Tuberose

You love it or you hate it, and I just love it. Tuberose or Polianthes tuberosa has a complex scent that reminds me a bit of Jasmine, Narcissus, Ylang Ylang and Gardenia but has more layers. It starts with green notes reminding of sappy green leaves. But it has also some sweet honeylike notes, fatty sultry notes, spicy notes reminding of Clove and even a note that smells like coconut. The fragrance is sultry, sensual, sweet, heady, heavy and intoxicating. Originally the Tuberose comes from Mexico but now it grows in France, India, Marocco and Egypt. It has fragrant waxy white flowers that gives their fragrance at night. A concrete and absolute is extracted by solvent extraction from the fresh flowers, picked before the petals opened. The absolute is more expensive than his weight in gold. I reed once that the smell has similar notes like the scent of the vulva of a woman and even the smell of sweat. The important components of Tuberose are: Methylsalicylat, Methylanthranilate, Methyl benzoate, Benzyl benzoate, Eugenol, Geraniol, Nerol, Farnesol and Benzyl alcohol. I have an old German book of Fred Winter(1942) where he gives a formula of a Tuberose scent:

Methylanthranilat 2 gram
Methylsalicylat 8 gram
Methyllaurinat 6 gram
Methylnonylacetaldehyde 0,1 gram
Benzyl acetaat 1,5 gram
Jasmine artificial 1,5 gram
Coumarin 1,5 gram
Citral 1 gram
Peru balsam 2 gram
Benzyl alcohol 20 gram
Tubrose absolu 10 gram
Jasmine absolu 3 gram
Cassie absolu 1 gram
Ylang ylang 0,5 gram

I like to combine the Tuberose with Oakmoss, Verbena, Jasmine, Orangeblossom, Tolu balsam, Ylang Ylang, Benzoin, Rose, Palmarosa, Rosewood and Mimosa.

The beautiful painting of the Tuberose is from Kitgentry.com