Baptême du Feu

Indeed, this strange name belongs more commonly to military jargon than to the world of perfumery. Yet Serge Lutens decided to make a fragrance out of it. It is a unisex, oriental fragrance with a highly contrasted character and a particularly creative formula.

The enigmatic fragrance of Serge Lutens

Baptême du Feu is a fragrance whose name comes paired with a quote from Serge Lutens. Indeed, this is the custom within his house. Nevertheless, one should not expect to gain much clarity from it. He always manages to keep an air of doubt hovering over his compositions. Baptême du Feu is thus described as follows: my emotion is fluid. Like wax poured into a mold, it firms up what seduces me, as here, this heart of gingerbread. As one will have understood, this is an abstract fragrance for which Serge Lutens nevertheless agreed to reveal one ingredient: gingerbread. And for good reason, this fragrance specifically aims to carry us into the world of childhood. It evokes a fairground, a shooting stand… Yet all of this has been reinterpreted through the creator's dark eye. Thus, this joyful aspect actually resembles more a shooting gallery, with the smell of gunshots and dust. Serge Lutens even heightens the provocation further by comparing the sugar it contains to the sweetest of drugs in the nasal passages. Baptême du Feu is a falsely childlike fragrance that quickly evolves toward an almost unwholesome ambiguity. Serge Lutens goes even further by describing his olfactory note as the rediscovered taste of a gingerbread fear.

The mysterious formula of Baptême du Feu

Moreover, beyond this rather strange description, it is customary within the house of Serge Lutens not to reveal the entire formula. We do know, however, that the fragrance Baptême du Feu contains a warm, charismatic gingerbread accord. Likewise, for added freshness, it is paired with citrus, particularly orange. Osmanthus, for its part, brings a sweetness here close to that of jasmine. This small spring flower thus tempers the power of this fragrance. What is more, the whole is further enriched with powdery notes for added elegance. However, more sensual notes come to complete this composition. Baptême du Feu notably contains castoreum. Finally, it ends on a very structured woody note. Baptême du Feu thus appears as a very powerful fragrance that nonetheless suits men and women equally.