Serge Lutens - Arabie

Before I tried Serge Luten´s Arabie for the first time, I was prepared to have a fragrance experience of an arabic bazaar with exotic spices, dried fruits and the smell of lingering incense. Some perfumes are abstract, like Serge Noire, and others are more concrete. Arabie for me, is a very concrete perfume.

I guess you wonder what the church above has to do with it? Well, it´s a picture of Överluleå church, and below it´s a interior picture of the same church.

Some -many- years ago I had a summer job for Överluleå community, mostly cleaning. For me that really enjoy beautiful environments, it was a big bonus to clean up the beautiful and sacral church. Even when cleaning there is a very special kind of mood in a church. The day´s I liked the best was when the organist practice while I was cleaning. Imagine what a wonderful experince to go around dusting while magnific accompanied by Bach.

Well, back to Serge Luten´s Arabie. What has Arabie to do with that church? A lot! But, probably only for me. Arabie do smell the things mentioned above, there is sweet, dried fruits, aromtic spices and warm woods. But to me, that is the smell of the bridal room in Överluleå church. Arabie also smells of antique brass candelabras, polished wood and thick, spit walls, of the sunbeam shining trough the window and the sooty, waxed smell of rooms where many, many candles have been lighted. In my experience of Arabie a bowl of dried fruit appears on the table and thats the only things that dosn´t really correspond with the true memory.

Arabie is one of my favourites, it is warm, sweet, spicy and very comfortable. It is a fragrance that I could wear often, but maybe not during the hottest summer months. I am so enjoying heavy, orientalic, warm and a little sweet fragrances. If I only had to use one kind of perfume for the rest of my life, I would shose the orientalic fragrances. Arabie dosn´t tease or tire me out, it makes me calm and happy. It is very longlasting, a coupple of sprays in the morning last at least until the afternoon. Arabie is strong, but not so strong that there will be risque to overdose it. No, Arabie is just enough. Just enough of everything I like in a good perfume.

Next to come is something totally different. From Serge Luten´s quite heavy and full-bodied perfumes to something much more minimalistic.