LouLou Cacharel for women

On a paper it is floral and vintage, very similar to the sun screen my granma used to wear in the 90s, which also reminds me of Guerlain Terracotta. On skin it developes into powdery, plasticy and very spicy. Both are lovely!!! Got my bottle in a swap. I had already Guerlain Insolence on, and I just had to test it a little bit, and they work together really nice. I feel like a whimsical bubblegummy plastic doll. Very girly, very insolent, cute and in your face. Both are very strong so i just dab the paper I sprayed on the wrist. It is not a casual daytime perfume.

I finally tested today and I had to buy a bottle straight away ,it just blew my mind!. How could I have missed it? Absolutely amazing! Lou Lou is the inspiration of many modern perfume centred in tuberose,jasmine,Tiare flower and carnation.Opens with a creamy tuberose and orange blossom and then it becomes dark, leathery and green, the dry down is very smoky rubbery incense with civet, vanilla and tonka,leaving a delicious aura in your skin. Lou Lou is elegant, timeless,high quality ingredients,masterfully blended, retro, Avant Garde futuristic, Dada,Cabaret Voltaire, Belin,Bauhaus,Belle Epoque. Besides the bottle design is unique, very original. Masterpiece.Unisex or for amphibious men or people with an eclectic taste for perfume. Very close to Safari Extreme by ASAQ. 10/10

Loulou is the reason why we use words such as "ambivalence". It's fickle and may smell both vintage and dated or modern and futuristic in a slightly unsettling way. Some people even claim it to be a "sad" scent and I can understand it in a way.

On a good day, it rewards the wearer with incense mixed with powder and creamy ylang, with only a touch of artificialness from the heliotrope I presume. On a bad day, it's a bouquet of old-fashioned flowers in a vase made of scented plastic, abandoned in an old attic, with dust-covered dolls scattered around. On the contrary, it may also be associated with the future populated with cyborgs and dominated by soulless AI, all because of the still life mimicry painted in your head by the artificial composition. If you smell it on its own, it may have a strange appeal, but if you make a side to side comparison with a higher quality perfume, Loulou may feel inadequate, gaudy and crass.

You decide what kind of qualities this fragrance brings to your mind, but be warned - try before you buy.

whatever you do, do NOT blind buy. i was about to, but decided to try it out at Boots at the last minute.

the notes in theory should be beautiful, but the perfume is unpleasant at best. to my nose, it smells entirely artificial and plastic. Various users have compared it to Barbie Doll heads and that’s entirely correct.
Sadly that’s the only note i can detect too, it’s one-dimensional, sweet and plasticky

extraordinary....i wrote a review for lou lou back in 2019. i didn't love her, despite trying to will it so, and suspected the violet and lily notes were to blame. years later, i have a full blown career in the perfume industry, and being here has helped me develop my nose considerably. i do not discern, whatsoever, whatever it was that put me off then. perhaps my bottle has altered some, but she's been in a cool dark home the entire time. if age has softened her edges, i can respect that.

my experience with lou lou now is i can understand her without the spice element i was, for whatever reason, expecting, despite the listed notes. she is now much softer. this is a velvet plum, silk ylang ylang, satin heliotrope, a blanket of incense. the strange synthetic candy-ish punch in the face i initially experienced isn't there, to lou lou's benefit.

i will maintain, though, that lou lou's essence is PURPLE, not blue. :)

idk how to feel ab this, first time i smelled it i was like: hmm i need to sniff that again and again and again. its almost addictive, nostalgic. smells like old chinese shops but in a good way

One of my teenage perfumes. Didn't go near it for 30 years. When I did, I fell in love again. 5/5
PS - must have been reformulated at some point, but smells just as I remember it from 1987.

In the realm of fragrances, LouLou by Cacharel stands as an enchanting masterpiece, a scent that transcends time and leaves an indelible mark on the olfactory senses. Launched in the 1980s, this Powdery Floral fragrance is a symphony of bold and powerful notes that evoke a sense of danger and allure.

Picture a dark and mysterious forest, shrouded in an intoxicating ambiance. LouLou, inspired by the timeless beauty Louise Brooks, is like a forbidden flower, its petals exuding warmth and a touch of danger. As a man captivated by this scent, I find myself drawn into the depths of this alluring fragrance, much like being lured into a dense, dark forest.

The top notes paint a vivid picture – a blend of Plum, Chinese Cinnamon Wood, Iris, Violet, Lily, Anise, Jasmine, Mimosa, and Cassia. It's a sensory journey, akin to stumbling upon a rare, dark red flower in the heart of the forest. The initial whiff is a provocative dance of sweet and spicy, a scent that is as distinctive as it is timeless.

As I delve deeper into the fragrance, the middle notes unfold, revealing layers of Ylang-Ylang, Heliotrope, Orris Root, Orange Blossom, and Tahitian Tiare Flower. It's like discovering hidden facets of the mysterious flower, each note adding complexity to the overall allure. LouLou becomes an irresistible force, much like succumbing to the temptation of picking the forbidden fruit.

The base notes linger, leaving an indelible mark on the senses. Incense, Vanilla, Benzoin, Sandalwood, and Musk create a rich and velvety trail, reminiscent of the lingering scent in the air after a forbidden encounter. LouLou becomes a dangerous elixir, leaving an imprint that is both memorable and provocative.

In essence, LouLou is not just a fragrance; it's an experience, a journey into the intoxicating world of a woman's scent. It's a bold and daring concoction that elicits strong emotions – a perfume that opens up a realm of sensations. Indifference is not an option; one must succumb to the allure, much like following the enticing trail of a dark red flower in a captivating and dangerous forest. LouLou is a timeless and controversial masterpiece that leaves an everlasting imprint on the masculine soul, inviting him to explore the delicate yet powerful essence of femininity.

I have a bottle from 2017 that will last me the rest of my days...I have to be in a mood for LouLou! I sprayed her tonight and as usual, was stumped at the notes and what they remind me of. But another couple of reviewers nailed it: Cherry Dr Pepper and/or Vanilla Dr Pepper, and a brand new Barbie doll out of the box. The first couple of minutes are not pleasant to me...too much too fast!....but give LouLou a few minutes to calm down and she'll be sweet and better behaved. My goodness me I love a good 80's powerhouse! 😍💯✌️

There is a LOT going on here. So many competing notes in the mix. I'm not sure I really like it, but can't stop smelling my wrist to see where its going.

It's a wild ride. A plasticky, powdery heliotrope is the driver, most present through the whole journey. Indolic white flowers are the outspoken passenger in the front. Incense and smoke sit in the back, quietly eating old fashioned licorice candy. Destination: thrift shop (there's even a subtle currant leaf-ish-ness for Macklemore). My favorite childhood thrift store had Lou Lou wandering about.

I appreciate the unique bright blue bottle. Cacharel fragrances tend to smell "of their time" and Lou Lou is no different. Its got that 1980s vibe for sure.

Someone else on here nailed it, could totally see a funky, middle-aged art teacher rocking it. Its weird, but kind of wonderful.

A friend of mine wore this in the 80s and I didn't think it was me-but it seemed to fit her perfectly.
When I saw that people who like it also like some of the powerhouse fragrances that I am drawn to I did a 1 oz. blind buy so many years later.
I have to say that I like it on me now.
It's powdery, slightly sweet and comes out of the bottle like a shot. It has some of those brown accords that I really like though it's not so spicy which is my favorite element.

I guess what I'm really drawn to is the memory of the time-it was college by the pool smoking Virginia Slims and drinking Diet Pepsi with my friend as I wore Lauren and her way cooler LouLou kept the upper hand.

What I always hated about LouLou is its bottle thought I do love the box that it comes in. Too bad the bottle doesn't seem to go with either the box or the fragrance. Good value though and I'm glad its still around after all these years. It's just that the bottle doesn't represent how cool I remember LouLou to be.

It smells like Barbie straight out of the box.
Plastic sweet and weird but we all love it especially 70s kids. This is my second review of LouLou because it's one of my favorites.
I think of a gorgeous dark haired Barbie with a tiare flower in her hair and incense in the background. Perhaps some white floral lais around?

Yup love it

I have been wanting to smell this for at least 35 years. My older cousin had this sitting on her dresser along with Liz Claiborne and Tresor. I have no scent memory of it. If she wore it, she must’ve had a light hand. I was fascinated with the bottle, but never gave in to temptation. When I sprayed it for the first time I did not think this was her so maybe it was gifted to her or she just liked the bottle. She seems more like a soft Dior lady. It’s kind of loud, spicy and big florals. I love it! My cool older cousin who I looked up to was always shy, gentle, elegant and mysterious. To me this is a scent for a more bold, outgoing or even quirky person. This is how I think Betsy Johnson signature should smell. In the opening it is kind of musty and vintage like to put it politely, but then within minutes it’s fruity, floral incense! Right up my alley as I’m an amber spice lover!
Edit: I do get that synthetic vibe others have mentioned, but I feel Lou Lou is slightly synthetic. not overdone synthetic like some more modern fragrances where it comes off as just weird, play doh, plastic or cough syrup. And I adore the name, Lou Lou!

Floral, deep and dense, very 80s. The scent is slightly wet and synthetic but still beautiful and distinctive. It smells like a no nonsense shop owner in her early thirties wearing fashionable glasses and converse. It’s not complicated but strong and distinctive.

Lou Lou is a wallop of anise chased closely by a jasmine both syrupy and cigarettey. Creamy, sun-loving florals continue to unfold: heliotrope and frangipani, principally. A bubblegummy “white floral” comes and goes, incense sticks stuck into the bouquet here and there. I have learned over time that "incense" in a feminine fragrance often smells more like the heady dustiness of unlit incense sticks rather than a swirl of smoke. At the base of this fragrance is an ultra-creamy benzoin/vanilla accord that flirts with smelling like cashmeran and myrrh as that bubblegum/dollhead effect lingers. I also detect the sparkling crispiness of singed-sugar maltol and/or the scent of a jasmine-laced sugar cookie, especially when I catch the scent on yesterday’s sweater. And yet while I can pick all this out, Lou Lou is extremely smooth and well-blended in it kaleidoscopic complexity; as with many older fragrances that have long lists of notes, the list feels like something of a cipher or a joke, inviting you to just smell the one substance that it is and abandon all analysis. Can you imagine an enjoying a painting better after seeing an itemized list of every alleged tone and color mixed to achieve it?

Tell me Lou Lou didn't prefigure the tourable hugeness of Alien, or, more specifically Alien Essence Absolue! I waited ages to try Lou Lou --though it's easy to find online, I waited until I found it in person in a discount store, which took almost six years of sniffing. Wasted time! I could have had a dollhead fragrance par excellence in my collection long ago if not for my own weird rules. I love Lou Lou; I get Lou Lou. To the possible dismay of others, I feel that I cannot overspray this in its current formulation. What an exciting find! Lou Lou forever. 

Wanted to add that this goes through flashes of smelling like baby oil (not powder) and a freshly opened pack of cigs. Delightful!

GAG. Stinky old 80s perfume. The stuff of your childhood nightmares (if you're a millennial). As I queued to pay at Boots today they had a few Cacharel perfumes out to test and I recognized this bottle immediately as being something my mum owned when I was younger. I somewhat suspected it was of the "unrelenting stinkbomb" variety and I was correct. Whewww-ee! To my nose it mostly smelled of smoke (not incense, but smoke/burning tyres/etc), a bit of anise/liquorice and spice and amber but it all compounds into a really unpleasant, overbearing fragrance. Cacharel has some timeless hits in their lineup and this is NOT one of them! (Imo, ofc. I know this is beloved by many. I'm sorry!)

On the other hand, the late drydown (some 2-3 hours later) is actually really enjoyable - a soft fruity-spice reminiscent of Christmas candles, spiced fruit punch, etc.

The real Encens et Bubblegum!

This opens big, creamy, vintage floral, slightly indolic, and I thought “oh no.” But the dry down is a gorgeous tropical tiare flower, vaguely beachy, a bit smoky and softly powdery. It’s a sexy, powdery floral, vaguely reminiscent of Shalimar (if you squint) on my skin - on paper it’s suffocating, floral, overpowering.

Probably one of the most authentic, bold and mesmerising fragrances. Never gets old and is never irrelevant. I love myself better when I wear this work of art.

I adore this. I have no idea why. It's unlike anything else I wear on a regular basis, but there is something so special in the dry down of this, it makes me feel sophisticated and chic. It is definitely from another era and while my mother didn't wear Lou Lou, it reminds me of something she would have worn.

My mom wears it from the release date, so I cant help but love it! Its so sweet and comforting! Its obviously vintage, and so different dna than modern perfumes! Lasts long, and is very feminine!

I bought a 1 oz bottle of LouLou last year. Poison is my first and main love, but LouLou kept popping up in the "If you like..." section.

Not quite. LouLou opens very strong. In fact, the first spray from the bottle took a solid floral spike and drove it through my sinuses into my brain. It was almost a physical pain.

Fortunately, she calmed down and has never spiked me again. Longevity is great; silage is great; but those are the only similarities to Poison I can smell. I am no expert on separating notes, but the opening is a strong, confident floral. Sadly, there is no fruit I can detect and the dry down goes into...baby powder. Nothing but pure powder with a tiny whiff of faint floral. And powdery perfumes are my least favorite scent. I will wear it occasionally, but will not buy again. On someone else, this could be amazing.

Cool and smirky arts and crafts teacher that stayed relevant until today, and probabily will stay being that woman til she drops dead on her polka dot white and black chiffon blouse.

Smells like a rich mature woman

First encountered this fragrance in the 90's as a young teenager. It's an all time classic. There isn't 1 note that stands out over the others. It's so complex but beautiful. There is nothing else like it. One I will always have in my collection.

I love (and am wearing) it now for a Sunday morning wedding feast. It is the 5th of November 2023. When I first encountered it in the 80s I thought it reminded me of a childhood insect spray called Mortein. My favourite scents at that time were Jean-Louis Scherrer, Diorella and Mitsouko – yes, they were some of the greatest fruity chypres ever invented. So one could say that something like LouLou was a radical departure from what I loved then, and something I would not wear. Chypres are still my favourite group though.

I find this scent addictive.... mmm lovely, unique, vintage, seductive...

LouLou by Cacharel is a fragrance that, in my perception, expertly harnesses a synthetic and somewhat plasticky floral essence, but in an oddly delightful manner. It carries a peculiar hint of hairspray and the aroma of styled hair, combined with a powdery facet. This unique combination produces a fragrance that's simultaneously sweet and a touch provocative. In my imagination, it harmonizes perfectly with a deliberately audacious and kitschy persona, embracing a campy attitude.

I came across LouLou after reading that it's similar to Poison by Dior. I like Poison's opening but not quite. Something is off. It's sharp and I get a scratchy feeling in my throat. Then I'm also not particularly a fan of the base in Poison. Overall Poison was still intriguing enough that I kept reading about it and seeking it out to test from time to time whenever I was in a perfume store.
Then one time I saw a LouLou tester and immediately sprayed it. I gasped in awe. This only happened to me once when smelling Tom Ford's Black Orchid. The similarity to Poison is there indeed but it's so much better for me. It's so smooth, soothing, calming well blended and exquisite. LouLou is doing what Poison is doing... just better. There is an odd note that reminds me of plastic or barbie head but it's not off putting. Actually nostalgic.
As a man I'm not into powdery perfumes so there was a bit of worry that it will turn powdery soon after the top notes melt away but to my surprise I don't get any powder. Another huge plus for LouLou! It develops on my skin incredibly syrupy. Really delicious.
So many wonderful reviews here that I can't really add much except that I'd just like to share my love for this gem.

this is very incense-heavy and 'vintage'-smelling. if you like powdery scents, loulou will hit the spot for you. however, it can be cloying and unpleasant to others. mind you, despite the relatively low price point, this fragrance has INSANE sillage and lasts a whole day. wearing this to work was frowned upon by my coworkers lol. that being said, i don't recommend using this on the daily, and instead applying it for more elaborate night-outs.

ew.

Loulou is a true classic in my books.
Gen X, growing up in France in the 70s and 80s, I was exposed very young to perfumes.
My mother wore Rive Gauche and Caleche , my grand-ma never left the house without her Shalimar.
Then I was gifted very early my own bottle of perfume which was at the time Anais-Anais and Nina Ricci’s Fleurs de Fleurs.
I had my period, in my mid-teens, of wearing male perfumes like Cacharel pour l’Homme and YSL Kouros.
But when , in my late teens, I got Loulou I was graduating to the “grown up” scents , the young woman ones.
And what a perfume!
I absolutely loved the scent, the beautiful bottle, the commercials, the ambiance around this scent.
Years went by, many perfumes, and recently , maybe at first on an impulse of nostalgia, I bought Loulou again.
My knowledge of perfumes has grown with the years and now I can really appreciate Loulou for its true value/beauty.
It is a very different scent , an iconoclast complex mix that I’ve never really found beside Loulou.
On me it’s first an explosion of plum and incense , then the dry down brings a sort of amber and woody - sweet vibe.
As I fell in love with Loulou again, I realized the difference between my generation of young women wearing Loulou, Poison, Paris,.. bold , powerful scents with the today's obsession for candy/fruity/oversweet , pleasing but generic hits.🤷🏻
I love this unique , loud, bold, complex , one of a kind scent , but without any vulgarity any false note, and as a woman, Loulou gives me that confidence , that unapologetic feminine aura of power, the kind of lady who walks into the room and owns it.

The notes look enchanting but smell is disgusting to me. But I will keep trying!

My love! Weird, beautiful. Doll's head with vanilla, plastic, incense and powder
I don't like the opening - too sharp and 80's for me, similar opening vibe I find in Habanita by Molinard (which I also adore). But wait 20-30 minutes and all of its beauty appears. I love the drydown the most.
Find it a bit melancholic perfume for a strange and a bit lonely girl with a deep inner world. I use it when I go deep in my inner thoughts to accompany my mood.
Best in cold season, but acts surprisingly well in summer. We have vanilla here, but as it is spicy, it works good (like in Kenzo the elephant?) . It doesn't feel heavy in heat personally for me.

New formula is a travesty! I’m returning this to show my disappointment and vote with my money, maybe L’Oreal will get the message if enough of us do this. Lou Lou shouldn’t ever smell fresh. What the hell? I don’t pick up any incense which is one of the main elements that I can smell in my vintage Lou Lou. The florals have also been somewhat altered, watered down. It has become a forgettable fragrance, easy reach even. The vibe is still there, I could have guessed it was Lou Lou but boy has it been butchered. Death by reformulation. Vintage is the way to go.

LouLou is a beautiful monstrosity!! I’ve loved her for a long time. I got her for Christmas one year when I was like 12. I got the beautiful atomizer bottle. I’d love to get that bottle again, even empty, although it’s hard to find and expensive. A few years ago a girlfriend of mine was wearing it and it bought back memories of my childhood. I’ve been wearing LouLou again ever since. I love the smokiness of it and the incense followed by the powder. I also smell leather in it, although I don’t think it’s one of the notes. LouLou is an 80’s banger that lasts and lasts. She’s one of a kind!!

Dusty white floral vintage scent. The opening is overwhelming but dark plum really draws you in. After some time you get teased by some yellow florals then it becomes a nice smoky powdery scent. Nothing like it but in my opinion outdated. Only grab this when nostalgic.

LouLou is crazy. I mean, I can’t say anything else. Freakin’ bonkers and I love her. Plummy, big floral, powdery, smoky incense bomb. A weirdo not everybody gets and you’re lucky if you’re able to understand and be captivated by her, it’s usually because she has chosen you, too.

She is the kiss lips emoji 💋 she is that chick at the party who goes big and never goes home.

I really wish I got literally anything but powder out of this. I have a vintage dabber bottle, and maybe it's turned? I smell nothing, throughout hours of having it on, but powder, which I don't really like. I bought this because of all the other notes in it. I love plum, incense, all those dark, gothic type scents. Poison was the first perfume I ever fell in love with, and I was 9, back in the 80s. I was so hoping this would have something in common with Poison. Unfortunately all I get, ever, is variations on rancid baby powder. The bottle is still really cool and I'll keep it, but I'm never wearing it again.

I had this in my late teens. Oh boy was I rocking the fragrance roller coaster. I was so grown up, so sophisticated, so ready for the world. It was such a classy head turner. No more little girl scents for me. I had arrived!

@rinrinlovesrinrin Please tell us how the modern version compares to the original formula.

found this perfume in my mom's closet and i can't believe how wonderfully incensy it smells. i know my mom's perfume preferences so i was quite surprised to find something that seems more like something that would be a signature perfume of mine, because of the incense and heavily sweet notes here . it turns out i do know my mom very well, and it was in fact my grandmother who gifted this beautiful perfume to her, so for anyone wondering just how classic this formulation is. she never wears hers and says that i could use it if i would like, but i think i'll just purchase a bottle of my own from fragrancenet. my grandmother bought my mom's bottle from europe (she does a lot of traveling so i cannot specify where) when it was still the beloved original recipe. i hope the updated version still has the same impact as the original because what an unexpectedly dark and powdery perfume this is.

It's bold, it's powdery, it's very femme. I own a small bottle, vintage one. Something I'd wear only in Winter considering how powerful and long lasting it is. I think Loulou can knock off people if worn during an heat wave. Beware. Somehow it reminds vintage makeup, florals incense and plum jam. It's definitely "outdated" but still wearable. Pair this with bold colourful clothing, huge gold hoops. You'll be back in the early 90's. An interesting one that I won't reach very often.

This just came in for me today. Not really what I was expecting given how everyone describes it. It's not loud or provocative, at least not the modern formula that I'm trying. I quite like the opening; it's a bit sharp, but the mix of the spices and the jasmine and the plum is really delightful. Very rich, sophisticated lady wearing outdated furs and diamonds that look like costume jewelry who still manages to look glamourous. Then it sort of settled into a musty incense. I'm not too good with identifying notes but I think I was smelling the benzoin too. But slowly, ever so slowly, that lovely floral powder that I came to this fragrance for is starting to peek through. It's almost a little fruity too? On fabric I get the orange blossom, not so much on my skin. I get sandalwood. This part of the fragrance feels like a plateau almost. Comforting. Like sticking your head into your smoker grandma's closet. I wish it were a bit softer, but it's still very pretty.

So...Loulou...
Was my first perfume I was a girl when my daddy gifted it to me from a long travel of his engineering work.
DON'T wear it on summer.
I just saw it today and add a spray only.
What I won't like is some of the notes and of course incense I have written what I like and no at my profile.
2 years I see it everywhere what happened IDK.
It is a perfume for night, cold champagne party.

4/5

V

YES!!! When I smell this I picture the dressing room at my old Ballet school. After our class for young girls the next class was for young women and when my group got back to the dressing room to change out of tights and ballet flats into thick winter layers and boots, it was full of (to me, age 9) the most beautiful and graceful women I had ever seen. Some in burgundy leotards with long hair in a loose braid, some in baby blue sweats with hair in a tight bun. In my memory it is snowing outside but inside it‘s warm. The entire room smells like Lou Lou. Wondrous femininity.

I tried this perfume as a teen, maybe I was the wrong age and my tastes were different but I could not like it. It has some spicy notes, that I like but not balanced with flowers, which I come to see is my thing. Sorry LouLou, I tried.

This perfume is so unique and it’s one of those fragrances that smells completely different at the opening than it does at the dry down.

The opening smells very similar to the original Dior poison, but slightly more powdery. 5 minutes later as it starts to dry down, it literally smells like those vintage barbie dolls. It has the exact same plasticky vanilla smell. I know this may sound unpleasant to some, but I love it! I personally love the smell of dolls because it’s so nostalgic. 🍦🎀

Also, this perfume is STRONG. I’m usually guilty of overspraying but you only need 1-2 sprays.

The first words aloud after the first spray onto the back of my hand were, "Well! Someone was paying attention at perfumery school..."

Jean Guichard. Same master perfumer who composed Obsession and Eden among other classics and just happens to be the head of the Givaudan perfumery school. He wasn't just paying attention in class, he became the schoolmaster. At least my nose got one thing right off the bat.

Might be boring/old news for some, but that part of the story is, I think, vital in approaching this fragrance.

Loulou blooms or should I say, 'fumes' like a rolling fog. Creeping like ink poured into deep water. Elemental, unnerving and utterly beguiling. It's how I imagined every 'oriental' fragrance to at least develop (but never have for me so far-not like this) and it delivers it all in so many movements or phases that it really is more akin to the cliche' of a symphony than just a hummed ditty about flowers and wood.

Once the first movement started to fade, I nodded to myself: "Ah, okay, shows over folks... Pity. I thought this was really gonna be-"

There's a moment where there's near silence, not even anyone in the audience coughing for a change. And then it really starts.

Hours. Literally hours of glorious wave after wave of what is clearly a master at work. Whole accords then single notes, effortlessly unfolding themselves without any of the joins showing. Morphing into alien shapes and equally surreal materials, before reverting back to the vaguely familiar. Supporting notes making perfect sense and all without the usual mental hang ups about trying to identify any of it.

Love it or hate it, it doesn't matter. This is one of those fragrances that doesn't just earn its place as a cult classic through sales. It delivers it easily after establishing itself as sultry and unforgiving as a tropical storm. It follows the rules only to show you how breaking them is fine because they can always be put back together. Until the next time you spray.

For me, Loulou isn't a person but a place. A state of mind even. And just for once, it seems. It's a fragrance that's affordable and abundant, proving that cost/quality for the end consumer (this one at least) has very little to do with any spin about ingredients and how much it costs to make etc.

I'd relish the vintage experience, but something tells me this is more than enough for my senses. It's calmed me some after so many things I got way too attached to were rendered unrecognizable or simply vanished. It proves to me that extraordinary fragrance does not have to cost anyone $30-50/ml to experience it.

Narcotic and even perverse in its effect, this is one of those once a week at the (ahem) Opium den kind of trips for me (no pun intended). I could try to tell myself I can stop any time I like, but I'm already guessing that 'Loulou' is actually some kind of code for those in the know. A pet name for something with much greater reverence.

Something that gives you a permanent itch as well as the warmest, soothing fingers to scratch it with.

the top note smells rubbery on me, geez

This was my go-to perfume when I was in my twenties.... I had a whole selection of the Classics ( yep, I blew my salary on Chanel no 5, Chanel no 19, Madame Rochas and Hermes Caleche...) but they all smelled absolutely divine on my flatmate and only so-so on me... Then I found Loulou who made me feel like a million dollars .... but died a painful death on my flatmate's skin. I quickly ditched les grandes Dames for this one and we (Loulou and I) were best friends for a long, long time. ( That was an expensive lesson - never allow your flatmate to try your perfumes unless you want to ditch the perfume)
I also learned that perfumes are very personal - whether something smells great or not and how a perfume evolves depends on skin chemistry.

I finally bought the new version (long narrow bottle) and tried it to see how it measured up against the older formulations I’ve tried. The newer formula isn’t as boozy and the incense note isn’t as strong. However, the anise gives a stronger licorice/ eucalyptus smell and the powdery notes are lighter. This would be less cloying in warmer weather and overall easier to wear as an everyday scent. I loved the older formulation more, but I love this too.

Loulou is a classic. It`s a great one among too many and I loved it. Very sweet, but playful. The bottle is absolutely original. Makes me think of Moschino.🍰🍨🍧🧁🍒

do you like baby powder and plasticy tones? hey paul!

I am revisiting this one as I put aside my latest bottle and let it sit for a few years. Well, it still smells terrible on me initially but I have the sense to know that I have to wait for the dry down. What a powder bomb and I love it! It really is what I hoped for though thought was not possible on me in my youth (80s). It is still powerful, the top notes really smack me in the face and I can't distinguish anything there as I am completely overwhelmed. I don't like the top notes, at least not on me. I just went to the gym, seated it out and the powder was so beautiful, I'm something of a powder head. I like it for that. Otherwise, I can't smell anything! This is not a vintage bottle, btw.

I heard so much about the wonderous Lou Lou! And today I wasn’t disappointed. Her reputation precedes her, yet it is so much lighter and floral than I imagined! It’s a very pretty vanillic floral scent, powdery and irisy certainly, but not actually heavy in the traditional 80s sense. But I can see why it may be too much for others, because it’s quite persistent and has “beast mode” longevity. Lou lou is a legend for a reason, and I can definitely see why. This will be a favourite going forward I think.

Loulou used to be a power house. One spray was enough to last all day. Unfortunately since it's reformulation, it is much less sweet and waaay closer to the skin. Though, the overall spirit wears the same and i do still enjoy it, it no longer packs the same punch as it used to. I can't say much about it's longevity since i am not realy sure how long it lasts. After the dry down it settles into a skin scent. It's former longevity is no longer there that is for sure. But i can't figure if it's longevity is bad or if my standarts are a tad too high. I wonder when this was reformulated. I have a vintage bottle of this and i bought my first every bottle back in 2011 i believe. Does anyone know if it's reformulation had already taken place back then? Because if it did then I think my nose just knows to much (hèhè) and where i found this to be super bold and loud in 2011 because it was my first real signature my nose now has evolved and i am used to more dramatic fragrances to wich this, in comparisson, is rather weak.

Очень люблю этот аромат ещё с бабушкиной полки. Не чувствую в нем никакого мрака, ничего отталкивающего. Если повспоминать, действительно можно услышать запах куклиной резиновой головы. Старой куклы, когда резина пахла сладко - не отталкивающий и не странный, можно привязать к собственным воспоминаниям запаха, но зачем? Парфюм звучит очень целостно, будто он не состоит из нот, а будто есть в этом мире что-то, имеющее такой аромат.

This is my husband's favorite on me. I find it to be super sweet, floral and a bit powdery. It's almost too much, but I do like it a lot and it evokes some good memories. I think mine has started to turn a bit, not in a macerated type of way but like it's gotten old. I'll probably repurchase, I just don't know if it has been reformulated and if I will still like it if it has. I don't think it's very expensive right now, though. A very 90s scent.

I wore Cacharel LouLou back in the 80's when it came out (I was/am a huge fan of Anais Anais), and while I've had it in my collection for years, it's been a while since I wore it. Revisiting it today, while I get tuberose, I really get a LOT more violet, orris root, and anise; that's what gives LouLou its coolness and strangeness, I think, much like we often note the otherworldliness of Guerlain Insolence, for example. But because of the presence of plum and benzoin, there's a competing richness & warmth that comes through, but without any sort of clash. It produces such a rich, dark, but cooling effect; very beautiful and complex. This perfume is a cool, strange masterpiece. <3 <3 <3

This came in the box of mini bottles I purchased at the airport duty free. This stuff is so potent that I have never tried anything so strong. I literally take just on drop on my finger and dab it behind my ear and I am about to die. It lasts eternally, unfortunately. I am afraid to go out and walk around people becuase they will smell this unmistakeable 80s classic. It is sharp and nauseating. It is not soft motherly or pillowy at all like Lair du temps which I quite like. It attacs you and it is so aggressive. It is even more aggressive than Dior Poison but they do share that same sharpness. I gifted this along with some beauty product and makeup to a girl and after that, next time she asked what is in the box before she accepted it saying she got allergies. I am 100 % sure that this reaction was caused by this fragrance. I hope I never get locked in the space with smeone wearing this.

I had to buy this after my mum passed away as it was a reminder of her. It’s a little old school yes but brings back all the memories of her while we were growing up. It’s old school classy floral pretty Spicey and strong just like her so I love it and will continue to buy this for the rest of my life. Didn’t expect to get complimented on it but I did.

Woah this is good. Long lasting and unique. Old-fashioned? Yes. Outdated? Absolutely not.

Ok...I don't know where i first saw this amazing bottle or hear of this famous fragrance but I know that i almost had one more blind buy...
Luckily i didn't!!!
I can imagine a girl with a nickname Lou, blond with a lot of hair ('80' style), bright red lipstick, blue eye shadow and chowing gum in her mouth. She work at the local plastic factory and every day she bring home that awful smell of burned plastic on her.
I didn't smell ANYTHING else...just strong burned plastic.
And I truly believe if anyone ever asked you what fragrance you wear it was only to ran like a hell from it. I was so surprised because I was expecting something old school but cool. This is not cool. Smell like a unexpected fire at a local recycling centre. You need to be weirder than me to like this and I have so much no name weird fragrances in my collection...
To be honest, I know one girl who loved to sniff glue in highschool...I think she would love this 🙈
Take my apologies if you like loulou but i can't help my self since I tried this alien parfume just couple of hours ago and I still can smell it on my jacket. Only love ♥️
If you are just fascinated with the beautiful bottle like me...do not blind buy it!

Oh my goodness! I blind bought this and it is amazing! This is powdery, spicy, smokey goodness. I would say this is not a safe blind buy, but it worked out for me hooray! It reminds me of the same powdery goodness that Ciara has. They both turn me into some kinda perfume sniffing pervert! I just keep sniffing the bottle, it’s addictive.

I have a much older cousin and sister and was always mesmerized when they did their makeup and big hair, and their perfume …swoon…this is where my love of big fragrances comes from. I have read that this is BIG, so I tested inside the box…oh my is it BIG and in a fabulously amazing way…reminiscent of Diors Poison but to slightly sweeter. Not a safe blind buy unless you really do your homework. I cannot wait to wear this out!

Definitely not for a younger person, or teenager, it’s be very very strong and very rich and far too much for everyday use. But it’s a nice unique and elegant fragrance somebody would wear to dinner, going to a family gathering or seeing friends

Got this today and decided to try it out at once. Best decision. Hubby came from work and gave me a kiss and after that smelled me and said: "What are you wearing today? That is so sexy, I like it so much." Let's just say that evening was really FUN. Hihi. I was very surprised as he is not always into heavy scents but he said it suits me and is the hottest thing he has ever smelled. I laughed and said I feel like I smell a very expensive curtisan or a rocker chick with a very dangerous lifestyle and he agreed saying this is very striking and like nothing he has ever smelled. So just saying that this will amp up the sex factor. Not safe for work, not a safe blind buy, NOT SAFE in any way and that is why I adore it. This is my favorite winter scent. Just can't wear it to work haha. ☺️

It opens up with a blast of notes, florals and a puff of dark incense, anis, powderyness and orris root with this element similar to Poison. But this is softer than poison and sexier imo. Something about this is dirty also. I love it! When it calms down it becomes a more vanillic, orris type soft scent.

9/10

The notes gave me pause, but it's so beloved by the community I knew had to try it eventually. As fate would have it, I received LouLou as part of a swap sooner rather than later. Initially it puzzled me, but I've been wearing it on and off the past couple weeks and I have grown to appreciate it.

This is a strong, sophisticated amber floral perfume with a unique character. The opening is spicy with anise and cinnamon, this soft spicy quality is complimented by powdery purple floral notes. In the heart, I smell massive syrupy tuberose & ylang-ylang alongside a deep fruity plum note and a diffusive smoky texture. The base has powdery vanilla, benzoin, and woody musk notes. In spite of all the sweet notes vying for dominance, the powerful smoky quality reigns supreme. It doesn't veer off course into syrup territory like so many others do.

I can tell time and thought was put into making this perfume. It's fun to wear, it retains interest throughout its lifespan. I wish modern perfumes were better at maintaining the intrigue and balancing act on display here. Even if you end up disliking them, I think everyone should make an effort to try the bold, innovative perfumes of the past. It can put the present into perspective.

I haven't tried Dior's Poison so I can't comment on the comparisons. However I will say that I understand why people consider this a masterpiece. It's unlike the other perfumes I've tried from the 1980s, it's provocative and truly stands out from the crowd. I rate Cacharel's LouLou highly and I recommend everyone give it a try.

EDIT: I had my brother try it because he loves anise candies, and sure enough he told me it smells great. His other loves are Apres l'Ondee and Youth Dew.

opening is baby powder, 80s white florals, and syrupy plum. warm spices and headshop incense come through, with a creamy vanilla in the dry down. this is beautiful. my bf bought this for me and i love it! it definitely smells vintage, but it’s not giving me “old lady”. if your grandma smells like this i wanna hang out with her!

Argghh.

This is too much. I feel like I've walked into a room that's so foggy that I can't see anything. This perfume is just that overpowering. And even if it toned down, I don't really particularly like the smell either. Maybe it's the plum and/or black currant that is super heavy. Something about this also feels uncomfortable in a synthetic sort of way.

This may actually be a "hate" for me. I've never given that rating before. And there are other perfumes I extremely dislike (looking at you, Chanel no 5 and 19) but those were sort of stingingly sharp in my negative reaction. This isn't as sharp but it just feels so off.

First time I smelled it, I said no, it's not for me. About 10 years ago. Yesterday, when I went in a perfume shop and I saw it, I had to try it again. And guess what, I loved it and I bought it. Really good incense and white flowers. And a bit of vanilla. I'm still discovering the notes develop on my skin, but it's a big, big YES for me.

I find the opening first two minutes to be more on the challenging side. It has this strange medicinal quality, maybe that’s the plum I’m not sure. But it definitely takes me back to a different era, one that I was just a child so it must have been the adults smelling this kind of way that brings me back there. That opening makes images of rattan couches and lipstick stained cigarette butts come flooding into my head. But, if you are challenged by this, have a little bit of patience because it mellows and transforms rather quickly.

When the medicinal cream scent dissipates, a beautifully textured powdery and interesting vanilla comes forward. This is present in the sillage, which is quite large. This little baby packs a huge punch.the flowery notes add a little tiny bit of a tropical whisper. And to me, strangely, this smells kind of like this could have been a precursor for Initio Pschedelic love. It has the powder, the slightly dark and sensual vibe, and the smooth touch. It’s heavier, and sweet too, so it feels more suited to night time and winter in my opinion. If you enjoy powdery scents, I think this is definitive one worth checking out.

I have a large OG bottle of this scent that I mostly wear layered with a small dab of a honey fragrance and it smells lovely, like Original Poison but better.

I wish I had encountered this scent in 1980s. People say that it used to be a beast back then. To my skin it's mostly powder and white florals and maybe a little insence. I can't detect the vanilla at all. Nothing sweet or heavy in this. For some reason I always wear this when I go to church. Especially at Christmas or Easter. Don't misunderstand me, there isn't anything old lady in this. But it gives me such vibes,maybe because of the insence. I also like wearing it when I'm well dressed. It makes me feel classy, mature and grown-up. It hasn't got a lot of projection,sillage and longevity. It stays close to the skin. I reach for it only 2-3 times a year but when I wear it I really enjoy it. Although it isn't anymore like it used to be , but it's still very different from the newest all-the-same kind of scents. Still an all time classic.

really appreciate this one. i loved it on first whiff of the bottle - exactly the lovely powder smell i'd hoped for ♡ but when i got home and actually sprayed some onto a jacket, i'm blasted with ammonia! i was so disappointed! but, i'm rather new to perfumes, you see. i never understood what people meant by a scent changing in the 'dry-down' because all i ever wore were eau de toilettes with no lasting power or complexity - there's no perceivable dry-down when it's gone in 20 minutes ^^;
a day or so later i sprayed this again, not wanting to give up, and in an hour found that beautiful smell i'd fallen for had come back to me. LouLou may be my introduction to complex fragrances, but i suspect she's among the most impressive. truly undergoes a metamorphosis - leaves me with higher respect for the art of perfumery. the initial bitterness is much easier on my nose now just knowing what will come ^^

One of the first polarizing scents that I have encountered. I loved the notes when I read them so it was a blind buy based just on that. It got me a lot of compliments in the drydown, but my boyfriend hated the initial 10 minutes which he called "granny medicinal scent" since it has nothing to do with the scent evolution. He would refuse to believe that it's the same perfume because it changes so much. I probably have a reformulated version, but even so I got a good 8 hours wear at the office and nobody complained about it. I find it a good everyday scent for any occasion, but in cooler weather as it can get pretty heavy in the summer. I wouldn't say it's a safe blind buy, but it's definitely something to get your nose on. The most prominently presented notes for me were the iris, violet, ylang-ylang with incense and sandalwood, but that's just my PH and nose.

My Mum wore this in the 80's and now I proudly wear it. Just a fantastic fragrance. As everyone's already mentioned, incense-y floral oriental. Mega long lasting. I have many expensive underwhelming modern fragrances, but for me these vintage bargains knock their socks off. Amazing price, amazing smell. Always get compliments when wearing. Just grab a bottle, you won't be disappointed!

Wow… never trust a fragrantica review! Just try this one for yourself guys. I was blown away at how good it smelled compared to the reviews calling it disgusting. Very pretty, powdery, smoky vanilla gourmand smell to my nose. Reminds me a bit of hypnotic poison but more powdery. Hypnotic poison with eyeshadow and incense. Really nice, try it!

Dry and spicy, perfect for the leather jacket and horse riding. Definitely not for the faint-hearted. Old money fragrance for sure. Addictive.

I just had to get over myself. I absolutely see the beauty in Lou Lou now: pretty powder, meditative incense, subdued florals. Sweet and rich (tiare flower), even softly woody, Lou Lou has a little bit of everything I would want in a warm and spicy floral, especially as an intriguing call-back to times gone by. I do like me some musk in the base for that special mood as well. I don't get plum much from the sample I'm using today, nor cassis, which is okay by me. Lou Lou carries me to a contemplative, solitary daydream, where there are plenty of intriguing possibilities to entertain.

Update: I've since tried the vintage version, and it's way softer, better blended, beautifully integrated, while the new version seems to have all the notes; it just doesn't carry them all together as beautifully. Both are very enjoyable, but now that I've had the older version I'm even more in love.

Synthetic sweetness done right. Loulou to me is exactly what I think 80's young women were like (I was born in the late 80's so I don't have a real idea of what women at that time were like but in my imagination that's how I think they would be and smell like). The start is very plasticky and synthetic but in a "chic" way. Like the smell of those vinyl trenches and boots,or even more precisely like a barbie doll straight out it's package. After 10-15 minutes there is a smell of hair mist (elnett one) and something waxy and sweet that's very reminiscing of hair salons. Dry down is a very retro chic soapy smell. (Think of honeysucke or yang ylang bath products). I don't think it's cheap smelling or outdated in anyway; Just a little too strong so one has to be careful with how much he sprays.

What an odd and complicated scent this is. First off- this stuff is S T R O N G. I sprayed some on my wrist and it stayed for a solid 24 hrs. I love the initial anise quality but as time goes on this fragrance dries to something that I struggle to describe. It’s like mixing all of the sodas together at a restaurant, not *bad* but overly complicated and way too sweet. That being said, I give it props for being as weird as it is.

What in heaven's name is this stuff?!?!
Blind bought a tiny bottle at a very cheap price as, having read reviews etc I wanted to experience Loulou first hand.
I'm a child of the 80s but have zero recollection of having ever caught a whiff of this..... And my goodness.... If I had...
I'm sure I would have remembered it!
On first sniff - - directly applied to skin BTW.. All in for me 😬- it was an overpowering cacophony of cat pee, plastic and... Nail polish remover?!? Nah... That can't be right I thought - it must get better?? 10 mins in a thought I could detect the smokey, incense vibes but alas.. It was merely my nostril hairs burning! 15 mins in and all I was picking up was Jasmine - nasty, chemical jasmine on my skin unfortunately which further enhanced the cat pee aroma - - this only strengthened as the moments passed and I began to feel as though it was an endurance test to have my arm attached for much longer.
I could stand it no more and had to scrub it off before I was reacquainted with my earlier meal in the worst possible way!!!
This stuff really did make me gag!

Maybe it's just my chemistry - I've never smelled this on anyone else but for me - sadly - a massive NO!

Edit 06/11/23

So....went to retrieve this from it's hiding place of shame, with the intention of disposing of this. Couldn't resist one last, masochistic spray on back of my hand - - chuffing Nora - - I'm glad I did... Smelled totally different... Don't get me wrong.. Opening was still really, really pungent but not hideous.. No pee smell and no rotten plastic.
I went about my business and about 20 mins in got wafts of something really nice and spicy incense like when I moved my hand.... No way... Could it be?!?! Then came soft gardenia (?) and slinky florals... Later still, musks
Left it on and actually, bravely - - topped up with a spray on chest.... Lasted all day and changed about a million times! I dunno... This one is weird....
Seems the dark storage and oxygenation perhaps... Have worked some kind of magic here.
Sillage was pretty strong and longevity incredible.
She's a keeper after all!! Who knew?!
Layers pretty well too!
My mind is blown 🤯

Love Lou Lou, such a powdery, incense, floral feminine scent with such awesome longevity, says it came out in 80s, but reminds me of the more hip 60s 70s scent, ones that smelled wild and free!

Ok I’m going back to like 1990 and college and nyc
For this! As a fan of the Bob haircut which I still wear ( I know boring I’m in a rut poison is my signature) I’m surprised the reviews are saying this is mild !!? And no it doesn’t smell like poison. Poison has a sexual animalic sweetness that lingers once it settles Lou Lou was a straight on powder attack but for night ( like anais anais’s older sister) I couldn’t stand both they both gave me a headache but I would wear them for my bf at the time! I can literally feel the headache now, that this use to give me! I’m curious looking back, what it was that gave me the headache? Those two and omg Heaven Scent Ick those three killed me inside and the triangle Liz Claiborne my mom wore ha . I almost want to revisit Lou Lou there was something I wanted to like? I don’t remember cinnamon and I’m sure that’s why I bought it ? Or I may have liked the magazine sample but
Once on it killed me ? But back in 90 this was not soft or easy to wear!! Maybe they reformulated it ?

Review for the new formulation:

Actually rather inoffensive. The opening smells like cinnamon sugar. The drydown is eggnog with rum. It's as sweet as many modern-day gourmands. Sweet, sweet, sweet. Cereal milk sweet.
My fiance picked up on more of the powdery florals, while I got a creamier impression.

Based on reviews, I expected this perfume to transport me to a cubist hell. My fiance and I both sniffed it and went- "THIS is the big bad wolf?". It's a very pretty scent, somewhat unique but not at all intimidating. A bit quirky (insofar as cinnamon is usually found in deeper compositions, while this is quite lively), but ultimately I find it comforting and motherly.

UPDATE: I've had this now for nearly a year and I've found that while I still like the scent, I cannot wear it. It's started making me feel nauseous as the weather where I live just isn't right for it. Right now, it smells like liquid robitussin mixed with milk. I'd be happy to sell it (discounted, as it is partially used) if anyone is interested.

Got it from Macy's on a Black Friday sale. The opening really reminds me of a crossover between Giorgio Beverly Hills minus the tuberose and Dior Poison, full of plum, ylang, and white flowers. But as it dries down Loulou has its own character. I'm not sure what note makes it bitter, probably the incense (to me incense and smoke from tobacco are different), but that makes me like it better than Giorgio. After the incense is gone in two hours, vanilla and benzoin are still there.

Iris + Lily + Vanilla + Benzoin + Incense = DESITIN

Sometimes it sits lovely on the skin,
More often, Lou Lou = one thousand breaths of diaper scent and Desitin bootie cream, with each singular, creeping 1980s-scented inhalation

On first application, this pulls very powdery from the iris and violet with a very light hint of anise on my skin. The lily stays very prominent throughout the day as well. I live in a very temperate climate I feel like this perfume never truly blooms. I don't ever really get the heliotrope or white florals or incense. It reminds me a of a more powdery, slightly soapy version of Trudon Josephine candle. The dry down after about 4 hours is when it actually starts to smell nice on my skin but it also gives me a gnarly headache by then. I wish this would pull more incense and white florals on my skin vs powdery purple florals.

A powdery, creamy, smoky bouquet. It makes me think of a late 80s/early 90s rock n roll bride (Stephanie Seymour in the November Rain video). I can imagine someone like Pamela Anderson wearing it - very feminine, fashionable but edgy and unique too.

I am lucky to get a lot of cinnamon from this since it's one of my favourite notes. It is very festive to me, in a warm, cosy smoky way. Fluffy enough for a cosy night in, but would also work for a night out as it's very bold and 'dark'.

One of my all time faves. A timeless classic imo

How weather changes everything! Or maybe it’s time? Perception? I get a bold and full-bodied fantasy white floral straight from the perfume counter; it’s mainly a tamed tuberose that’s green as neroli, creamy as gardenia, and tropical as ylang. Very dated, but not in an amber way so much as an 80’s aromatic floral way; it’s like Beautiful acquired some vanilla oomph and a sharp incense. It’s also a bit like hairspray, with a soapy accord like the pump-bottle sprays my dad always used. For that reason I can’t say I like it, as it’s incredibly pungent and shares that sharp alcoholic singe-your-nose-hair quality with Joop! Femme. My impressions really are everywhere, but I think that speaks to what a busy and chaotic scent it is. By all means worth a try, but at the end of the day it does smell very cheap and caustic.

Cacherel Loulou (1987) - jasmine amber - #jeanguichard makes an indulgent white floral oriental that truly announces itself, not to be worn by wallflowers. Starts with stone fruits, anise, powdery and dry violets & iris and spicy cinnamon. That seamlessly transitions to a big floral accord: Jasmine, Tiare flower, Ylang-ylang. Creamy, indolic, and very tropical. In the drydown, I get a vanillic oriental (sandalwood, vanilla, benzoin). Similar over-the-top perfumes give me a headache, but it shows how the legendary Mr. Guichard (master perfumer of the Givaudan perfume school) creates interest, focus and carefully placed accords to add balance. Persistent, can smell after a whole day.

Hate hate hate hate hate HATE loulou 😷😷

I love all categories. Absolutely love plum in perfume. All the notes sound so good. I love thick long lasting dense perfume. It all looks good on paper but this absolute Monster to me is an ugly one. It smells like a stale old hobo who hasn't showered in weeks and keeps trying to hide the fact with layers of this disgusting perfume. It also smells like that person has a stinky dog they've tried to make smell good with this too and they've been cuddling.
Worst part is is a super beast in performance so if you make the mistake of soiling yourself with this mess you're fkd 🤣💀🥀

This perfume along with Peace love & Juicy by JCouture are the two most horrific fragrances I've ever smelt.

Not sorry. Makes me irrationally angry 🤣

I've got a beautiful bottle of this powdery perfume. I don't really get those comments that have to do with a cheap looking bottle or with its synthetic fragrance... I'm sure this perfume is pretty avant garde & we simply don't know how to appreciate it, it's vintage while futuristic... 10/10, I love it!!!

my mom has kept this perfume in her collection for years 😍 it smells so good. i didn't realize it has one of my favorite notes, incense! until i looked it up on here. soft perfume with sweetness and a bit of smokey vibe. i always associate her with bright florals and more elegant perfume styles so i'm pleasantly surprised at how similar this is to my personal taste.

note: as it turns out, my paternal grandmother is actually who bought this perfume for my mom, who still finds perfumes like this much too sweet and nauseating 😆 oops. well, i really love this fragrance so i may have to grab this from her. if you like sweet perfumes, find this and especially if you're partial to slightly smokey, incense type of fragrances. 💖✨️

LouLou by Cacharel a great classic of the great 80s. Fragrance with the triumphant olfactory pyramid typical of the fragrances of the time. LouLou by Cacharel is a floral triumph that is difficult to fathom, a fragrance that at the juste pulvérisé pervades the sensory and intoxicates it. The olfactory evolution crosses borders rich in oriental essences such as incense, leading to a reassuring powdery sweetness. Feminine, gentle fragrance.

Re-buying my former classics at the moment...I was in love with it when it came out, loved the bottle pictured here especially since it wasn't a spray! (This perfume can easily be too much). It's very recognizable and luckily very few women still wear it. Hard to describe, a mix of the 'nicest' smoky touch, tiare, bubble gum, vanilla....dark and sweet at the same time.The following versions have never been as good unfortunately. I bought a bottle a few years ago and it just suffocated me. Today's version isn't bad actually, I just use one spray from a distance a second one later in the day, that way it stays soft and special.

This is such an interesting perfume! Straight off the bat I get tons of florals, but they are masked beneath a veil of cigarette-smoky incense. It’s very dark and moody, but cute and playful at the same time. A glamour girl with smeared black eyeliner in NYC, walking home at midnight from a party on wet pavement after a rainstorm... The neon lights reflecting off of her vinyl trenchcoat. Effy from Skins most definitely wore LouLou. I will definitely be wearing this on trips to Vegas or late nights out downtown. To me this must be worn with patent leather, and glossy red lipstick.💄

I really wish I could get that beautiful smooth spicy vanilla that other people are describing, but on my skin it turns weirdly metallic. It opens very similar to one of my favourite perfumes, the tragically discontinued Cornubia by Penhaligon's, but then the two go off in completely different directions and no longer smell remotely similar, and after a few minutes I get that strange metallic note that really bothers me. I did recently pass a woman in the street and I'm pretty sure she was wearing Lou Lou, and it actually smelled really nice on her, so I think it just doesn't work well on my skin. Or maybe I only like the way this smells in the air, not up close.

Plastic doll heads! :D
Today I tried LouLou (reformulated) with dread, lol. After the comments I read here, I thought I would hate it. Weird to say but I actually found it unoffensive. At first, it was a lily bomb on my wrist (ok, this was a bit overwhelming but didn't last too long. Usually, if a perfume has lily in its notes, it stands out the most on my skin, so I knew I should give Loulou some more time). Then I slowly started to smell other flowers (can't really differentiate, but mostly white flower-ish scents), and dry down is a strong plastic doll head & a light incense & slightly floral scents. I think the doll head smell is a result of the vanilla-musk blend. It definitely has a nostalgic feel to it, like a perfume that my aunts could use in the early 90s. Still, I can see myself wearing this perfume, like I went to a friend for coffee with fluffy vintage sweaters and thick coats, I think it has a peaceful scent. Sillage and longevity are good. Also after trying it, I get its smell on my wrist from time to time while walking outside for a few hours, which I am not used to from my perfumes, so I liked it. Definitely not suitable for blind buy, I'm glad I tried it but I'm not sure if I should buy it.

Current formulation: powdery plastic-like violets and cold dolls covered in talcum. Very light purple smelling. Luckily it doesn't last more than five minutes. Straight up sad and kind of insulting for such a cult fragrance. Stay away from it at all costs.

so floral it's almost psychoactive. I like how retro and (nearly) obnoxious it is. I am drawn towards the weird and the unpleasant in my perfumes so I layer it with a bit of iso E super to enhance the smoke and the woods. good stuff.

I had a miniature bottle of Loulou when I was in highschool in the '90s. I loved it. It was so smooth, soft, rich and delicious. Powdery vanilla with white flowers and incense. Perfect amount of sweetness and smokiness. I recently bought a new bottle, and while it doesn't smell exactly like Loulou in the '90s, it's close enough. Thinner, a bit less smooth, but it's still Loulou.

My most favorit varian from Cacharel. This cute bottle was firstly launched in 1987 and marketed for woman. But I'm sure, lot of you, regardless of your gender, will fall in love with it.
It's not a typical modern style floral fragrance. More like a big bouquet of everything, from white floral to ylow floral, powdery but slightly indolic. It's more dry than jammy and create an elegant whiff.
Alongside with all floral facets, Jean Guichard (the nose) put the incense in a prominent way, and the dry white woods, like sandalwood, as the main character in the drydown.
In my possession is newer version from a 50 ml size bottle, but if you are lucky enough, you can hunt the old style unique bottle in some vintage shop.

Burning doll heads. Floral electrical fire. 80s hairspray. Powdery monoi oil, if such a thing even exists. Simultaneously smells like my grandma’s face cream or a warm hug from my mum.
Lou Lou is simply impossible to categorise.
Projection and longevity are outstanding even in current formulation. The older formulation is more syrupy and sweet whereas the current one is dry. If you can find a vintage, I recommend it. It is wearable but do not overspray or you will ruin its balance. I over sprayed every perfume before I met Lou Lou.
This perfume is not for everyone. Do not blind buy. Test it on your skin first. Not for the faint hearted. Not for those who want to smell conventionally pleasant. You don’t wear this perfume, Lou Lou wears you.

Oh Lou Lou…..this was an absolute favorite of mine when it came out my Senior year of HS. I wore the heck outta this stuff despite the plethora of other perfumes I had at the time. The 3 I rotated the most between were Lou Lou, Fendi and the sample of Dior Poison I had.

I lost a lot of my perfumes during a move in 2001, and my original bottle of Lou Lou was one of them. About 15 or so years ago, I wanted to revisit this lovely scent so I decided to order a bottle. Once I received it, underwhelmed was my reaction. It did not smell as I had remembered. Unbeknownst to me at the time, and I’m sure you all can guess…that yep, I had received a bottle of the reformulated Lou Lou. But, I still kept it and thought I still had it and I wanted to revisit it again to see if my thoughts on it had changed. Apparently, when my Son moved back home 6 months ago, and he was cleaning out the space he was taking over, he threw out my bottle of Lou Lou, along with some other perfumes, or as he described them, “sh*t that was old”. I just found out this news last night, so I am still a bit livid. 🤬

Someday, Lou Lou and I will meet again…

Edit: 11/1/23- Lou Lou and I have been reunited. A very good friend sent me a HUGE box of frag goodies and a full 1oz bottle was included. NICE!

This perfume is from before I was born so I really wasn’t expecting to like it, much less love it. I’ve tried a few Cacharel perfumes, and so far I don’t know what to make of Eden, but I enjoyed Yes I Am and Amor.

This is on another level of favorite immediately for me. Somehow on my skin, this is like a more complex Guerlain Insolence, just beautiful candied violet, velvety ylang, that orris sweetness and incense rounding everything out. It lasts forever and the vintage formula of which I have a tiny flacon and the modern formula smell identical to my nose.

Somehow this is both powdery and lively. I think it works well in all temperatures; and it lasts a good 8 hours. Big love.

I took me all day to figure out what this reminded me off. I realized it was SL Datura Noir. On the skin, LouLou is a smokier, perhaps a more incensey vanilla in comparison, whereas SL is a clean vanilla. Don’t get me wrong, LouLou might have the slightest hint of smoke, side by side, but the when I catch whiffs in the air, the sillage trails are identical.

Magical perfume. It is actually so soft and magnetic. Reminds me of nineties and MTV, Pearl Jam and starting a University. My memories conected to LounLou:))
Freedom, possibilities , excitement, unique perfume whatsoever...

LouLou seems to be hard from outside but this is so soft from the inside. This scent is sweet, powdery and totally comforting one with superb depth and mystery in it. Wearing it makes me feel immediately bold and strong and as if all my innocence gets swiped away and I am a totally new, powerful, and strong woman. Enormous longevity and projection make it even more fantastic. All in all this one is girly, haunting, mysterious, narcotic, hypnotic, doomed, nostalgic, sexy and damn eternal. Perfection packed in a perfect bottle! 😊

It’s so beautiful. The dry down is so pleasing. This actually reminds me a bit of Chanel No.5 EDP. Like if there was an ‘Absolu’ type flanker of No.5 (would never happen lol) the notes in this just come together perfectly to create a gorgeous and pleasant powderey fragrance. Amazing for the price. Happy to see this is still around. Only in a 1 oz bottle I believe but hey, with the price point you can’t go wrong, great value.

I have to admit that when I first smelled this, it wasn’t a favorite. Since that time, I have had the opportunity to build quite a collection of perfumes. Well Nordstrom Rack currently has cute 1 oz bottles of Lou Lou, Anais Anais, and Eden….so I couldn’t help myself. This time around I actually enjoyed it. The more I smelled it, I could definitely smell a resemblance to Ciara. Only a resemblance though. This smells much better and more modern, even though there is a vintage vibe to this as well. I find this extremely more pleasant and wearable than I could ever find Ciara.

Lou Lou also reminded me of a different perfume I had smelled before though! It was driving me crazy, but then I realized that it reminded me of Tom Ford’s Lost Cherry 🍒! I totally get that others will disagree with me on this, but there is a depth, a smokiness that they both share!! Lost Cherry is sweet and Lou Lou is floral, but the openings are so similar. It’s only in the dry down that they change. Both fragrances have plum, cinnamon, jasmine, vanilla, tonka bean, benzoin, and sandalwood. I love Lost Cherry, so I actually appreciate Lou Lou even more now! I had to order a bigger bottle ! 🥰

I have a vintage Loulou which I truly love and adore. I don't understand people who say it's too strong. Loulou is so well-blended, and she is a beautiful composition that becomes rich in powder, plum, and incense. I definitely prefer her to vintage Christian Dior Poison (I do like that one, it's just more of an incense grape soda). She's smooth and seductive. The new formulation, of which I have two bottles, is definitely more austere upon application, but she's still Loulou.

There isn’t the same depth as the original but it’s better than not having any Loulou at all.

A lightly spiced, powdered floral doll skin. I love it.

200
Oh Lou Lou, I really loved my older decant of you…so rich and creamy. I could feel the flowers breathing around me while we were together.

But then you were gone and I met another Lou Lou, hoping she was all right…but she was not the same girl.

Though a beauty at first spray, she was shallow. Quickly it became evident that she was not around to stay and the breath of the flowers did not adore her. She left me nothing but a garden of dusty stems and weeds.

I sprayed so much of my new Lou Lou all day long and she was terribly fleeting…

9/10-original-intriguing mysterious lovely creamy floral(like Amarige) with incense. Is there anything else out there that can compare to the older, richer version and can be purchased easily?

6/10-new-opening is good but fleeting quickly into weedy stems. Creaminess of florals gone. Won’t be repurchasing.

I love to wear this layered with MUGLER ALIEN. I dont know why but these two giving me the same alien spaceship vibes. Even the bottles are the same shape.

Just got a current version. Strong, long lasting, powdery, but enough interesting florals to break it, so it is not too cloying. I am happy to have it.
I have ordered a vintage bottle just to see for myself what the talk is about, but the current formula seems to smell like it should.
Apply sparingly and wait for the aroma to come your way. When you catch it, it does smell delicious. I would hate to be in one room with someone who over-sprayed :-)

It just disappears after 2h. Opening is nice and I mostly smell incense but there is some note that smells like a really cheap soap.

Especially strong. Its semisweet deep very rich unisex oriental perfume with dominant notes of ylang ylang, tuberosa, musk , violet, vanilla , santalwood etc. This mysterious and brave scent not for everybody - it resemble poisonous spells🧞

I sprayed the scent on a test strip and it fills the room. Even after airing you can still smell it. It is a bottle from 2020, bought in Germany. It’s like Dior Poison but even better. I love it and can not understand the negative comments. It doesn't smell old fashioned either. But as a man I would definitely not wear it. Big like. Longevity and Sillage 10/10

Edit: @neonlegs Yes it could be a sister to Joop Homme!!

Edit2: I still get whiffs from the test strip after 24 hours. Sorry guys. I don't know how strong the scent used to be, but the current formulation is still extreme. So don’t worry!

Wow, this is EXTREMELY strong. One spray fills the room. It's like a fruity, sweeter version of Hypnotic Poison but it's pretty much got a similar vibe. I can mainly smell plum with a smoky scent in the background. As much as I like the notes, this perfume doesn't suit me. I understand the hype, but it's too strong and cloying for me. It's got an edgy, dark vibe - it reminds me of The Sisters of Mercy.

I would only keep this for winter/autumn nights, I don't know how anyone could wear this during the day, it would give me a headache. Not an appropriate everyday perfume and not a safe blind buy.

Smoky spiced Jasmin and plums, with tons of resins and incense. Flower spicebomb! this is supersexy on my skin. What a beauty.

I found this Perfume and I tested it on my skin. It smelt like only prominent smoke and I did not like it at all. I could not smell any scents' profiles on the list above except for incense ...I think it is because of my Skin's chemistry. It is one of my tutors' favorite for a long time, so I had been curious about it. Unfortunately, this one does not work at all on me. It is so dommage!!

very strong perfume, 3 sprays is the max. very long-lasting, but very pretty

This perfume is nuts! I have recently tested out Dior Poison (love it…. Already ordered a big bottle!) and hypnotic poison both of which are famously powerful perfumes. I also tested Eden and Lou Lou and both poison’s are skin scents in comparison! So so strong. Like one spray and your choking strong. Lou Lou is kind of amazing and magical, but cloying isn’t even the word. It’s like a bomb has gone off that was full of sickly Jasmin and marzipan. It’s genius but it’s also a nightmare. A beautiful nightmare. I could never wear it. I preferred Eden (I swear after a few hours they smell like the notes are hanging off the same skeleton!) but I could never wear that either.

It’s just all too much for the average human. This is the perfume of a flower fairy who is planning to leave the garden, invade the house and rule the humans with an iron fist!

A powdery 80s hairspray blended with a fresh off the box 90s barbie. To me, a winner and a steal for the price. Leans definitely femminine, but hey, loved wearing it nevertheless. Lasts long on skin but does not project much on me? Sprayed around 4/5 times.

EDIT: wearing it more often than ever. I really love how this perfume conveys both cleanliness and oriental spicebomb at the same time. A must have.

yes, I like this! I would have loved to have the old bottle too.
I smell resin, and frankincense, it's musky-powdery but not overwhelming like Eden. I love the woody note in it, it's long-lasting and has something both cheeky and comforting.

Lou Lou was my signature sent in the early 90-ies. I recently rebought it out of curiousity and nostalgia, but was not really expecting to like it, since many other, and more "advanced", perfumes have crossed my path since I used it the last time. But this is still a love for me. LouLou has all the layers of smells in a lifetime: soft plastic doll heads; old, slightly dirty and dusty library books; churchgoing (both for good and for bad); flowery outdoors summers and warm indoors winters. A comforting and encouraging sent that makes you feel ok, after all. Since I honestly can't remember how the vintage version compares to the version of today, this review is for the recent EDP.

Edit:
I have now gotten hold of the vintage version in the marbled light blue/blue glas bottle with the name Cacharel inscribed in an oval. The scent emediately took me back in time. On paper the two versions of EDP are very similar (well done Cacharel!), the newer being just a bit heavier on the white flowers and the old one leaning more towards smoke and incense. Funny how such small scent differences can make or break the connection to past times. I will cherish both my bottles, the newer one for its cheerful, pretty, and comforting scent, and the older one for its depth, complexity and disturbance.

No plum. No cinnamon. Gorgeous white flowers, less oily than Fracas, maybe more ylang than jasmine, powdery and with a good, well-blended base that brings in the slight incense note and great depth, but the spicy/wood notes don't jump in your face or steal the show. It is not weird and jammy like Poison or tropical like Fracas or Jungle Gardenia. It's not the kind of jasmine in Joy or Corday's Fame, but darker. Really lovely and the edp is usually well-priced. I love it equally in 90+ degree humid weather and cold weather.

Blind buy of the current version based on the notes and reviews here. Do not regret. This is lovely, at first I thought it might be smoky but it is cinnamon. It is cinnamon, powdery heliotrope, plum, a little sweet floral, a hint of anise. Beautiful.

I see that Loulou is mostly rated as a winter fragrance on here, but that Tiare flower which i smell quite prominently is really making me think summer ! ..add a few sprays of a coconut based spray on top and it amps up the summery vibe even more. I like this one.

yes it reminds me of my childhood when i was still schooling. This perfume is densed, warm and concentrated. Really of high quality at that time and even until today. Im trying to buy this just for collection.

I remember being a child and sniffing Lou Lou from my mom's cabinet in the bathroom. What a beautiful scent. Nothing reminds me of childhood as much as this fragrance does.

Do not blind buy this. According to the notes I should have liked this, but I tried it on in the store and it was so gross. I let it dry down first because maybe the initial spray was gross, but it still stunk so I took it off with an alcohol wipe. Blech.

Lou Lou is soooo beautiful there are simply no words. It's retro floral yet smells modern, not old lady and although heavy on the talcum powder and 1980s lipstick, it's very soft. This is not the powerhouse of the 80s like the vintage original. What I have is the current formulation and it is strong yet subtle and once again extremely divine. Men die for it and follow your trail, no joke. Nothing else smells like it and the only perfume that tried but failed is Narciso Rodriguez Poudree for women. It's very close but Poudree has an off synthetic cleaning lotion note to it.

Oh LouLou. It’s been my signature perfume since 1990 when I was gifted a tiny blue bottle with a red pointy top in my early 20s. It does something magical with my skin. It’s warm, exotic, spicy and other worldly. Completely unique. Powerful. You don’t wear it - it wears you. It’s a perfect compliment to a confident woman. I have a lot of perfumes, but my husband immediately recognizes LouLou amongst the Chanels and Diors I also wear. He says it’s his favorite too. I rotate with other perfumes, but keep coming back to LouLou as my go-to perfume. I love that I can still smell it on my clothes the next day. It’s comforting to me. The modern equivalent is nothing like what I wore in the 90s, but there’s enough similarity to keep me wearing it.

I haven’t smelled anything that smells like this perfume. I adore it. My grandma wore this as her signature and she left her bottle to me. As a kid I loved to look at the bottle because it reminded me of a genie lamp. This is a very complex perfume. It is spicy and powdery, but the white florals still come out to play. The perfume makes me happy smelling it. It’s very unique. It holds nostalgia for me and I have happy memories of my grandma whenever I look at the bottle or smell it. I use it myself sparingly but I would love to wear it more often because it is beautiful.

Somehow in the course of my 30's I grew into a woman in her early 40's who only owned one perfume... Not LouLou, but Noa, which I bought after smelling it on a friend's wife. Oh, yes I had worn perfumes before in my life... many! But in my 30's everything seemed to bother my husband's delicate nose, and somehow it became that the only perfume I owned was gentle, inoffensive, Noa. Noa. which lasts about 1 hour on my skin and couldn't possibly offend anyone.

Enter the pandemic and I was taken by two fancies: 1. that reading Fragrantica reviews was far better for my psyche than reading the news and 2. I desired to smell something nostalgic and bombastic.

LouLou! Oh, LouLou. To think that I was afraid of smelling you at first. To read these reviews you would expect to experience bug spray or urinal cakes or, I don't know! Something horrendous. But... imagine my surprise when I recieve a bottle, and find it... so .... enchanting.... so ... confusing!? Challenging, yes. Seductive, yes.

I do not have the sophisticated nose as many seem to have here, I can't always determine specific notes. It smells like your sophisticated aunt's make-up table. Like a coat room, all chrome and fur coats at a 1980's office dinner party. Like having big fluffy hair... like wearing sexy lingerie under your be-shoulderpadded power suit. Like wearing nylons that came out of a plastic egg. It's artificial, it's sweet, it's aggressive, it's also so... ... city.

One morning, before dawn, when I had bravely sprayed LouLou on before work, I was at the petrol station, in the dark, filling my car... and that gasoline smell mixed with the LouLou... it blew my mind. I was transported in my imagination to a different scene, a different life.

What else can I say about LouLou? I know that a few days before my period is due, and during my period, I cannot abide it. There is some sharp, harsh note which comes to the fore which I hate. Is it the perfume itself? Is it my body chemistry? Or is it my sense of smell which has altered due to my cycle? I'm not sure! What I do know is that for 3 weeks out of the month, there is no other scent I seem to prefer. I experiment with other scents, but I always go back for LouLou. It seduces you. And yet, I still find sometimes I am afraid to wear her. Like she will be too bombastic for the situation. That people will hate it. Maybe this is why I keep coming back to LouLou, because she's complicated and exciting and never, ever boring.

Oh my god ............ ICON. I love this scent.

Modern version: This perfume has some of my favorite notes--heliotrope, incense, plum, iris, violet...and yet I do not detect any of those. I was also hoping that this would be an 80s/90s femme fatale type of fragrance, and on my skin, it is not. It's slightly strange, mildly unpleasant, and not too much of anything. What I can smell is a watered-down concoction of vanilla-scented hairspray and an electrical fire. The bottle is fun. The perfume inside is meh (at least with my skin chemistry).

Oh,how I miss old Cacharel.
Incensey,powdery plum reminiscent of Poison.
It puts to mind The Cure's music and Death from Sandman.
I suspect it was reformulated not too long ago because it doesn't smell the same to me.

Today I am wearing Loulou after long time and I feel getting down memory lane, where seduction and darkness were walking hand in hand. The reformulation is not so bad, but I miss the old bottle. Oh God this is so deeply gorgeous! Not for all skintypes though. Not for bedtime. Not for sports. It is only when you want to show sparkling velvety darkness.

plums

OMG. I was warned by Fragranticans and yet, curiosity won and I blind bought it. It’s undeniably something different, reminds me distantly about some Givenchy of my best friend, from about twenty years ago, in era when me and my girl pals were bragging about our first grown up perfumes. Anyways, for me it’s border line traumatising. Border line, because I can’t stop sniffing it and I really don’t know what to think. It’s smells like some exotic suffocating tropical flower, garbage can, powder, honey, barn, torture… I tried to kill it with Eau de Soir, the strongest thing that I own and interestingly I achieved soft powdery loveliness. Maybe layers are the key, at least for me, to do something with this bottled love and pain. Btw, I really like the punk design. After few days: nope, I can’t do it. I’ll get rid of it.

If I put my mind to it, I can smell what others smell. A cozy vanilla with incense and a lot of powder. However this is not a fragrance I enjoy smelling on myself throughout the day. If I don’t focus and really press my nose into my arm, this smells like a common all purpose cleaner I can get at my local dollar store. Idk if I got a bad batch but I’m disappointed - this is really something I thought I’d love.

LouLou is such a retro classic. The edgier counterpart to its angelic elder sister Anaïs Anaïs, it holds up exceptionally well. As my mom was an Anaïs Anaïs girl, I have no memories associated with LouLou, but bought a modern bottle out of curiosity, and it was love at first sniff for me. Loud and distinctly eighties in style, LL is just the right amount of trashy, but is an original, cohesive and exceptionally well-thought-out scent. Although it apparently is no longer the powerhouse it once was, the modern iteration is a fairly strong, extroverted scent with decent sillage. I love the packaging too - the bottle is kitschy-cute, housed in its adorable floral box.

LL opens with sweet, jammy plum with a hint of smoky incense in the background - feminine yet edgy. A sprinkle of cinnamon and a hint of anise add just the right amount of spicy sweetness. The white florals emerge after a short while - dewy, waxy and heady. Tuberose, jasmine and lily are most evident. There is some indolic dirtiness here, which adds to LL's edgy attitude. It is tempered by sweet mimosa, and there is some polleny heliotrope in there too, making for a rich, heady bouquet. If I focus, I get a hint of wonderfully powdery iris. The overall effect is overwhelmingly good, addictive and deeply interesting. I cannot stop smelling my wrist.

Vanilla becomes prominent as it dries down, adding characteristic warm, smooth sweetness, rounding out LL perfectly. There is a burnt sugar effect thanks to the incense note. Woody notes emerge, and it eventually fades to a sweet, powdery-musky skin scent with remnants of the florals. Sillage is fairly strong, and longevity is impressive. LL is best worn at night. A wintry scent, it reminds me of Christmas despite its bad-girl vibe.

Fun, rebellious and irreverent, LL is a feminine-leaning perfume that brings to mind party girls while being deceptively complex. A bargain classic that stands the test of time. Truly excellent. 4.5/5.

I never thought I would love a bargain basement perfume so much. It's not overly sweet at all. Smells like the 80s. Plum, heliotrope, incense and vanilla all mingle together in such a lovely way. A great summer wear. Good for adults, men and women can wear this. The bottle is fun and kitschy. I'm really happy with this blind buy. I do think it would be safe for anyone to blind buy. I want to explore more of Cacharel fragrances.

A tuberose milk on a decadent burned vanilla bed, and a discreet drop of blueness from a crying violet. Weird, plasticly carnal in a delicately poisoned way, makes a gorgeous and loud bubble all around me. A true statement, a language in itself, I’m literally addicted.

It is very similar to Poison Dior but not identical. If you took away the grape smell and added a lot of fluffy vanilla to Poison as well as more woody notes then you would have LouLou! I like it a lot and have been wearing it for like a week which is unusual for me. The drydown is a green, dirty, floral vanilla. I liked the descriptions making it smell akin to old timey punk rockers and goth music like Siouxie Sioux. I think if it sounds interesting to you then it's worth a smell!

Wow. One of my favourite perfumes is poison, I’ve seen people compare the 2 now that I own both they are nothing alike. LouLou is a delicious almost play-dough kind of scent with plum jam and a tuberose dipped in incense. It’s actually a lot more softer than I was expecting, obviously I think over the years Loulou has had some reformulations and I would love to smell the original.
Like I said I find this very soft and wearable as I’m only 24 and normally 80s powerhouses such as my OG Poison and Opium can offend my friends lol. But this one on me is more of a second skin and when I hug people I’ve been told it’s very comforting. The tuberose and the incense both mix so nicely on my skin and I’m not sure what makes that play dough scent, I’ve decided it might be the benzoin and the ylang-ylang. Either way I love it and will keep on using this.
I managed to get one of the oringal 80s perfumes body powders and that layers nicely with my modern bottle. Lasting power is about 2 hours of strong and then another 5 close to my skin and sticking to my clothes.

So I’ve finally tested both the vintage and the newer formula !!
The older formula smells wayyy deeper, sexier and sultrier than the newer version in the very beginning. The newest one is much more fruity and light at first ; I guess that makes it way more socially acceptable considering the uniqueness of the vintage LouLou, but it also deeply affected the sillage and longevity. The older one lingers around for literal DAYS on my skin and clothes, while the newer one fades after a few hours. I’m not saying the newer formula isn’t good, it still very much has the LouLou DNA that people love and cherish so much, but it’s much softer, and « cuter » in a way, than its powerful, indecent, shocking older counterpart.
Is it worth it to spend $200 and desperately refresh ebay for hours in hopes to find a vintage version ? Absolutely not. In all honesty, there’s only very few things that differentiate both versions, only the opening notes, longevity and sillage are different. The dry-down is pretty much the same ! You’ll still very much get the LouLou you’re looking for if you buy the newer version, pinky promise !

This is definitely a vintage. I wasn't expecting to like it but it is okay to my nose. Scent is objective so don't get me wrong, it is a beautiful perfume and well blended but just not my taste. If you like deep and powdery perfumes this is a gem. Timeless classic that is perfect for night or winter

Smells like a combo of children’s plastic toys and old lady perfume, WAY too much going on w his one. Returned IMMEDIATELY

This literally smells like insect repellant (citronella) on my skin. Not headache-inducing, but definitely a repelling fragrance.

I bought this blind with major regrets!

LouLou is a big 80's fragrance! I love these ones. Bold and proud, this is not going unnoticed. It is floral and powdery, yes, but then there's that vanilla that makes me think of Hypnotic Poison. It's not a dupe but just in that same family and looking at some of the notes they share, you can understand why. Similarities aside, it is a gorgeous statement type of perfume. Some will love it, some will dislike it but it's too powerful and unique to sit on the fence about so try it first, especially if you're into the 80's style of fragrance. I tried it and then immediately proceeded to horde some backups in case it is discontinued.

Oh, my! How didn't I ever review this?!? A "sui generis" fragrance. There's nothing like this out there! A great, strong and opulent powdery fragrance, absolutely ideal for dark and cold winter nights! So luxurius, so fatal, so deep... At first the plums, the cinamon as well as a bouquet of wild violets, iris, lilies and jasmine take over the place. It's like a grey, rainy morning in a deep forest...After a while the ylang ylang and the heliotrope come on the stage and the fragrance becomes deeper and more sensual. Later the incense, the sandalwood and the benzoin give "Loulou" that mysterious and dark vibe, while it gets creamier by the vanilla. The projection is amazing as well as the longevity. Very distinctive fragrance. It can't be mistaken with something else. Every woman must have "Loulou" on her stash. It reminds us how fragrances used to be made. It's another triumph of Cacharel, who - thank God! - hasn't reformulated its fragrances in a dramatic way. They don't make such perfumes anymore... A must - have!

I have fallen in love and found my perfect signature scent! I’ve been searching for years for a fragrance that I began to think didn’t exist. The only ones I ever re purchase are Dior Pure Poison, Coco Chanel, JPG, Opium and Aura by Mugler. Yet it always felt like something was missing from each one, I liked them but I didn’t feel like ‘me’ when I wore them. I wanted a strong, long lasting, heady scent that stands out and has depth but without that ‘granny’ smell. I knew what I wanted, I just couldn’t find ‘the one’.

Then just after I turned 30 a couple of months ago, I found LouLou, she was so reasonably priced and after reading the reviews I knew I just had to try her. At first smell I was hit with overwhelming floral, lily I think. I thought ‘I’m not going to like this’, I was wrong. After 5 minutes the floral died down and lead way to spice and vanilla for me, after half an hour I caught a whiff of the ‘plastic barbie doll’ notes that mixed together with a hint of wood and smokiness, it was heavenly and I couldn’t stop sniffing my wrist. After 4 hours I had a beautiful smoky, spicy, slightly musky scent with a tiny hint of floral. I get sandalwood and a hint of incense wrapped in vanilla too. It was divine! The next day I wore her again, and even applied a little more at lunch time. This time I liked the initial floral scent and could pick out hints of where she was going, the smooth vanilla, the spice. LouLou has so much depth, so many layers it’s hard to describe her as she is so complex yet wonderful. Each time you wear her you notice a new layer, and fall in love all over again. I never get bored of her, I wear LouLou to bed, I wear her every day. I feel confident and beautiful when I wear her, I want to put on my lipstick and hold my head up high. I feel like ‘me’. At first spray she is very bold and loud, she may be too much at first, but just wait for the dry down. LouLou is very unique, I have never smelled a perfume that even comes close to LouLou. She takes me on a different journey every time I wear her. My friends tend to prefer fresh, light, fruity scents but they are just not for me. I understand she will not be for everyone but that doesn’t matter to me. My search for ‘the one’ is over, I have found LouLou and she is perfect for me.

A dark, mysterious, deep and smoky fragrance that is much attractive for men. Wear this and surely men will roam around you like flies on a super delicious cupcake. I discovered this amazing, hot and just incredible fragrance while travelling to my family in states. There was a co-passenger who was wearing this and was so irresistible by any men throughout journey. Of course, she smelled beautiful and thus I had to ask her about the fragrance she worn. Since then, this one is on my shelf and I have been using it mostly on special occasions, gatherings and events. LouLou is floral, creamy, sweet and full of incense. There is scent of tuberose, vanilla and jasmine. I love this stunning scent that have a sharp opening with middle of white florals and base is made up of vanilla and incense. There are vibes of freedom, comfort, confidence and drama in it making it more adorable and wearable. Highly recommended.

Dark wet streets and glossy black lips. A slick blue raincoat and clear plastic umbrella shining under the glow of a fortune teller’s buzzing neon sign. Underneath the raincoat are torn fishnets, thigh high boots, black velvet, stacks of liquorice dark rubber bracelets and the unmistakable smell of LouLou.

A funeral bouquet in a vase of cough syrup, the smoky seriousness of a gothic church and the tingling fumes of a numbing agent applied in a back alley body mod parlour, it glows like a throbbing cobalt aura and draws you in so deep it’s a trap door into a midnight underworld. A nocturnal perversion of multiple scent characteristics that bring calm and comfort by the light of day.

It’s powdery and sweet, not in a wholesome and comforting baby powder way but a deeply vampy and sinister way. Medicine and cosmetics stashed behind a cloudy chipped mirror in the bare bulb bathroom of an apartment in a wicked concrete jungle where the sun never rises. It feels like you could cut lines of it on a mirror like some fictional drug in a David Lynch universe that is snorted and rubbed on gums like cocaine but distorts and transports the mind like an undiscovered hallucinogen. It certainly has the power to hurt your nostrils right out of the bottle. If the little blue locked box in Mulholland Drive had contained a bottle of LouLou I wouldn’t have been surprised.

I’ve seen this described as good girl gone bad but honestly I’d go as far as to describe it as good girl back from the dead. Michelle Pfeiffer as Selena Kyle resurrected by stray cats in a back alley of Gotham city, lurching home and trashing her kitschy pink shoebox apartment with spray paint and spilt milk. Shredding her innocence and comfort and forging a new undead self out of massacred plush toys, oily black deconstructed vinyl and shattered neon tubes. Loulou is strong enough to mask the stench of the parts of her that died and has a deep blue medicinal reek like she wears it for the pain of her injuries. A balm for her grinding joints and dark plum bruises.

Loulou is pain, damage and desolation doused in an anaesthetising rocket fuel concoction of sweetness, flowers and holy smoke in an attempt to forget everything that hurts. It’s the scent of someone halfway here, high, in shock, sleepwalking between worlds. a beautiful masklike face with a faraway gaze. Something terrible hiding in the indigo shadows at the back of your mind. A nightmare you forget seconds after you wake up lost in your black satin sheets. Loulou isn’t evil but she has looked it in the eyes.

Insane projection and longevity, performs dangerously well. Once it’s on it’s ON. I wouldn’t even go near it with your nose for the first hour after spraying, it’s extremely, almost painfully strong at first but once it settles to just plain nuclear it holds there all night. Or day. Or both. Basically you’re on LouLou’s schedule until your next shower. Not for everyone and definitely not a safe blind buy but real legends never are. Be ready for compliments and complaints, people will love it and hate it but if you care about that then this wasn’t made for you anyway.

This is the kind of scent that makes the most of perfume’s potential, it's a time and a place, a character and a story all at once, a novel in a bottle. It’s an exorcism ritual in an 80s nightclub. It's an early Madonna styled ghost haunting a new york subway car because she never made it home, popping her gum and twirling her dark glitter nails in her bleach fried split ends for all time.

Its haunting, girly, narcotic, mysterious, doomed, hypnotic, sexy, nostalgic and eternal. It’s the signature scent of an 80s palm reading vampire streetwalker in the bad part of a bad city. The kind of girl that would get picked up by Patrick Bateman and eat that loser alive.

A favourite for life.

I’m glad I didn’t let the reviews scare me. This is delicious. Reminds me of Vanderbilt and Hypnotic Poison. Starts as a bubblegum tuberose with iris and anise, and then develops into my favorite kind of tuberose: dark, rich, dewy. A gorgeous vanilla.

I got a decant of the EDP last year and loved it so much I bought a bottle! Oh LouLou, why didn't I try you years ago? Maybe I wasn't ready!

I agree with those who said the opening is much like Poison. But unlike Poison, I get progression with LouLou. There's a short-lived plastic note, and then the gardenia and other florals kick in. The drydown reminds me strongly of Tuscany Per Donna and Samsara, both of which I love!

The EDP is a monster for silage and longevity, amazingly so on my perfume eating skin. I restrict myself to 1 spray. And I have to say, this may be problematic for office use, depending on how close you sit to others. And how good the air circulation is.

To me, this is a fall and winter fragrance. I live in a climate where it's hot and humid 5 months out of the year, so I really wouldn't want to wear this in the spring or summer.

Maybe for those in cooler climates, this could be a year round fragrance, especially in the evening.

I will say, I wish Cacharel hadn't changed the bottle. The oblong pale blue bottle just doesn't have the cachet of the old one. Idk, maybe the old bottle was more expensive or something.

Edit: The gardenia in this really comes out on me. If you don't like gardenia, beware! I'd say this isn't a safe blind buy.

I absolutely love it for when I want a headache!

But srsly though, I love the smell but I can't physically stand it =(

I had really, REALLY high hopes for this one based on the scent profile. First of all, don't sniff immediately after spraying. It will literally make your nose hurt. After a few seconds, it started out smelling like Dior Poison's baby sister, which I LOVE. Then it turns to burnt rubber on me. Thought it was just my skin chemistry, so I sprayed on a testing strip and on my son's arm. Both settled to burnt rubber, which I absolutely can't stand. That scent is headache inducing. Waited for the base notes to come through...all I get is white flowers, and baby powder under burnt rubber on my skin. On my son's skin, it's just burnt rubber. Such a freaking disappointment, and it's definitely not my skin chemistry.....okay, maybe it's my nose. The base note is disgusting. Thank goodness I got the small bottle.

To the reviewer who likened LouLou and Poupee by Rochas, saying they were both extremely headache-inducing, I am that strange character who absolutely CANNOT wear LouLou, ever, but who LOVES LOVES LOVES Poupee. Weird! I know. But to me LouLou is all wrong (sorry), and Poupee is a kindly, carefree, joyfully embodied walk/float in the park. I understand the doll-head intimations for both perfumes. But it is not that which kills me in LouLou. It is the way the plum and mimosa and cassia get all twisted and seem to turn on me. The combination of notes in LouLou somehow adds up to untrustworthiness to me; probably a forgotten episode lodged in my unconscious. But I have learned to always trust my gut, and so LouLou stays WAY over there. (Part of me wishes I could wear her, pathetically enough, if only because apparently she is a turn-on to the males? Interesting.)

If this is a love/hate perfume, I'm firmly on the "love" side. I'm pretty sure the sample I received is the reformulation, so maybe that's why I can't capture the new wave/goth time-traveling vampire flapper vibe that so many have alluded to (and which originally intrigued me enough to give it a try!) But I still find lots to love in Lou Lou. Returning to the music analogy, this perfume strikes me as more shoegaze than punk: hazy, thick, and enveloping, drenching me in waves of scent that should be discordant, but are somehow beautiful. On first sniff it smells like perfume in the most literal sense: like a department store perfume counter awash in a cacophony of notes that are impossible to separate and identify. But this impression belies the complexity of Lou Lou's composition. For me, it's the opening, not the heart, that is dominated by white flowers; it actually reminded me of Anais Anais at first. (Must be the Cacherel DNA.) The Chinese cinnamon wood is not cloying like a fall candle but a soft spice that merges with anise and heliotrope to melt the sharp edges of the opening. On drydown the notes settle into the scent of warm, clean laundry on a bed of powder and incense. A close-to-the-skin subtle vanilla note adds roundness and warmth without veering into gourmand territory.

I was afraid this was gonna be a nuclear incense fragrance but it’s really not. In fact I barely smell the incense; I have the modern, not the vintage, so I can only think it’s been toned down into a sweet powder puff—which I love. It’s a little spicy but in a cozy way. But also sweetly floral. It’s glamorous and old school and beautiful on my skin. Unfortunately I’m not sure it will last long. On fabric it’s a little funky but I like this enough to seek out the lotion and see if this is buildable.

Update: I craved it so much I re-applied! Then I went out and bought a vintage mini. And yikes. The vintage is smoky and nuclear. I much prefer the modern formulation, which is a real rarity!

It's just awful.

I use to wear this as my signature scent in highschool and in prep classes. I got it out of my mom’s vintage perfume closet and immediately fell in love with it it suited my personality at the time bold, confident, not afraid to be seen and heard. That was a few years ago. Today I was smelling a perfume that kept reminding me of a perfume I was familiar with and after talking to my mom I realized it was Loulou. I thought I outgrew it but I still love it so much.

FadiTheEvangelist really described it with the utmost accuracy. That girl is really Loulou

Just got a mini that I assume is vintage. It is so lovely! I was kind of afraid, thought it would be more... I don't know... Scary. It is not! Lovely!

I brought a 30 ml bottle pre covid but as I'm running low and I saw a 50ml on offer I treated myself. However I've sprayed both on each wrist and realise the 30ml is much stronger, new one much weaker. I'm really worried now that this has been reformulated past 2 years and I cant be the first to notice? 😭 heartbreaking if so Its bad enough they already reformulated since its birth and the original scent was absolutely divine compared to its present versions. Opinions please

This has been in my ‘ want to try’s ‘ for the longest but I just got it to meet a minimum order total on something my husband was doing. I’m in love, I’m too young to have worn this at its heyday , but someone described this as sitting on the back porch or club with girlfriends in the 80s , sh@ring a pack of cigarettes and popping in mint gum when the sun went down to go home— I get that energy and that is the energy of this perfume. I love it. It’s iris and orris, powder and power. Sex, skank and warm. It might not work for you but your husband may like it on me. 😜 that kind of strength but when I first smelled it, I was really under whelmed, due to its hype- it seemed so tame and powdery- I thought it would be more balsamic. but it does work well with my chemistry.

I wore this day in day out at music college and I’d stink out an entire room with this stuff! There were some in my class who hated it and wanted to gag and others who said they loved it. Either way: I totally didn’t care. This one is not for the faint hearted! It will get you noticed for sure. I was a regularly gigging musician at the time and this perfume to me is late nights, crowded bars, leather jackets, sweat, anticipation and getting the first bus home in the morning from some strangers house whose after party I’d been at. I wouldn’t be able to pull this off anymore but man, all that smoke an vanilla and dirtiness, that announces itself before you’ve even fully entered the room, and lingers long after you’ve left, helped me make some of the best bad decisions of my life! Lou Lou is definitely not for everyone but if you meet her and she decides she likes you (make no mistake: it is that way round) then brace yourself for some of the best fun you’ll ever have with her!!

The worst perfume I own and by far the worst blind buy of my life... I do not know nor care if it's due to a re-formulation, but this is 100% Raid insecticide roach spray in a blue bottle. Shockingly bad, and frankly, nauseating. I can't believe this was considered a "goth/cult/dark/alt" fragrance of the 80s.

It's not even suitable as a room spray, as I don't want it anywhere near me... And the worst part is that it's very long-lasting! :(

This is without a doubt my life's most hated perfume memory! Lou Lou was very hyped when it came out in the late 80's and my young self was looking forward to testing it. I still remember my surprised shock when I felt the disgustingly sweet stench with the abominable background scent I could not (or did not want!) to identify, landing on my wrist! I remember washing myself frantically, despairing that the stench lingered so long, and my shocked astonishment that so many were apparently willing to pay for the opportunity to smell so disgusting! Needless to say, of course I never bought Lou Lou. Ever since then I have only smelled ONE single perfume that smelled even nearby that bad to my my poor nose (Rocha's "La Femme" / heavily sweet and nauseating) I am still amazed today that Lou Lou could obviously become such a popular perfume!

i think lou lou must be one of the most interesting fragrances in my collection and that's saying something! straight away you're hit with an extremely loud over the top blast of smoky white florals and plum with sharp spices and a strange but not unpleasant plastic/hairspray note, i understand the 'plastic doll head' comparison completely. this is literally the 1980's in a bottle. bubblegum sweet but spicy and very smoky, almost dark to balance it out. i feel alive when i wear this its like static electricity! to me this perfume doesn't seem to change as the day goes on it just softens (slightly!) and becomes a little more rounded. i sometimes detect a similar scent to mugler alien in the dry down which is strange, perhaps it's just me. i can't find the words to describe how loud and in your face and vivacious this perfume is whilst also being dark and intoxicating, almost poisonous at the same time. i can see why some people compare this to dior's original poison when it was available in edp without a doubt. definitely not for the faint of heart but well worth a try. i find the current formulation to be not quite as good as older ones but still very very impressive :)

**Edit** Okay, I slept on this, and it mellowed down really nicely. I applied it again this morning, on my neck instead of my wrist, and it's cooled down to exactly the scent I remember, just not as strong. So please disregard the previous negative review. : )

...

My mom used to wear LouLou lotion on the few nights she went out when I was a kid, and it was one of my favorite scents. I used to go into her dresser just to sniff the lotion. : ) When I saw it for sale, I really wanted to try it, but there was no tester so it was a blind buy (my girlfriend got it for me). It's kind of disappointing, just powdery amber with a few hints of flowers, and a hiiint of something sweet (the plum?) now that it's been a couple of hours, but I really have to sniff my arm to get it. :D It's possible it's my body chemistry, because a lot of things smell like potpourri on me, but even before spraying it didn't really resemble what I remembered. Reformulations... Why bother selling it if it's not the same? Just make something new.

I asked for my first bottle of Lou Lou when I was 12 years old, in 1988. I wore it until I was 15, then switched to Chanel No 5. I had practically forgotten about it until I recently became obsessed with perfumes again. Based on the reviews here, I wondered if it was far stronger/sexier than I remembered. I truly did love it then, so I bought a bottle for now.

It smells just the same as I remember it! A lovely feminine ambery powder bomb. I don't think it's too sexy or mature- I would still wear it to church!

Then again, I did used to be an absolute bombshell in my youth. I'm a Soft Dramatic Kibbe/ Gemini/ Brickhouse Megamazon. For me, this is nice and delicate and understated. Might just be my type

Honestly, when I smell this on someone now it's so revolting I want to leave the room. It's just sickening powdery incense, sweet and cloying. Mildly nauseating. It really rubs me the wrong way. I'm referring to the vintage one. Haven't tried the new one and won't. Yet I really loved this fragrance in the 90s. It reminded me of Oscar De La Renta and Rafinee by Houbigant, though not the same. All have a similar vibe, a powdery incense note with this being the strongest. Now I don't care for these 3 at all. and I loved them at one time. Strange how our taste can do a 180. This one is the most sickening. Though I still have a couple others from back then that remained loves.

LouLou is a powdery dream; heavy, sensual and luxurious (though unimaginably affordable).
This scent is what silver screen sirens are made of. It's Intense, it's beautiful, ever-present, somewhat demanding and yet strangely warm and addictive.
LouLou has a vintage vibe, yes. But a TIMELESS vintage vibe.
Like the beauty icons from the golden age of Hollywood, whose grandiose aesthethics are still unmatched today.
I cannot fathom those who claim that this scent is "grandmother"-ish in a derrogative or boring/simple way. - For that to be true, some ladies must have really misrepresented this beautiful fragrance, then.

I remember my own grandmother wearing this scent.. And I remember her, sitting in her chair by the window, with the tall glass of red wine beside her and the lipstick-stained cigarette burning in the green jade ashtray. I remember her meticulously lined lips and lipstick that always matched the polish on her long fingernails. She really didn't like children, and wasn't afraid to admit it to us. She showed us pictures of her past. The ballroom dances, the pictures from her time as a model and of her "great life, before she got married and was forced to live out a life sentence as a housewife". But even as she spoke about how much she hated her homely life, she was so glamourous. Her high heels, her jewellery, her way of carrying herself. She lived in a dysfunctional marriage, and she was highly dysfunctional herself, but she was like watching Joan Crawford or Barbara Stanwyck in action.
You could pretty much forgive her antisocial behaviour whenever you saw her, because she would ooze glamour and mesmerize people around her to an extend where you just had to admire her. And the trail of LouLou she left behind her, suited her perfectly.

As LouLou would fit any woman who wears her with poise and confidence.

This scent has no sweet, homey and wholesome granny-vibes - not to me, anyway. It has too much depth, too much presence.
LouLou is a scent for the proud woman who wishes to wear something classic and worthy of a diva, even for everyday-wear.
And I am proud to say that I wear LouLou myself and have claimed the scent as my own.
As should everyone who wears her - otherwise she will overpower you. You have to match her, bear with her through the initial hour of drama and wait for her to dry down to the dream that she is. She will complement you if you take the lead. And you should.
If you cannot do that - you probably shouldn't wear her. You will most likely misrepresent her.

....... Oh, and ofc I would never wear LouLou without matching lipstick and nailpolish. ;)

I liked it. Then I liked it less. I bought it, and for a short while I didn't like it at all.
What is with this perfume? There is something in it that makes my nostrils hurt. But only sometimes.
What a weirdo.

Miss Lou Lou is finally in my collection!

I read many reviews and couldn’t wait to finally smell it.

When I first smelled Lou Lou I fell in love instantly and she climbed up to my signature scents list !

Lou Lou to me is like a sweeter, colder more vanilla Poison. Poison is deep , warmer and more plumy and Lou Lou is the softer, colder sister of Poison in my opinion.

Lou Lou is a bed of sweet, powdery vanilla and musk covered by sheets of cinnamon and insence and a slight topper of plumy jam, which contriubites to the sweetness.

So I would describe Lou Lou as a sweet-smoky-cinnamon-vanilic-musky scent.

Also I get a sweet almond smell in Lou Lou! Strange that it is not listed in the notes list. In my hometown in Sicily we drink a lot of sweetend almond milk and if I had to describe Lou Lou in one word I would say : Sweet Almond Milk ( lol it’s more words but you get the point ;) )

It somehow takes me back to the early 2000s, my cousin wore Hypnotic Poison and Jil Sander Sun, and Lou Lou definitely also falls in that category , I don’t know why those two don’t show up in the „reminds me of“ section.

Back in 1987 when this perfume hit the market (I was 17 then), everybody and their granny used to wear this as it was new, strong and not expensive. I remember it making me feel sick and migraine inducing. I cant believe saying that as at this time I was dousing myself with ysl opium or EL cinnabar .
Anyways fastforward to 2021, I am now a ripe age of 51 and decided to give another try.
I am surprised that I can actually enjoy this little fellow now. I wouldn't say it's a favourite but its definitely not a failed purchase.
I think its been toned down a bit but hey ,if you like a heady intense like scent then give it a go. Its not as scary as it looks coz damn, that bottle is ugly AF.

The Psychotic Intoxicating Floral


I wish I could go back in time and live in the 80s, perfumery was on a different scheme back then. The quality, craftsmanship, and complexity that encompasses these were unimaginable to today's mass-produced stuff!

Lou Lou is unbelievably different from anything that was ever created along those days. A very sharp smokey and incensy opening with a lot of heady florals. The intricacy of this shows up when one sniffs this upclose, in the air, it kind of feels like vintage makeup to me with incense. Extremely complex and not for the faint of hearts, if you can take it, this might be one of your most treasured fragrances!

Lou Lou is my signature scent and I always get positive comments when I wear it. On me the Tahitian Tiare Flower is prominent and the dry down deliciously powdery. Some might find Lou Lou is initially quite strong but it settles quickly into a wonderful floriental scent that lasts well.

Some smoke and some vanilla, that's all. Very boring compared to the vintage one and lasts next to nothing 😒👎.

Always this will be a love for me although I agree the newer formulation is not nearly as strong. When I was 16 my best friends mother bought her a bottle of this. It was so glamorous, it was love at first sniff. She shared it with me and we pretty much soaked ourselves in it every weekend for clubbing. This and Fracas and the original Poison (not at the same time lol) We might have been responsible for more that one persons headache. It was the late 1980s and LouLou was super powerful back then. I got a vintage mini that had unfortunately gone off but the new version I just got in the mail was lighter but still brought me back to that time in my life. Love it! Also, my daughter loves it so I guess it isn't just for vintage lovers

When I put on LouLou for the first time, I initially was engulfed in an intense cloud of cherry cola and vanilla. After maybe 15 minutes, the mix became infused with incense which gave it more depth.

About 3 hours later, I started to smell a very specific plastic note. I even can pinpoint it: It is the exact smell brand-new Barbie dolls in the 1990s emanated. Synthetic vanilla, aldehydes - a very pleasant note that reminds me of shopping sprees and unboxing presents in my childhood.

After 6 hours, most of the experiece was over, and I was left with a faint trace of vanilla on my skin. After 8 hours, I want to put it on and go on that journey again.

LouLou is strong. She is intriguing. She might not be of the highest quality, but she is nostalgic. She was made to be worn by older girls and younger women, but I definitely can see men wearing her too. Probably not the most conservative types, but it does work on the unconventional young urbanite.

LouLou is very retro and chic in her own style. Hereby, I join the chorus of people who say: LouLou, I adore you.

LouLou is an interesting scent but only for those who love incense in their perfume. So I was not impressed, too much incense and balsamic notes.

This is a startling and exciting fragrance which I don't think I would have tried, but my mum wears it and I was curious (I'm 41 btw, not sneaking sprays from mum's dressing table lol).

My first impression was 'Oh no! Ylang bomb!' but it soon settled into a smoky spicy incense with vibrant white flowers. I've never worn anything like it. I did get hints of violet/iris but the whole thing is like an orchestra - it's hard to pick out any instrument in particular.

About 6 hours later it's mellow and sweet, a comforting, ambery musk. I honestly never thought I would be wearing this but it has charmed me! I even enjoy the uniqueness of the hideous bottle 😂

Go easy on the trigger - one spray gives you everything you need.

Edit Apr 22: I finally bought a bottle of this beautiful weirdo and now I understand the 'plastic doll head' scent that so many people have mentioned! I love it even more now 😂

Smells like vintage valentine heart candy !

I think it's the lily that's throwing me off of loving this one. I'm allergic to lilies, so I have an aversive reaction to even their smell. Wanted to love Lou Lou since I love most of Cacharel's fragrances I've tried so far. Prefer Eden over this one, though.

Tonight’s bedtime choice. Smells like Navy by Dana, pencil erasers, and Pixie Stix. Very much a powder bomb. Sort of a molten plastic note in here too. Not bad, won’t wear this one out though, something about it makes me feel dusty.

I LOVE Lou Lou (in its current form). I wasn’t familiar with Lou Lou until recently and I haven’t smelled any of the vintage formulations, so I have no point of comparison. I am newly obsessed with fragrances and Lou Lou was part of my first ever blind buying experience after hearing about it from a YouTube video (Sebastian of Smelling Great Fragrance Reviews and his friend Dana’s list of 19 favorite cheapies). At first spray on paper, I wasn’t quite sure what to think about it. She’s definitely a weird one and at that point, I hadn’t smelled all that many fragrances. Still though, I have not smelled anything like Lou Lou. It didn’t take long for it to become a love for me, however. I just had to try it on skin and allow my brain some time to process it.

I agree with reviewers who say that you can’t quite discern individual notes unless you’re looking for them. Lou Lou is a cornucopia of white, purple and yellow florals, overlayed with ripe, spiced plum. The incense, resin and vanilla lend depth and a glamourous sort of darkness. It’s bold and powerful. It makes perfect sense to me that Lou Lou is of the era of shoulder pads and big hair, but it’s more goth/new-wave than pop. It’s Bauhaus and Joy Division rather than Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston.

I should add that my boyfriend is obsessed with Lou Lou and has gone through much of my 30mL bottle spraying himself and, one time, even his car. I own quite a lot of fragrance and this is easily his favorite. A word of caution: I think you could make yourself a bit sick if you oversprayed this one, so go easy on the trigger finger. Oh, and I also love the look of the totally opaque bottle with its seemingly clashing colors. I think it does a good job of representing the wonder that it holds. I got my 30ml for like $20, which is incredible! To reiterate: I love Lou Lou!

I love this fragrance, it reminds me of the crazy late 80’s and early 90’s. Such a gorgeous floral that I reminisce when I apply it about my life in LA, a city I lived in durning that time. I will alway have this in my collection, both vintage and newer version. To me this is a heady plum with floral through out! I do smell the jasmine and lily on me in the drydown...boy do I love this! There is nothing like this out there today!

For those of you who are wondering, LouLou has sadly suffered at the hands of reformulation. The very latest offering is a pale and insipid shadow of the lovely and potent original version that came out in 1987.
Raiders of the Lost Scent website/blog has a very helpful and informative article on Cacharel perfumes and what to look for in sourcing an older bottle of LouLou.

In short, the older bottles pre-2003 have the word Cacharel in the front of the box inside a black border (‘cartouche’) that goes all around the word.

Versions of LouLou after the year 2003 just have the word Cacharel on the front with NO border around it. (as in the latest version)
The original version was distributed by Cosmair -they are the best ones by far! Much harder to find though these days...but don’t give up looking!
Designer Fragrances was the next company to distribute LouLou. Short list of ingredients on the back of the box. This version is still very good.

I’ve owned all 3 versions, the original, (Cosmair) then the one after that (Designer Fragrances) and also the newest version. Sadly the newest version is sharper and harshest of all of them and one to be avoided.
It still has the basic LouLou DNA but has been altered from the stunning original, which was deeper, sweeter and more floral.

I still own and treasure the earlier versions, but sold the newest version as I found it pretty unpleasant. Still, it’s an ok spicy/vanilla/incense fragrance, smokier too than the original, but just isn’t for me, although some still like it.

So, look for the word Cacharel with the border around it and the short list of ingredients if you’re searching for the better and more longer lasting pre-reformulation version.

LouLou…poetry in a bottle and utterly unforgettable. 💙

I'm giving up. My ex says this smells like detergent, and he's utterly correct.

Once upon a time I loved this perfume, it always got compliments, but I'm absolutely sure that ingredients have been changed like sandalwood. It smells cheap now. I fell so sad and wish that if this is going to happen it's better to discontinue than disgrace such a beautiful perfume like this use to be.

I was gifted a Premiere Miniature Collection with Miracle, Anais Anais, Tresor (original) Paloma Picasso, Lou Lou and Lauren Ralph Lauren. Cute bottles! I collect mini's so I'll treasure this set. I already had Anais, but it doesn't hurt to have two, and full size Lauren that belonged to my MIL. The other 3 are new to me scents.
Is it just me or does Lou Lou smell a LOT like Anais Anais? Maybe not identical but the dry down is so, so, so similar to me. I'd never buy a bottle of either, both seem to give me headaches which is unusual for me. I think it's the lily. I despise white lily, it reminds me of funerals. That super sweet, sickly, slightly spicy odor. Also, there's just a lot going on. Like a big 80's or 90' fume. Not my cuppa, but everyone is different and that makes for a lot of great frags.

Just to echo what I am reading in the recent reviews.... I think dodgy batches/bottles are on the market, the one I just received today is nonexistent on my skin after 30 minutes or so of wear. Very disappointing. November 2020 batch.