Frederic Malle- Carnal Flower - Dominique Ropion

Today I have something completely different to show you. This is a big jump from our usual nail polish posts but I’m excited to share it with you. I was recently given the opportunity to review a perfume and since I had never done that before, I figured it was the perfect chance to expand our horizons here at Polished Cousins.

First I’ll show you the full press release for the perfume. Keep in mind that I am NOT a perfume guru, so I’ll add my own review at the bottom of the post.

Carnal Flower

Dominique Ropion

EDITIONS DE PARFUMS FREDERIC MALLE

What makes a floral perfume outstanding?

- Sex appeal that never crosses the subtle boundary with vulgarity ? - Lavishness that does not overwhelm ? - A capacity to bond perfectly with the wearer’s skin and still remain true to nature ?

Only the greatest perfumes resolve all these contradictions.

With Tuberose, nature offers her own take on dramatic olfactive clashes. These pretty flowers exude a mixture of flowershop like freshness and carnal opulence: Waves of watery green notes wash a raw spicy and Eucalyptus- infused heart that lays over a soft milky background.

This natural contradiction has fascinated generations of perfumers, and in 1948, the legendary Germaine Cellier composed the standard of this perfume genre. Since then, most noses have settled for creating variants of her mythical formula.

I have always been intrigued by tuberose but was very opposed to reproducing a vintage composition, so I sought a perfumer who was up to the challenge of reinventing this classic perfumery theme.

Then Dominique Ropion - probably the greatest living experts in the field of flower scents, called. He had just smelled a new purified natural tuberose absolute that he thought was miraculous.

His idea was to forget Cellier’s work. Instead, starting from the latest high- tech analysis of the odor of living Tuberose, he proposed to use whatever product was necessary, regardless of its availability or cost, to get a formula that was close to nature.

After a year of perfecting the formula it was time to transform a beautiful smell into a perfume – to create a fragrance that could mix with the wearer’s skin scent.

My frequent stays in California, where the odor of Tuberose and Gardenia is everywhere, were very inspiring and led me to encourage Dominique to reinforce the solar and carnal character of the flower. His answer was to exaggerate some aspects already existing in the natural scent, such as Coconut and Salycilates and to add a trace of musk.

After two years and many attempts, we achieved what we think is the right balance: “Carnal Flower” is Ropion’s new interpretation of this olfactory Himalaya.

No other fragrance features so much natural Tuberose Absolute.

Composition :

Bergamot

Melon

Eucaliptus

Ylang Ylang

Salycilates

Jasmine

Tuberose absolute DM

Orange blossom absolute

Coconut (Ald C18)

White Musc cocktail

50ml Spray : $ 195 , 100ml Spray: $ 290

*******

I received a sample of this perfume, not a full sized bottle. The sample comes in a nice little sprayer so it was easy to test out on a piece of paper before spraying my wrist. I can be very sensitive to certain fragrances so I wanted to make sure I could handle it before spraying it on myself! 

The perfume itself is a bold yellow tone which makes me think it's filled with natural oils and not a lot of fake colors, like some perfumes can be. The full sized bottle has a gorgeous bold yet simple label that I think would stand out on anyone's vanity.

The first thing that hits me as soon as I spray this perfume is TUBEROSE. Like a smack in the face. It's soft and floral. I can definitely smell the jasmine, melon and orange blossom too. But tuberose is definitely in the front.

Tuberose has a very vintage and classic feel to me and most people either love it or hate it. I, personally, don't really care for it but at the same time this perfume is kind of nice. So hard to describe!

Frederic Malle makes a high quality perfume and it comes with a high end price to match. If you're a lover of tuberose, I'd definitely recommend stopping by a Barney's (if you have one nearby, that is!) and giving Carnal Flower a try.

If you know you love the scent of tuberose and have some money burning a hole in your pocket, you can purchase Carnal Flower directly from the Frederic Malle website. In addition to the perfume, you can also purchase this scent in a body butter and a hair mist. I've never tried a perfume hair mist before but I think it sounds awesome!

What do you think? Have you ever splurged on a perfume before??

**The product featured in this post was provided for an honest review. All opinions are my own.**