Cabaret Nocturne – floral and sensuous and exciting

Photo: perfumeniche

Have you sometimes found yourself searching for a fragrance that’s new, exciting and different? Not some oddball, unwearable thing, but something thrilling to wear.

Well, I may have just found the fragrance you’ve been searching for: Cabaret Nocturne from Swedish indie line V/SITEUR, founded by Janne Rainer Vuorenmaa in 2018.

Cabaret Nocturne is one of the inaugural fragrances launched by the line and was inspired by a night years ago that Rainer spent at Pensão Amor, the lively nightclub in the red-light district of Lisbon that used to be a brothel.

Picture this: a decadent décor that’s a nod to the club’s past: red walls and ceiling, gaudy chandeliers, photographs of naked men, lush velvet drapes and overstuffed armchairs. The music is loud; the sound of barman shaking cocktails to the beat, the dancefloor is crowded with writhing, gyrating bodies; people on the sidelines are talking, laughing, smoking and checking each other out. It’s an animated place that’s a little kitschy, a little seductive and a lot of fun. This is the scene that Cabaret Nocturne captures.

It opens with a nose-tingling note of gin. Boozy, botanical and fresh, it opens the nose for what comes next. Pink pepper is piquant and heats things up. A note of fresh, juicy orange keeps things lively. The booze, the heat and the freshness bring out a note of tuberose. Perfumer Cécile Zarokian knows her way around a white floral, and the tuberose here is stunning! It’s opulent, heady, fleshy and tinged with green, but when Zarokian envelopes it in sweet tobacco, it swells and sways for ages. But what I like most about it is how it evolves over time. As the opening notes fade and the evening wears on, the tuberose shifts gears. The drinks are diluted, the dancers are sweaty, and the tuberose sweetens a little and transitions into something decadent, animalic, and sultry. A note of cumin suggests the smell of sweaty skin as powdery notes appear. It smells like make-up that’s melted by body heat that’s mingled with the tuberose. A whiff of smoke joins the mix and gives the tuberose yet another dimension that beckons you to lean in. When sandalwood appears, it’s creamy, sensual and soft enough to let the tuberose shine. The drydown is seductive, without being dirty or crude, so that Cabaret Nocturne is elegant and refined.

Something new, exciting and different that’s thrilling to wear? Cabaret Nocturne is one of the best tuberose-based perfumes I’ve experienced in a long time.

Check out Cabaret Nocturne in our Shop.