Frédéric Malle Carnal Flower

A gregarious perfume of classical voluptuousness characterised by the creamy, candy-like splendour and erotic decay of its star floral, Robert Piguet’s legendary Fracas set the standard for all tuberose scents to aspire. Like Caron, Givenchy, Versace and Madonna to name just a few, any house to release a tuberose fragrance did so in the image of Fracas’ lush, buttery image. That was until 1999 when Serge Lutens broke the Fracas mould with a tuberose that smelt nothing of Fracas; Tubéreuse Criminelle, his rendering, a violent abstraction of earth-trodden tuberose became and remains Fracas’ antipode on the tuberose perfume scale. Now admittedly, I adore Fracas and admire Tubereuse Criminelle, but neither are my perfect tuberose. No, my favourite is Carnal Flower.

Wanting a perfume for his eponymous brand inspired by his aunt, actress Candice Bergen, and her role in the sexually charged ‘70s cult classic film Carnal Knowledge, Frédéric Malle tasked perfumer Dominique Ropion with interpreting in olfactory terms the risqué exploits of Bergen’s on-screen character. The result, Carnal Flower, a positively indecent rendering of tuberose, unsurprisingly, but one that forgoes both the butter saturation of Fracas and the volatile clash of hostility and delicacy in Tubéreuse Criminelle to tread its own path in the usual style of Malle and Ropion’s combined genius: daring, flashy, verging on the obscene.

The Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle website lists these notes for Carnal Flower:

melon, vegetal notes, tuberose, musk

Expanding that list, Carnal Flower wears on me with:

bergamot, eucalyptus, camphor, tuberose, ylang-ylang, jasmine, orange blossom, salicylates, melon, coconut, white musk

EdPFM fragrances are notable for being colossal, not only in terms of room-filling sillage and into-the-next-day longevity, but also the intricacy of their structure and evolution on skin; Carnal Flower is no exception. Opening with the unfurling of new eucalyptus leaves – a scent we are particularly attune to here in Australia – Carnal Flower’s is a florist-fresh opening of green leaves having been taken to savagely with a pair of sheers. Cut and crushed, the eucalyptus is verdant green, almost herbaceous in its bracing mentholated camphor pungency and honeyed wood nuances, exaggerated by Ropion with measured doses of bergamot for illumination and camphor for astringency. At this point, Carnal Flower is forbidding in the way that invites intrigue, though I can see how the opening might prove a deterrent too much for some. Their loss. For underscoring this initial unfriendly green potency, a narcotic bouquet of white flowers is budding.

First to bloom, the green banana-toned ylang-ylang presents a fitting compositional transition as Carnal Flower turns increasingly floral, forcing as it does the camphorous greenness into a mere supporting role; Ann-Margret’s Bobbie to Bergen’s Susan. Atop the ylang-ylang, Ropion affixes jasmine, which opens rather timidly before edging more scandalous in the company of orange blossom. This floral trio though is nothing but a prelude to the impending tuberose, arriving as it does in full, fleshy white petaled glory, hot-skinned and with carnal intent. Apparently employing the highest quantity of tuberose absolute used in any perfume, Carnal Flower’s tuberose is a wonder, sashayed by Ropion through green-tinged then jasmine-rich phases before its full and inherent indolic vulgarity is revealed in the heart as the tuberose sprawls itself atop a bed of powerhouse white floral petals. For all its narcotic decadence though, Carnal Flower is never allowed to assume Fracas’ butter saturation. Instead, Ropion deploys coconut and ice cold, salicylate scattered melon to evoke humid humanoid sensuousness and refreshing, crystalline freshness. Later still, this finely balanced tuberose accord is sheathed in a translucent veil of white musk, trimmed at its edges with the cool, camphorous green of the opening’s eucalyptus to see out the drydown.

Almost retracing the “doesn’t smell like Fracas” path paved by Tubéreuse Criminelle, in creating Carnal Flower, Malle and Ropion have crafted a truly unique tuberose perfume – a soaring symphony of intoxicatingly fleshy tuberose buoyed by jasmine and orange blossom, deftly cut with green eucalyptus and coconut to stave off any cloying elements – more natural than the buttered orange blossom heavy Fracas, but still less capricious, more wearable than the Lutens example. A modern classic, a tuberose whose opulence never veers into the realm of antiquation or cloying heaviness, Carnal Flower is green, gorgeous tuberose. My ultimate tuberose.

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Year of Release: 2005

Creative Direction: Frédéric Malle

Perfumer: Dominique Ropion

Alternatives: Diptyque Do Son, Robert Piguet Fracas, Serge Lutens Tubéreuse Criminelle

Available: MECCA Cosmetica and www.fredericmalle.com from $262, 50ml