Serge Lutens

Serge Lutens is a French perfume and makeup house built around the work of its namesake creative director, whose Palais Royal boutique in Paris -- the Salons du Palais Royal -- opened more than 25 years ago as a self-designed retail space combining perfume sales with an immersive, opulently decorated interior. Lutens later added a second, more contemporary Paris location on Rue Saint-Honoré. Two of the house's best-known fragrances anchor its identity: Ambre Sultan, launched in 1993, which Lutens has described as inspired by a fragment of amber-scented wax encountered in the souks of Marrakech and which he calls 'not an Oriental, but an Arab and a Lutens'; and Chergui, released in 2001, a warm eau de parfum from the house's Collection Noire line, both drawing on Lutens' long personal association with Morocco, where he lived and worked for many years before returning fully to perfumery. Since around 2000, Lutens has worked exclusively as a perfumer rather than continuing his earlier career in photography, film and art direction (including a long prior collaboration with Shiseido). The Palais-Royal boutique continues to sell the full exclusive Lutens fragrance and makeup range alongside the brand's international retail and online distribution.