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Le Cri
Le Cri de la Lumière
2017

7.6 / 10 181 Ratings
A popular perfume by Parfum d'Empire for women and men, released in 2017. The scent is floral-powdery. It is still in production.
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Main accords

Floral
Powdery
Fresh
Woody
Spicy

Fragrance Notes

AmbretteAmbrette Florentine irisFlorentine iris Turkish roseTurkish rose

Perfumer

Videos
Ratings
Scent
7.6181 Ratings
Longevity
7.6143 Ratings
Sillage
6.9142 Ratings
Bottle
7.3122 Ratings
Value for money
7.051 Ratings
Submitted by Michael, last update on 09/23/2025.
Interesting Facts
The fragrance is part of the Collection Classique collection.

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to
N°18 (Eau de Toilette) by Chanel
N°18 Eau de Toilette
Hommage à Shanghai by Adlon
Hommage à Shanghai
Fleur de Peau (Eau de Parfum) by Diptyque
Fleur de Peau Eau de Parfum
Love, Chloé Eau Florale by Chloé
Love, Chloé Eau Florale
Eau Rose (Eau de Parfum) by Diptyque
Eau Rose Eau de Parfum
Ylang 49 (Eau de Parfum) by Le Labo
Ylang 49 Eau de Parfum

Reviews

11 in-depth fragrance descriptions
jtd

484 Reviews
jtd
jtd
Top Review 7  
le cri
From the first sniff of Cri, you’re drawn directly to the center of the perfume. Perfumer Marc-Antoine Corticchiato even factors in the volitility of the alcohol burning off and uses it to segue into a lustrous accord with the olfactory dynamic of an eau de vie. The topnote is like the scent of Poire Williams brandy or Slivovitz, where the fruit is pressed so far into the alcohol that it is reduced to essentials. It’s neither juicy nor sweet and has an incisive slant. My note from first sampling Cri de la Limière reads, “Super fruity but dry as fuck.” Not the loftiest of insights, but apt. The Poire Williams note is the perfect backdrop for a sleek iris note. Woody, rooty, cool to the touch. Matching iris to the desiccated fruit brings out the vegetal nature of ambrette.

Cri de la Lumière is a closely tailored perfume that holds to a tight dynamic range. Rather than broaden the composition the musk accord focuses it, though the perfume sidesteps the strictness that a minimalist approach can impart. The rosy, fruity facets of ambrette are balanced by a plastic quality that gives a deliberate synthiness to the perfume. The fruit appears embedded in clear lucite and the slightly peony-like berry/rose gives a transparent pink sheen to the perfume. The effect is perfectly calibrated and though subtle, is durable. The fruit gives Cri de la Lumière a stained-glass effect and despite the specificity of the fruit notes, the perfume reads as fairly abstract.

The perfume’s woodier side reveals itself periodically like a bit of slip showing. Once I spotted it, I couldn’t stop looking for it to reappear. This sort of diversion is a good example of how Corticchiato’s perfumes engage the wearer. Whether in a forceful perfume like Tabac Tabou or a more watercolor one like Osmanthus Interdite his perfumes reward your attention with engaging olfactory shapes and transitions. The perfume plays subtly with the animalism found in musk ambrette. (Musk ambrette smells like a sweaty, imaginary fruit.) Of the various dimensions of the material, the animalic feature is among the most durable. Corticchiato doesn’t hide the material’s ‘skin’ side but he does nest it fairly deep into the perfume, where is is a quiet foil to the plastic, acrylic details.

from scenthurdle.com
0 Comments
Fqjcior

10 Reviews
Fqjcior
Fqjcior
Very helpful Review 6  
A female Masterpiece from a masculine Master Perfumer.
The latest perfume proposal from Marc-Antoine Corticchiato – Le Cri de la Lumière – is a very feminine and sensual perfume, at the same time surprisingly modern as for the rather classic style of this talented perfumer. It also amazes me with its unusual construction and delights with distinct evolution on the skin.

Le Cri de La Lumière (Cry of light – what a poetic name!) is made of five essential notes/ ingredients. Intro owes its unusual sound of ambertte seed known as vegetable musk. This essence from the seeds of Indian hibiscus (Abelmoschus moschatus) has an unusual, slightly botanical, slightly musky and at the same time subtly fruity character, which can be smelled in its full splendor in Peruvian Ambrette from Essenze Zegna series. Also here, this note is expressive and smells very natural. Forwarding it to the head phase of the fragrance was a rare and brave step. This ingredient usually builds a perfume base – like musk – deepening and fixing the main note. Here it plays its main role at the beginning what can make the opening of Le Cri de la Lumière surprising and quite demanding. We immediately know that this is a perfume addressed to more sophisticated users, as is the entire Parfum d’Empire offer.

For an untrained nose, this aroma may be an obstacle that cannot be overcome. Well, that would be a shame, because Le Cri de La Lumière – like a well-written book – reveals its next chapters over time. The further, the more beautiful they are and lead to a truly charming finale.
Ambrette has been combined here with a very natural note of iris that matches it naturally. This extremely precious ingredient adds seriousness and sophisticated elegance to the initial phase. Iris is unique in its kind, refined, powdery-floral-earthy. In a word – amazing, immediately introducing the aura of chic, refined elegance and distance. After next two quarters nostrils begin – quite unexpectedly – smell the aroma in its provenance as classical as the iris but given in a much more contemporary way. From now on, Le Cri de La Lumière gradually loses his serious face and begins to smile flirtatiously…
Here, in its heart a beautiful and stunningly fragrant Turkish rose was planted. It was then poured with a large portion of musk on a subtle wood foundation, approaching to the signature of one of my absolutely favorite women’s perfumes – For Her from Narciso Rodriguez! Say what you want, but this work by Christine Nagel and Francis Kurkdjian is a genius perfume and completely timeless in its overwhelming femininity! It is true that Corticchiato presented this wonderful, extremely feminine and sensual chord in a slightly less spectacular and more cautious manner, but still very beautiful.

If someone did not survive ambrette and iris intro, she/ he will not be lucky enough to experience the beauty of the heart of this scent. Therefore – I beg you – do not judge this perfume after the head notes or even after the first 3-4 quarters, because in this case that would be an essential error!
Le Cri de La Lumière was created for you to slowly, step by step, contemplate and admire its changing aroma. The aforementioned charming rose-wood-musky chord persists on the skin for quite a long time, slowly fading out, not being, however, for a single moment clamorous or intrusive. Elegance and moderation is here above everything.

Le Cri de La Lumière enchanted me. This perfectly designed perfume contains various faces of femininity – from the somewhat wild, uncouth, through proud and intimidatingly beautiful to the romantic, passionate, sensual and smiling. The last one is in its majority in Le Cri de La Lumière. And that’s probably why I like this perfume so much…

main notes: ambrette seed, irys, turkish rose, musk, woods

launched in: 2017

perfumer: Marc-Antoine Corticchiato
1 Comment
Kurai

388 Reviews
Kurai
Kurai
Helpful Review 8  
Light and classy
A rose so dry and at the same time light green and fruity. It fades in as if it starts to bloom right in front of your eyes. In the background there is a combination of ambrette and iris, which feels highly flirtatious.

This is the kind of perfume that leaves a mesmerizing trail. A head-turner in the most positive sense. The fact that the scent seems to oscillate between rose and iris only enhances the effect.

This will work on any occasion and in any season. Do people nowadays still have signature scents? Consider this one!
1 Comment
SergioT

3 Reviews
SergioT
SergioT
Helpful Review 6  
Ray of light - chasing castles in the sky
“Only the children know what they are looking for.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

Sometimes I wish I could feel like a child for just one day…to feel the sun once again, the sea water for the first time. To hear that strange music coming out of that black box that forces us to move… and the safety of our mother's lap, inexplicably natural. Feeling new things are scary, but it is somehow natural, and that what we find strange, can sometimes be mysterious without having any mystery whatsoever. Ignorance is bliss.

Sometimes there are days when we don't want to complicate, when our minds are already doing so many knots that we find ourselves without patience to ruminate our problems. All we need is fresh air and life and sun. We wish we could to go back to our children games and play in the light of cloudless days. Because sometimes we don't even know why or what we're looking for...and that is one of the punishments of “growing up”. The constant turmoil of searching for things we don't even know for sure what… There are no more answers than before, there are only fewer castles in the clouds…But today I accidentally found a ray of light.

There's Iris everywhere, covering a rose that seems shy at first, but that opens afterwards with the effervescent help of the bright aldehydes. It is then followed by a calm musk that welcomes a sweet, spicy and fruity drydown – very dusty – subtle yet present, smooth but noticeable.

In terms of performance I find it satisfying, 2 hours projecting, lingering 6 hours on skin…more than enough.
But the most important thing is not the scent or even the performance itself, the most important thing is what makes us feel ... or rather, what it makes me feel.

Today I was a child again and I tried to escape my shadow ...
0 Comments
ClaireV

969 Reviews
ClaireV
ClaireV
Helpful Review 3  
Lovely, airy, crustalline...but struggles to assert itself
When I saw the notes for Le Cri de la Lumière, I thought how brave it was of Marc-Antoine Corticchiato to release a perfume that sounded so much like Chanel No. 18. There was also the fact that there was another ambrette-iris perfume in the Parfum d’Empire stable, namely Equistrius, which Luca Turin had already compared to No. 18 in Perfumes: The Guide. (Personally, I found Equistrius to smell very little like No. 18, the former being musky in a cocoa-ish, velvety, and opaque way, the latter musky in an angular, crystalline way.)

As it turns out, though, Le Cri de la Lumière has much more in common with clean, ozonic musks like Chypre 21 by Heeley and L’Antimatiere by Les Nez than with the more buttery Equistrius and the fruiter, greener Chanel No. 18. Le Cri opens with the crisp but slightly alcoholic green apple nuances of ambrette seed, which are immediately folded into the silvery whipped air of orris and the smell of a hot iron hitting a starched white shirt. The fuzzy “cold air” and starched linen brightness of the opening made me think immediately of the Chinese steam laundry room feel of Encens Mythique d’Orient, especially at the start, where the green rose is powdered upwards by a whoosh of aldehydes.

All of the words used by the brand to describe the perfume ring true – “crystalline”, “vegetal”, “opalescent” and “lustrous” are words that instantly jump to my mind when I smell this. The brand mentions luxury, and I feel this too, especially in the first five minutes when the full force of that silver orris butter is felt.

Unfortunately, where Chanel No. 18 takes a bare-bones structure and makes each of the elements sing for their supper, Le Cri de la Lumière quickly reveals that its skeletal framework isn’t hiding anything deeper or more nuanced. Although a dry, greenish rose appears in the drydown, it does nothing to mask or enliven the yawning gulf of white musk that opens up behind the arresting opening.

That is not to say that perfumes like this don’t have their place. Many people love these crunchy woody floral musks for exactly the reason that I dislike them: they are anti-perfume. They are the smell of clean air, freshly-laundered shirts, and the clipped minimalism of nothing at all. It reminds me of something Holden’s dead-eyed girlfriend in Mindhunter might wear – wry and deliberately affectless, as if emotion was being taxed.

I don’t dislike Le Cri de la Lumière, but I find it puzzling that something so curiously bloodless came out of the Parfum d’Empire stable. Chanel proved with No. 18 that it’s possible for a minimalist composition to be lively and full of charm; I’m not sure why, with their history of putting out such obscenely rich, talkative fragrances Parfum d’Empire pressed the mute button on this one.
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Statements

53 short views on the fragrance
3
A very light pink, blank sheet of paper. Ambrette is most dominant, savory and papery, with an aldehydic lift of roses.
0 Comments
2
Stunning raspberry-aldehyde-ambrette opening. Becomes a timeless iris rose powder. Fleur de Peau/Glossier You but far more “stealth wealth.”
0 Comments
2
1
A light, dry and sharp rose dominated by an ever dryer and sharper papery iris make for a rather unpleasant scent experience.
1 Comment
2
I smell rose predominant, dusty and slightly musky/soapy. More feminine
0 Comments
2
Very refined and uplifting ! Get a lot of musky , rosey , powdery nuances with an fruity/citrusy opening , and an aldehydic background !
0 Comments
4 months ago
1

Something clean and spicy at the same time, a little bit animalic I would say but in a very soft way, stay quite close to the skin
0 Comments
1 year ago
1
Perfumy citrus powdery iris rose that rings a bit too old school for me. Not vintage per se, more classic. Just not my style. Well done tho.
0 Comments
1
One of the most beautifull Rose I've ever smelled. Very feminine to me.
0 Comments
4 months ago
Pleasant dry rose but aldehydic soapy background doesn't work on my skin, could be very nice on smb else. Soft sillage, med longevity
0 Comments
32
19
Miss Rottenmeier's laundry room. Absolutely joyless clean scent with a rose. Clean-Chypre? Does that exist? Not my thing.
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