Serge Lutens • Sarrasins • Fragrances

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gmstrack on 2/2/2013 2:39:00 PM more reviews by gmstrack

Age: 36-43   Skin: Dry, Fair   Hair: Red   Eyes: Hazel    

According to the Serge Lutens official website, when Sarrasins is “applied at night in a Moorish silence, it barely touches the skin…” Sarrasins made its mark when I applied one spray to my dry, ivory skin just below the wrist. The pale violet stain almost appears as a bruise, yet this is my secret to hold. This fragrance, however, is anything but a secret; a bombastic cloud of jasmine cut with grape jam fills the room. This white floral struts, tosses her hair, wears too much gold jewelry, and spends all day on her iphone. I was just about to dismiss Sarrasins as another hyper-feminine fruity-floral (albeit high quality), when suddenly, the initial romance receded to expose the underbelly of contemporary humanity: melting plastic, sweet animalic excess, and yes, feces. A monster.

Sillage and tenacity: Good

4 out of 6 people found this review helpful.     Was this review helpful to you? Yes   No

*TOP REVIEWER* YoHarajuku on 12/9/2012 10:01:00 AM more reviews by YoHarajuku

Age: 25-29   Skin: Oily, Fair, Cool   Hair: Blond, Straight, Medium   Eyes: Hazel    

I know Serge Lutens are love/hate for people but how anyone can find anything good about this is beyond me. There is no nice way of saying it, it smells of a toilet, or more specifically what you find in a toilet (In the bottle and on the skin). I hoped it would dry down to something much more acceptable, but sadly no. No Jasmine to be found. I'm a big perfume lover and although I'm picky about what I wear I usually can find something good about most perfumes. There has only been 3 perfumes I have ever tried that have made me physically recoil. And this is the 3rd. You have to be pretty brave to wear this.

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*TOP REVIEWER* kerriki on 10/25/2012 7:49:00 AM more reviews by kerriki

Age: 56 & Over   Skin: Normal, Fair, Warm   Hair: Brunette, Wavy, Fine   Eyes: Brown    

A powerful earthy apricot jasmine, yet paradoxically has a sweet airy quality that makes it quite an easy and optimistic wear for me (A La Nuit requires a little more commitment in my opinion). Absolutely unique, yet another master stroke from the Lutens - Sheldrake union...

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*TOP REVIEWER* chayaNY on 10/23/2012 3:57:00 PM more reviews by chayaNY

Age: Unknown   Skin: Sensitive, Fair-Medium, Warm   Hair: Brown, Wavy, Medium   Eyes: Brown    

I agree with KelseyP below, this never gets to the swooning, beautiful part on me. I'm not a fan of Jasmine so there's that but also I'm a novice in learning about perfume and maybe don't have the knowledge to appreciate this and how it differentiates from other similar scents.

I like obviously pretty scents yet hope my nose "grows" to be able to appreciate more complex ones. That said, I love to try new perfumes/makeup wise, sort of like a "beauty itch" I have to scratch when I've heard about a product getting raves. So I'm glad I tried it but maybe the finer things in life are wasted on me. This is why "we" can't have nice things lol

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*TOP REVIEWER* condesadepitimini on 2/5/2012 6:40:00 AM more reviews by condesadepitimini

Age: 36-43   Skin: Combination, Fair, Warm   Hair: Blond, Fine   Eyes: Green    

Excellent jasmine-based fragrance. But not your average jasmine, mind you! it's rich, deep, cloying, skanky.
Definitely indolic (and you may want to consider this carefully, as indolic may not be appropiate for all occasions!).
It's sweet and sweaty, enlightened but some rays of fresh jasmine, with a strong dirty leather note. Super feminine. Drydown is rich, ambery and leathery. Excellent frag all in all, but must be worn in small doses (can be cloying!).
Absolutely a must try!

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*TOP REVIEWER* zeynepd on 1/4/2011 12:47:00 PM more reviews by zeynepd

Age: 30-35   Skin: Combination, Fair-Medium   Hair: Red   Eyes: Hazel    

Jasmins playing good cop/bad cop. One facet of it is airy, sunny friendly jasmin while the other is lush and indolic - unfortunately, I don't get on well with indoles. These two facets take turns on my skin, one following the other for a good 3 hours. Actually one sniff takes me to my mother's garden where airy, amicable jasmins sometimes had this indolic note - not to this extent, of course. I'm grateful for the nostalgic experience but don't enjoy this on me.

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A88A on 12/18/2010 6:06:00 PM more reviews by A88A

Age: 30-35   Skin: Very Oily, Fair, Cool   Hair: Blond, Straight, Fine   Eyes: Blue    

Sarrasins is predominantly jasmine. This isn't the soft, innocent white jasmine of À La Nuit, but a big, syrupy sweet jasmine, and the juice is a shockingly rich grapey purple. Underneath the sweet jasmine is an odd leather note. I don't know why, but this reminds me of one of the babes from an 80's metal video. I wish I liked this more, but the jasmine is too sweet for me. I've already been spoiled by what I consider to be far superior and more realistic jasmine fragrances. I do like the leather, and find it the only truly interesting thing for me in Sarrasins.

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*TOP REVIEWER* BigEars on 11/10/2010 7:32:00 PM more reviews by BigEars

Age: 44-55   Skin: Other   Hair: Other   Eyes: Other    

Imagine you are going horse riding and before you go you spray on a good quality jasmine. After about a hour of heavy riding you get home. You are damp, sweaty, and smelling of leather saddles. This is what I smell in Sarrasins. Jamsine,sweat, indoles and leather. make you want to roll round in the hay with a groom or maybe a gamekeeper! Lady Chatterly should have worn this.

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chrystelica on 5/18/2010 9:39:00 PM more reviews by chrystelica

Age: 25-29   Skin: Dry, Fair, Warm   Hair: Brown, Straight, Fine   Eyes: Blue    

A poetic, beautiful, yet melancholy, sad jasmine. Like the jasmine you would smell in between sobs and tears streaming down your face. This is a very dramaticly pretty fragrance, to be worn when saying goodbye to a lover. To get over someone, or remember them, or some combination of the two.
I give this 4 stars because I prefer SL A La Nuit to this, both are similar takes on jasmine, this would get the sad drama mask, the tragic, and ALN would get the happy mask, the comedy. Although it is not particularly funny, A La Nuit, as one pert MUAer has noted, is a scent to spray on before making out with someone, when you're in love, or just highly in lust; this one is what you'd wear before playing a piano concerto and crying yourself to sleep. Still beautiful, timeless, unforgettable-- also impossibly sad.
I get a very pretty, breezy jasmine from this, fairly linear, no skanky or sweaty notes or indoles. I cannot detect any leather, and I'm very sensitive to that. I fell asleep with this on and had a dream of baby poo with whole fruits in it though (yes, I am a mom). If I stretch my mind a bit I can imagine apricot, but mainly only jasmine, albeit a very pretty bush of them wafting through the breeze on a terrace.
EDIT: As beautifully crafted as this is, I'm giving it 3 stars because I would never wear this except very occasionally... the sadness is too poignant.

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cors on 3/28/2010 3:23:00 AM more reviews by cors

Age: 19-24   Skin: Sensitive, Medium, Warm   Hair: Black, Straight, Fine   Eyes: Black    

I must say that I am first drawn to Sarrasins because of the inky juice, but this is now my favourite jasmine. I find it deeper, darker and more sensual than offerings like A la Nuit and Jasmine de Nuit, and the leather makes it so intoxicating. Not sure if it is just me, but this starts out overpowering and indolic. I then struggle to detect anything for the next hour, before it becomes stronger again. I can barely detect the apricot throughout and I find Sarrasins fairly linear on me, but I do like it that way.

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crystaltear on 11/30/2009 10:19:00 AM more reviews by crystaltear

Age: 36-43   Skin: Combination   Hair: Red   Eyes: Brown    

Sarrasins struck me as an astonishingly beautiful, true-to-life jasmine which smells purer than TDC Jasmine de Nuit, truer than Keiko Mecheri Jasmine, more intoxicating than Montale Jasmin Full, and more lyrical than A La Nuit. Indole is quietly calmed here but Sarrasins has a dark, sensual, slightly skanky animalic base that seems to contrast and reflect the purity of Jasmine, creating an emotional quality that is full of poetry and rhapsody, which is rarely seen in other Jasmine scents.Comparing with Sarrasins, other jasmine soliflores seem pale and shallow. I think Serge Lutens’s note that Sarrasins is A SIGH OF TIME makes a perfect description for this perfume.
I am never a fan of Jasmine but I LOVE Sarrasins. It is a very favorite, a love at the first whiff, and a true gem.

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*TOP REVIEWER* KelseyP on 7/22/2009 7:00:00 PM more reviews by KelseyP

Age: 30-35   Skin: Normal, Fair-Medium, Cool   Hair: Blond, Straight, Medium   Eyes: Blue    

Wow, I have been waiting for over an hour for the indoles to calm down and to smell the beauty of what everyone else is reviewing - this is all skanky indoles on me. If I brush my arm past my face very quickly I can imagine how this might smell pretty if the indoles weren't completely overwhelming everything... argh. Where is the leather? Where is the airy warm jasmine? Not here unfortunately.

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purlsofswissdom on 4/27/2009 3:49:00 PM more reviews by purlsofswissdom

Age: 30-35   Skin: Combination, Fair-Medium   Hair: Brunette   Eyes: Blue    

this is my first review. I bought this in the store in Paris, when I was there to get Un Lys for a friend. I immediately loved the heady jasmine intensity of the opening notes and it did not take me long to decide I would get Sarrasins. I am relatively new to the niche fragrance world but have always been attracted to scents with depth. This is one! but for the first weeks I wore it, I didn't get more than the heady floral. Finally I wore it today, and after about 5 hours application, I finally got the horsey-stable leather scent others have mentioned (castoreum)... but only on my right wrist! My left stilled had the florally jasmine top notes. I am convinced this is because I applied with my right and put more on my right wrist. In any case, I loved this leathery depth which reminded me of how my hands would smell after returning from my horseriding sessions as a child in India. 13 hours later, the leather is all but gone on my left wrist, and there are lingering horsey-leather notes on my right. the longevity on me is great, and I am very pleased with this perfume.

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katiefar on 4/3/2009 1:22:00 PM more reviews by katiefar

Age: 25-29   Skin: Normal, Fair   Hair: Red   Eyes: Blue    

Sarrasins is a swooningly beautiful perfume. It is. And it is clearly made from quality materials, and has fantastic depth and sillage. It's not your typical white floral-- neither airy, shorn of all indoles, nor tropical. It's almost a gourmand. In fact, if I were in the mood to quip in the manner of "Perfumes, the Guide," I would pronounce Sarrasins "jasmine jelly." The "official" moniker is "jasmine leather" to which I say, wuh-huh? Jasmine, yes, leather, not on my skin. If Jasmine were a grape, Sarassins is Concord grape jelly. And not just because of the color.

Admittedly, I like my jasmines with a little rasp (Loulou) or with a big dose of something growly (Enlevenment au Serail). Sarassins is a huge, fantastic floral, but just too sweet for me.

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*TOP REVIEWER* MizLiz211 on 3/20/2009 10:13:00 AM more reviews by MizLiz211

Age: 25-29   Skin: Combination, Fair-Medium   Hair: Brunette   Eyes: Hazel    

When Sarrasins first came out a few years ago, I seem to remember that the most common reaction was a great big yawn. Most seemed to think that it was pretty but boring, and the rest found it too indolic. Did the glowing review in Perfumes: The Guide bump up its reputation a bit? I think this just might be my favorite Lutens. It has a somewhat mentholated opening, like Tubereuse Criminelle but toned down. Then it's a lush, dark jasmine. Not blinding-sunlight-bright like Lutens' other jasmine perfume, A la Nuit, but dusky, even ornate and classic in feel. But did the juice have to be a deep, dark purple? I'm afraid of staining my clothes!

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*TOP REVIEWER* ellizam on 3/12/2009 9:36:00 PM more reviews by ellizam

Age: 44-55   Skin: Combination   Hair: Brown   Eyes: Brown    

EDITED: I re-tried A La Nuit after this review, and I was mad. A La Nuit is GORGEOUS. Please take every bad thing I've ever said about it in comparison to Sarrasins with a saltcellar. I've continued to be surprised by which Lutens fragrances I've been drawn to and which I haven't liked at all. So to open this review I ought to say that I did NOT initially like Dans La Nuit, not one bit. At the time, it was all funky, bad-breath/indole ridden jasmine on me. To me, it didn't seem good either in the bottle or on my skin. Thus, I expected to dislike Sarrasins. Enter the surprise: it's exquisite! Even more stunning, it taught me to love A La Nuit!


Sarrasins reminds me in a good way of the hippie/head shop jasmine essential oils, as well as the floating, ethereal night-blooming jasmine used in Blush and floating through Diorissimo and Keiko Mecheri's Jasmine. This is a light, dry, blossoming jasmine. There are indoles, tending more in the bad breath direction, which dissapate fairly quickly leaving enough of a hint behind to give a dry, camphor-y backbone to the jasmine. There's also more than a hint of library paste in the opening, which I'm kind of charmed by. It never becomes overwhelming and, again, melts into the fragrance through the first 5 minutes until it is just a gentle undertone.


I didn't get the carnation on my own, but when I saw it listed and went back to Sarrasins, it was there -- part of a very delicate, understated Classic Perfume-y kind of underpinning. There is this dry, ambergris-y, carnation-y, old fashioned base very lightly girding Sarrasins, but it is not an old fashioned perfume. If I had to put it in any particular camp, honestly, I'd go with hippie/head shop although the elegance and blossom of this lifts it past that to my nose.


I found it had HUGE sillage at first, so spray very lightly. The drydown dampened the sillage considerably, but this is one that will leave a trail in the office and might not be a good choice for professional settings. However, it is also the epitome of Paris and EXPENSIVE in scent, very elegant and perfumed, and is a lovely choice for going out in. Sprayed very lightly (i.e. walking through cloud in air) it can have a lightness and delicacy that isn't perfumed at all, but seems like a natural component of clean, pretty skin , so it's great for intimate occasions. SPRAYED LIGHTLY.


It also layers beaufully, and with a lemon layer, comes very close to that ethereal, citric burst of freshly budding Daphne. The juice is a beautiful, alchemical black, and in the alchemist's bell jar, a total dream! I love this fragrance, I really do. Two hits for me pretty close together -- Sarrasins and Serge Noir. Things are looking up!

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*TOP REVIEWER* Wyrmiax on 3/8/2009 8:01:00 PM more reviews by Wyrmiax

Age: 44-55   Skin: Very Oily, Fair-Medium   Hair: Brown, Straight, Medium   Eyes: Hazel    

A serviceable jasmine fragrance. I don't notice any particularly inky quality, which is a good thing, since I've never thought, "Oh, how I wish I could smell like ink!"

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ggslancaster on 9/3/2008 8:21:00 AM more reviews by ggslancaster

Age: 36-43   Skin: Other   Hair: Other   Eyes: Other    

Opens with jasmine, and mostly says "white floral" to me. I am not a fan of many florals. Interesting fragrance, as all the SL's are, and I'm sure some will find this appealing. I prefer the juicier, woodier TDC Jasmin de Nuit. I would choose this over Fracas though, maybe it’s the carnation & the hint of leather at drydown. Sarrasins includes notes of bergamot, jasmine, carnation, woods, musk, coumarin, patchouli. The juice for this one is purple!

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*TOP REVIEWER* sucrose77 on 7/16/2008 10:38:00 AM more reviews by sucrose77

Age: 30-35   Skin: Other   Hair: Other   Eyes: Other    

I love the smell of jasmine but most jasmine perfumes I've tried are either too stridently "white floral" or too sheer and tepid. This one is a nice variation--a pure, round jasmine opening and a fruity-dark drydown. It is soft and muted, and suits me very well. My one complaint is the strength; for something so expensive and difficult to find, I want a little more "oomph." Even with multiple sprays, this ends up as a light skin scent on me. Edit: I've forgiven this for being kind of soft, because it has great lasting power.

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*TOP REVIEWER* bellydancer on 6/30/2008 10:15:00 AM more reviews by bellydancer

Age: Unknown   Skin: Combination, Fair   Hair: Brunette   Eyes: Green    

I tried this from the wax sample. Maybe I would have liked it better if I had been able to spritz. Anyway, it smelled like a cross between Tuberose Criminelle and A La Nuit to me-- and I have and like both of those better.

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