Nuit de Cellophane was released by Serge Lutens in early 2009 as part of the brand’s export collection. The press release for this fragrance includes a typically Lutensian snippet of prose-poetry and dialogue, but the sample-vial card offers a more concise description: “The night embodied in scent and sight. Chinese osmanthus.” Nuit de Cellophane’s list of notes includes jasmine, osmanthus, carnation, lily, almond, honey, sandalwood, and musk.
I hope my “perfumista” credentials won’t be revoked when I reveal that I’m not a Serge Lutens fanatic. I admire the line’s artistic philosophy and many of its fragrances (and I did own the original Shiseido Féminité du Bois years ago), but although I can appreciate the scents in an abstract sense, I somehow don’t enjoy wearing most of them. Even Sa Majesté la Rose, the rose soliflore of the line, which would seem to be a good fit for my tastes, rubs me the wrong way. (Is it the geranium that bothers my nose? the honey? I’ve never been able to figure it out.) Long story short, I respect Serge Lutens from a distance, but the house’s aesthetic just doesn’t fit me. On the other hand, Nuit de Cellophane sounded like the type of sweet floral that usually appeals to me, and if it turned out to be a non-Serge-like scent, as many diehard Lutensians lamented, then I would probably like it…
