From the closet: Serge Lutens Rahat Loukoum

By Tom Rahat Loukoum is a perfume that by all rights I should hate. I don't like sweet and I don't like fruity, but somehow I adore this. Marina calls this 1998 release "chewy", which is a fitting description for a scent that's named for the candy "Turkish Delight". It starts with a boozy hit of cherries as if you were starting the process of putting fresh ones up for the winter by boiling them in some sweet liquor, the boozy fumes palpable and heady. Almost immediately the candy starts to soften with almond and smoke. Well, soften isn't quite the word. It never becomes as soft as say, Lutens own Louve, which I bought at Barneys and abandoned when I acquired a bell jar of this. The hard-edged opening cooks down into a warm and sensual honeyed musk with just a trace of the opening spikiness in the heliotropic cherry/almond notes. Today (Wednesday, April 11th) it's a rainy day in LA where the temps may, or may not hit 60. It's the perfect weather for this scent: cold enough to tame what could be a tiger of a scent and yet make me crave its warmth. Rahat is sadly one of the ones that you have to be in Europe to buy. It's €125 for a Bell Jar and I have no idea if it will ever come to these shores. As a caution, my bottle is several years old, so I can't speak to whether it has been reformulated, If you've been to the Palais and can comment, please do.