Une Voix Noire (Serge Lutens)

I rarely excite myself over new releases these days, but I have to admit that the news of Lutens doing a gardenia peaked my curiosity, and while I can only base my impressions on a wax sample* of Une Voix Noire, I have to say my excitement was justified.

For those of you who aren't familiar, Lutens' "non-export" line (Paris-only, although an American department store changes that soon) does not produce traditional samples. Instead, they suspend the perfume in a drop of wax, not unlike a perfume-solid. A fairly realistic impression of the perfume is given using this method, but for disclosure's sake, I wanted to point out how I tested this scent.

Gardenias are tricky, Tom Ford's discontinued Velvet Gardenia was the closest to the real thing, but came across as more of an exercise in recreation than an actual wearable perfume (although I still succumbed and bought it recently). Une Voix Noire takes the realistic elements of Velvet Gardenia, waxy lemons, blue cheese and all, and puts it in a more sophisticated, dry, almost chypre-like structure.

Those hoping for a Tubereuse Criminelle-like creation will be disappointed, there is nothing weird in here. For lovers of Rose de Nuit, this will be a gardenia-dream-come-true.

*UPDATE - now that I've received a full bottle, I can say that the wax sample is a fairly accurate representation of the heart of the scent. I wasn't quite expecting the sweet, fruity topnotes, but they surprisingly don't detract from the sophistication at all. The ghost of Fracas floats past you when you wear UVN, and that's hardly a bad thing. Beautiful stuff.

Year: 2012

Perfumer: Christopher Sheldrake (assumed)

Notes: Gardenia(?)