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With a wink to 19th century dandies who wore it on their lapel, and in a tribute to a flower that starred in classic perfumery, Serge Lutens brings us his fiercely elegant version of the carnation. Vitriol d’oeillet, clearly a sister of his criminal tuberose, is, he says, a “fragrance fraught with anger”; the flower’s “petals, laced with tiny teeth” are “a burst of fragrant spikes”.
But though this potion is loaded with clove and pepper, it isn’t, fortunately for our skin, as corrosive as its name promises: Vitriol d’oeillet is as elegant a retro charmer as Bas de Soie, a warm powdery veil over an ylang-ylang and lily bouquet. And if it is as red as its namesake blossom, it’s like a slash of chic matte lipstick rather than a drop of blood; the spikes are pinned on pumps, rather than into flesh. Lutens may be an alchemist, but he is also, above all, a dark charmer.
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Clove, carnation, wallflower, lily, ylang-ylang
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