Féminité du Bois

Where perfumes always sought to please rather than to innovate, Lutens opened, with this first woody perfume for women, a new era in perfumery. Far more than a simple fragrance, Féminité du Bois marks a return to the roots of its creator, but also within a world of perfume that had become too superficial.

One day, I will make a perfume that will be called Cèdre, not Féminité du Bois!

Serge Lutens is a versatile artist. A photographer for fashion magazines, an advertiser for Shiseido, everything Serge Lutens touches becomes a work of art. Thanks to his work in the 60s and 70s for Christian Dior's cosmetics line and to his many artistic talents, he obtained in the 80s a valuable collaboration with Shiseido, which wished to develop in this field. First a master of image, Serge Lutens then ventured into perfumery, creating Féminité du Bois alongside perfumers Christopher Sheldrake and Pierre Bourdon.

With Féminité du Bois, the world of perfumery was overturned. According to Lutens, Féminité du Bois caused a shock in the small world of perfumery. Surveys were the fashion at the time. People kept digging deeper and deeper, so deep that there was nothing left to find, and of course one ended up on the other side, back at the starting point. And Serge Lutens decided to set off on a new adventure with Féminité du Bois.

For, at its core, Féminité du Bois has nothing in common with the trendy perfumes of the 1990s. It exhales a dry, almost animalic scent of Virginia and Atlas cedar that had only been timidly suggested by the likes of Samsara or Bois des îles but could hardly be sold on its own, of course!

Serge Lutens therefore followed his instinct and his memories of Morocco to compose a Féminité du Bois that would awaken the dormant world of perfumery, offering at last a unisex perfume and a woody perfume for women. A creation forged through hard-fought battles with investors and perfumers who did not believe in this revolution. And yet a genius of perfume was finally acclaimed...

The very first woody feminine perfume offered by Shiseido and Serge Lutens

How to describe the precious and so bewitching Féminité du Bois? Do not look for an answer to this question by admiring the complex curves of its bottle, which is deliberately elongated and simply faceted. Without any ostentatious luxury. That is not the goal. The smoky color of its juice, however, could well be a first clue...

Féminité du Bois opens on a delicate rosewood spiced with fragrant cardamom. Then the heart of this beauty of the woods takes on mysterious and bewitching notes, thoroughly Moroccan, centered around fruits, precious flowers and spices. Thus rose and ylang-ylang mingle with peach and plum and grow intoxicated with cinnamon and clove spices. Finally, Atlas cedar reveals its majestic presence in the base sillage and does not hesitate to color itself with sandalwood and patchouli, so as to be nothing but cedar, cedar and cedar, 60% wood, in keeping with Lutens's wish. This intense woody depth is dotted with a lovely floral femininity of violet, made cottony and enveloping thanks to white musks.

If the lovely Nombre Noir, created in 1980, had already shown the impressive abilities of the artist Lutens, that fragrant work had left a taste of something unfinished. One had to wait until 1992 and Féminité du bois to discover a Serge Lutens at the peak of his olfactory art, breaking free from every cliché and taboo in order to innovate and offer something entirely new. Like every Lutens perfume signed thereafter, Féminité du Bois is a unique fragrance, acclaimed time and again.