I didn't get Gris Clair the first couple of times I tried it shortly after it came out in 2006. The weird burnt lavender was interesting, for sure, but it produced coldness instead of warm embers, and made the air around me move instead of developing on my skin. Only after I passed that first original sample to my husband and smelled it on him, did I start to understand what it was supposed to be, to do and to feel.
Gris Clair is about open air that has remnants of yesterday's smoke in it. A lavender field after harvest, a day that starts off cool and gray but eventually warms up and you can smell the earth baking. And laundry drying on a clothes line outside, soaking up the breeze, the sun and transforms into sweetness when you bury your nose there in the late afternoon hours.
Gris Clair smells better on my husband, I'm fully aware of that. It was the first Lutens bottle I bought him. His skin makes it fully unfold and reveal a lot more than the simplified version that happens on me. Still, I like to wear it for the clean feeling (it's great on a hot and humid August day) and the comfort effect of sweetened lavender.
Gris Clair ($120, 1.7 oz) is part of Serge Lutens export line and available from all the usual suspects- Aedes, Bergdorf, Barneys, Scent Bar/Luckyscent.com and Beauty Habit.
Photo by Nina Leen from Life Magazine archives.
Gris Clair is about open air that has remnants of yesterday's smoke in it. A lavender field after harvest, a day that starts off cool and gray but eventually warms up and you can smell the earth baking. And laundry drying on a clothes line outside, soaking up the breeze, the sun and transforms into sweetness when you bury your nose there in the late afternoon hours.
Gris Clair smells better on my husband, I'm fully aware of that. It was the first Lutens bottle I bought him. His skin makes it fully unfold and reveal a lot more than the simplified version that happens on me. Still, I like to wear it for the clean feeling (it's great on a hot and humid August day) and the comfort effect of sweetened lavender.
Gris Clair ($120, 1.7 oz) is part of Serge Lutens export line and available from all the usual suspects- Aedes, Bergdorf, Barneys, Scent Bar/Luckyscent.com and Beauty Habit.
Photo by Nina Leen from Life Magazine archives.
Thanks for the review! The Lutens line is so large and varied that any guidance is useful, especially as to what things will work well on a man. I'll plan to try Gris Clair.
ReplyDeleteI tried this yesterday when I when out shopping with some friends. I loved the opening notes, it turned after the dry down to a smokey finish that was interesting, but not me. I'm glad I tried it for no other reason than trying something new and unexpected. Thank you for the review and the nudge I needed to try something I would never have done otherwise!
ReplyDeleteI got a Gris Clair sample when I bought Chergui. I just put the Gris Clair on last night and I am in love with it. But I've always been a fan of more masculine scents. Can't wait to get a bottle of this stuff.
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