Tubéreuse Criminelle
by Serge Lutens Les Salons du Palais Royal Shiseido

Tuberose is a very interesting note. For a long time, I thought it was a piercingly sweet floral, and perhaps the flower is extraordinarily sweet in real life. Not so real tuberose absolute. Rather, it carries a heavy aroma like rotten flowers and rubber. Perfume being what it is (a recreation of natural smells) the method for putting the sweetness into the tuberose absolute is to add it back via chemicals--or the few sweet natural substances that are strong enough to compete with it. That is why perfume that uses tuberose absolute is always sweet. Without these additives, it would be ghastly. No one would wear it. No more deviating from the point, on to the review of Serge Lutens Tuberose Criminalle. My favorite aspect about this house is that the perfumers often avoid side-stepping the natural smell of the main accord. Instead, they ramp it up with supporting notes. This perfume is no exception. Dispite all other notes, it still smells like natural tuberose absolute. Another beautiful example is Iris Silver Mist, which smells very nearly exactly like orris butter. So, if you like tuberose, you must try this one before you can claim any familiarity with the note. Either that, or buy a sample vial of the absolute--but you'll never wear it.

Not even having often read it about it prepares you for the initial menthylated vapour rub. When you smell it you remember that Lutens thinks Genet is a great writer, and how wrong he is to think that - like Genet, it's punishingly overstated and has less to say than you would think from all the fuss it makes. The odour of incinerated alkie takes a long while to die back. You keep hoping something sweeter will come of it, like good out of a wasted life, and, with great reluctance, like most addicts, it slowly blossoms but the menthol barracuda is always there just beneath the surface lush. It’s more an Aesop’s fable than a scent, it dies down very mild and sweet as if ideally rehabilitated. Notes: tuberose, orange blossom, hyacinth, jasmine, musk, vanilla, styrax, nutmeg, clove – which only goes to show how little ‘notes’ tell a lay-person because nothing in that list would lead you to guess remotely what the opening is like.

In the very first moment of smelling it i would run away like a cat would when sprayed insecticide on the nose.... yes it most smells like insecticide to me. But it goes away just in five seconds and then comes an earthy summer flowers (sorry no tuberuse yet) but pallensis and dandelion and many from Chrysanthemum family. then to the end yes a bit like tuberuse or Hyacinths but sweet and powdery. Excluding the first moment this is a very nice experience and should be lived....

Vibert's commentary on this fragrance is stellar! A masterpiece indeed, but let me interject....

I will never wear this scent. It is not at all what I wish to smell like. A thumbs up though, as it merits applause!

The opening so often described as "gasoline" or "rubber" seems to me a strong dose of eucalyptus, wintergreen, camphor, or menthol. It's cool, sharp, and bracing, like a good slap in the face with a frosty mitten. Pairing these sinus-clearing top notes with the voluptuous sweetness of tuberose is a stroke of genius - perhaps even the cleverest thing Sheldrake has done.

On its own or in combination with other white flowers, tuberose can be positively oppressive. Cut it with clear camphor, and it's outright refreshing. Unisex, too, as far as I'm concerned. Tubereuse Criminelle wears closer to the skin than some other tuberose scents, with moderate sillage and projection. It lasts a solid six hours on my skin, with a creamy vanillic drydown. The persistent cool menthol notes make this the first tuberose scent I turn to in hot weather.

Tubereuse Criminelle is not the same kind of room-filling diva as Fracas, nor does it share the soft, unearthly luminosity of Carnal Flower. It is very much its own animal. It's surely not for everyone, and it probably takes some nerve to wear, but if you can get into its peculiar groove the rewards are rich.

At first it smells like gasoline + Ben-Guy rheumatism ointment. But after a few minutes I can scent a beautiful chewing-gum-like fragrance, reminding me of bird cherry flowers (Prunus padus), which have so unique, narcotic, "indolic", deep aroma. Love it so much!