Douce amère Serge Lutens 2000

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7.7 / 10 277 Ratings

A popular perfume by Serge Lutens for women and men, released in 2000. The scent is spicy-sweet. It is still in production.
Pronunciation

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Main accords

Spicy

Sweet

Floral

Gourmand

Woody

Fragrance Notes

Absinth

Aniseed

Musk

Lily

Tagetes

Cedar

Jasmine

Tiaré

Cinnamon Tiarella

Perfumers

Christopher Sheldrake, Serge Lutens

Ratings

Scent

7.7277 Ratings

Longevity

7.6199 Ratings

Sillage

6.4190 Ratings

Bottle

8.1180 Ratings

Value for money

6.638 Ratings

Submitted by Kankuro, last update on 11/17/2024.

Interesting Facts

In 2005 a limited bottle collection of this scent was released with domino motifs.

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to

Paname

Vanilla & Anise

Blue Vanille Extrait de Parfum

Confetto

Creations: MV3

Kiss Me Tender

Reviews

6 in-depth fragrance descriptions

08/02/2021

8
Pricing 8
Bottle 7
Sillage 8
Longevity 8.5
Scent

ScentFan
333 Reviews

ScentFan

8

French Intimacy

The French have a way of making love then, without washing, putting on their clothes and walking proudly about. Not all of them. Certainly some I’ve encountered at business meetings.

This perfume reminds me of passing by a recently-loved female native of that country—well perfumed, of course, it being France. Thus subtle Jasmine, Lily, Tiaré.

Douce Amére has nailed these women. The scent must be beguiling because hubby smelled a sample and promptly bought the Bell Jar for me, unasked. I am wearing the perfume now, at his request. He says it smells womanly.

It certainly does.

After the initial animalic assault, this well-constructed and only briefly off-putting perfume really does settle into the heady muskiness of unwashed perfumed bodies. Where’s the musk coming from? The Tagetes, I’d say, and a floral I’m not familiar with called Musk Tiarella.

This isn’t a loud perfume, though. Douce Amére almost turns into a skin scent, which is just as well since it suggests a woman’s thoroughly and recently kissed skin.

In short, it’s a bit dirty.

I, a bather and washer of sheets, rarely smell like this. Maybe I should. Maybe that’s why hubby bought me Douce Amêre.

Perhaps you need it, too.

12/22/2012

7.5
Bottle 7.5
Sillage 7.5
Longevity 5
Scent

MemoryOScent
37 Reviews

MemoryOScent

6

childhood nostalgia

Douce Amère is a strange one. I am not sure I like it but I love wearing it. Another one of those scents where what I smell has nothing to do with what most people will tell you it does. It opens with a thick, sweet exotic flower burst (it actually reminds me of datura) but from early on bitter notes are playing hide and seek with the flowers. As it settles on the skin everything becomes, stickier, creamier, less floral. The unforgettable smell of sweetened condensed milk becomes the centre of the attention but right there, in the end of of the sweet milk trail awaits one of the most cryptic, nostalgic, ironic notes I have ever smelt in fragrance: a rubber teat, a pacifier. I am sure I don’t recall this smell from the time I was using one but I remember being disgusted by it when I was watching my younger cousins grow up. The overly sensitive smell of the five-year-old that I was could not believe that they were sticking that thing in a baby’s mouth and expected to eat from this. And I remember my parents telling me that I was a cry-baby and wouldn’t go to sleep without my pacifier and I just couldn’t believe it! So annoying was that smell to me.

Now after all these years rediscovering the combination of sweet milk and rubber strikes strange chords. Douce Amère is way too sweet for my tastes but every time I wear it I get this nostalgic feeling of sheltered childhood. Soft clouds of fuzzy cotton wrap around me, I feel the warm sensation of snoozing in a dimly lit room knowing that someone is watching over me. I am not sure where these feelings come from but it almost feels like they are popping out the depths of my subconscious, right from the time I was actually using that bottle full of milk. The word “nostalgia”cannot describe exactly how I feel. The portuguese word “saudade” is the only word that explains this. A strong feeling of missing something that is part of you, is now missing and possibly can never be found again, filling you with a restrained sadness that will always be a part of you.

01/08/2012

8
Scent

Njdeb
63 Reviews

Njdeb

2

A discontinued (or so I hear) treasure

At first sniff, I get a pollen-like effect – a lightly sweet, somewhat powdery scent with a bit of a dry herbal quality. This floats atop the aroma of a blooming white flower (I pick up jasmine mostly). The white flower scent is definitely present, yet somehow softened, almost as if it were bleached by the sun.

As the perfume dries down, it develops more of a gourmand character. The sunny floral /herbal smell remains, but is now dusted with flakes of creamy chocolate just starting to melt in the warm air. The cinnamon and anise are not easily detectable to me, but do lend a delicate spiciness to the mix.

This fragrance is so well blended that none of the notes take over, but rather combine to form something unique and lovely. Sadly discontinued.

05/04/2014

5
Bottle 7.5
Sillage 5
Longevity 5
Scent

WRoth
154 Reviews

WRoth

Douce Amère

This fragrance opens with an unusual accord of sweet, spicy and floral notes. At first I think I see chocolate, but it is all an illusion created by florals along with the vanilla and cinnamon note. In my opinion the name of this fragrance is well-chosen, for this is a collection of counterpoints, a fragile combination of contrasting notes: sweet is juxtaposed to sour, spicy to floral and soft to pungent. As the scent dries down the cinnamon note burns off, leaving the wearer with florals on a vanilla base. Once again the particular interaction of notes comes into play: the sharp quality of the flowers is balanced by the softness of the vanilla. Smelled close the skin the sour notes appear dissonant, but further away from the skin they mix beautifully and thus prove their importance to the whole creation. The dry down is a heavy floral vanilla blend, devoid of any counterpoints. This is a delicate fragrance, sheer but powerful, pleasant to wear and interesting to smell.

02/02/2020

8
Bottle 8
Sillage 9
Longevity 10
Scent

Pollita
243 Reviews

Translated Show original

Pollita

Top Review 43

So perfect!

For me, Douce Amère is one of the most wonderful fragrances there is. I stumbled upon this scent many years ago, which at that time was fortunately still available everywhere. Today this is a little more difficult. At that time I kept reading comparisons between Douce Amére and Macadam by Il Profumo, my signature. And these cannot be dismissed, even if we are dealing with a completely different fragrance.

Douce Amère had me on the first taster. I knew right away that this scent was mine. There was no letting it get to you and thinking. He took my heart by storm. A fragrance that knows how to combine green, floral and sweet notes in such a way that nothing comes to the fore. A fragrance that is difficult to grasp and classify. A fragrance that is somewhat special but never really unpleasant. Douce Amère is one who matches the evening gown as well as Doc Martens.

He starts off tipsy with absinthe and then gradually oscillates between green, floral and gourmand. I don't smell the cinnamon. On the other hand I clearly perceive an unsweet vanilla in the base. I can't grasp the cedar either, nor can I classify the floral notes. The longer it is on the skin, the softer it becomes. Even though it is not a wummer, it has enough radiance for a whole day and is still very noticeable on the skin the next morning. I'd almost say it's a skin scent, interpreted differently. Hard to describe, you have to try it yourself.

Some perfumes are bound to shake your head, as I own Douce Amère and also Paname by Keiko Mecheri. Yes, the two are fragrance twins, but I can still recognize subtle differences. While Paname is a ticking darker, Douce Amère glows. When I wear DA, I have been asked about my "coffee smell" several times, although I don't find any coffee notes in the pyramid. Paname is drifting more in the direction of dark chocolate. In terms of power, DA is clearly ahead. While you can practically not overdose Paname, with DA it is better to be a little more cautious with the dose. The differences lie in nuances, and those who like one will certainly like the other.

What makes Douce Amère so perfect for me I like to wear it on special occasions. But it is just as discreetly dosed in the business context. And - last but not least - Douce Amère is also a fragrance with which one can snuggle up wonderfully if one hasn't had the very best day. More perfection in one fragrance is hardly possible for me

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