Need Help Finding a "Dark" Floral for Early Spring

I need to enlist the help of all you fabulously-knowledgeable BN'ers to help an amber/incense/spice/vanilla lover (and admitted Lutens slut) find a couple of "dark" florals for early spring.

I don't wear florals very often, so I'm at a bit of a loss. I can, however, tell you some of my likes/dislikes:

(1) I love jasmine and tuberose (together, separately, whatever). From my wardrobe, florals -- or fragrances with prominent floral notes in them -- that I have tried and like include: A La Nuit, Alien, Amarige, Apres L'Ondee, Badgley Mischka, Black Orchid, Black Orchid Voile de Fleur, Bois de Violette, Carnal Flower, Fleurs d'Oranger, Fleurs de Citronnier, Lys Mediterranee, Sarrasins, Une Fleur de Cassie, Purple Patchouli, and Jour Ensoleille.

(2) Rose is an epic disaster on me unless the fragrance is blended so well I can't pick it out individually. Rose and honeysuckle both give me raging headaches. I also am mortal enemies with iris (except in L'Air du Desert Marocain, apparently), and I don't care for lavender. I also don't do well with Guerlains as a general rule (HERESY, isn't it? ), with Apres L'Ondee being the exception. Gardenia and carnation are hit and miss on me. Hyacinth is generally good.

(3) Other florals/prominent floral note frags I've tried and have either not liked at all or not liked enough to finish the sample are: Narcisse Noir, Nuit Noire, Cedre, Coco Mademoiselle, Irisia, Jasmin et Cigarette, Noir de Noir, Nuit de Cellophane, Love in White, Love in Black, Spring Flower, 2000 Fleurs, Jasmin Imperatrice Eugenie, and Jasmal.

(4) I'm intruiged by some of the offerings from Parfums de Nicolai but haven't had a chance to try any of them yet.

(5) One more thing -- NO ALDEHYDES.

Any thoughts? It's not like I'm picky or anything, right? Thanks so much!!

So, it's a full month later, and I think I've finally finished my research (yes, that's both the lawyer and the "extreme" in me....)

I want to thank all of you for your great suggestions and patient humor in the face of my pickiness. I did give you fair warning, after all.

A couple of initial thoughts: I have previously tried Jasmin Noir (enjoyed it but somehow not enough oomph -- I found it nearly transparent), Samsara (nope, can't do that Guerlain, either), and Black Aoud (Ack! The roses! They're KILLING me!). I didn't care for them, but they would all certainly qualify as dark florals.

Here are the ones I'm going to sample (in no particular order):
Robert Piguet Visa
Parfums de Nicolai Les Temps d'Une Fete and Sacrebleu
TDC Jasmin de Nuit
Parfumerie Generale Psychotrope, Louanges, and Drama Nuui
Parfums MDCI Enlevement au Serail
Serge Lutens Tubereuse Criminelle (how I've not tried this Serge yet is beyond me).

If a Round 2 is needed, I will add Ormande Jayne Tolu (please let the rose stay in the background!) and Histoires des Parfums 1826 and 1873.

Thanks again for all of the great suggestions. Even if many of them didn't make my list, I found that they led me to the ones that did.

And, mel_lou, I actually bought a full bottle of Winter Woods about 3 weeks ago. I love it, too. SO much! Laurie is a genius.

Unfortunately, I simply cannot wear iris unless it stays far in the background, a la L'Air du Desert Marocain and Chergui.



Nick, you and I seem to share many great fragrance loves, but I must part ways with you on Mitsouko. I just don't care for it, and, no matter how many times I go back to try again, I just can't wear it. I would have previously chalked that up to my own character flaw, but the lovely BN community has assured me that, despite this gaping hole in my fragrance wardrobe, I'm good enough, I'm strong enough, and, darn it, people like me!

Nahema has two strikes against it: it's a Guerlain (yes, the entire house is problematic for me -- it must be that "Guerlainade" everyone talks about) and its primary note is rose. The only thing worse on me than iris is rose. Not to mention the blinding headache a prominent rose note gives me.

With iris and rose out of the running as primary notes and Guerlain also out of the picture, this dark florals quest was more difficult than one (i.e., any reasonably sane person) might have otherwise expected.

However, Nick, we're back on track with Voile de Fleur -- I own a full bottle of it and LOVE it.

So, all of my dark florals samples have arrived, and I've been doing some sniffing, but today is the first full wearing. I chose Parfumerie Generale Psychotrope for the promise of jasmine and leather.

It started out with a very sharp green note -- not a mossy green, more like a leaf green. And it stayed that way for about 4 hours when a little bit of jasmine made an appearance and gave the green a more watery effect. For something that's just supposed to be a top note, the green note has real staying power.

Unfortunately, the leather has never, not once, not even a little bit, made an appearance. At least not on me.

This is more of a light spring floral -- OK in its own right, but not really my thing and not what I was looking for.

So, I'm sampling Visa today.

Let me just give a special shout-out THANK YOU to mel_lou and cacio for recommending Visa. As I said in today's SotD thread, this is SO my thing: I get the dark floral aspect I was searching for but also the spices, leather, woods, and vanilla notes I love so much.

Again, I'm breaking my own fragrance Bible rules and skipping the decant stage -- I'm buying a FB of it today.

I just love it. Thanks so much for this recommendation.

Edit:
I just now figured out what Visa reminds me so strongly of. At first, I thought it was Angel. But it's not. Visa reminds of nothing so much as Serge Lutens Boxeuses. On me, Visa's drydown is luscious plum, violet, and leather with a bit of spice. Just like Boxeuses. So, until I can make it to Paris for a lovely bell jar of Boxeuses, I've got Visa.