Œillet Pourpre

Lui

Guerlain 2017

Guerlain's Lui is a bit of an illusive fragrance. We all know by now that the fragrance went through a rebrand along with the rest of the L'Art & La Matière collection, but even after this, Lui has always remained a bit of an illusive fragrance within the Guerlain collection. In my mind, I always saw this fragrance as the opposite rendition of the similarly named Liu. The two are almost like yin and yang to me. Liu is a sparkling, aldehydic floral, while Lui is a dark and intense carnation with leather notes. Lui is the antithesis of Liu, simply put. Of course, I doubt this was Delphine Jelk's intention, but in my mind it gives a story and meaning to the similarity in name. All of this aside, Lui is a very beautiful fragrance and a great carnation. The carnation here is met with a shockingly sweet and thick benzoin note, along with a vanilla that I found similar to the Vanilla Planifolia Extrait 21. These two, in combination, help mellow out the usual bitterness that I find carnation to have. I am also getting hints of pear within this fragrance, especially in the earlier hours when wearing this. All of these things combined create for a wonderfully unique, dark and seductive scent that is truly one of the more inspiring to come from L'Art & La Matière collection.

I wish Guerlain would do more outlandish fragrances like this. As weird as it sounds, I feel Lui fit better in L'Art & La Matière, even in it's short life, than many of the other current entries into the series do. This fragrance truly felt like it belonged in the line, and it stood out from many other creations by both Guerlain and other houses. Maybe, with a bit of luck, Guerlain will bring this back to the states some day. Though, given their love for discontinuation, I don't see that coming anytime soon.