People love to shake their heads wistfully that a perfume is “not the same” when it gets reformulated, and maybe they’re right. But a reformulated perfume can still be lovely. Serge Lutens Fleurs d’oranger is lovely.

I’m not much of a floral perfume wearer, but I’m drawn to a good orange blossom, and this one is gorgeous. It’s got jasmine and tuberose bolstering the white floral, but also neroli keeping it unmistakably orange blossom. The original formulation had a significant cumin note, which gave it more of an animalic edge. One of my few perfume collecting regrets is that I got a bottle of the original with the Palais logo on eBay years ago, then decided I was not likely to wear it and resold it. I wish I’d kept it. When I visited Serge Lutens shops in Paris and chatted with the sales associates about reformulations, this was one of the few that they admitted is “not the same” anymore.

Oh well. Now I have this little mini bottle and it’s not the same anymore and I wear it sometimes when I want an orange blossom perfume, and it makes me happy.