On Tuberose, part 1
Among all flowers used in perfumery, the one I like the most is tuberose. As a fresh flower, tuberoses possess creamy and green notes with hints of orange blossom and gardenia, a mix of flowershop natural freshness and velvety carnal opulence. As an oil, it's a different story; probably because extraction brings all the bottom notes out: they then smell of earth, butter, leather, menthol, rubber, woman’s skin, even Chamonix orange cake! I can't resist a good soliflore tuberose.
The legendary Fracas by Robert Piguet, dedicated to the great french actress Edwige Feuillère, was composed by Germaine Cellier in 1948. It is undoubtedly the revered archetype of a tuberose soliflore. Its earthy, rich, almost candied notes of tuberoses mingle with jasmine, jonquil, and orange blossoms in a profusion of white flowers, then culminate in a wonderful buttery note up top, due to chamomille oil, before revealing a clean powdery drydown of iris, sandalwood, vetiver and musk.
This fatal flower has fascinated generations of perfumers, Dominique Ropion among them, whose godmother was none other than Germaine Cellier herself. Using all the latest analysis of the odor of living Tuberose, he has composed Carnal Flower for Frédéric Malle; a solar and sensuous perfume that is as close to nature, as possible. I always think of fresh cut flowers in a vase with that proper touch of chlorophyll that we smell in flower shops, and it interacts with the wearer's skin scent to reinforce the solar and carnal character of the flower. His answer was to exaggerate some aspects already existing in the natural scent, such as coconut, eucalyptus and salycilates and a trace of musk.
Beyond Love by Kilian is a marvellous tribute to Germaine Cellier's Fracas. Though very close, it smells somehow more natural than the latter with the best Indian tuberose and Egyptian jasmine absolutes, like a more refined version but with the same radiant sillage. Its perfumer, Calice Becker, has used fresh flowers as a reference to narrow the gap between the oil and the fresh flower. It has the velvety smell of a woman's skin with the gourmand note of Chamonix orange cake (coconut and neroli)
To be continued...
Author: Rebecca Veuillet Gallot, March 30 2010
