La Religieuse

I want to bathe in this masterpiece, it smells like Catholic church and white lace on an overcast summer day, and it's lightly sweet in a flowery way, with the slightest touch of incense. I grew up in the church and this threw me back to it, but it's so good I'm not even mad about it. I'll be wearing this daily!

the name and the bottle with its lilac juice and angular lines look so austere and melancholy, but the scent itself is pure buttery jasmine, luminous and cool yet still sensuous, evoking perhaps the ecstatic visions of a mystic, rather than a meek and virginal nun. it is gorgeous, heady, enthralling. as jasmine does, it smells very soapy-clean yet somehow a little dirty and indolic underneath, which makes for an interesting conceptual contrast; one could dissect it as an olfactory commentary on sin and virtue, or simply enjoy it for what it is, beauty for beauty's sake. in most of the SL scents i've tried i've gotten a lot of incense, but here, where i most expected it to come through, it's only an occasional, subdued waft. after the initial profusion of blooms, the fragrance clings closer to the skin, but it is truly so enjoyable even as it morphs into its slightly animalic drydown. i only wish it lasted a bit longer and had a bit more projection at this stage. the artistry behind SL perfumes is always impressive to me, and i am especially fond of their florals; la religieuse is to jasmine what la fille de berlin is to rose, almost a soliflore but with an interesting point of view to offer on its subject. i rank la fille a hair higher only because of my bias towards rose scents. definitely recommend sampling this one if you enjoy white florals.

Gentle, alluring, soft and chilly. The incense and musk comes off as ever so slightly woody to me - edges of stoneware trickling in through the ethereal mist of jasmine. Absolutely lovely.

This perfume reminds me of an old marble statue wrapped in jasmine flowers. It opens with a pretty natural jasmine, smells like jasmine flowers, not jasmine perfume. At first, I got a slight baby wipes or Nivea body lotion vibe. After a few minutes it settles into a natural jasmine, with just a hint of incense. As it dries down i can smell something like salty skin mixed with jasmine. It smells like enhanced skin (?), skin thats a bit salty but also a bit sweet or sharp. This perfume reminds me of an old marble statue wrapped in jasmine flowers. The jasmine is always present but it loses intensity as it dries down. The perfume starts as very feminine and delicate and turns more neutral or androgynous in the drydown. The longevity is pretty long on me, it lasts 6 to 8 hours. The projection starts with moderate and then becomes more like a skin scent, more intimate. I use it on summer because the jasmine is quite fresh and it doesn't get overwhelming. I find that it also makes the incense a bit more noticeable, but its still quite subtle.

cold, almost clammy jasmine. ive been trying to find a dirty, sexy jasmine so this isn’t for me, but it is interesting. wearing it makes me feel sad. almost like crying in an office bathroom quietly so your coworkers don’t notice… the scent sprayer goes off more than once so you start to smell like the bathroom air freshener so people can tell you’ve been in there longer than you should be. you lick your tears and zip up your skirt.

Read the reviews by: rinrinlovesrinrin GracieLions Julespffft They get it, accraute! Stunning frag.

ethereal, whimsical and somehow also somber. a rainy morning at a dream cathedral surrounded by a beautiful garden and an ornate metal fence. not a petrichor fragrance but like bringing flowers to a church where there's incense burning and it happens to be raining. somewhat romantic in a melancholy way. 💒🌫

A powdery musky representation of jasmine. I do get a bit of baby wipe/bathroom cleanser upon first spray, but that does not last long. Faintly leathery in the dry down with a delicate almost tonka-like sweetness. The incense and civet are not really perceptible on my skin as distinct notes, but I do sense that they plump up the fragrance as a whole, taking it from a one-dimensional white floral to something rounder and deeper. Very pretty, but it's extremely weak and fleeting. I have a decant and I wonder if the full bottle somehow is more potent?

In my search for the perfect jasmine perfume (not yet complete) this perfume has gotten itself to the short list, even if it's not quite reached the 'I must have this in my life' status. It's an old fashioned scent with a bit of edge - definitely a natural jasmine, just a little bit dirty. It's smokey, gentle, and jasmine-centric, I just wish it was a little bit greener and fresher. Absolutely worth a go, and probably a safe blind buy if what you're looking for is a classic jasmine perfume. Edit: yep, this is my jasmine perfume :) it's actually perfect.

It opens with a relatively delicate jasmine. Not indolic, but not clean. Then, the flowers recede behind a veil of dryness. Like the gunpowder of Bapteme Du Feu. A cold, empty cathedral at dusk. I disliked this fragrance for years, but now I feel I "get" it.

feels like listening to The Cure while speeding down the interstate at night

A beautifull and delicate white floral fragnance, it very feels light, yet cosy. The incense is not powerfull at all, its just there to compliment the jasmin. It feels so subtle it almost behaves in a musky way if that makes sense. I feel the same way about the civet in this, it is there but it presents itself as a shadow. You sometimes get these animalic whiffs creeping in your nose but there is not a moment you feel like its "dirty". To me this is beautifull. A really well blended scent. A bit more fem leaning but i really enjoy wearing this. Imo definitely more unisex then the poll on here states. Longevity is a bit weak on my skin. I get around 4-5 hours before it turns into a faint musky skinscent. I barely smell it anymore after a couple of hours. Overall this is a beautifull soothing and alluring fragnance, just wish it lasted longer on my skin.

A wonderful, delicate fragrance. The white flowers here are very fresh, cold, and seductive. If this is a "nun", then she's be ashamed. The warm saltiness in the drydown feels to me like a slight sheen of sweat on clean skin, a kind of clean, non-dirty animalic touch. The balance is impressive. I love wearing it in summer because, on my skin, it feels very fresh and cooling. It also wraps you in the sensation of glossy magazine paper, which is funny: i can't really smell that directly on skin or on a blotter, only in the trail (Later i realized that E'crin de Fumée has something similar, but in a more aggressive way) One of my favorite perfumes from the very first test. Versatile enough to fit almost any event.

A clear, appealing jasmine note wrapped in darker supporting elements that don’t quite work for me. The jasmine itself is bright, clean, and surprisingly pleasant — the best part of the composition. But it’s paired with cold incense and a faint civet‑like shadow. These supporting notes don’t ruin the scent, but they pull it into a sharper direction.

With a name like that, I was expecting lots of incense. But it’s an incense so subtle it’s barely there. Incense blurred by jasmine. This is the most gorgeous and intoxicating intertwining of that pair possible. Well-balanced, but jasmine is the star here. An inoffensive, reserved jasmine. Delicate, fresh, green jasmine. Not dirty or indolic at all. Even the civet behaves. A delightful, understated, versatile, mass-appealing floral. Beautifully candied and tart. Lush and warm. There’s a soft, soapy clean. A wisp of smoke. A perfect, gentle white musk. So lovely. Sensuous, alluring, and soothing. Went from a mere like at opening to the top of my Full Bottle Wishlist within 15 minutes.

#1690 in my “Tour de Fragrance” Got this decant from scentsplit.com. I almost blind bought this as Jomashop has a tester at $45, but glad I didn’t. Without the civet note this would be an utterly feminine musky jasmine scent. As is, a guy could wear this but probably would choose not to. Very weak scent on the skin and in the air. This is something a woman could wear if she just wanted a hint of scent that only an intimate partner would pick up for an hour or so, like right before bedtime. But the performance is very poor for a Lutens scent. I don’t think it’s worth anyone’s money. Good Luck and Good Hunting!

It's very sexy to a point that it's not so UNISEX. I had trouble finding the right occasion to wear it. Will try again this fall. It's a scent best wore lightly and experienced within an intimate distance... The notes do get linear pretty quickly, not something I'd wear frequently. Brings a nostalgia for old face creams and cosmetic products.

A very comforting blend of dried flowers, dusting powder, and those magazine perfume strips. Gonna be my bedtime frag for a hot minute I fear.

Despite the fabulous name, on me this mostly comes off as a cold buttery jasmine cream. Nothing like the fresh, bright flower from the stem. It's fine, a tad dusty like most of SL's works on me, and projects moderately. It's nice but not spectacular, and not particularly evocative to me.

It's definitely unisex. So interesting and playful.LOOOOOOTS of jasmine at the start and so much incense at the base. It's opening up little by little....love it. For sure its a winter and a fall time fragrance.

The newest addition to my "cold air" perfume line-up. If I were to describe it: it's like a melancholic vampire who lingers through the garden's row of undying jasmines at the manor. Very alluring.

Dark, clean, and sophisticated. Like a rich lady wearing black leather gloves (not that it smells like leather, but there is something animalic about it) driving a Bentley. It is floral, but not like fantasy floral. Its rather mysterious and intriguing. I quite frankly think it could be worn by a man as well. Its very distinctively a Serge Lutens perfume, if you're familiar with their gothic dark style. If it were a song, it'd be Lilium.

i wore this on a roadtrip and some woman working at a gas station complimented me and told me i “smell like good ass shampoo” i dont see the shampoo aspect but thank you i see this perfume as a fallen angel that is still praying for gods forgiveness for her wrongdoings but it goes on deaf ears

Unpleasant Indolic opening that dries down into a wearable floral musk scent 5.2/10

I wouldn't describe this as a strictly feminine fragrance, but the image it brings to mind is Sister Jude: a nun wearing red lingerie hidden beneath her habit. It opens with a bright sweetness of jasmine. I don't really get much indolic bite here, if any at all. The jasmine is woven together with incense, which, to my nose, is what creates the faintly soapy quality. At this stage, it comes across as a fairly conventional "clean" scent. As it settles on the skin, though, another layer slowly begins to emerge, a clearly animalic undertone. And that's where it becomes genuinely compelling. This animalic facet is overtly carnal, almost indecently bodily, even a little dirty. The longer the fragrance wears, the more pronounced this aspect becomes. From both a conceptual and a technical standpoint, the composition is outstanding. A tully niche creation.

You're grabbed by the aura of mysteriously dark world which Lutens's aesthetics are surrounded by, you read the name of the perfume, you view the notes and you start fantasizing. Who is this nun? Perhaps some sort of Sade-esque caricature, arranging forbidden affairs with all sorts of men in the dimly lit and incense scented chapel, surrendering to her suppressed desires over a bed of crushed jasmine buds, whose indolic aroma follows her after she hastily leaves to not make her absence noticeable to the rest of the sisterhood. And the scent of that crime, the trail of confused smells, holy and unholy, is what you'd dream this perfume would capture. But that's ON YOU. For this composition is nothing more than her name claims to be, liberated from all sorts of "scandalous" assumptions; a nun. Yes, she's a bit distant perhaps, a bit melancholic. But undoubtedly pious, tightly bound to her eternal promise of virtue. Gentle, like a jasmine flower caressing her veil softly, before it meets the ground.

La Religieuse by Serge Lutens is absolutely stunning. The fragrance is sweet and sexy, yet never overwhelming. It has a soft, slightly powdery character and feels incredibly rich and refined. Despite its depth, the scent remains fresh and versatile, making it suitable for virtually any occasion. This is a truly unisex fragrance — I would confidently recommend it to both men and women. An exceptional and beautiful scent.

La Religieuse smells like a Marian shrine rather than a church - fresh jasmine laid on the altar, petals still warm from the hand that picked them, with a thin thread of incense burning nearby. The jasmine is luminous and clean, faintly animalic in a soft, almost bodily way - just a whisper, never harsh- made complete by the quiet smoke surrounding it. Many say it doesn't smell religious, and I agree - at least not in a literal sense. It smells like spiritual cleanliness, the feeling religion is meant to impart. I absolutely love it.

This is very different to how I imagined it would smell from reviews. I am very sensitive to animalics and despise them but I don't notice them much in this (but then again I am going off of a card strip and not skin). This smells like my ultra-religious grandmothers itchy mohair cardigan she wore to church which she hasn't washed and has absorbed the smell of her soap and vintage perfume plus the fur smell of her 8 tiny ankle biting dogs laced with the smell of incense burnt during the service. Thought I would like this because I read a review that said it smelt like naughty nuns pissing behind a jasmine bush and sometimes when I latch onto romanticised imaginary, it is enough for me to love a fragrance that is only mid but it is bringing up a very real religious and childhood trauma that now feels like yesterday after smelling this and that is a mental box I am not ready to unpack so this is officially a hard pass 🤣

I profumi di lutens mi piacevano fino al 2012, poi ha deciso di intraprendere la strada della banalità e non mi è piu interessato. Questo profumo non sa di niente. Il nome fa pensare a qualcosa di gotico,di misterioso,un convento nella neve,atmosfere da brivido,un passato molto ambiguo e con segreti... Poi lo spruzzi e non c'è niente. Odore di fiore generico che potrebbe essere yang yang,bianco con retrogusto di banana, poi zero incenso,non sento zibetto ne altro. Addosso potrebbe essere qualsiasi profumo. Zero personalità. Veramente triste.