Reviews of Tubéreuse Criminelle
by Serge Lutens Les Salons du Palais Royal Shiseido

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....

This fragrance was quite an experience. When I put it on, it smelled like Dr. Pepper and Root Beer soda! Very sweet and very surprising! As it dried down a thick, heavy earth accord was very noticeable. Like damp, wet earth. I did not detect any of the other notes that some Basenoters have been describing. On my skin, the sweet floral was interwoven with the dark earthiness. It's an interesting fragrance, but not for me.

I love tuberose...but not when it's mixed with Denorex coal tar shampoo. I even waved my wrist under my husband's nose to make sure I wasn't imagining the coal tar, and he confirmed my reaction. I don't want someone to catch a whiff of my expensive perfume and assume that I have a severe dandruff problem!! It's too bad, because the scent of tuberose that shines through the Denorex is quite pretty. Definitely one of the more interesting fragrances out there.