Perfume Review: Serge Lutens Chergui

Review by Tom When it was annoumced that Make-up Alley had chosen this as the new #1 fragrance of the top 25, I was reminded that I had never reviewed it (although both I and Colombina thought I did), even though I liked it enough to buy two bottles: one as a back-up against the day when it faded back to being an exclusive. As you are all aware, Chergui is named for a Moroccan desert wind: there seem to be more names for desert winds than there are, well, winds in the desert, but never mind. On me Chergui starts off sweet: a smoky tea aspect with the barest hint of milk and sugar and a hay-like accord as if you were being served a bracing cup of sweetened lapsang souchong in a beit al-sha'r. A smoky tobacco note joins in, getting stronger and stronger as the scent wears, joined by leather. The smoky leather accord seems to peek in and around the sweet spices at various phases, as if carried on that desert wind curling around you nose in gusts. There isn't a lot of development past this phase, for me it basically stays here, doing its dance until the final drydown where the sandalwood and the musk are more pronounced and the sweet tea and hay are settled into balance with the leather and tobacco. Chergui is (some say) still available at Barneys and Fred Segal In Santa Monica and West Hollywood but may be gone as of this writing, which leaves them only available at the Palais Royale in Paris, should you be fortunate enough to be going there, live there or have a friend in the EU willing to ship to you. I would also like to mention that next week will be the first anniversary of Colombina opening out her blog to participants like me. I'm not sure what I am going to review for that anniversary, but I want to thank her in advance (and publicly) for allowing me to natter on for the past 12 months- it has been wonderful fun, and I look forward to more!