It is no mystery that I savor exploring the new endeavors of old friends.
One such perfumer is the head of the Natural Perfumer's Guild, Anya McCoy.
[Here on Fragrantica my dear friends and colleagues Elena Knezhevich and Jodi Battershell have covered her work for years while I was covering it for the then-new Cafleurebon ;-)]
Anya McCoy now offers us her own rendition of the darker aspect of narcotic tuberose via her latest perfume, Enticing.
And it is dark. Make no mistake about that.
“As an ethnobotanist and perfumer, I take the artistic license to call it the bad boy of flowers. Of all the “narcotic” fragrant white flowers, such as jasmine and gardenia, tuberose is the only one given the power to make girls lose their inhibitions. Perhaps there is some pheromone in the flower that is unidentified? I think research needs to be done to try to confirm or deny what makes tuberose so different, so seductive.
Perhaps 21st century young girls don’t swoon and lose inhibitions as they did in the past when smelling this narcotic flower at night, but its reputation is still sexy. In all my research over the years, I have never seen a flower given such incredible powers in aiding seduction.
The original warning seems to be pan-European, after the introduction of the tuberose flower in the late 1500s.
From the thesaurus, synonyms for 'enticing':
• alluring
• appealing
• captivating
• desirable
• engaging
• fascinating
• inviting
• tempting
• attracting
• bewitching
• charming
• enchanting
• fetching
• luring
• winning
• siren"
Anya was kind enough to send me a bit of the perfume version, very intense and concentrated.
What struck me immediately was the sepia-tint color of the aroma, if you know what I mean. The sort of retro-hued depth which has many grades of light and shadow within it: I was gazing into a fathomless occult well of volupté.
If I were to attempt classification, I would refer to Enticing as an Animalic Floral because animalics abound. Tuberose alone reminds us that we are smelling the sex organs of the flower itself; if that weren't sufficient, then the ensuing parade of beeswax absolute, Siberian musk tincture, Anya's beloved patchouli and mushroom absolute certainly state their case clearly. Somehow the combination of base notes recalls [for me] a specific aspect of immortelle: saturated, syrupy-plush with a faint brininess tinged with herb. That herbalcy is amplified by the presence of clary sage, a plant which fosters a certain clarity of vision/purpose—a "seer's herb"' [to my mind].
Our tuberose isn't the well-mannered yet vocal one in today's Fracas—a hygienic floral. Nor is it as terpenic and camphoraceous as Carnal Flower—although terpenes are certainly present in its scent profile. Enticing is a thoroughly earthy embodiment of that night-blooming flower so reputed to contribute to the downfall of women [and men]. It begins intensely, perhaps even a touch malicious/menacing in its timbre, the mood heightened by cardamom. This soon evolves into a softer, more glowing floral, more buttery [thank you, butter CO2], spicy, and prolonged by the "sweeter myrrh" also known as opoponax. The utterly decadent base pulls one earthward like gravitational pull. It is loamy and fecund in its profoundly sensual appeal.
For me, Enticing wears the definition of a glamour, a magick in the classical sense. For those among us who enjoy mysteries, this is a wonderful example.
Thank you, Anya—for the opportunity to sample this, and so many other perfumes of yours. <3
Images: Anya's Garden
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