Sidi Bel-Abbès

I never smelled the original Sidi Bel-Abbes and indeed, never even tried to sample it on account of its listed tobacco note (I'm not a tobacco person anymore, if ever I was, with Aramis Tobacco Reserve and Vero's Naja being the only two I've ever truly loved). Smelling Sidi Bel-Abbes now, I am surprised at just how effectively the notes list captures the smell - it really does smell like tobacco and warm sand. There's a very soft, subtle berry note which gives a tiny bit of edge to the scent, which is then laden with spices, tobacco, perhaps also patchouli to my nose, and tons and tons of sand. I find the scent to be quite conventionally masculine but executed with extreme care and attention to detail. It's not too rough, not too soft, not too much of anything. Yes, the tobacco lends a kind of urbane sweetness to the rest of the composition, but overall the sense is one of aloofness, a calm and self-assured masculine polished into just the right level of grit. Quality though it is, I find I don't much care for it. It lacks the greenness or weirdness I need to tolerate a sweet tobacco scent, and is veering dangerously close to that Bermuda Triangle of cacao, patchouli and tobacco which exemplifies a certain kind of masculine perfumery (and which is totally not my thing, at all). It's simply a matter of taste in this case, but there's very little I can connect with on an emotional level here. Yes, it smells like a handsome guy, spices and sand. Somehow, that mental image is just a tad boring to me.

Any easy to love spicy tobacco with a subtle vanilla base. Quite smooth way better than TF Tobacco Vanille. It’s definitely one of the easier Serge Lutens to wear and love but I feel the high rating here is because this is a crowd pleaser more than it being significantly better than other SL offerings. A like and a pass for me. Especially at the current price or collection it’s in.

I really like the original version. To me, the original feels like a mix of Fumerie Turque, Chergui, and Ambre Sultan. It highlights the chocolate-toned tobacco of FT, pours in a spoonful of Chergui’s honey, and blends it all into the oriental amber of AS. In the opening, there’s even a touch of boozy pineapple, which is very interesting. But the price... if it were in the regular line, it would be so much better. Now it has actually come back in a new series (maybe considered regular?), but knowing how SL tends to change formulas whenever they change the bottle, I worry if this new version still keeps the old charm. According to fifimajascule, the impression is similar to mine, but the old version didn’t have aldehydes or mineral notes. And with “sand” listed in the note pyramid......oh, Uncle Lutens, please don’t change it into something like the opening of Dans le bleu.

i havent tried the first iteration. im relatively new to the serge lutens house, however, im not new to their scents or their stories. sidi bel-abbès is a beautiful and interesting one. you are smelling the desert and the sea. at first it is an interesting and subtle medley of notes. mineraly, spicy slightly sweet yet almost aldehydic. as it starts to cool down, the honey pulls you into the spicier notes with the background of leather. the drydown *reminds me* of fumerie turque with the blend of honey and blond tobacco, but the soul is not the same. it's fresh and beautiful, sweet and salty. ive decided to gift it to my dad. he sticks to his favorites, however im sure this is a story he wouldnt want to miss.

They say odours are the most effective means of creating/evoking memories and experiences... Well... wearing this perfume for the past 4 hours, it's the closest I've ever felt to being an 80 y/o grand-dad in an old folks home - Light smoker, well dressed and trying his best to be well kempt and wearing cologne but still has that faint smoker's smell and old people odour emanating