The Zoo® Tubereuse Organique bottle, Photo by Rachel K. Ng
“Knowing the individual behind the flacon… talking about the “nose,” no pun intended, really adds a certain humanity… Perfume remains a platform or terrain of exchange [between the sniffer and the creator]”. – François Demachy in Les Parfumeurs
Christophe Laudamiel, Smelling A Colleague at Olfactory Art Keller Gallery, courtesy of Christophe
I often wonder whether perfumery has fully experienced postmodernism as an art form. The world of perfume, as most experience it today, is a fully modernist project. Science-based and market-driven, the industrial engine behind our beloved Art maintains steady progress into the future. For me, perhaps the most interesting aspect of modernist projects is how our perceptions become mediated by technical operations. As technological expertise increases, it removes every-day wisdom from our social understandings of the world around us. We experience a “loss of meaning” or de-realization of the world. Does it really matter if one doesn’t understand exactly how the circuitry in the remote control works? Is it important that car engines are too complex for us to fix ourselves anymore? Is it interesting that we usually can’t pin down what it means when there is a “rose” note in a perfume?
Christophe’s Art Installation “Scent Paraboles against racism influencing odor perception” Olfactory Art Keller Gallery, courtesy of Christophe
Enter the Avant-Garde. Sometimes the process of questioning is the most important part of the journey, not necessarily arriving at an all-encompassing answer. Exciting spaces in our perfume community are exploring hyperreality and simulacre in perfume, interrogating concepts like univocity of meaning and epistemic certainty in fragrance, and much more (venture to Olfactory Art Keller Gallery in New York or take a class at The Institute of Art and Olfaction in Los Angeles). When I want to think about and experience the potentials of innovation (neuroscience, ambient, etc.) and be given a direct view into the Art of Technology in perfumery, I look no further than the work of Christophe Laudamiel. Laudamiel is the rarest of minds. Here is a creator with the industry knowledge, internal ethical drive, limitless curiosity, and raw talent to subvert expectations and give the fragrance community things we couldn’t have anticipated.
Tuberoses courtesy of Unsplash collage Michelyn
The Zoo® Tubereuse Organique is just such an avant-garde fragrance, a play on how our sensory perceptions are mediated by the technical operations of perfumery (but this time, we are let in on the intellectual joy as well as the visceral pleasure). The Zoo® is Christophe Laudamiel’s own brand and interdisciplinary workshop of ideas, artists, and experts. Tubereuse Organique is a resulting collaboration by Christophe Laudamiel and Ugo Charron, currently a junior perfumer at MANE. According to the perfumers, “this fragrance evokes the reality of being in a tuberose field, yet is itself a tuberose fantasy since it does not contain any natural tubereuse extract… [Its inspiration was] a dream of a tuberose that smells like fresh dewy blossoms that everyone loves, say on a bright spring morning… not old, not tuberosy, not artificial.” The Zoo® Tubereuse Organique is not indolic, carnal, heady, nor bubblegum sweet. This tuberose is the fresh experience of what rises into the air: milky solar petals, stemmy green and woody stalk, hints of soil. When I smell Tubereuse Organique, the word that keeps coming back is raw: that’s how powerful the experience is… pure articulation.
Christophe Laudamiel and Ugo Charron at the World Perfumery Congress accepting the 2022 Art and Olfaction award for Grandiflora Saskia, Photo courtesy of Minetta Rogers, Institute of Art and Olfaction
Christophe Laudamiel and Ugo Charron invite us “to be a part of the project”. The Zoo® website explains how they reconstruct the tuberose note with Lavandin LMR, Egyptian Jasmine absolute, and organic-certified Tequila. “The tuberose plant is of the same family as the agave plant, and those quenching tequila notes fit perfectly for a je-ne-sais-quoi so shiny and exhilarating.” A chilled booziness with fruity undertone comes from 123 Organic Tequila made by David Ravandi, a veteran craftsman in the world of artisanal tequila. The perfumers lift us into the air with terpenic Lavandin then delight us with a kind of creamy Wedgewood porcelain innovation. They take a dusty classic tuberose and fire it in the heat of Tequila, creating ceramic texture as the tuberose rests in a cool grace on skin. Tuberose is recast in porcelain. We are then brought down the aquiline stems` of green oakmoss and patchouli into the wood-damp earth of ambrette. Tubereuse Organique is a beautiful, innovative fragrance that I find a joy to wear. Further, it expands the terrain of what olfactive art can make visible, sensate, thinkable, even felt across people and time.
Notes: Organic Tequila, Linalool, Hexyl Cinnamal, Hydroxycitronellal, Citronellol, Iso-Eugenol, Oakmoss Extract (Evernia prunastri), Geraniol, Benzyl Benzoate, Limonene, Eugenol, Vetiver Certified For Life, Benzyl Alcohol, Lavandin Certified Organic, Patchouli Certified For Life, Farnesol, Jasmin Grandiflorum, Hibiscus Moschatus, Angelica Seeds, Tagete
Bottle my own, opinions my own.
~ Rachel K. Ng, Contributor
photo of The Zoo® Tubereuse Organique courtesy of Christophe
Thanks to Master Perfumer Christophe Laudamiel we have a 60 ml bottle of The Zoo® Tubereuse Organique by for a registered ÇaFleureBon reader worldwide with the exception of Brazil, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain and China, (if you are not sure if you are registered click here – you must register on our site or your entry will be invalid). Christophe will also include a very special sample of pure tuberose (solvent extracted absolute) so the winner can compare the real material! To be eligible please leave a comment on this site with what strikes you about The Zoo® Tubereuse Organique and where you live. Draw Closes 3/22/23
Christophe Laudamiel is a master perfumer for DreamAir studios in New York City and Bélair Lab in Tokyo
My Fragrant Awakening on The Zoo® Everlasting here
Please also spend time with Editor Emeritus Robert Herrmann (RIP) 2017 reviews of The Zoo® Spacewood and Rhubarb My Love Here
Editor-in-Chief Michelyn Camen named Christophe Laudamiel to the CaFleureBon Hall of Fame 2021
Senior Contributor and NYC Brand Ambassador Hernando Courtright’s article RUBEN MUSUEM SCENT EXPERIENCES with Christophe Laudamiel
Please read Hernando’s interview with Andreas Keller of Olfactory Art Keller
Enjoy Editor Elise Pearlstine’s Tasting Scent and Touching Perfume featuring Ugo Charron
Ugo Charron was Michelyn’s Rising Star of 2022
Christophe and Ugo won a 2022 Art and Olfaction Award for Grandiflora Saskia
The Zoo® Tubereuse Organique was released in 2019
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