates in a final victory (sweetness wins big in AS, savoury wins by a hair's breadth in L'innommable). Smelling this scent makes me think of being on all fours on a wooden floor which is carved with motifs of vines and plants, faint flickering of candle-lanterns nearby and dark hymns in the air - there's a woody, medicinal, quality which is quite captivating. As with all Serge Lutens, it's unisex: but leans conventionally masculine ever so slightly. It's also going to be a hard sell to the people around you, who may assume you had a run-in with a rebellious spice rack... I love it though...

There is a sensation of sour, decomposing autumn leaves and the fermentation of waning organic matter that begins L'innomable. It may strike many noses as coarse and unbecoming of a perfume, but I find it both evocative and quite enjoyable. Another layer is peeled back as it evaporates and a blend of prune compote and sukkari dates could be attributed to the merging of benzoin and immortelle here. The outline of a tuberose appears, but feels more like an apparition, not quite fully present. The sweetness is tempered by a leathery core and a prominent addition of caraway seed (*not* cumin, as is listed both Fragrantica and Basenotes, the SL site does confirm that it's caraway, and so does my nose). It imparts a sharp tang, a feral, human body warmth, a granular texture, rye bread-like. This caraway seems to amplify the immortelle and when the frankincense resin in the base follows, it feels animal-vegetable-mineral all rolled into one: salty, urinous, flinty, fleck-y, spark-like, embers and entwined limbs. When all else recedes, there's a musk with golden syrup, tree sap, fenugreek, and sweat. L'Immonable may prove peculiar to the wrong audience, but to the right (and I know many of you are out there), this would be a no-brainer. Sweet without being gourmand and cloying; aromatic, yet edgy; raw musky yet not full-on beast, Sheldrake strikes a balance here and keeps it magnificently elliptical and mysterious.

Great name. I have no idea what this perfume is supposed to be, do, or say. I’ll freely admit that it took a while for me to come to appreciate it; it is willfully idiosyncratic and pushy. Plenty of dehydrated and candied fruits like figs, dates, and prunes are heavily dosed with sweaty body odor caraway driven by a warm, oily, and spicy vanillic benzoin. Eventually, strings of sticky, resinous, green and salty olibanum pull down the caraway note to keep the weird and the pushy and the difficult going all the way to the end to what is a really funky amber. Syrupy textures, difficult. Sweat, salt and body odor, difficult. Jammy and candied purple fruits, difficult. Sharply spicy and sticky benzoin, difficult. Raw and hard olibanum resin, difficult. You get it now, I'm guessing. Yet, somehow it works. Every silver lining has a touch of gray, but in L'Innommable all of these accords come together to show the silver linings more than the gray, just don't expect the gray to be hidden from you at all. It’s wonderfully done, showcasing Sheldrake’s brilliant blending hand, his incomparable understanding of how things “smell”, and how to force characters out of them, but don’t ask me when or where I’d want to wear this. That is also unnamable.

This one's really special. It opens with a blast of something fruity but sour, which a review below compares to decomposing autumn leaves. To my city-girl SoCal nose, the closest analogue is actually lingonberry jam (aka, the best part of any trip to Ikea). As L'innommable progresses, it develops a darker caramel undertone. On top of the opening's sweet-tart contrast, there's now a gentle push and pull between sweet and savory. Like the lingonberry jam's been spread across a slightly burnt slab of rye toast, and maybe some butter and maple syrup have been drizzled over it. The effect is sweet, sour, luscious, a little salty, and very dense. Probably won't appeal to everyone, but for those who like this style of perfume, I think it's a must-try. I've worn it every single day since my sample arrived. One last thought: I have no idea why cumin's listed as the second note. I don't get ANY cumin here. Like others have said, this smells more like caraway.

Smells EXACTLY and I mean EXACTLY like Raisin French Toast with real maple syrup and butter. Even if this particular smell doesn’t light your fire, this is a marvel and a must try. Amazing! After a few hours it’s more of a smokey myrrh/vanilla skin scent. My husband hates this one but I enjoy it as a once in awhile unique gourmand oriental. Great for a decant, not a full bottle. Too evocative of breakfast for everyday wear. Edit: Like most Lutens, I came to love this one more over time. I do get that tuberose later on that Birnam-Wood mentions and I actually enjoy this as an update and refinement of the classics La Myrrhe and Santal de Mysore. Similar ideas, different materials. This is the perfect scent for a woman who’s personal style has a an abundance of dark and romantic macabre about it (Renaissance-style jewelry, antique silk prints and dark raisin nail polish and lipstick...the YSL Opium in its’ heyday type).

The first time i spray this, i immediately remember the smell of a chinese candied plum, or candied orange peel. These are chinese snacks that are usually come out during chinese new year. The cumin is there, but like I said before, i detect the fruity sourness of plum, and like other reviewers said, there is a tuberose undertone in the beginning. Later on benzoin makes it even warmer in the drydown. The sourness lingers until the end. For me the dry down is in the same line as Bond no 9 I love new york marriage equality and Atelier Cologne Gold Leather. With great longevity and medium projection, this perfume is such a wonderful treat for lovers of fruity ambery gourmand perfumes. for the rest...do not blindbuy.

I love this fragrance. It is resinous, sweet, dark and has immortelle facets which gives it a syrupy quality. I don’t have issues with longevity at all, stays on my skin for a long time and stays interesting, albeit not overly complex. It is in the family of immortelle-styled fragrances such as Borreau Des Fleurs and La Proie Pour L’Ombre but I think they’re all quit unique from each other and would not be redundant to own all three. Currently at discounters you can get this for around $75 USD which to me is an absolute no-brainer due to the quality and style of this fragrance. If LPPL was more available I’d own that before this one, however I am happy to have this one for now.

This opens with a soft lightly sweetened blast like muted brown sugar, and then becomes more sour and spicy as the immortelle, caraway, and especially the cumin take over. It's sophisticated in a way I'm not sure most people will appreciate, but it's truly unusual. It made me think of an elegant and wealthy cosmopolitan in the earlier part of the twentieth century living in a city like Aleppo or Alexandria (I kept thinking of the character of the merchant Nessim in Durrell's "Justine"). I give this huge props for not being easy to like--although I have to confess I like it very, very much!

This frag is soo smooth and so good, I don ́t get why people compare this to B.O. It has nothing to do with it, they see cumin it is automatically B.O. This fragrance is pure benzoin with some honey like nuances and amber. Similar to Absolue Pour Le Soir from MFK but much much smoother with a maple syrup vibe to it for sure, with that part I agree a 100 percent. If you like super high quality smooth oriental frags try it out you ́ll see :)

This is Christmas in a bottle to me. It is sexy and delicious. I cannot stop smelling my arm. It has great sillage. I have not fallen this hard for a fragrance in many years. It is number one on my Christmas list this year. This is a true winner in every way!

After last year’s Bourreau des Fleurs, Serge Lutens seems to continue his olfactory exploration of immortelle with this year’s L’Innommable. The fragrance opens with delicious dried stone fruits. Apricots, plums and peaches are carefully dried under the sun, then spiced up by cumin, piquant but not necessarily sweaty. A few drops of honey and caramel drip from the immortelle and benzoin onto the dried fruits, just enough to complement their sweet flavour without thickening the texture. Finally, a pinch of salt rounds everything up, amping up the gourmand sensation without leveling up the sweetness. This kind of spicy dried fruits appearing rather frequently in Lutens’ compositions, it’s now widely regarded as one of his olfactory signatures. As a result, L’Innommable instantly pops a few names into my head: Arabie, El Attarine and the aforementioned Bourreau des Fleurs. I didn’t compare them side by side, but from my memory, I’d say the spices, especially the cumin, play a much stronger role and are overall sharper in Arabie than in L’Innommable, while Bourreau des Fleurs feels more caramel-y. El Attarine has the least fruity elements out of these four, but its emphasis on honeyed caramel-cumin duality of immortelle combined with a certain dense animalic muskiness makes it closer to L’Innommable in the dry down. To be clear, L’Innommable doesn’t have the same muskiness as El Attarine, but it achieves a similar effect via the intermediate of something reminiscent of tuberose and sandalwood. The tuberose is not at all camphorated or diffusively sweet or creamy, but somehow is bent inward and rendered densely nutty by the sandalwood-like nuance. These two emerge from underneath about 1 hour in, lending the dried fruits a surprisingly leathery touch. The combined effect is not dissimilar to the leathery immortelle-tuberose of Histoires de Parfums Tubéreuse 3 Animale. L’Innommable then stays more or less the same until the end, with occasion woody smokes sizzle through the musky tuberose and leathery dried fruits. The sillage is relatively close with an 8-hour longevity on a hot day. Overall, I quite enjoy L’Innommable, especially its leathery and musky tuberose twist on the immortelle and his signature spicy dried fruits. However, the fact that it reminds me of several other fragrances does make me pause. Granted, its price, while high-end, is not the most outrageous in that category. But it doesn’t seem as efficient as other more reasonably priced immortelle or immortelle-tuberose fragrances, either. Personally, I’d be more excited if it was released in the regular range, but if you happen to be exploring immortelle in perfumery, it would be interesting to sample too.

A newer Serge Lutens release that is a tribute of sorts to the more classic older releases from this eclectic house, this perfume is a lovingly textured gourmand. The notes not always clearly revealed by the house include dried fruits, vanilla, cumin, benzoin, and woody resins. The unisex perfume has moderate sillage and projection and good longevity. The perfume is an interesting new offering from this venerable three decade old niche house. However it is also a bit baffling since it does not represent a new direction for this line and with the exception of being more refined, and has many resemblances to past and present releases like Arabie and La Participe Passé. Recommended for Serge Lutens fans only. Enjoy!

What a weird perfume! It bears resemblance to many, many other SL's fragrances. Was that by design? I tend to think that yes, it was. And the name - "unspeakable" or "impossible to express" might even allude to that? There is amazing immortelle and prunes of Bourreau des Fleurs, wet leaves and notes of decay of Chypre Rouge, raisins of Arabie, maple and brown sugar of Le Participe Passe, various cooking spices of El Attarine, and veiled framing of virgin medicinal tuberose of Tubereuse Criminelle. So, everything, everywhere, all at once.

Really interesting blend of dried and syrupy fruits, resins, and spices. Very caravan. Complex, dark, languid, decadent, sour, and sweet, but not sugary. Truly unique. Can't stop smelling my wrist. Intoxicating. Kind of reminds me of TF Plum Japonais. Fairly serious in tone, but the sourness makes it smell more human and imperfect. Even sexy. Yet, it doesn't go into BO territory, thankfully.

Interesting scent, I did not expect a burst of burnt sugar in the beginning. Once you get past that, the cumin is prominent. I need to think about it some more but I think I like it.

In all of Lutens' immortelle "oeuvre," this one smells the most directly like helichrysum absolute fairly unadorned with its savory-sweet dichotomous facets and maple/fenugreek/cumin aspects fully on display. You definitely must love the smell of immortelle absolute to abide by this scent. I do find it striking and compelling, but one of the things I love about Lutens is the way immortelle is woven deftly with other notes--how it creates the syrupy, sappy accord of Chene; how it provides a grounding, sweet counterpoint to the fairly sunny El Attarine. This "all immortelle ALL THE TIME" flashes like a neon sign and gets a bit tiresome after a while.

This makes no sense to me. I don't get cumin. I don't get benzoin. I couldn't figure it out until I saw someone else point it out below--it smells like maple syrup. But why?

The first review, @stelladiverflynn, is absolutely right. I was surprised, when smelling from the vial, among the crowded dried fruit and its spice entourage, a very, very slight hint of cool-tone, sharp, weird herbal scent (probably Methyl benzoate?) seep out. You can find a similar tone in Tubéreuse Criminelle. When on the skin, the dried-fruits+spice mixture everybody is talking about has dominated the first half of the game. At the latter half, the hidden tuberose came out from deep—but don’t take me wrong, this is NOT a floral perfume. Nothing floral at all. The tuberose here is more like a cloudy, waxy coffin, and a slight hint of dry cocoas is buried in it, with the residuals of spice.

I will agree with the previous review that says this smells like raisin toast and maple syrup - the only thing it lacks is the dry wheatiness of the bread. This is sweet and dense. For me personally, I would have liked some aspect of this to break up the very solid feeling heaviness that it brought. It feels like every note in this is thick and I would have liked even just the slightest breath of fresh air amongst it all. I also found this a bit linear for my tastes. And speaking on tastes, this really does have a taste...truly a gourmand, but a different one. Very unique.

It starts with a blast of burned nutmeg, then heads south into burned maple syrup territory, and levels off with the sort of burned mess it takes hours to scrub off a stainless steel pan. I love dark and brooding scents and I read at least some of the reviews here, but I sprang for a tiny 1ml sample anyway. But you needn't. Don't bother. Almost anything else is better. A huge no from me.

This fragrance remind me pancakes with maple syrup. On my skin it is a sweet and warm scent and remains the same from the start to the end. the longevity is good, about four hour than became a skin scent. Personally I don’t like it, but if you like gourmand perfume you can try a sample.

Pretty awful. Smells like a sweaty cook after a long days work.

Holy crap, if I wanted to smell like cinnamon-laced hot chocolate and a Mexican pastry, I would have rubbed some of those all over myself for far cheaper than this awful concoction. When will perfumers learn that most people don't want to smell like FOOD? The dry-down smells like the cheap "spice" scented candles my grandmother tortured us with back in the late '70's. That is NOT a good thing. Please people, if like me you are a longtime fan of Lutens, run far away from this and be suspicious of whatever that company puts out from here forwards. I'm telling you, someone at that company hates its customers, and is desperately trying to kill your nostrils.

BO + Honey. This is dried body odor AND steamy new body odor with sweet honey. Warm, sticky, nauseating. Pefectly unisex, anyone can smell like they desperately need a shower. Review of offical boxed sample that came free with purchase.

opens hyper offensive and pure sweat. dries down to a pure benzoin.

I consider a high number of Lutens releases from the early 1990s to the mid-2000s as some of the most original outputs from a single company - nobody else had such an innovative and productive tandem of creative director and perfumer for such a long duration, considering output frequency / ratio. Going through a box with archival material I came across an envelope I received from the Lutens HQ in Palais Royal in the mid-2000s - containing the entire range of wax samples they produced for many years, their elegant and distinctive way to share samples. This corpus reminded me once again what an excellent trajectory SL had up until 2005 ... and how confused it went from then on. It seemed that the only wit went into some of the titles of their releases, and so I thought at first when I heard about L'Innonamble - a fragrance named after a Beckett play... why not. Luckily it's much more than that, together with the surprisingly great Le Participe Passé, I consider L'Innonammble to be an au pair, SL release par excellence. Its construction brings to mind a few older Lutens releases, namely Borneo 1834 or Tuberose Criminelle, in featuring officially minimal ingredients, yet arranging them in a super polarising scheme, coming up with something intense, that's both campherous refreshing and loaden with spice. Facets of cumin are most prominent in L'Innonamble', recalling notes of immortelle and fenugreek at times, but the benzoin desweetings it effectively throughout. This apparent reference to old-Serge-style keeps puzzling me, did this years' Le Participe Passe already evoke proximities to some previous releases – Chêne being one of them – I am both excited and perplexed by this move. Is such apparent self-reference, together with the new extra-expensive prize jumps and yet another repackaging, a pointer to some closure of the SL project or part of a retirement plan ? With L'Innonammble being possibly the best Lutens release in years, I hope it's more of a reactivation of the SL / Sheldrake spirit that has been perfected in some of their early releases.

L'Innommable is a wonderful tribute to vintage Coco Chanel parfum. The same dried fruits effect is blended in a soft cloud of benzoin and vanilla. Just as Coco I think there is nutmeg mixed to the fruits. It's extremely warm, soft and creamy, a sandalwood, cumin and milky/honey accord soften the fruits and spices. A hint of Immortelle dry the base and warm it up. L'Innommable is reminiscent of El Attarine and Coco, in a very creamy and simple way. It's not a complicated scent and it's quite linear but it feels rich and deep.

A middle-point between Arabie and El Attarine. More floral and less herbal version of Arabie; less savoury and less honeyed version of El Attarine. The result is still a chewy, slightly salted dried fruits and immortelle but with a plush floral (pissy tuberose akin to Cèdre) and a benzoin base that smells like toffee and cinnamon. While it's nice and I do want it, I rather buy the two I've mentioned. This one smells too self-referential.

Absolutely, positively, 100% maple syrup. I imagine Lutens and Sheldrake tapping trees, with the sap slowly dripping straight into those gorgeous black Gratte-Ciel bottles. Add a few raisins, a slice of French toast, et voilà... L’Innommable! Like, but no love. It gets a plus for its extreme longevity. If you’re looking for a syrupy Lutens, go for Mandarine-Mandarin. It’s criminally underrated and far less literal.

Cumin and hot resin bomb. The perfume is very good but 270 euros for 100 ml is too much, because this is not a signature perfume for me, more something I want to feel sometime in life. Even the bottle for me is a bit sad so black, I would have preferred to see a nice golden liquid in a 30ml clear glass. ps: too much Lutens confusion, too many lines, too many different prices, bottles, something is not for me.

l'innommable Serge Lutens/ I don't know how I feel about it, It smells like a an old damp wooden cabinet full of oriental medicinal spices ! I can smell amber but like a wasted pickled balsamicy amber, it is very animalic and potent, It is like an experince for me that it is nice to sniff time to time, but I'd rather my skin does NOT smell like this. Very long lasting, it's a 💣 @ladylovesperfumes

Raw benzoin is very resinous, balsamic, vanilla, and cola like. I love benzoin and wish I could bathe in the resinoid as it is intoxicating and takes me to another planet. So needless to say, I had high hopes with this fragrance. The cumin note is not very prevelant or detectable to my nose and primarily get vanilla and benzoin. Interesting take on a fragrance with its minimalism.

This is a very linear, one note fragrance. I know the main note is caraway (acc to Lutens’ website) but I can’t convince my brain that it isn’t very, very strong cola syrup. It’s all I can smell. It’s incredibly powerful and long lasting: with only one squirt you can live in a world of cola for two whole days.

On the more simple side of Uncle Serge but very high quality. Strikes a nice balance between sweet and spicy. 7/10

very rum-whisky lactonic scent.