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Annegret Beier

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Loulou Cacharel 1987 Eau de Parfum

7.1 / 10 735 Ratings

A perfume by Cacharel for women, released in 1987. The scent is floral-sweet. Projection and longevity are above-average. It is being marketed by L'Oréal.
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Main accords

Floral

Sweet

Oriental

Powdery

Spicy

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes

Cassia

Cinnamon

Jasmine

Lily

Plum

Violet

Aniseed

Iris

Mimosa

Heart Notes

Heliotrope

Tuberose

Orange blossom

Ylang-ylang

Orris root

Pot marigold

Base Notes

Benzoin

Frankincense Musk

Musk

Sandalwood Vanilla

Vanilla

Perfumer

Jean Guichard

Videos

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Ratings

Scent

7.1735 Ratings

Longevity

8.7578 Ratings

Sillage

8.4538 Ratings

Bottle

6.2576 Ratings

Value for money

8.4185 Ratings

Submitted by DonVanVliet · last update on 01/05/2026.

Source-backed & verified

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to

Loulou Parfum

Loulou Voile de Parfum

Rubikona

Jo-Jo

Poison Eau de Toilette

Lola

Reviews

86 in-depth fragrance descriptions

11/18/2012

7Scent 10Longevity 10Sillage

Cryptic
24 Reviews

Cryptic

Top Review 13

Crippled Beauty

Like many fragrances that were launched in the 1980s, Lou Lou is one outsized perfume. However, while Giorgio, Poison and Coco conjure up images of Supermodel Glamazons and big-haired women in power suits, Lou Lou is better suited to the kind of crop-haired gamine you'd see in New Wave music videos wearing fingerless lace gloves and black tights. She isn't a bombshell, nor is Lou Lou a particularly sexy perfume. Rather, it is a narcotically heavy, sweet concoction with a strange edginess.

Lou Lou opens with a powdery-sweet accord that includes iris, violet, cinnamon and plum, and is rescued from mere saccharine prettiness by a bit of acrid cassia funk, smoky incense and anise. Similarly, the white floral heart of tuberose, orange blossom and ylang ylang gets a strange twist from the plastic doll scent of heliotrope.

Unfortunately, the current formulation of Lou Lou seems to have left most of its base notes back in the 80s. Although the drydown should feature benzoin, musk and sandalwood, all I can smell is a hulking FrankenVanilla that swallows everything else and makes me want to scrub. What started as a dark fairytale has become a trip to Dunkin Donuts...poor Lou Lou. :(

12/23/2013

8Scent 7.5Longevity 7.5Sillage

AmySourbutts
84 Reviews

AmySourbutts

Top Review 7

I Love Loulou

This is another favourite sillage monster. One spray is definitely enough of this, and the longevity is amazing because I sprayed some on my wrist yesterday, and I can still smell it today.

This is another fragrance that some find dated that I'd call classic. I love the sweet spicy dichotomy going on in this scent. Judging from how much of it I smell on a night out of town, lots of others agree with me. There's something just a little over the top about the eighties, but if you scale it back, it's perfect. That's why I go for a minimalist application.

I agree that the vintage formulation is better, but even as a shadow of its former self, I still find this perfume intoxicating.

I also agree with bloodflowers about Cacharel: I may not like all of their perfumes, but you have to admit they smell unique, and I respect them for that.

I think it's so cool that it's named for Louise Brooks because her career was forgotten for more than a decade. I think Loulou the perfume may just have a similar fate.

02/03/2012

7Scent 10Longevity 7.5Sillage

bloodflower
13 Reviews

bloodflower

Top Review 7

Loud and unique

I have to hand it to Cacharel, I think they create very distinctive and unique fragrances which somehow are never copied and never remind of something else, truly original. Like other fragrances by this house Loulou also manages to do the same, represent an era.
Loulou, a sniff and you are in the eighties, this is so obvious. It is a bomb made of spices, flowers, resins and yes the prominent but yet hidden insence, clearly I can't detect any note because the composition is so successful that it is just one smell- it is Loulou.
For a potent perfume like this it would be wiser to use just one spray, it won't make you or the ones around you sick and it does have a great sillage and longetivity overapplied it may not be pleasant. Also I would like to add that this is the type o scent which keeps you warm in winter, it really heatens the skin. Unique! Cacharel I love you!

07/07/2012

9Scent 10Longevity 10Sillage

LadyRogue
166 Reviews

LadyRogue

Top Review 7

Naughty in Turquoise

Cacharel has a lot of stars on its fragrance firmament, but LouLou has to be the moon. She is full, heavy and one of a kind. True; she's an acquired taste but if you give her the time she needs you'll see she's quite like no other. She might not be loved by all but I can't imagine anybody being indifferent to her. I too have loved and left her many, many times, distracted by yet another new fancy bottle, name or promises of sensuous pleasures; only to find that I miss the one perfume that addresses those elusive moods that strike me and I end up craving a bottle.
I am currently looking for a bottle (or two;) of the REAL LouLou, old loves die hard. Most modern perfumes seem bleak and one-dimensional next to troubled, blue, mysterious LouLou. That is a huge compliment, she's a classic and Cacharel should re-release her in her original formulation (AND wonderful uniquely shaped turquoise bottle!) A whole generation is missing out on a masterpiece that suits the moods you don't even know you have!

LouLou is a ponder-some mystery: Sad, yet cheery. Heavy, yet playful. Oriental, yet floral. Dark and light. Take it or leave it, she doesn't care.
I remember the oriental feel of the rich, deep vanilla incense sensation, the florals that seem to take turns from heavy to light. Tuberose and ylang-ylang and always - ALWAYS that stubborn smoky vanilla note, followed by an unusual mix of florals, spices and a dark musk and whiffs of a powdery heaven that somehow manage to play nice.

LouLou is a stubborn, bitter-sweet, sexy and impish woman that won't change and shouldn't change: She is too stubborn to leave (awesome longevity!)
Too impish not to be noticed (large radius of great 'attitude').

She is who she is and I love her for that. LouLou is a must have for those moments that just no other perfume will do. And with LouLou you can be sure - especially in this age of countless "celebrity" scents - that most people will be wondering what that unusual, delightful 'fragrance-puzzle' is that is embracing y

04/07/2025

10Scent 8Longevity 5Sillage

kittea
65 Reviews

kittea

Helpful Review 7

Friendship ended with Red Door- LOULOU is my new bestie

A few days ago I wrote a review of Red Door, where I talked about my love of the 80s floral-ambers, and lamented that I was born too late to experience them in their heyday. Since then, I've acquired a few more to try, chief among them Loulou. I was already inclined to like this, as it shares a name with a good friend of mine... happily, I like this Loulou just as much.

Do you like cinnamon? I hope you do, because Loulou opens up like you've just dusted a bunch of it onto your wrists. (To be clear, this is a compliment). The powdery spices warm up and blossom on skin in the same way that heating dry sugar crystals melts them into caramel. It's a fragrance with a texture, and that texture is 'syrup'. I spent a while sniffing this trying to figure out what it reminded me of— I was thinking a Middle Eastern dessert like baklava, or maybe a plummy tarte tatin, but it's neither of those (not really honey, and not really fruity either). I've poached lotus roots before, in a burgundy-ish liqueur made from handfuls of Chinese red dates, a big sprinkling of dried osmanthus, and a solid stick of dark brown palm sugar. Loulou smells like I added a bottle of vanilla extract for good measure before taking that syrup and pouring it all over my head.

In all the big 80s ambers I've tried, there's usually some attempt to steer it out of dessert territory by playing up a distinctly non-edible note. Red Door does it with the rubberiness of tuberose, Tocade does it with patchouli, but Loulou does it the most successfully. The slightly musty florals (iris rather than osmanthus, I think, but it does remind me awfully of osmanthus) don't work against the syrup, but rather with it, adding complexity without sacrificing any of its decadence. A new favorite.

More reviews

Statements

124 short views on the fragrance

Hajuvana

9 years ago

5

1

Trash the white florals - what a wonderful oriental that would make! By today's standards, Loulou is like wearing two fragrances at a time.

Malibo

4 years ago

10Scent 9Longevity 9Sillage

3

Blue Dress - lovely.
Asphalt, smoke, power, temperature - beautiful.
Flowers and sweetness - wonderful.

Trucklady

6 years ago

8Scent 9Longevity 9Sillage

2

In the wake of Poison, this was pungent crap. Now, watered down and years gone by, it is a gorgeous purplified tuberose.

Jazzy76

7 years ago

10Scent 10Longevity 8Sillage

2

inspired to the famous actress of the "roaring 20es " Louise Brooks, it's a flowery-incensed potion very feminin with a good sillage

Tamaho

1 year ago

8Scent 8Longevity 7Sillage

2

An old but young scent. Powdery floral, complicated but harmonious.

Pinseltown

3 years ago

9.5Scent 9Longevity 9Sillage

60

41

Lou
Your seductive sweet smile so alluring
Your powder flower winks at me in the benzoin smoke
Our eyes sparkle warmly
I’m still loving you

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Andrula

3 years ago

9Scent 9Longevity 9Sillage

43

33

Where you gonna run to
Hitzgerbsummer
I run to the rock
Wildsmoke soul
I run to the sea
Knockhungry heart
Sunfeeling weather
all on that day

Translated · Show original

Axiomatic

2 years ago

4Scent 9Longevity 9Sillage

42

63

Dear girl opens with delicate mimosa and plum cinnamon.
Error 404: Bubblegum tuberose and loud heliotrope.
Adele, dear Loulou.

Translated · Show original

Nachtgarten

4 years ago

9Scent 10Longevity 10Sillage

40

12

1 hour of drama, then Victorian violet powder, bubble gum tuberose, and a waxy lipstick kiss. Quirky diva. Neon baby.

Translated · Show original

Salva

2 years ago

8Scent 8Longevity 8Sillage

31

32

The quirky bottle is actually so ugly
That it becomes beautiful again
As for the scent: bright-floral with sweet
heliotrope and an oriental-creamy touch
It's something

Translated · Show original

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