Byredo has launched La Tulipe, a new fragrance "built around the idea of the tulip":
A clean, fresh floral with top notes of rhubarb, cyclamen and freesia and a heart note of tulip. Green base notes of blond woods and vetyver round out the scent.
Byredo La Tulipe is available in 100 ml Eau de Parfum, and can be found now at Barneys for $195. (first quote via blog.madisonperfumery, second quote via barneys)
Update: read a review of Byredo La Tulipe.
Sounds very pretty! I need to figure out what cyclamen smells like.
Me, too. I grow it and I don’t know. Hmmm.
I know. I was going to say, the cyclamen I have doesn’t have a smell.
Smelly Cyclamens are difficult to find!
The best are the tiny wild ones, and they are very fragrant indeed.
There is a beautiful swath of cyclamen in a garden along the Philosopher’s Walk in Heidelberg. They were in full bloom when we were there, and the effect was like a school of lavender fish leaping out of a rippling green pond. They definitely didn’t send up a noticeable aroma, though, and I did give them a whiff. I’m guessing they were the horticultural variety instead of wild. Darn.
HikerChick, to find the wild ones you usually have to go up in altitude where they grow spontaneously: you find lots of them in the mountains (At least you find them in the Alps, if you don’t climb too high!).
Oh Zazie, don’t! I’m already pining for Vevey, and looking forward to our next trip to Switzerland. But it’s going to be years, YEARS, before we can go back! So I’m re-reading The Magic Mountain to tide me over…You have to tell me where you’ve seen and smelled that cyclamen, because I WILL find it!
http://www.paghat.com/cyclamenpurp.html
:0)
thank you! I have the perfect spot for some of those!!
Lots of cyclamen info. Thanks!
Rhubarb! Ooooh!! Will need to try this!
Ha, that was my reaction too…followed by “hope it’s better than Blanche!”
Ditto. Blanche left me bleh. But Pulp is so wonderful. I feel like it’s feast or famine with them.
Clean + fresh pretty much took care of my lemming….
…. words right out of my mouth. Also I thought, hmmmm, most cyclamen don’t smell like much of anything. And then I thought, so … they’re perfect for this scent! (As far as I know, most tulips don’t smell much either — lots of flowers just have a vague, green/vegetal scent…)
I’m still holding out hope. I don’t know why, but I’m getting me some from Patty. LOL
Some varieties of cyclamen are fragrant. Tulip, I’m not so sure, but maybe there are different, smelly varieties of those too.
In any case, I’m curious. I still like Byredo. Maybe it’s my Swedophilia.
I have several varieties of tulips in my flower beds that smell quite nice….none of them are really “strong” smelling but still clearly fragrant…..just depends upon variety, like any other flowering plant.
Tulip is so hard to capture, but the rhubarb/vetiver combination is an inspired idea, and just might come close if there isn’t too much rhubarb. Or vetiver.
Doubt it is going for verisimilitude.
That’s ok; I’d settle for impressionism
Tulips are my favorite flower, but I have to say I don’t recall them having a fragrance. Maybe the ones that grow in the Northeast, or least the ones I grow, do not have a fragrance.
What does a tulip smell like?
I can’t wait to try this..It sounds lovely!!
It’s built around the idea of a tulip, mind you. Some varieties of tulip are fragrance, but most aren’t.
I recently tried sniffing some tulips (store-bought) and was surprised by the aroma, especially after hearing that tulips didn’t have any aroma. As Robin points out, it must be very few varieties that do.
When I sniffed (going from memory here) it smelled like honey and something hard to describe, like vegetarian musk (like soy meat but for those against animal extractions), sort of animalistic/vegetal weirdness that calls to mind patchouli but without the nose-searing bigness.
La Tulipe sounds pretty close but don’t know if it’ll have the same sweetness.
Again, it really doesn’t sound like they’re trying to make this smell real — they’re just going for the idea of a spring floral, IMO.
Yeah, it’s a shame.
I like the IDEA of a tulip fragrance, based on what tulips look like: fresh colors, bold shapes and casual grace. I’m interested to sample and see if Byredo had the same idea.
Maybe!
Same here!
The “idea of a tulip”. How precious…
Also not the first tulip inspired scent: Hilde Soliani’s Il Tuo Tulipano was quite nice.
Right.
I smelled it… and rather like it… Smells like Easter….
How interesting, thanks!
Why thank you =)…. It was the first thing to pop into my head.. When I think of Spring i think of Easter and Flowers, especially tulips!! My mom brings in tulips a few days before Easter, so it just kind of enticed me in that sense…
I bring in tulips too…have some pretty purple ones on my table right now. Sounds like you might need to get your Mom a bottle!
I just came home with a bottle. It’s perfect to me–it has to be to spend that kind of money. In my head, it smells like walking into an expensive florist shop, opening the cooler and inhaling. It is not powerful, it is fresh and spring like, and not too sweet, and green and lovely. Barney’s also carries body creams now, and while Tulipe is not available yet, Green is, and I bought that too, and wore them together. Heaven is Spring!
So glad it’s nice! I *must* go try the Pulp body lotion, although doubt I’d be willing to pay for it.