Louve Serge Lutens for women

Louve (she-wolf) is a gorgeous name for a perfume, but too much almond simply doesn't work for me.

I love almond in other scents: in Le Baiser du Dragon and Jasmin Noir, for example, it functions like a necessary co-worker.
In Louve, to me, almond is the only distinctive note together with vanilla, which makes it too too sweet.

Too bad, I was set on loving "Louve".

Serge Lutens LOUVE is a loukhoum perfume in the spirit of the Keiko Mecheri LOUKHOUM triplet and Montale SWEET ORIENTAL DREAM. Apparently le Grand Serge has his own officially labeled LOUKHOUM perfume launched about a decade before this one (in 1998), but I have not had a chance to try that one and do not know whether it is still in production.

LOUVE falls somewhere in the mid-range of sweetness as far as these perfumes go. They all have a significant almond component which can easily evoke memories of marzipan. I also find a cherry facet. But what links loukhoum perfumes above all in my olfactory memory bank is the scrumptious alkaloid facet, described by zoka (below) as "almost medicinal". Yes, he's right! It's an acquired taste. You either like it, or you don't. I do, I do, I do!!!!

Smells exactly like marzipan. Mouthwatering.

Too gourmand for me!

Louve (She-wolf) is a soft white almond scent with notes of almond, rose petals, jasmine petals, musk and vanilla powder.
Almond creamy brandy.

I was hoping to find a gourmandish almond scent when testing Louve. The opening is very promising indeed : marzipan - bitter almond, not sweet but still something delicious and playful. However it soon transforms into a very resinous amber - almond - vanilla mix and even becomes a bit soapy. Almond remains very prominent but that resin in the background is just enough to keep the scent away from being gourmand. Not bad but way too much resin therefore I will pass this one.
Longevity is good, sillage is medium.

To me Louve is one of the most easygoing scents out of the whole Serge Lutens line but Un Bois Vanille remains my favourite, I find the others to be a bit too serious and complex.

I JUST LOUVE IT! <3

No. Certainly this can't be the Louve sample that I have so looked forward to dabbing on? Yikes. Smells exactly like the air freshener spray they use in department store toilets. And it doesn't dry down to anything delicious, either. After waiting 30 min's I still smell like a loo towel and I am going to wash this off.

I just received my "Beginner's Guide to Oriental Vanilla Fragrances Sampler Pack" from The Perfumed Court and the first sample I'm wearing is Louve. I remember that someone compared it to an Amaretto Sour - I couldn't agree more! That was my signature drink in my mid 20s and it definitely transports me back to my clubbing days lol.

I've been wearing it for a few hours now and at first I really liked the powdery-cherry-almond-with-hint-of-rose smell, but now it seems to have dried down to a sweet-citrusy smell that reminds me of bug repellant or bathroom air freshner. My co-worker sitting next to me described it as cheap soap. Wish it retained more of the strong marzipan quality on me. **sigh**

It is one of the mysteries of perfumery not understand why the kernel suddenly smells like a cherry candy.
In a Nutshell Smells Like These Shoulders Of Heart and I Love This ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ I love The comprere soon will be my first niche fragrance ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

In my view this is a very strong scent. When I sprayed it, it initially smelled strongly like marzipan. I liked that. But then it had a horrible "sweet and sticky" drydown on me and it could not remind me of marzipan anymore. Unfortunately I did not like any SL scent so far.

This is not a negative review, or mocking one but here's what i feel :
It just smells like the "Cléopâtre" glue ! (anyone who was at school in the 80's/90's in France will know what i'm talking about)
So for the non French , i'm explaining : This glue is almond flavored , so that's the reason why Louve makes me think of it . If i had discovered Louve before the glue i would have found that the glue is "Louve" flavoured, i guess .
Thus i wouldn't wear something which smells like the glue i used when i was a little girl , even if i loved the smell of it.

OMG !!! WOW !
Now I have found a new heaven ^j^
I have read several reviews from Serge Lutens different perfumes. I got samples today and I think I love these all I have experienced now. There are many still left to experience from this house and definitely I will try them all ;)
LOUVE is very soft and close to my skin. Still it have its depth (what I love) mmmmmm . This Tender scent suits for sensitive people, imho.

I recently suffered a bad fall and hurt myself; soon thereafter I decided that a bottle of Serge Lutens Louve might help speed my recovery. How did I know how it would make me feel? I can't say. And thus my first encounter with this masterpiece began.

My very first thought after my first whiff was, "this is what a caring person should smell like". Not in a medicinal way, but simply as a state of being. And then cherubs began dancing around in my head, Raphael's "Sistene Madonna" cherubs, on clouds of confection, playfully taunting each other while bouncing around on sugary pillows in the sky. And then almond biscotti and tea. London. And cherry almond Jergens, the kind my mother wore when I was little. Paris.

I began to realize, this scent is a masterpiece like no other. It's not simply gourmand, or almond, or cherry, or vanilla. It takes its wearer to a new state of being. It's not a place of discontent, nor is it a place of elation. It's simply a state of heightened emotion.

Recently on a trip to Madrid I viewed a Mark Rothko painting "Untitled" at the Thyssen Museum. I sat in front of it and stared for awhile. At first, I didn't see anything but a purple outline and green box. But after staring at it, watching it for awhile, I started to see that underneath the green box, things were happening. A storm was brewing. Tears were falling. A war was being waged. This masterpiece, that at first glance looks like a green box, began to evoke emotion in me. I could feel that I was going to cry.

Serge Lutens Louve is to perfume what "Untitled" by Mark Rothko is to art. At first, it may seem simple. Perhaps misunderstood. Compared to all the others. Cherry. Almonds. A little sugar. Maybe some rose. But it evolves into a deep, emotional piece of art. It simply makes me feel. I never wear fragrance to bed, but tonight for the first time, I will spray on some "Louve" before I go to sleep. It will certainly take me to a place of calm, peace and tranquility.

I never understood perfume as art until today. This piece of art in a bottle has redefined what perfume is to me. This is truly a masterpiece. And as with all works of art, you may understand it and you may not. But a masterpiece it remains.

In my country there is an icecream made of Vanilla and topped with toasted almonds. This fragrance smell exactly the same.

Not my favorite by Lutens, but is a very enjoyable and unique. Louve reminds me of Farnesiana, both are beautiful fragrances.

Louve starts really sweet and almond-y. It is a lovely literally really sweet start. If you like a gourmand perfume with some depth, Louve is the one to try, it is sweet but does not have the ‘la-la look over here I’m a sugary girly perfume’ kinda smell which most new released commercial perfumes have.

After several minutes, Louve gets a little bit softer, warmer, rich and velvet(I think I can smell silky rose scent here, like the type of rose from Paris spring editions), somehow I find it a bit pink, but not the type of fruity floral girly pink, but a more refined, Victorian lace floral dress kinda pink.

Later on, a peculiar tuberose-like scent comes in, it’s not loudly there at all, just a glimps of its essence there, which makes the rose+almond sweet velvet combo even more lovely.

The final dry down is of the type of clean inky musk which you can find in Lanvin Jeanne Lanvin and some other perfumes, personally I adore such clean musky dry down.

This smells so much like Amaretto in the beginning, that there is no point for people who don't like the smell of bitter almonds trying it. The smell of bitter almonds lasts and lasts for a long time while the initial sweetness is gradually replaced by a powdery scent. At this point the flowers (rose & jasmine) become more prominent, but are never on the front seat as the almonds are still there. After 4-5 hours the flowers and almonds both fade and all I'm left with, is a powdery scent that's sweet yet not cloying. Heady and sweet, I cannot imagine wearing it in spring or summer, but feels very comforting in winter. Not my favorite by Lutens, but if you like powdery scents, you have to give it a try at least.

The first blast of Louve is strong marzipan/cherry. Its very gourmand, but unlike many of the reviewers that mention baking, this association for me is far stranger. My late father was a dentist and on holidays I would assist him in the surgery. When taking dental impressions, he would mix powder and water that would turn to a rubbery goop that would be applied to the patients teeth via a mouthguard until set. Louve took me back to those days instantly......The power of scent! As for a perfume to wear, the drydown improved but this is too clinical for me.
Thank you to my dear friend Scorpiosheep for this sample and the memory!.

Fantastic initial notes of bitter almonds piqued my interest immediately. Oh, if only they had stayed! but in a few minutes a medicinal smell emerged which almost completely obliterated the almonds. The vanilla was quite obvious but I think the resins were the strongest note here. I loved this for the first five minutes, but cannot wear it.

oh my eyes popped out first, yummie cherrie bonbons. Yes, there is going to be a BUT. :(
I was expecting this so much to like it BUT.
It turned out to be a SOAP.

Soooooooo damn good. I want it. Smells like cherry.

Finally give this one a try today. It does live up to the name "she-wolf" cuz under all the fruity and sweet smell I can detect a slight animalic tone which smell like the hair of a dog.

Interesting for sure but to me it's quite unwearable

I finally had the opportunity to sample a number of Serge fragrances, albeit all at once at the shop but as I never get to smell them unless I order a sample I couldnt resist a chance to try a whole bunch at once. Louve stood out from the bunch for its unusualness. It smells like almond biscuits that my grandma makes! But it is very fascinating and I toyed with the idea of buying a bottle but eventually decided against it because I am not quite sure it is a smell I want to have on me as a perfume. It really is just pure almond biscuits. It is quite brilliant and I am sure many would love it and I do like it for its uniqueness but not something I would wear, but kudos to Serge for not being afraid to make something a little different.

Wow, just put some on my hand and it smells just like baby.Probably because my skin chemistry.Like you "stick" your nouse in baby's neck and breathe in deeply :) ... you want just to cuddle.

Wow, just put some on my hand and it smells just like baby.Probably because my skin chemistry.Like you "stick" your nouse in baby's neck and breathe in deeply :) ... you want just to cuddle.

I do agree about it being a VERY almond based scent. This has alot of staying power and smelled like a well made almond cake. It had a flowery feel for a moment, then that "plastic" note came in. It's the same note I got when I tried Flower by Kenzo in edp form. Well, I wish it had less almond and less...plastic!

Louve is a very sweet and strong almond scent. It is a child of Serge Lutens Rahat Loukhoum and TPOL Luctor et emergo. If you like these two scents, you will adore Louve.

It starts strong as a combination of black cherry liquor and old sherry. Not very sweet, neither too alcoholic. I rarely love gourmand fragrances, fortunately this one has something more than that, there is a sensual- velvety note: musk. I also love the resin touch. It is not much, just enough to save it from being another common almond scent.

Floral tones? I don’t really get them. I suspect they get lost between the almond tones and add more complexity to them.

Like it or not, this is not a common fragrance. As in many other Lutens, you can feel the creativity and the sophisticated nose that tried to bring individuality to his work.

The amber adds a gold-ish, liquor-ish feeling to the whole construction. It becomes stronger in the dry down and is very well balanced by the vanilla note. Sometimes I feel a soft powdery tone as well. I guess another face of the almond oil.


I am not sure I could wear it as it doesn’t work with my personality, however it is a “must experience” kind of fume.

Heavenly tempting.


8.0/10


PS The floral notes are more noticeable after 2 hours. They are still hard to define and feel more like a veil.

I sprtized this on my decollete and thought "Whoa! how did Mom's christmas cookies end up in my shirt???"

You know, the ones you cut with cookie cutters and then cover with thick frosting and little candies? I like these on a tray, just not on my person. Moving on...

Dry down gets better. Love the warm, resinous rose note that radiates out in concentric circles like slow moving molasses (yep, that sweet kick never goes anywhere)

This phase is along the lines of Caron's Pour une Femme, another warm, silky rose fragrance. But Une Femme pairs the rose with incense instead of amber and resins, whihch works better for me (as does the price, which is much less)

Like DoctorMod I was drawn to smelling my sweet self, and I don't really have any complaints about this other than i'm sure the persistant almond note would wear on me after a while. But try it if you can!

surprisingly, I loved this perfume, even though I tend to dislike many nutty scents including almonds. This one actually smells more like amaretto: it's sweet and intoxicating; great scent for winter, especially during holidays!

Ode to the almond! If you like ultra-sweet, honeyed marzipan & amaretto with a raw & smokey edge then you have to try Louve.

The first punch is amaretto - sweet, sharp, loud! Then the smokiness arrives, a touch of "Deep Heat" muscle rub, a dash of burning pine. For me this is the most interesting phase of the scent - here nature has tamed the marzipan monster & created a wild beauty, fearce & abstract...sweet, raw, edgey & unique.

Gradually softer aspects of almond come to the fore & tame this nasal assault, rounding off the corners, dusting you with baby-powder, fluffing up the pillows, settling you down for the more generic, gentle part of this perfume ride.

Sweet, soft rose & musk mingle to create a now milky, powdery almond...slightly bitter, toasted & tossed in burnt carmel...the medicinal note now tiptoeing in & out of the honeyed fog.

Overall, it reminds me of Kirsch & Amaretto liqueur shots.....thick, dark Manuka honey (that touch of tea tree).....bakewell tarts with cherryaid....swedish almond biscuits dusted with icing sugar & studded with boozy fruit & glace cherries.

Louve has a golden hue - an almond amber of the sweetest, boldest design that will make your mouth water & your senses feel drunk. For me the smokey, earthy part that held my interest near the start is far too fleeting to merit buying a whole bottle, but it is an enjoyable scent to road test for the few hours it holds to the skin.

To be worn by bold, cherry-lipped vixens who are dark & daring on the outside but soft as kittens on the inside. Very corruptable.

I could smell a lot of almonds at the beginning,about 5 minutes.Very tasty,bitter-sweet almonds.Then I could smell rose,jasmine,musk.Classic oriental floral.A little heavy for me.

Louve smells like you have put your hand in a stinky jar with honey!

It reminds me a cherry (or another berry) in cognac or Amaretto as it was mentioned. May be because of almond.

Cheerful and sparkly sour cherry from beginning to end. I am trying to detect the almonds but they appear to be shy.
Bold,lovely and sweet fragrance. A real treat in the snowy winter day.

I adore the delicious almond note in this fragrance. In general this fragrance reminds me an almond liquor with flowers petals in it. And I like the name of this fragrance. Smelling this fragrance, I can really imagine a wolf standing at mountain top at night and earning on the moon. It is even a fragrance of the moonlight more than a wolf for me. Or a fragrance of the mood while watching the moonlight.
Sweet, tasty, natural and mysterious. I really like it. Actually, it's only too sweet. But I think that this fragrance is the best by Serge Lutens.

Mmmm... sooo good! This SL rocks! It smells almost just almond and nothing else but fortunately it is not the usual candy or marzipan over sweet typical scent. Not at all. It smells like fresh smashed almond, both sweet and bitter and in spite of sweetness is never cloying. There is a note I can't name that keeps everything fresh and floral. It is a gourmand scent in itself but a one I myself can wear while I can't stand gourmands in general.
That's because it smells more heliotropic in its evolution. It reminds me a lot of Piver Heliotrope Blanc taken to higher concentration and sophistication and it's also very similar to an aromatic water from L'Amande which is much cheaper and long lasting but not so refined of course. I would like to have a bottle or a decant of this.

The smell of cherry-flavoued marzipan. Almonds, cherries, hardly detectable roses and vanilla. It's extremely sweet and has a light medicinal quality. Sometimes it gets a tad soapy on my skin.
It reminds me of another Lutens scent, Rahaat Loukoum (which is not in the database), in fact I think of Louve as Rahaat Loukoum Light (which is funny, as there's nothing light about it on its own). Now that one is even sweeter, almost syrupy, but at the same time somehow darker and deeper (the magic of spices I guess) and even more potent. It has a lovely oriental feel to it that somehow justifies this exaggerated sweetness, and Louve lacks that. I clearly prefer RL.
No idea when to use either, though - perhaps during the festive winter season. Or would they be too much even then?

I love to wear this fragrance but only in winter. Far my favourite in the Lutens line (beside Five O'Clock au gingembre). Belive me I hate to smell edible but this is something different.
Powdery and sweet but not cloying.
One of the most potent fragrances I have ever had. 24+ hrs
Not for gourmand lovers only!

I louve Louve.
I love its coctail-cherry smell. After spraying it is really almond and cherry but very soon i detect the rose. For me it is definely the most wearable Lutens so far...

This fragrance really smells like Amaretto liqueur - sweet and strong almond-marzipan-cherry pits scent with some lingering alcohol notes. Very edible, very rich, very strong and very long-lasting. I guess it can potentially cause headache for many people.

Finally, my perfect heliotrope scent! :) (contains heliotropine, lovely)
Begins with sharp sweet cherry (from his Rahat Loukhoum) but it very, very quickly develops into a soft, powdery (but not cloying) sweet comfort scent. The almonds are sophisticated and pale, not a cooking extract. Evolves into a delicious gourmand floral white musk that is never sharp but very cuddly. A gorgeous skin scent. On my friend's skin this is too sweet, and it is overwhelming on the very young ladies, but if you can tame it, oh my. I'd dab, not spray, as it *is* concentrated. The vanillin in this is blended very well with the almond and musk. The white jasmine and rose are both perfectly balanced and give a lovely powdery quality, adding to the skin-scent-comfort effect, which is not easily dismissed, and the sweetness never leaves, which remains a snowy fairy erotic perfume in a bottle. Love the Louve! And on the right woman, this is a siren's lure.

Edible almonds and vanilla with loads of sugar. Despite myself I like this one, but it's certainly not perfume and it's certainly not worth the price.
EDIT: I lie. It probably is worth the price at the right season. In summer it was way too sweet, but in winter it is a lovely comfort scent. My mistake.

Half woman, half biscuit, Louve is a marzipan werewolf!

Those who like the smell of bakewell tarts will love this. For me it's Headache in a Bottle.

'Haute Concentration' in deed. shocking, strong, in your face.
very almondy and sappy (not sappy as in 'sappy song', but really, literally sappy and ambery).
I swear I can smell it just by thinking about it. for me, it was unwearable. I couldn't cope with this strange animal. a 0.6 vial was enough for several testings. very potent (I don't mind), strong (don't mind), but also sticky in a way. sticky and sweet. no doubt it's a master-piece, but to admire from afar (just like a couple of other creations by SL).
kisses,
m

This smells like a cherry almond biscotti dipped in warm milk. It's a very polite, sweet, powdery baby-like scent. Like freshly washed baby blankets. Not for me, but I adore it's innocent quality.

Cold, bitter almonds for a dangerous woman...A poisonous, cyanidic, magical scent on a hunt for it`s mistress.
Always reminds me the Rammstein video Du Reichst so gut :)

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. I love almondy scents and this one did not disappoint. And it stays for hours! :) I always get so many compliments when I wear this. One of my favorites.

It's one of my favorite scents by Lutens. Remarkable, very strong and sharp almond at the beginning, with almost medicinal nuances and sweet animalistic at the end.

Nothing but almonds; smells like a very sweet, heavy Amaretto, like Amaretto Di Saronno alcoholic drink. I didn't like this one because I don't like almonds nor do I like the smell of them. But if I did like almonds, I would say it's a very nicely done fragrance. Best for very cold days, too heavy and sweet for warm weather.