Tuberosa Profumum Roma

Source: Luckyscent

Fracas: "Magic Mirror on the wall, who is the loudest tuberose of all?"

Magic Mirror: " Famed is thy beauty, Majesty. But hold, a lusty maid I see. Alas, she is more bold than thee."

Source: obsessivesweets.com

Can there be a a white floral louder than Fracas? I thought not till I met Tuberosa. 

It starts with the smell of powdery lemon that reminds me of the face-numbing sour outer layer of Nobel Super Lemon hard candies and just like how the sourness of the candy gradually wears off and you can relax the rictus snarl, so do the citrus notes wander away leaving the headiest of heady tuberose-dominant white floral notes. Tuberosa sits between Fracas and Carnal Flower, the former being a buttery lush white floral and the latter being more green and fresh. 

Source: projectwedding.com

Like Fracas, Tuberosa is all about a gigantic bouquet of white flowers( Fragrantica lists both jasmine and gardenia as accomplices but I detect only the jasmine) with the tuberose staying front and center at all times. The opening is bright and fresh thanks to the citrus zest that clings on for a good amount of time keeping the potent narcotic floral notes from being nauseating, but the scent eventually shifts to a creamier and darker ending like flowers that have almost exhausted their bloom and are on the edge of wilting. Some perfume friends have described the drydown of Tuberosa as animalic and for me I interpret that as the faint smell of decay, as if the tips of the flowers were tinted brown.

I might be tempted to get a bottle of Tuberosa if I'm done with the 10 ml decant I'm using. I doubt I'll be through with the 10 ml any time soon though as is with most of the Profumum Roma scents that I've tried, a little goes a very very long way. The first time I over did it and my head was assaulted all day by blasts of it with every movement which made it quite a horrible experience despite being an avid tuberose fan. Since then I've been much more careful and I find that two sprays is more than enough to take me from morning to the following night. 

Fracas versus Carnal Flower

There are endless debates on whether Robert Piguet's (Germaine Cellier) Fracas (I bought mine in 2011) and Frederic Malle's (Dominique Ropion) Carnal Flower smell similar and I thought they did but then I never tested them side by side till now. 

Fracas opens with a bigger blast than Carnal Flower but that's definitely not alluding that Carnal Flower is in any way weak, it's not. Fracas is a buttery and creamy big white floral featuring tuberose as the main actress, with supporting roles going to gardenia, orange blossom and jasmine. Carnal Flower is greener and fresher than Fracas by far but strangely I'm only noticing that now when I compare them next to each other. In Carnal Flower I smell the ylang ylang and a just ripe melon as the supporting notes and not so much the gardenia as I do in Fracas.

Although both Fracas and Carnal Flower are laden with tuberose, Profumum Roma's Tuberosa takes the award for the most fulsome tuberose perfume ever, it's tuberose and nothing else for hours on end and at only one volume, super loud. Next to Tuberosa, both Fracas and Carnal Flower are practically tame.

Fracas smells "older" than Carnal Flower due to the dewiness of the tuberose in Carnal Flower.  Both are sexy beasts but Fracas has this heavy on syrup factor that makes her seem like a perennially boozed up lush that has seen too much before her age, whereas Carnal Flower doesn't flaunt her sexuality while remaining alluring. Think of Elizabeth Taylor as Fracas and Greta Garbo as Carnal Flower. 

Both are monsters that project forever, so I won't worry about either under-performing. I think the only tuberose that doesn't stick on me is L'Artisan's La Chasse aux Papillons, most other tuberose-based perfumes that I've tried are tenacious creatures. 

So the verdict is, no they don't smell similar and yes if you adore tuberose, you would want both in your life.