L’Artisan Nuit de Tubereuse – Patty’s turn

Hey, we can just never have too much chatter about a new L’Artisan from Bertrand Duchafour.  I know March has talked about it twice, the most recently yesterday.  I could just shut up about it and say LOVELOVELOVELOVELOVEIT and have done with it, but I feel the need to talk about it just a little just to make sure we have ratcheted up the overkill on this new release.

Before going further, the winners from Tuesday’s drawing for samples of this are:  morpyk, tally, gator grad and eric..  Just click on the contact us over on the left, remind me that it’s a NdT sampler you’ve won, and give me your address, and I’ll get it mailed out!

Notes for NUIT de TUBEREUSE: tuberose, cardamom, pepper, clove, citrus, tuberose, orange blossom, ylang-ylang, rose, mango, angelica, gorse, sandalwood, palisander, musks, benzoin and styrax.

As March said, if you are expecting a big old tuberose room-clearer, you’ll need to go hug your Fracas and Carnal Flower and Tubereuse Criminelle.

I don’t get that weird note on the open of NdT, it shows up later just to creep me out when I’m settling into thinking this scent is just one thing. It’s green, rooty tuberose, and then promptly splays right into a really warm, nutty incense’ish thing, which sounds completely different than what March and Robin and others are smelling. I keep sniffing around it, trying to find the vegetal, the weird, the bitter, the whatever, and I just get comfort and cuddly with some wafting tuberose as the cherry on top.  Angelica is probably the note I get the strongest besides the incense and tuberose, and I’m chalking that nutty sense to that, even though I normally don’t read angelica as nutty.  Clover and cardamom nutty?  I don’t know.

What fascinates me about this scent is that on me it is warm and comforting, but not in a way that leaves me comforted.  It’s a disturbing comfort.  Like that moment when you are doing crow or a handstand in yoga, and it’s not something you feel confident about in the least, but you hit that one sweet moment when you know you’ve lined it up and that’s what it should feel like.  Then you realize you are probably going to bang your nose on the floor or your arm might give out, but it’s almost weightless and without effort for a second and you may even look good doing it, but deeply disturbing in feeling right.

  • Lilybug says:

    Does anyone get much gorse from it? I have a soft spot for gorse flowers, which I think of as being a delicate, buttery sweetness (not really coconut) and it reminds me of fresh air, hay and cows. Does anyone know any perfumes that smell of gorse?

  • Katie says:

    Patti, I’m with you on NdT’s nuttiness. I first encountered it at Sniffa last April, and the creamy nuttiness put me in mind somewhat of L’Artisan’s Safran Troublant.

  • Lee says:

    You guys are killing me.

  • Ann N. says:

    I’m late to the NdT party but just got my sample today and all I can say is “Wow!” This juice is like nothing I’ve ever smelled before. I do get the incense and resin parallels but not so much of the floral undertones. Patty, you’re spot-on — it is comforting, but in a disturbing way. Very intriguing, and as others have said, a bit unsettling. I can’t stop sniffing my wrist and I can’t decide why exactly. Will have to test-drive it a bit longer to see if its uniqueness pushes me over the “can’t live without it” cliff.

  • Tara C says:

    So, after yesterday’s discussion, today I am wearing Amaranthine on the left arm and Nuit de Tuberose on the right. The Amaranthine smells more like tropical flowers (maybe gardenia?) and the NdT smells like this gorgeous woody, incensey delicate tuberose. Amaranthine is definitely not me, but the NdT is pure magic.

  • gator grad says:

    gah! I won! I won! I won!!!!! wooo hoo!

    I cannot freaking wait to try this! I have to admit that Amaranthine didn’t work for me (too durty) and Big Tuberose can go wrong. But I like the sound of this COMPLETELY. I can’t wait! THANK YOU!!!

  • carter says:

    I do not get a single, solitary nut, and believe me I know a nut when I smell one8-} I don’t get incense, either. I get hot-spicy-green-juicy-woody-rooty-floral-floaty FABULOSITY(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)

  • Musette says:

    this is sounding better and better. Normally I like my tubers BIG but there is something to be said for elusiveness (think night-blooming jasmine or that lovely Korean Spice Bush where it’s on the wind – and then it’s gone )

    I will definitely have to give this a try.

    xo >-)

  • kjanicki says:

    Loved the yoga analogy. I’m going to order a sample. Do you have a fave perfume for wearing to yoga, or do you go scent free? I wore Amoueuse the other day to my hatha class, just becuase tht’s what I happened to have on, but it felt wrong. Like I was Marilyn Monroe in heels and diamonds doing my downward dog.

    • Masha says:

      The two scents I wear for yoga, the only ones these days, are Scent of Samadhi (a rose/herbs/resins blend), and Shoyeido Tokusen powder (spices and sandalwood). They seem to be very supporting (the Samadhi one is kind of euphoric, actually, I wonder what’s in there….), but are subtle and close to the body. Fortunately, they’re both very inexpensive, too, so I can buy more and more, heh heh hehe….

    • Nina Z says:

      As a sometime yoga teacher, I have to say that in a class where people are close together, warm and maybe sweating and taking deep breaths, wearing any perfume is not probably not a great idea. On the other hand, if you practice on your own, wearing perfume is great, as the heat from body allows the fragrance to waft up from your body in delicious waves as you move (that’s what I do).

      • Masha says:

        I second that, Nina Z! Can you imagine if someone wore something like Angel to class? Lives would be lost….:o

  • maidenbliss says:

    Here’s my analogy. I’m standing in a bakery and gazing at all of the wonderful cookies, brownies and tiny cakes, salivating. Behind the counter the bakers are on a break, chatting about their creations with all the oohing and aahing customers, the brownies, says one, oh, they are to die for, so dense and chewy, dark and rich and oh! the chocolate nibs are a bit melty on the tongue, did you try the praline coconut cookies? oh, unbelievable, oh, try this little sample of espresso, too, it just hits the spot! I can’t resist trying another bite of that strawberry/kiwi mousse cheesecake, so generous of them to give us these little samples. Yes, they are heavenly, so creamy, a nice balance with the tartness of the strawberries and kiwi, mmmmm, I’m think I’ll just have one more of the white chocolate bark cookies, then we better get shopping….
    That’s how I feel waiting to smell NdT.:((

  • Melissa says:

    My reaction to NdT differs a little each time I wear it, and even though I’m among its fans, I wouldn’t call it “pretty” or “lovely”. I find it oddly beautiful and intriguing. As I mentioned yesterday, I love its development. Especially at those moments when I find myself reading it as something other than a tuberose scent. And a moment later, tuberose wafts back up at me.

    Note-wise, what you describe as incense-y, I can only characterize as resinous. That’s pretty vague, I know, but I don’t get either warm cuddly incense or dry church incense. It’s like nothing I’ve ever worn before. A little unsettling maybe.

    • carter says:

      The development is the bomb, ain’t it? Beautiful and unsettling is spot on, and all of the above are exactly what I desire in a perfume. This one is indeed unlike any other in my experience, as well. What an accomplishment!

  • Francesca says:

    I love the yoga analogy! And where the damn hell is my samp? Gotta sniff this again.

  • Fiordiligi says:

    Patty, it is good to read your take on this one but, you see, “rooty” completely puts me off!

    It is great that you and several others are so enthusiastic about a new scent though, after so many disappointments.

  • Patty, I’m trying hard to figure out what you read as nutty and coming up with nothing, unless it’s an aspect of the musk base… The incense, as BD explained to me, is not actually incense but an effect of the pink pepper and green mango accord.
    Of course I don’t have to re-state how much I love this. The fact that I got a sample months before it came out, given directly by its author, and that it was tuberose, makes me somehow feel that it’s been made for me (it most emphatically hasn’t), and I can’t help feeling a bit smug each time I read its praises.

    • mary says:

      I am willing to bet it’s the cardamom note. Cardamom has that bitter edge when you taste a small amount of the spice–could be coming across as nutty. The cardamom could also be contributing to the incense-like quality. (Hmmm–Maybe I’ll make my cardamom spiced coffee cake tonight.) Now I’m defintiely curious. To pick out the cardamom note in the perfume, would you smell them side by side? :)>-

  • Winifreida says:

    <:-p
    Mine's just arrived, I'm so glad to jump on the Posse and find I can rave about it! LOVE!!
    I do see it as a tuberose scent (Now I know what t. is!!) My instant image was that I was thirty years younger, stunningly beautiful, and had just rocked up to Monte carlo in my stonking big yacht (with white lounges and fittings and touches of watermelon pink no less!) (actually for a liberated woman I actually thought my millionaire boyfriend's s. b. y.!!!), the glittering lights were all starting to sparkle with that sexy feeling of promise in the deepening twilight, and we are all dressed up to the nines ready for a huge night of partying.
    This is my favorite thing for a long time – so GLAD to discover a new one that has hit such a chord…being me I'll be wetting my socks!!:x <:-p

  • Masha says:

    Unfortunately, for me, there’s no sweetness at all, it’s the pain from banging my head that follows me around with this scent! I don’t get the “comfort” thing, it’s just too sharp and bitter (though I notice a big comfort side in Amaranthine), so I just feel the pain. I’ll stick with Scent of Samadhi for yoga…but glad you’re having fun!

  • Ms. Christian says:

    That last paragraph is brilliant!

  • violetnoir says:

    You had me at crow and handstand, Patty. That’s exactly, just exactly, how this fragrances feels on me, too.

    Hugs!