Reviews of Cèdre by Serge Lutens

As somoene who loves "florientals," I went in expecting to like "Cedre," but ended up loving it. Spicy, sweet, delicious and elegant. Yum!

This is not a scent for people who don't like tuberose. The tuberose is very dominant through most of its duration. It's not that I don't like tuberose in fragrances, but I think of unalloyed tuberose as being quite feminine. Both on paper and on my skin, the fragrance opens quite strongly with tuberose and animal notes and I like the opening very much. But within half an hour the animal notes are gone and the tuberose, while more mellow, is too tuberosey. The tuberose lasts and lasts, remaining rather linear for the duration of the heart notes. The dry down is excellent–rich, but very light with musk and amber and cedar. The subtle cedar note strikes me as being quite close to an incense note–at any rate, the cedar note is not quite what I am used to, which is not to say I don't like–in fact, I love it. Those subtle base notes linger on forever, it seems: no problem with lack of longevity here. My quandary is, how do I rate a fragrance that I really dislike the first half but absolutely love the second half? I guess I have to go neutral with it, but the dry down is really great (incense) cedar.

I don't get any cedre or tuberose or spices in this one, just a cloyingly sweet syrup that could perhaps suit a sixtyish lady for a night at the opera. Could never understand all the hype about Serge Lutens. The unisex marketing is a blatant misrepresentation, all ten or so Lutens scents that I tried were positively feminine, if not anile.

Erm... well, as a Serge Lutens admirer I can't say I like this one at all. Like many reviewers here, I did expect something more cedar-like (I got a sample so I hadn't read about its notes), but instead I got what seems like a powerful tuberose. I like tuberose, but prefer it on my female friends. This goes on smelling like old socks and ends up being way too, dare I say, "female" for me, I had to wash it off. Really, it's not a horrible scent by any means, I'm just thinking it is mis-named and perhaps should be aimed only at women.

I've sampled a few Serge Lutens fragrances before, but was never really overly impressed by them. That is, until I came across Cedre. The first whiff of this fantastic composition almost made me weak to my knees. So unique and unusual. Also very warm and sensual in my opinion. It does change quite a bit on the skin after a while and mellows down to something honey and amber-like, but with a slight sharpness to it. I think the name is rather misleading, as it has very little to do with cedar. The only difficulty I have with this fragrance is determining how strong it actually comes across as to others. Very shortly after application, I can smell it as rather subtle, but I'm sure that it's in fact not that subtle at all, given it's EdP and all the natural ingredients. It's very long-lasting - pretty much all day, and I can even smell it on my wrist in the morning. Given you can't get it in too many places (mainly Harrods and Harvey Nichols), you won't be smelling it all over the place. Interestingly, the Serge Lutens website doesn't list it, so I wonder if it's just because it's new or because it's some sort of limited edition. Also, it's more of a gourmand scent, so that again limits the user base. Definitely a winner!

While at my local Barney's New York, this fragrance was referred to me by the very cute salesgirl. I expected a deep, beautiful wood, but was instead unpleasantly surprised by a harsh, sharp floral note - my nemesis, the tuberose. I sprayed some on my skin right before leaving the store, to see how it dried down and perhaps give it another try. The shrill tuberose note was present all the way through the drydown of the fragrance, and I never felt like the scent truly settled on my skin. I had to resist the urge to wash it off many times throughout the day. The name "Cedre" is highly misleading, as this is primarily a tuberose fragrance, albeit a very poorly done tuberose fragrance. If it's tuberose you're looking for, Frederic Malle's Carnal Flower is FAR superior.

I went to the store with the intention of buying Chergui. I ended up walking out with Cedre. (Though I eventually returned for Chergui too!). Cedre is sweet, but it dries down to warm woods and amber. I don't understand what people are talking about when they say it's nauseating, saccharine, or cacophonous. On me it is very pleasant and balanced. I suppose this is one that only works for a lucky few. But believe me, when it works, it works well!

Tuberose is just plain nasty on me. But Cedre works,that strange medical note like an addict I just want to keep sniffing it. Rich what else from Lutens,the tuberose is behaved and the cedar makes sure it stays that way.

A disappointment - camphorous, odd and cacophonous. I tried and tried and tried, but never felt like I warmed up to the scent. The cedar is there at the base but sadly so is a touch of tuberose and the entire composition is far too sweet.

This is perfectly balanced on me - honeyed amber with a cidery hint. It's not as long lasting as I'd like (especially given its strength) but while it's there, I'm drawn all too frequently to have wrist to nose.

Cèdre sounded pretty scary to me (tuberose!!!) but after the instant tuberose attack it was suddenly smooth sailing with lovely soft spices and cedarwood. After the tuberose top note has passed Cèdre is soft and gentle and reminds me a bit of Féminite du Bois. I was sceptic but Cèdre was a very nice surprise!

Ugh. A rare mistake for this wonderful house.

Although I am sure many will love Lutens' newest creation in the export line, I was incredibly disappointed. Cedre is supposed to marry cedar to a tuberose opening and some warm spices--hmm, interesting, maybe I'll go find a store which carries it and check it out in person, I thought. So I went to Aedes and spritzed. Tuberose--overly sweet but not nauseatingly heady. So I decided to wait for the drydown, which would of course be luscious cedar. Sadly, no. The scent did not develop on me at all, but remained saccharine tuberose. Ick. However, some people have found the tuberose tame and the composition balanced. Lucky them.

Admittedly, I like my fragrances soft and delicate, or on the sweet side. I love Serge Lutens Bois series, and for some reason, that is what I was expecting out of Cedre. NOT! I did detect the tuberose on a second test, but this went very masculine (overpoweringly so) quickly. Bitter, harsh amber is what I think I'm smelling (with some vetiver thrown in?). I know Serge doesn't like to classify his scents, but IMO, this is not even close to unisex, and most likely intended for the male gender. Nope, just can't do this one at all.