Today, February 2nd, I woke up missing the summer.

So I decided to launch Tuberose Mexicana online, a fragrance I have been refining since 2019. I have sold this fragrance to some of my boutique clients, and it was an instant success. Tuberose is a popular fragrance among candle aficionados.

Tuberose Mexicana is inspired in Mexico. the country where it originates. Since forever associated with French perfumery, if you didn't know it before, now you know, it is not a French, or European flower.

I love live tuberoses. My mom detested them, having grown up in an Italian family, where tuberose ("nardos" in Spanish) are traditionally used in funerals. A tuberose perfume for her was a hard sell.

But for years I bought a tuberose candle from an usual suspect brand (beginning with a D) until I got into perfumery and learned to create haute-parfumerie. I still like that tuberose candle from the D people, but mine, well now I can say, mine is far better.

I don't use third-party compounders for my fragrances, I make them myself. I create my own formulas and I can choose what I work with.

For this candle, I wanted to work with the real tuberose absolute from enfleurage, from India, and build upon it. Deconstructing the fragrance of the live flower, and picking the right ingredients in the appropriate dosage took time and several trials. Natural materials require a lot of R&D and testing, and the final dosages for any other materials to support them requires constant learning and trying them accord after accord, blend after blend.

Some have said "Wow, it takes a lot of time, huh?" Yes it does, time and patience, this blend took waiting for specific materials, building separate specific accords, and all peppered with the occasional frustration of the obsessed.

But on a chilly February Sunday, suddenly it all feels worth it.

RHR