Perfume Pen Pals: Frederic Malle Carnal Flower



Dan,

Re your concerns about owning so many woody-florals: well, you don't NEED them need them, but maybe your id needs them.

But no, you don't need Bond No.9 Fire Island and CB I Hate Perfume At The Beach 1966 while eyeing Le Labo Neroli 36. But you might still end up buying Bobbi Brown Beach, nevertheless. And be happiest with your bottle of Coppertone.

Katie


Katie,

The problem with my duplicate scents is the better versions usually come second (or third or fourth). So I enjoyed At The Beach, but I bought Fire Island because it was better, very nearly a real perfume. And now you've got me loving Neroli 36, which is better than both of them. I'm putting a few things up on eBay next week. Just to cleanse my soul.

Dan


Dan,

I so know what you mean about when "they" finally get something right, and needing to own the latest best version of the same perfume (and in my case, lip gloss/shoes/Le Sportsacs). By the time you buy your tenth iteration, your collection looks like a version of the origin of mankind: monkey, Neanderthal, human.

Katie


Katie

I wish I had come up with the monkey, Neanderthal, man analogy. I can never fully enjoy your cleverness because I have cleverness-envy.

Someone's selling Carnal Flower on Basenotes for $94. I'm tempted, but I need to get off the monkey, Neanderthal, man train, and tell myself I'm fine being a Neanderthal for now.

Dan


Dan,

Speaking of cleverness-envy –- or perhaps of being a Neanderthal, I very much like this review of Jessica Simpson Fancy I saw on Makeup Alley:

"A word of caution. If you wear this around me, I will scissor kick you to the back of the head. Smells like a vanilla cupcake douche."

Katie


Katie,

Now that's a great review. There should be a category of perfumes that inspire scissor-kicks. I'd put lots of cheap men's cologne in there before anything that smells like a vanilla cupcake douche.

I'm wearing my sample of Carnal Flower, and it smells more like Fracas than I suspected it would. Tuberose is tuberose is tuberose, and while I bet Carnal Flower would be a step up in wearability, my $94 can be better spent elsewhere. Having said that, I'll probably buy it around four this afternoon.

Dan


Dan,

Hmmm...think you might have to buy that Carnal Flower -- what a splendid deal!

Katie


Katie,

Using your evolutionary perfume scale, I'm officially a man today, at least in the world of tuberose, which admittedly isn't much of an achievement. I purchased Carnal Flower for cheap and the seller even dropped the shipping charges.

Dan


Dan,

Mazel tov! As a joke, I was going to finish my last email with, "Did you buy the Carnal Flower yet? It's 4:30pm." But you take a joke and make it your life.

Isn't Carnal Flower too 60s society lady for you, or do you like it now?

Katie


Katie,

I like Carnal Flower very much because I like tuberose very much. But I think I went a little heavy on the application (three sprays), because it's been several hours and I still smell awfully carnal.

Dan


Dan,

See? What did I say about Carnal Flower? "Monster sillage". That sister scissor-kicks you to the back of the head.

Katie


Katie,

I do see where you're coming from. Especially after a good long time with this Carnal Flower. If biehl parfumkunstwerke mb01 smells like I shagged a woman wearing Fracas, Carnal Flower smells like I shagged a room full of women wearing Fracas. At the Waikiki Beach Marriott.

Dan


Dan,

Your perfume's having a better time than you are.

Katie

19 comments:

  1. beautiful.

    you two made my morning.

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  2. Can't believe I missed the Carnal Flower ebay auction. Dan, when you're ready to ebay YOURS, let me know. And I agree, BB beach is nowhere near as lovely as Neroli 36. KP, "vanilla cupcake douche"? Too funny! I'm not a JS fan and wouldn't purchase or sample her perfume, so no loss here. However, I'm still rattled from the tv comment regarding my bottle of Kai reminding someone of a (badly) scented tampon. I haven't touched the bottle since. I just can't take the risk of being a tampon smellin' gal.

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  3. You made my early morning too, although now I need the latter part of it back. I seem to have lost that by scrolling through MUA reviews of JS Fancy. I was looking for Ms. Scissor-Kick to send her a big thumbs up. But somehow I got lost in all of the reviews that started off something like this: "LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE this perfume!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" and "Smells like warm vanilla cupcakes with vanilla icing! Yummmmmmy!"

    My morning started to look oddly off-kilter from there.

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  4. Hi Katie (and dan, of couse):)

    The mankind evolution analogy is great, maybe it helps me to justify (to myself) why I recently "evolved"from Guerlain Après L'Ondée to Frederic Malle Dans Tes Bras, or the crazy thing I did lat night, which was ordering a Serge Lutens Rahat Loukoum bell bottle to elevate my obsession with cherries and almonds (which was supplied by Louve during the last couple of years) to a whole new level, LOL.

    Hugs,

    S.

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  5. Damn. Now I've got to move up to, what, a 100-year old single malt?

    I mean, a pedicured human?

    Which is to say...aw, what is the currently most evolved perfume???? I dunno, but while I'm thinking on that, I'm going to play a version your game and evolve Sabrina's perfume. To wit:

    Luden's cherry cough drops -> Kirsch spilt on my gaucho pants -> Louve -> Kirsch spilt on my Tam Dao infused french linen blouse -> Rahat Loukoum.

    Thanks for the fun. Dan, hope you are enjoying a smoke and a Mai Tai.

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  6. Don't torture yourself too much, ScentScelf... I would be happier with a glass of kisch instead of the centenary single malt, LOL! But of course, it's a matter of taste, I don't like whiskey, the same way I don't like heady florals, both give me a bad hangover, no matter how sophisticated they are:)

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  7. Ha! Okay, torture device turned to "low"...but I might still seek out that whiskey. Which I do like, whether whiskey or whisky (oh, there's a whole other realm of things to learn about the nuances of), so is not a form of torture.

    Heady florals, on the other hand, are like looking a headache cloud coming my way. Blah. Despite what the research says, I don't think even a bacchanal of shagging such as the one Dan had would relieve that headache. So, you and I can retire to the corner and watch these two test and debate things Big and Floral. (Which, I hope I made clear before, has been quite entertaining.)

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  8. Cleverness-envy is something I experience on a regular basis when cruising the Perfume Pen Pal series. Though I think Dan's tuberose obsession is reaching unhealthy levels -- I mean, once you start stomping the gas pedal on the Queen of the White Flowers, where do you go from there?

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  9. Thanks for your input, all! ScentScelf, I'd like to review the data that informs the "research" you mentioned. Or maybe not.

    Sabrina, I like where you're headed in your evolutionary scale. While tracing the Darwinian development of loukhoum scents, don't miss out on Keiko Mecheri's Loukhoum trio (I prefer the Parfum du Soir) and By Kilian Back to Black.

    Jenny, Dan is the undisputed king of finding online perfume deals. If only he applied his skills to Wall St, he'd be a master of the universe. And the tampon condemnation of Kai should be taken with a pinch of salt, considering the source. There's a whole sector of teens to twenty-somehthings who consider florals pertinent only as industrial scents.

    m61, I went down the same path as you - retracing my steps through MUA's "Fancy" reviews to find that one comment. I wanted to give full credit to the author, but perhaps she removed it? I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO annoyed!

    Glad to shine a little Waikiki sunshine into your morn, dea!

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  10. nathan, Dan doesn't give himself too much room to maneuver. It makes his self-justifications that much more entertainingly convoluted.

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  11. Ok, this Carnal Flower exchange made my afternoon too. I think my perfumes are always having a better time than I am.

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  12. Nathan, There's still some uncertainty when stomping on the tuberose gas pedal: you could drive up a curb or into a tree or right off a cliff. Though I suppose that isn't much of an argument against the unhealthiness of my obsession. I have cleverness-envy AND healthiness-envy.

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  13. Jarvis, which leads us neatly to why we wear perfume - we want to be at their party!

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  14. *Sigh* How I do like my Katie and Dan. I second (or third) the feeling of cleverness envy. My hats off to Dan for braving three (!) sprays of Carnal Flower. Did the air around you shimmer like a mirage or jet exhaust? And on a man to boot! Secure in his masculinity or just heavy-fingered? Discuss.

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  15. Scott -- You bring up a very good point. Dan, are you out in public when you're doused in Carnal Flower, or are you locked up in the attic, behind a lead curtain and covered in plastic sheeting?

    And I fully understand the Tuberose Uncertainty Syndrome. I have only one tuberose in my collection, and I never go near it. It just sits there, looking pretty in its little glass jewel of a bottle. My hand stretches cautiously towards it from time to time, but then I come to my senses before the damage is done and I'd be forced to spend the rest of my day locked up in the attic, behind a lead curtain and covered in . . . oh, you know the drill!

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  16. Scott, I'm neither secure in my masculinity nor heavy-fingered. Nathan nailed it: I usually work from home so I pose no risk to my fellow citizens. (Though the UPS man occasionally looks at me funny.)

    These notes merely capture a moment in time, and I was just telling Katie I should sell off Carnal Flower because I've not worn it since my breathless report. And I've no desire to wear it. There are perfumes I don't wear that I nonetheless know I'll miss if I sell them. Carnal Flower isn't one of those perfumes. Unless it is. I'd better keep it.

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  17. I finally learned to stop worrying and love wearing the tuberose wherever and whenever I please. Of course, it helps that my three favourite tuberoses emphasize the weird, the brutal, the sinister: Tubéreuse Criminelle, with it's mentholated gasoline opening; Nuit de Tubéreuse, with it's menacing vegetal strangeness; and Carnal Flower, with that touch of iron among the eucalyptus and coconut that ends up reminding me of the smell and taste of blood.

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  18. Jarvis, perspective is everything. You're parsing blood and brutality from your tuberoses, those around you might simply be disoriented by the fact that you're a bloke who doesn't smell of sneezy aquatics.

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  19. Jarvis, are you by any chance the famed Plus Que Jamais man? Now that I would like to own....

    Can't add much to the debate except the fact that I tend to 'tiptoe through the tuberose'. Owing to a delicate constitution my relationship with the flower is tentative at best, and By Kilian's Beyond Love nearly saw me off completely.

    The Monkey Neanderthal Human analogy is inspired! I would certainly count myself as an evolving lipstick collector: indeed a couple of tips from Katie have helped drag me out of the swamp. However, many of the grimmer (unsuitably shimmery) shades I acquired in the latter part of the 90s barely qualify as "proto-Monkey".

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