parfums*PARFUMS Luxe: Champaca (2007)
by Comme des Garçons

After the woody-incensy opening, this develops into a rich, warm, spicy, ambery floral, & l'm swooning. This is seriously gorgeous stuff! l detect hints of tuberose although it's not prominent, & the cardamom & pepper are blended with finesse into a supporting role, rather than giving off the curry vibe that l usually get from these notes. lt stays quite linear, & settles fairly close to the skin, but hums along nicely for a good few hours.
lt reminds me very much of Ayala Moriel's discontinued Moonbreath; a fragrance l adore but which has poor longevity on my skin. l wrote in my review of that one that if l could find something similar but longer-lasting, it would be a HG for sure. Well it seems l have found it; if only it wasn't so expensive! l have just received a large decant for a reasonable price though, & l'm looking forward to spraying this one on when the weather warms up. lf the love affair continues, l may have to spend my hard-earned cash on a FB. lf l do, it will be the slightly less ugly cube-shaped one, not that wierd-looking joystick thing!
l do not know what real champaca smells like, but in my imagination it smells exactly like Luxe Champaca; far more beautiful than the disappointing Champaca Absolute. l absolutely love this, ten thumbs up!

21st January, 2012.

Begins as a quiet spicey floral and warms on your skin to becoem a gorgeous white floral perfume.The spicey note goes away ,leaving nearly a soliflore of Champaca. As Galamb has said, this does resemble narcissus or jonquille -.To me it is the jonquille note in Vol de Nuit , on its own and amplified. That alone makes me desire this scent !
This is a tenacious little flower perfume - it is sultry and pulses along for some time with two sprays .
Champaca absolute is very expensive . This perfume is EDP but I was told it is actually of Parfum strength .So I guess 45 mls for $256 is not too bad considering .

Champaca is sacred to Parvati and Krishna in Indian literature and Hinduism . The Champaca forms one of the five flower darts of Kamadeva ( Cupid ) - so you see this flower and its aroma has always been deemed magical ,holy,,sexy ,an aphrodisiac.
I am in love with it myself.

16th April, 2010.

More than any other floral, Luxe: Champaca reminds me of narcissus. I've smelled a number of narcissus fragrances, but none before my encounter with Champaca have reproduced the magic of this particular spring scent. Champaca recreates the living flower to perfection, in all its fresh, limpid sweetness.

Overall, it's very linear, only a very slight creaminess emerging in the drydown. Something like gardenia with, perhaps, a touch of jasmine, but nothing that interrupts the star accord.

I find it difficult to analyze this one, both due to my unfamiliarity with the living champaca flower, and its pure and seamless accord. None the less, it is a unique, heavenly fragrance that no lover of florals should miss trying.

Fans of CdG may find this far less weird than they're used to from this house, but I have nothing but love for this soliflore.

27th March, 2010.

I like champaca flower. It's a very fruity floral note that carries hints of fresh lychee and even passion fruit. The champaca flower is here in all its lush exoticism, seasoned with a generous helping of indolic tuberose. The result is one heady floral scent, and while it's not as heavy as say, Fracas, its wearer does travel in a cloud of white flowers that is positively "perfumey." Perfumey in an old-fashioned but shamelessly sultry way. Think Norma Desmond.

I can't help comparing Champaca with two other recent indole-soaked fragrances: Mona di Orio's Nuit Noire and Etat Libre d'Orange's Charogne. Champaca is much "cleaner" and more obviously floral than the other two. It lacks both the potent, musky animalic base of Nuit Noire and the shockingly seductive note of fleshy decay that underpins Charogne. This leaves it smelling the least unisex of the three to me. In fact, while wearing Champaca I feel a bit like a debauched and aging drag queen who's trying just a bit too hard to channel Lauren Bacall. When it arrives the drydown is sweet, soft, and powdery, spiced with just a touch of clean white musk. I think Champaca is ultimately about decadence, and I imagine it on an impeccably stylish, mature woman who enjoys a bit of retro irony. “Alright Mr. De Mille, I’m ready for my close-up…”

5th January, 2010.

A serious, grand white floral. Handsome, with considerable gravity. It's jasmine-heavy on me, with the interesting juxtaposition of a soft, citrus backdrop rubbing against tart pepper. Evolves steadily and impressively, through a slowly softening floral spectrum. Has the slightest whiff of pencil shavings at its base. Smells costly. It *is* costly.

11th July, 2009.

Floral and rich… The combination of tuberose and the champaca flower is stellar. With the opening, the full and rich tuberose and champaca florals are nimbused by a delicate angelica and pepper, creating an uncommonly special white floral accord. As often happens, I get only a hint of the pepper in the opening. Unfortunately the nature of the angelica is ephemeral and its delicate aura has evaporated too soon, leaving a white floral that is still beautiful but a lesser scent than what it was in the opening. The relative strength of the champaca grows in comparison with the tuberose, so I guess I’m not as much a fan of champaca as I am of tuberose. But the accord is beautifully refined. The white florals are somewhat clean – the indoles are there, but they’ve been pretty much tamed. The base is an understated iris / white musk united with the remaining white florals: very pleasant. In spite of my disappointment at the direction the fragrance traveled since its opening, I must say that this tuberose / champaca fragrance deserves consideration along with the great tuberose scents. More delicate than Fracas (of course) and less indolic than Carnal Flower, LUXE Champaca is pretty much gorgeous and has enough originality in its persona that it just might make it as a tuberose holy grail. I myself consider it an also-ran and I remain true to Fracas both for the attractiveness of Fracas’ accords and for its longevity. But LUXE Champaca does present a different point of view that may very well be strongly appealing to another tuberose lover.

25th April, 2009.