Hombre de Flores Polianthes Tuberosa (1999)
by Fresh

I just got this in a trade. Beautiful bottle! It still smells to me to be a feminine scent. I will try it again with MUCH less quantity. I get the tuberose and well, some other flowers. Would like it to be smokier, or leatherier. Are those words?

How, I asked, were they going to make tuberose "masculine"? Not that I ultimately care, since I'm a dark-haired, bearded, sober looking middle aged man who's gutsy/crazy enough to wear Carnal Flower. Still...

The note pyramid above is highly intriguing. Cucumber? Moss? Ambergris? Let me at 'em! Sadly, I don't get any of these notes from Polianthes Tuberosa. In fact, I hardly get the tuberose. What I smell instead is an undefined white flower and a lotta lotta fruit. Though no leather notes are listed, I do get an impression of smooth, soft, sweet leather in the base, very much like that in Lutens and Sheldrake's Daim Blond or Parfums d'Empire's Cuir Ottoman. The idea of tuberose and leather is absolutely fascinating, but I'd like to see it executed with a dry, smoky leather and a much more up-front tuberose. As it is, Polianthes Tuberosa smells to me a bit like fruit flavored hard candy.

Pleasant enough, but I'll stick to the sandalwood, coconut, and blatant tuberose of Carnal Flower.

This is a great example of a masculine floral. It is natural, fairly intense, tenacious and not cloying (for a floral). Grab it if you can find it. The Hombre de Flores Tuberosa is hands down better than the Hombre de Flores Jasminum, which is too bad because I adore jasmine most of all flowers. I find it fairly similar to L'Artisan's La Chasse sans the cloying tilleul (linden blossom/lime blossom). A great, medium intensity, warm weather fragrance. No vanilla or musk!

I`m glad to have this GEM because it spread my tastes to LOVE tuberose in mens fragrances.
Very manly and flowery.