So, I just added a new fragrance, and it is the February scent of the month.
Originally from Mexico, tuberose was taken to Europe by the Spanish in the XVI Century, during the Age of Discoveries, and made popular in gardens there and in Italy, until Louis XIV's gardener discovered it and reputedly brought it as a gift to the Sun King.
It was instant passion, Louis ordered beds to be constructed all around the wings of Versailles, and it is said more than one hundred gardeners were solely dedicated to replace dying or spent blooms periodically.
A bizarre legend around tuberose tells the tale of how courtesans would faint while walking through the beds, so strong was their fragrance. Most likely, courtesans fainted due to their corsets and rushing back to the palace before sunset in summertime, to get ready for the evening.
But the fragrance of tuberose beds in Versailles became legendary one way or another, and Louis asked to have tuberose distilled whichever way possible, in order to add it to his already favorite orange blossoms perfumes.
Tuberose Mexicana is rather inspired in Mexican traditions, royal associations don't really move a needle for me. Coming from Mexico, it made sense to me to build a fragrance using other endemic materials to Mexico and other Latin American countries. That's why there are certain spices added to this blend. And, these spices contribute to a specific task: the reproduction of the green aspects of the fragrance of the live flower. One of the most complex aromatic profiles, the scent of live tuberoses is very hard to reproduce. But not impossible.
As a soliflore* project, I wanted to not only get as close as possible to the living flower, but I also wanted to incorporate the real tuberose absolute from enfleurage, coming from India, and remain true to the greenery in it, it is a plant, after all.
The result is a green, spicy and overly sweet-narcotic juice, with gourmand accords of peach and coconut, in keeping with the existing lactones in the fragrance of tuberoses. Tuberose Mexicana is a departure from the current paradigm of tuberose accords in the perfume and home fragrance industries. Usually reproduced with high doses of methyl anthranilate and orange blossom ingredients, alongside overdoses of peach aldehyde, the green aspects of the smell of live tuberose require ingredients with a prohibitive price for the compounding industry.
But, being independent, and able to afford any material I want, I am able to use whatever I want, to achieve the final results I want, regardless of a budget. In all honesty, I don't have a budget. The budget is what the final cost is, and I don't pinch pennies when it comes to remaining loyal to haute-perfumerie.
RHR
*Soliflore: a fragrance built around depicting a single flower.