A tuberose dessert presented in a wooden box

Cèdre by Serge Lutens

This fragrance is created in 2005 by Christopher Sheldrake for Serge Lutens. The notes are: Cedarwood, Tuberose, Musk, Amber en Cinnamon.

It was my First niche fragrance I bought. Walking through a local store I quickly noticed the bottles of the new brand I didn’t know yet. I stopped to take a closer look and to smell. And I was completely fallen in love with Cèdre.

You probably expect Cèdre to smell like Cedar or at least to have distinct woody notes. Not in this one. This one is all about the tuberose. Yes, there are some woody notes at the opening, but are they real? Or is it your imagination that tries to create what you expect find there? Wood in this fragrance is only a package, an ornamental wooden box presenting you an exotic tuberose dessert. The flowers here are made from a whipped cream sweetened with some tuberose flavored syrup and warmed with spices. A big gourmand tuberose presented in a wooden box with oriental ornament – this is what Cèdre is about in my opinion. This fragrance helped me to discover my passion for tuberose flower.

Luca Turin calls it a niche version of Amarige. And I can agree with him – it’s a very similar tuberose, but more elegant, more oriental (woody-spicy) and without mimosa dust. Poison might be another good example of a loud sultry tuberose (served with honing, blackberries and low fat cream rather than spices). But this one is more floral and less oriental, than Cédre.

Tebereuse Criminelle by Serge Lutens

Russian version - click here

Image: AromaX

This perfume is not to be put on just a few moments before you leave. No – this one needs time to be tamed. You have to put it on just after the shower and go on with grooming and getting dressed. First you feel surrounded with a wintergreen mist as if you put on an antirheumatic ointment. Yes – the opening is really heavy and too medicinal. The prominent note is wintergreen, that comes probably from methyl salicilate. I have never smelled it in a real tuberose and I was very surprised when I found methyl salicilate as a component in several formulae of a tuberose floral base.

It’s difficult to smell through the harshness of the wintergreen note, but if you do it within first ten minutes after applying the fragrance you’ll find more surprises like chemical notes of rubber or asphalt. But soon the tuberose begins to break through. Desperately suppressed by the chemical notes at first it getting stronger and stronger. The nice combination of tender white petals and sultry opiating heavy smell of flesh of night tropical flower. Wintergreen remains contrasting against the tuberose for a while, but finally finds a point of balance and becomes a part of a tuberose accord. If you are lucky it happens before you have to go outside. Ready to spend at least 30 minutes on grooming after the shower and applying of Tubéreuse Criminelle? Otherwise you’ll get strange faces looking at you with compassions and thinking what harm did you try to relief with a rheumatic ointment.

But later you’ll be rewarded with an exotic heavy aura of a tuberose. It doesn’t have coconut note at the background or penetrating greenness like Carnal Flower. It’s less buttery than Tubereuse by L’Artisan, but just slightly creamy. The wintergreen at the background helps to keep a resemblance with a fresh flower. The tuberose is strong and long lasting and finally fades into vanilla dry down.

Tropical white flower, Gardenia as a gift and visualisation

Russian version - click here

I do like a smell of tropical white flowers – Tuberose, Gardenia, Jasmine, Cananga (Ylang). It’s always heady, sweet, creamy, sultry and intoxicating. They also have a slightly “dirty” carnal component mostly avoided, but sometimes even supported (Carnal Flower, Tubereuse Criminelle) in perfumery. So, I decided to collect those flowers and give them a try in a cool rainy Dutch climate.

The Jasmine I bought in the gardener’s shop has almost died, but saved and I hope it’s not damaged that far that it decide not to give flowers anymore. The Tuberose bolls I bought at the Flower Market on the last days of the season is showing its first leaves above the ground. The Gardenia you see on the picture is a special gift from a friend of my (the one who wears Knowing I like to smeel from her, remember?). It was a Saturday a couple of weeks ago when we had our final exam on visualisation. We all got through with success and got a delphinium flower from our docent. Later we went to the gardener’s shop and I was just charmed by the nice Gardenia flower and its smell. It wasn’t unnoticed and I’ve got it as a gift for my success at the exam. Thank you, Marian.

The visualisation is a therapeutic technique that helps to understand the messages from subconscious level which are blocked by our mind. Once understood and accepted those “messages” has a healing power. Visualisation is a nice technique to use when you like to understand and find an essence of a symptom, a pattern, a conflict, emotion, to gain an insight. Practically it’s similar to a daydreaming or fantasy in a state of trance. Remarkable to notice that the Gardenia brought me in a state of trance (charmed ;-) and the same Gardenia I’ve got as a gift for my visualisation exam where the trance is a key…

Carnal Flower, Frederic Malle

Nederlands: http://aromax-nicheparfum.blogspot.com/search/label/carnal%20flower

Tuberose – I like the rich, sweet, a little bit creamy and definitely intoxicating smell of this flower. So, it’s no wonder I wanted to try Carnal Flower as soon as I found it’s based on the tuberose scent.

Although I was shock after I put this perfume onto my skin. Instead of expected creamy and intoxicating sweetness I smelled a slightly bitter green notes of leaves and grass. Fortunately it was just a veil covering the heart of the fragrance.

The hart revealed a soft, velvety tender tuberose that was getting stronger with every minute loosing the green notes and acquiring its richness and sweetness. A combination of a tuberose heart and green opening reminds me of gardenia flower. In fact I smell something like a Tuberose-Gardenia bouquet. No wonder, because those flowers are olfactory similar.

The longer it remains on my skin the stronger it becomes. Remaining soft it becomes overwhelming and acquires this creamy sweetness I like in tuberose so much. Orange-blossom warms the whole composition up and jasmine makes it charmingly intoxicating and even seducing. More creamy notes come at the end revealing the coconut note. This is the most difficult part of this perfume. Depending on skin it may either give extra richness and creaminess supporting the tuberose or make the whole composition smell just like coconut that overpowers the rest.

Carnal Flower is a soliflor linear fragrance. That means it represents the fragrance of a single flower remained unchanged in time. But it’s not quite unchangeable. You can really follow the flower that is unfolding on the skin like a real flower. Green in the beginning when it was just a bud it becomes soft velvety sweet at the opening. It becomes more sweet, rich, heavy narcotic, a bit fruity and creamy in its full glory. And than it decays getting too sweet and almost buttery creamy. This perfume follows nicely the stages of a real flower.