El Attarine 2008

El Attarine by Serge Lutens
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7.4 / 10 61 Ratings
A perfume by Serge Lutens for women and men, released in 2008. The scent is spicy-oriental. The production was apparently discontinued.
Pronunciation
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Main accords

Spicy
Oriental
Fruity
Sweet
Woody

Fragrance Notes

CuminCumin SpicesSpices Dried fruitsDried fruits SaffronSaffron Everlasting flowerEverlasting flower

Perfumers

Ratings
Scent
7.461 Ratings
Longevity
7.542 Ratings
Sillage
6.441 Ratings
Bottle
8.350 Ratings
Value for money
6.812 Ratings
Submitted by Kankuro, last update on 12/13/2024.

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Reviews

3 in-depth fragrance descriptions
9
Scent
DrB1414

216 Reviews
DrB1414
DrB1414
1  
A Different Spin on The Notorious Lutens Cumin and Immortelle Duo
El Attarine, created by my favorite duo, Serge Lutens and Christopher Sheldrake.

This one took me a long time to grasp. I didn't like it at first. However, I sensed there was something different about it. It was an oddball. I wasn't put off by the cumin blast from the opening that likely scares most people, heck, I LOVE cumin. The opening of this perfume is arguably the best showcase of the spice I have encountered. It almost smells like pure essential oil. It wasn't that part. It was its build that felt unfamiliar. I find that Serge Luten's perfumes possess a traceable DNA, for the most part. And so, you have the cumin and immortelle cousins in Le Participe Passé, Bourreau Des Fleurs, and L'innommable, and while they are not identical, there is a similar pathway one can trace in all. My mistake was approaching El Attarine and expecting it to be in that vein. I was wrong. And once again, setting false expectations had me dismiss a perfume upon the first few attempts. This one, like a few others in the line, almost feels like a "Non-Lutens" or "Anti-Lutens" composition. You look at the notes and picture a syrupy-sweet and heavy concoction, only to be greeted by something that feels rather airy and transparent, more like a watercolor painting instead of heavy brush strokes.

El Attarine feels like the Moroccan desert breeze blowing over a buffet of apricots and honey, carefully decorated with fresh immortelle flowers on the side and generously flavored with cumin, left to dry in the sun. Golden is a fitting color for this perfume, with shades of brown. These are the most prominent facets, although there is also a shy violet and perhaps even violet leaf next to some cedar and sandalwood that make a transient appearance and help round up the perfume.
To my nose, El Attarine unfolds in two major acts. First, there is the cumin. This opening can be a deal breaker or pure bliss, depending on your affinity for this "controversial" spice. It almost has an oily texture and plays on the savory aspects of the material. The immortelle-honey-apricot pair is subdued at this stage, only gently whispering from underneath. Suddenly, a shy violet pokes its head only for a brief to introduce the second stage of the perfume, and my favorite, the "Golden Phase," where immortelle, apricots, and honey work together to portray this exquisite Oriental buffet seasoned with cumin and baked in the sun. What feels different from the other immortelle-cumin Lutens creations is how these accords are displayed in the composition. They seem rather fresh, not syrupy and cloying. The Immortelle feels herbaceous, dusty-dry, and unfaded. The honey feels diluted with water, and the apricots are crisp, almost making me picture their skin with a slight zestiness rather than dried apricots or overripe fruits like in perfumes such as Slumberhouse Kiste. This golden triangle is constantly supported by the culprit, cumin, while gentle woody notes infuse creaminess to the base and help provide a grounding layer for the composition. I love the dry-down. It goes like this forever at a low volume in the most sophisticated way, never cloying, always elegant, feeling like an everlasting sunny day.

I believe El Atarine is one of the most special perfumes in the vast catalog of the house, one that requires more time to understand and appreciate, especially if one approaches it expecting to encounter the typical Lutens aesthetic. While undoubtedly it feels like a Lutens and Sheldrake creation, it bears a more emotional and contemplative execution and view.

IG:@memory.of.scents
0 Comments
7.5
Sillage
7.5
Longevity
8
Scent
Cryptic

24 Reviews
Cryptic
Cryptic
Top Review 16  
It's All About the Cumin
Whether you will enjoy or dislike El Attarine will depend on how you feel about a certain sweaty spice finding its way into your perfume. I don't happen to find the cumin overpowering in this context, but there is no denying its presence. While some find even the suggestion of perspiration repulsive, I associate healthy sweat with some wonderful things. Moreover, it makes a nice change from all the "clean" scents that are popular right now but just make me want to scream at the top of my lungs and drench myself in skank to avoid being assimilated into the laundry musk borg.

As with most Serge Lutens creations, El Attarine is not a perfume that remains politely in the background. Rather, it demands not so much to be noticed as to be contemplated. Unlike so many fragrances that prompt me to think about the notes, to the extent that they lead me to consider anything at all, El Attarine fires my imagination like an adult fairy tale. I envison Saluki dogs and strange hairless cats. Heat rising in waves and sandstorms. Nights wild with stars, sleeping on a rooftop. Men with piercing dark eyes rimmed in kohl. Mint tea and peacock thrones. Most of all, I feel the warmth of radiant sunshine -- something that made El Attarine seem like a precious, golden gem during this past dreary winter. Looking at my nearly empty jar is a little depressing. Unlike in the olden days I now can order a replacement from Barney's NYC, but there was something perversely thrilling about using a certain parfumista's not so well-kept secret friend to "mule" it back from Paris. It was like buying olfactory opium and part of the overall mystique.

To return to the practical, El Attarine is a combination of spice, dried fruit, honey and immortelle. It is more restrained than other similar compositions such as Arabie and Aziyade, but nevertheless would be a poor choice for a blind buy. The majority of people will find El Attarine either over-the-top and borderline unwearable or larger-than-life in a wonderful, remarkable way. Sillage and longevity are both very good on my skin.
8 Comments
8
Scent
Ysbrand

84 Reviews
Ysbrand
Ysbrand
Helpful Review 6  
Ensoleillé
As a man with an education in marketing and advertising , there´s a couple things i can appreciate about the promotion of a product: coherence, in one hand (which can be translated as no bullshit) and mystery. That is probably why i am such a fan of Serge Lutens perfumes. I love them by themselves, and i wear some, often, but there is something in the whole product conception ,that it makes me happy just thinking and fantasizing about it. Truth is, the marketing of SL is very wise. Uses the minimal allusions and avoids any direct description...yet it is still perfectly accurate, and each of the few words means a lot.

And what do they have to say on El Attarine? Sunny.

I am trying the solid perfume sample i was given at the Serge Lutens store (a place in ecourage you all to visit) and the (tiny) amount of cream is blossoming in my wrist with an extraordinary puissance. The opening of El Attarine will please to spice lovers (i couldnt help thinking "uh, more of the same old Lutens spices/ I don´t wanna smell to curry") A whirl of overwhelming spices where you will identify easily the much maligned cumin, a mandarin that is more the dry peel of the mandarin and in general a sort of confusing marakech zouk sensation that smells more foody than perfumey, but is strongly evocative, i´ll give him that, for the ones who long being there. And i can appreciate that.

I patiently wait a bit, i know that Serge Lutens fragances usually need to set down ad rearrange. Very soon the dry wind of spices give space to something sweeter: dryfruit; resinous yellow dates most likely, maybe dry banana or apricot(It is not that much about the dry fruits as in Arabie) and, then, a deep, radiant glorious Saffron, almost refreshing put against the dry fruit. Cumin is still there, unclean but masterfully harmonized with the others... the golden syrupy gleam of straw flower is the very center, or better, the solvent of this creation, that feels radiant and fluid, full of light. And then i completely understand why "sunny"

Straw flower in El Attarie is sweet, waxy, and resinous , with a golden syrup texture, but a deeper flavour.

The drydown focus in the herbaceous side of Immortelle, and , still spicy, gets woodier, some type of exotic wood, plus this cedar/violet/iso e super signature that so many SL fragance share.

Is it sunny? In the context of the dark mysterious world of Serge Lutens, it can be descibed as a very luminous, exotic fragance, exploring the theme of sunlight out of the beaten track.
2 Comments

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