Carnal Flower Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle 2005 Eau de Parfum

Tuberose has a reputation.

For many people, it immediately brings to mind something intensely floral, glamorous and distinctly feminine. Carnal Flower challenges that image from the very first spray.

The tuberose is unmistakably the heart of the fragrance, but the eucalyptus changes its entire personality. It introduces a cool, green sharpness that keeps the composition fresh, controlled and far less traditionally feminine than most tuberose fragrances I have experienced.

As it develops, jasmine and ylang-ylang add richness and sensuality, yet the fragrance never loses that green tension. The result feels bold, natural and beautifully balanced.

I would describe it as completely unisex. It doesn’t try to make tuberose masculine by hiding it. Instead, it presents the flower from a different angle - greener, cooler and more confident.

Performance is phenomenal. The longevity is excellent, the projection is powerful, and its trail remains noticeable for hours. This is not a fragrance that quietly disappears into the background.

Frédéric Malle managed to create something genuinely different here. Carnal Flower didn’t simply give me another interpretation of tuberose.

It changed the way I think about the note entirely.

A flower oasis!
Tuberose, jasmine, eucalyptus, coconut and melon. There is also a bit of musk after a couple of hours.
The melon smells beautiful for the first hour. Very realistic.
The perfume is "sticky", thick and green.

Although it is for warmer weather, it works beautifully during cold winter days. It lasts about 10h+ and the sillage is huge.
It will remain on the clothes for a couple of weeks, amazing longevity on clothes.

Dominique Ropion... I believe that if we give him tuna oil, dust, mustard, banana and ketchup - he would be able to make a masterpiece. Man is simply a master of his craft.

10+ from me!

I know I'm in the minority here and I'm not expecting positive ratings ;-) but this is my honest review after two thorough testings in different temperatures allowing the perfume to run its full course. I thought (I hope) a contrasting experience might be useful.

Frederic Malle Carnal flower opens with an amazing blast of flower shop, as in, I've suddenly shrunk, I'm very small and standing amongst a giant bunch of eucalyptus stems. It's wow, but it lasts less than five minutes.
Judging from the notes I should love CF, but this perfume quickly gets very harsh on me and doesn't stop. It's going for the whole plant with green bits included, I get that, but it's just so fresh and clean and metallic and it's screeching synthetics at me and catching in my mouth. How can this be when the sales pitch is that it "contains the highest amount of natural tuberose in the perfume industry" ? Are they really talking about the 'whole' perfume industry? Perhaps it's the salicylates that are bothering me, although I usually quite enjoy them.

I'm beginning to think that this cool, clean treatment of tuberose does not work with my skin chemistry as I have a similar problem with Narcotic Venus and Do Son. I'm a tuberose lover and have owned pure tuberose enfleurage and several different tuberose absolutes. I've never before had chemistry clashes like this with any perfumes with a high content of quality natural materials.
I'm not saying this doesn't smell like tuberose, it definitely does, an ultra-mod, sharp, melony tuberose with all the warm, voluptuous plumpness sucked out of it in a vampiric way, and it's strong, almost headache inducing. It's photorealistic, but it's an image of isolated tuberose in a lab under artificial light. This is just so cold and, well, unfriendly. This perfume refuses to get real or intimate with me, it wont merge with my skin at any point in the dry down. It remains sitting like a slice of cool just above my skin, pretending to look the other way while it pokes me annoyingly trying to get attention, faking aloofness for the duration. There is something that seems unkind and bitter here and it's getting in my mouth so much that I feel it is trying to force-feed me. But I'm not swallowing it, no sireee... No way.
Even the soft musky remnants left at the end of its life are detached, cool and clinically clean.
All the notes listed are detectable but seem to have a harsh edge. Sadly for me it's not edgy in the good way.
The sillage is pretty hefty and it is uncomfortably tenacious on my skin.
This one really doesn't like me, and the feeling's mutual.

Carnal Flower is my No 1 tuberose and not only that, but also one of my all time favorite scents. It was love at first sniff and we´re still having a passionate love affair after several years. Usually my go to scents are more in the soft gourmand, refined orientals and woody spectrum, which to me makes them cozy, familiar and kind of friendly. Carnal Flower isn´t at all like this, it´s like an giant flesh eating flower luring me closer and closer and I fall for that same ol' trick all over again, and keep coming back for more.

Yeah, it´s pretty much wears me, but being worn by something as classy, beautiful, frightening, elegant, carnal and splendid is a privilage, especially common days when I´m out with the dog wearing old jeans and a casual sweater...

Also good for weddings! Your own or someone elses. Men can wear it too, if they feel confident enough to pull grand florals off. Not for girls though... IMO.

Carnal Flower has dualistic character, a soft, creamy, lush, exotic smell of the most beautiful flower you can imagine, mixed with a close to cold, greenish, almost minty (eucalyptus) under currant, and that melon (!) keeping it kind of fresh, and the musk make the flower come alive and very, very hungry. Beware! It don´t evolve so much, eventually become a little softer, but never even close to well behaved.

Great lasting power and huge sillage in the early part of it. Must try for all that enjoys some adventure in life.

The opening notes are luridly green and camphoraceous, and every time I wear it, I get a mental image of the waxy leaves of a privet hedge and the stalks of the tuberose being crushed and offered to me to smell. The freshness is a surprise, and it moves me. Slightly bitter, sappy, and evergreen, I wish it could last forever; it's that intoxicating to my senses.

Eventually, the opening dies back and a creamy tuberose is revealed. To my relief, it is not the butter-and-candy disco flower of my worst nightmares (hello Fracas!), but a cool and restrained take on the infamous bloom. It is creamy, yes, but not overblown. Hints of coconut and white musk round out the floral element. Although I like the opening more, I also quite like this last phase, especially in the heat, because the tuberose and coconut give off a natural, salty beach feel.

Despite the marketing and the name, I don't find Carnal Flower to be sexy in the slightest. In my opinion, it is simply a tuberose presented in the most botanical, natural way possible. I think Carnal Flower does a brilliant job of showcasing the headiness of the flower as it appears in nature, and not in a hothouse environment, and for that alone, I will always love it.