Chergui

Chergui, the beautiful aromatic oriental released in 2005 by Lutens, sets out to blow hot and cold on our noses, curious about this beautiful breath with its many faces.

When the wind of the Orient blows its contrary winds on Chergui

The greatest perfumer is the rivers, the winds. There is no other. It is Him, the perfumer. The pollens, the bees, the insects, it is Him who spread everything, created a kind of absolutely royal repertoire, not to mention the literary repertoire that follows. Serge Lutens.

Thus the oriental wind, the chergui, becomes the new hero of the multifaceted fragrance signed by the emblematic Lutens-Sheldrake duo named, simply, Chergui. Indeed, we have grown accustomed to more complex, more enigmatic perfume names, such as Vitriol d'œillet or Clair de musc, but here there is no need to play on words, since what Lutens offers with this Chergui is a mystery fragrance, an olfactory picture to discover. The anagram to solve is therefore no longer in the words but in the fragrance.

Chergui offers the vision of a desert that changes color and shifts with the winds that blow. Sometimes freezing, sometimes scorching, Chergui makes all the plants subjected to it suffer and sweat deep scents. Chergui is, for Lutens, an alchemist whose persistent gusts crystallize shrubs, bushes, berries which thus crackle, shrink and yield their final ransom: saps, resins, juices.

Chergui, or the contrasted Moroccan landscape of wood and flowers

How can a picture be symbolized in the form of a fragrance? The brown color of the Chergui bottle evokes far more the trembling, bending woods under the wind than the soft candied, sweet and amber flavors that result from it. The surprise will be all the greater.

First, Chergui opens on notes of mint and pink pepper, aromatic and icy like the polar gust sweeping over oriental plants. Yet resin and sap already begin to exhale amid these cold scents, giving these top notes a honeyed flavor.

At the heart, honey wraps itself in spices and aromatics, releasing the warm juices of the plants touched by the chergui. Armfuls of orange blossom, iris, lavender and rose venture into this warming wind to exhale their divine scents. The hot-cold effect plays with the floral and spicy notes. Finally, dry woods bring their dense, blond smoke to blend perfectly with a still-smoking tobacco, not forgetting, so dear to the Lutens spirit, a few notes of incense and sandalwood.

Chergui is a complex and intense fragrance that paints the picture of an oriental nature caught in full turmoil. A turmoil that sets the coldness of the gust clashing against the warmth of plants and flowers locked in active struggle. This crystallization of the flora gives rise to a fragrance with many faces that will reveal themselves on skin, if one is willing to let them show.