Tuberose, or Polianthes tuberosa, isn’t a rose at all, but a fragrant, waxy, night blooming white floral. Though it smells like orange blossom and gardenia, it has definite phases – a camphourous aspect as it opens, a mushroomy, earthy facet as it blooms and a rotting, bloody meat aspect when it browns.  Opulent, erotic and carnal, tuberose is the flower of seduction and I especially love the way it’s treated in Tubéreuse 3 Animale.

 Tubéreuse 3 L'Animale is one of three fragrances that feature tuberose by French niche house Histoires de Parfums. The names are fairly descriptive: Tubéreuse 1 Capricieuse, Tubéreuse 2 Virginale and Tubéreuse 3 Animale. I love each one of these frags, but lately only Tubéreuse 3 Animale will do.

It opens with tuberose and citrusy, floral note neroli, along with sweet, lemony kumquat. The neroli and the kumquat bring out the camphourous aspect of tuberose that morphs into a note of rubber – it is simply sublime. As it blooms, tuberose stays at the heart while aromatic herbs and dry grass give it an earthiness, a sweatiness that is offset with succulent, lush, note of plum. Tuberose stays through to the base, where notes of blond tobacco and immortelle warm, sweeten and soften the tuberose so that the drydown is rich, animalic and deeply erotic.

Tuberose is a big girl with a big voice that can get screechy, but coupled with masculine notes of herbs, blond tobacco and immortelle, she purrs.

In the game of seduction, there is no better weapon than Tubéreuse 3 Animale.

Notes: tuberose, neroli, kumquat, herbs, dry grass, plum, blond tobacco, immortelle.