Fille en Aiguillles

Of course this forest stroll will be enhanced by a few oriental warmths but also by a few smoky, incense-laced cold notes, as the master had already known how to do so well before. So who is this Fille en Aiguilles? A feminine, masculine, or unisex fragrance? Mystery drifts through the pines...

Does Fille en Aiguilles offer us a stroll through the pines or through fashion?

As is his habit, Lutens surprises with an enigmatic and tenderly cryptic name. Who is this Fille en Aiguilles? A lofty woman straight out of the Dior salons of the era when Lutens worked there? The fragrance would then be a collection of memories and emotions from the thread and needle of that golden era when Parisian haute couture rose to the height of elegance. Not this time — Serginia Noire had already done that.

So, by focusing on the words accompanying the new fragrance, a new idea takes hold. Resin, sun, cicadas, and shade beneath the great pines. Fille en Aiguilles would therefore be a precious Mediterranean pine that has finally found favor in the eyes of a perfumer. It was about time, for by dint of smelling Landes pine in household products, one might forget that it is the delicate fragrant host of a good many scents far more precious than a dish soap!

With Lutens, then, pine is ennobled after years of neglect and misunderstanding. Would each tree thus have its own fragrance? Chêne, Cèdre, and now Fille en Aiguilles. This ode to pine is precious and warm but also a little camphorous and sharp — not forgetting its needles, of course!

Woody warmth and cold incense for a Fille en Aiguilles unlike any other!

One might have expected the color of the juice of Lutens's pretty woodland woman to be bright green. No — too common, too seen, too sold. So the precious Lutens bottle of Fille en Aiguilles is dressed in precious dark brown tones, like a haute couture garment cut straight from the forest!

From the top notes we are plunged into a spicy olibanum note, carrying us into a gray, smoky fog that is cold and sharp. Then fir balsam, the pine needles, makes its notable appearance at the heart of this gray smoke, coming alive under its radiant scent to create a dense and deep resin.

Strolling in the shelter of Fille en Aiguilles, we also find a few fruity plum notes swept by a dry wind of pepper. Coated in cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg, the fruits become candied. Finally the majestic hosts of this fantastic pine forest appear in the form of cedar, vetiver, and pine notes, becoming embalmed and orientalized with benzoin, amber, and patchouli, so dear to Lutens. As for incense, it finds its destination in a trail of myrrh, purifying with a few sacralized scents this ode to the forest.

Fille en Aiguilles might at first glance seem intended solely for a feminine audience. Its name is misleading and makes one forget that Lutens composes equally for men and for women. The stroll through this enchanted pine forest will thus spread with voluptuousness its oriental charms to whoever is willing to be carried away!