For The Narwhal: L'Eau Froide

*Current Fragrance: L'Eau Froide by Serge Lutens
*Currently Listening: Don't Tread On Me by 311

Now I know what you must being saying to yourself at this point, "Kathleen, perfume for a whale that lives in the Arctic? This is a little too much, even for you!" But, per usual, I can explain. It's not for a REAL narwhal, all swimming around the Arctic with baby beluga. Nope, it's for a next life / metaphorical narwhal. If you remember I AM going to be a manta ray in my next life. Yep. Totally am. I actually wrote a blog entry all about it!

Not long after writing that post I had a dream where I was actually a manta ray and my two best friends were a sea turtle and a narwhal. I understand that there are some iffy climate concerns with the three swimming in the sea together, but hey - don't forget to take global warming into account. A few days after the dream, it started to dawn on me that the sea turtle and the narwhal were both actual friends in THIS life.

In THIS life the narwhal - who has another name in this blog, but I'm going to keep you guessing - LOVES the cold. Not just when it's chilly, but the bracing & biting cold. I love a good freeze-out as much as the next Faux New Englander (which I am), but our little narwhal is upper east coast born and breed. She thrives and delights in it. So a next life as a narwhal, perfectly suitable.

If I was going to give Lutens' L'Eau Froide a Luca Turin / Tania Snachez-esque moniker, it would have to be frosted herbal aquatic. I didn't particularly care for L'Eau Froide the first few wears. Which for me is typical of most Lutens. It's rarely love at first sniff. Once application I thought it was giving me a horrible headache; thankfully (for L'Eau Froide) it was a lack of caffeine.

I don't get much "citrus" in L'Eau Froide. I think it's because 1) it flees faster the the average top-note molecular structure on my skin and 2) it is expertly woven with musks, incense and frankincense. L'Eau Froide actually conjures many notes in my "noses eye" that are not "officially" there. When a fragrance does this, to a positive effect, I'm generally a fan.


Perhaps it's easiest to describe how I smell L'Eau Froide with a visual. You know those fancy-schmancy ice cubes that have some type of something frozen inside? Think of L'Eau Froide as one of those ice cubes. There's herbs packed inside...lavender, thyme and a hint of mint. All nice and cool. When you first smell the ice cube you're hit by just how damned cold frozen water actually is. There's that feeling that's just on the verge of actual pain as the sensation of the smell goes into your sinuses. As the liquid begins to melt, you then realized it's not just any old water that's holding its herbal treasures hostage; it's a delightful mix of a pingy mineral water and effervescent ginger ale. The ping and effervescence quickly fades as they both completely phase shift to their original liquid state. They become flat and evaporate away leaving us with the cooled herbs at the center.


A fragrance fit for an Arctic Narwhal Princess!!

I can't believe there was actually an image for that....

Will L'Eau Froide be my aquatic that I go with? I don't know, we have two more to go. If it is, it'll be my first full bottle Serge Lutens purchase. I just really need to decide and purchase by the beginning of July, when my need for a nice, cooling aquatic will be at its' peak.

L'Eau Froide is Thing 1 endorsed...

...but, Thing 2 doesn't find it offensive.

*Currently Listening: Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger
**Photo Credits: 1) animals.nationalgeographic.com 2) natazilla.tumblr.com 3&4) my own