It is a testament to the ongoing deluge of new perfumes, niche and not niche, that Love and Tears (Surrender) launched last year and I promptly forgot all about it, even though it's a jasmine soliflore, a category of perfumes that I have some interest in, and even though I apparently got a sample shortly after it launched. Love and Tears is by perfumer Calice Becker, an obvious bonus, and it's from By Kilian, which might or might not be a bonus depending on your point of view (By Kilian makes me a little cranky, as I've mentioned before).1
The back story, according to Mr. Kilian Hennessy:
Only the jasmine flower, with its endless spectrum of facets -- citrus, green, floral and animalistic -- was able to express the profusion of emotions that I wanted to communicate with this scent: the beginning of love marked with excitement, the fear of the unknown, and, ultimately, the surrender to love!
Mostly, though, they left out the animalistic part, and arguably even the "surrender to love", and certainly the tears. Love and Tears is, perhaps, too richly floral to be the early, innocent days of love, but it's too easygoing to be anything like surrender. It's green and citrusy in the opening, and ever-so-slightly indolic, but not for long. The dry down is cleaner, and sweeter and fuller, and the ylang and orange blossom give it somewhat more of a tropical white floral character, but only somewhat: Love and Tears is a tale about jasmine, from beginning to end (other notes: bergamot, petit grain, daffodil, lily of the valley, cedar, styrax and oakmoss).
Love and Tears reminded me right away of Kilian's Beyond Love, as good an example of beauty without personality as you'll find in a bottle. Love and Tears isn't quite so beautiful, maybe, but it's beautiful, and it has just as little to say for itself. It just sits there smelling like an awfully pretty jasmine. That might be plenty if there weren't already so many interesting jasmine soliflores on the market, but hey, there are already many interesting jasmine soliflores on the market, and many of them cost less than Love and Tears.2
As always, if you think I'm insane and this stuff is the cat's pajamas, do comment.
Love and Tears is being advertised as a unisex, which is fine — everybody should wear what they like anyway — but by any conventional criteria it's a feminine fragrance. Or perhaps another way to put it is that if Love and Tears is unisex, everything is unisex.
By Kilian Love And Tears (Surrender) is available in 50 ml Eau de Parfum ($225, or $125 for a refill). A 30 ml Travel Spray is also sold ($155 for the silver atomizer, or $70 for a refill).
Note: top image is Jasminum sambac 'Grand Duke of Tuscany' [cropped] by scott.zona at flickr; some rights reserved.
1. Per Mr. Hennessy, "The French have a socialist attitude about shopping -- they demand luxury for everyone. Americans understand the luxury market, and you don't have to explain to them why a finer product costs more. They get it". (via stylelist) Oh yes, I get it, no need to explain.
2. Turns out that while I was at the beach and then doing back to school chores last August, everybody else reviewed Love and Tears and said some variation on the above. Do see Patty at Perfume Posse, Denyse at Grain de Musc and Gaia at The Non-Blonde, all of whom said it long before I did.
Hi Robin! OK – I love this one. It reminds me somewhat of the original Sung by Alfred Sung, which I wore years ago and loved. (Haven’t bothered to touch the new Sung, as TS in PTG labels it “jasmine diaper”. No thanks!) I also love Liaisons Dangereuses.
As to cost, the Kilian fragrances in the refills aren’t all that expensive ($125 for 50ml) when comparing them with other niche brands that use high quality materials. That black bottle and packaging add a whopping $100 to the cost. According to Kilian, he wanted the bottles to be keepsakes, something to treasure. But for those of us who care more about the juice than the bottle, the refills are a great alternative, methinks!
Curious what other jasmine fragrances you’d recommend??? Would love to try more.
You know, they really aren’t that bad, esp. the travel refills. I’m still not over the fact that they didn’t used to let you buy refills unless you’d bought the bottle, but I guess I should let that grudge go 🙂
LOVE the phrase “jasmine diaper”, LOL!
I am still a big fan of Serge Lutens A La Nuit, and there are many others…if you scroll through the jasmine tag you’ll find lots of good stuff:
https://nstperfume.com/tag/jasmine/
Oh cool! Yum – jasmine tea sorbet! 🙂
I wish I had some!
“Love and Tears reminded me right away of Kilian’s Beyond Love, as good an example of beauty without personality as you’ll find in a bottle.” Damning with faint praise indeed!
By Kilian’s entire schtick annoys me- wooden box with key, outrageous price, and am I the only one who can’t keep the names straight?!!??
Love and Tears
Tears and Lust
Lust and Love
Love and Pizza……………
gimmee a break!!!
True so true….I have at least 4 samples that I couldn’t name off the top of my head. I only recall liking a rose fragrance…I need to go look in my stash.
Love and Pizza!
I too think the names are mostly silly.
I would buy Love and Pizza!
Me too. 🙂
I want to like his line….love the all black bottle…black being my favorite color. However, I have yet to find something that would make me reach into my wallet and unload that amount on a fragrance, by him. They’re just ok, in my opinion.
I would buy a travel size refill of Prelude to Love if I found a split for it…but so far, that’s the only one I want.
Aah, but have you tried Rose Oud, R? Totally drop dead gorgeous fragrance, and I am not even an oud fan.
So far, that’s the only one in line I would buy, but it’s way expensive, so I may just live on samples, lol!
Hugs!
I am (or was, because now I am overloaded) an oud fan, so no — I admit I did not yet try any of the Kilian ouds because I couldnt’ see how I’d need them — I already have plenty of oud + rose, for instance. But I will try them.
Yeah, the whole concept of the refill annoys me. I mean you can do simple subtraction and determine that you are paying $100 for that bottle alone. I like black too, but not that much.
I agree with your opinions on the preposterous names and the self-indulgent attitude towards their packaging, but I do like Beyond Love, (I am using up the 7.5 ml sampler), and I do not find it devoid of personality… but maybe I’m just a tuberose freak. Love and tears didn’t work for me either, so there we agree again.
I think many people really liked Beyond Love, so you are not alone, in fact, I might be alone on that one!
LoL – Love your attitude, Robin! Love the jasmin flower photo as well. Mine doesn’t have nearly the number of petals, but smells divine when in bloom. So I guess I ought to give this one a try since I do LOVE a good jasmin!
Still pondering on getting a bottle of La Haie Fleurie, which can join my lineup of other great jasmins, and even a bigger bottle of SSS’s Jour Ensoleille….
I understand the double jasmines, like the one shown, have less scent? I’ve never seen one in person. Looks almost like a rose.
Have not smelled La Haie Fleurie in a few years, do you know if it’s stayed the same?
I don’t know if it is the same as it used to be, not having smelled it before now, but it is stunning all the same. I want a full bottle.
Robin: I have a sample of the original Haie Fleurie de Hameau and a decant of the current Haie Fleurie. IMHO – they smell nearly identical. Perhaps they just wanted to nix the complex name of the original b/c you’d always see it referred to as just Haie Fleurie.
Thanks Ann!
Thanks for your input, Ann. It’s really good to know that I don’t need to track down vintage in order to get “the good stuff”….
I was thinking the amount of jasmin or oakmoss in the formula might have been an IFRA issue, but the composition that I’ve tried is so well balanced that perhaps it keeps it in the “safe” zone.
Then I’m glad that my flowers have so few petals! Your example IS very rose-like. So pretty.
I confess to being a tubey ho, rather than a jasmine fan, and I think I like Beyond Love much better than you did, Robin – but I agree, Beyond Love is beautiful and has nothing to say. It just smells pretty; it takes me on no emotional journeys. (I like it best for layering. Perhaps that means I should find a new home for my travel mini. Which I would not have possession of, if I had not found it used and relatively inexpensive, because By Kilian’s marketing angle annoys me a very great deal.)
I further confess that I have very little to say about jasmine scents, since I do not love them. I have a bottle of Hanae Mori Haute Couture, a lovely fizzy-green-citrus-jasmine thing for summer, and very, very small decants of Septimanie Pavillon des Fleurs and Miller Harris Jasmin Vert – and I am All Set for jasmine.
I also think Beyond Love is superb for layering but I always feel guilty doing so at it’s price point. I’m near the end of an 8 ml decant and I really need to decide if I will buy anymore.
I’m pretty much equal opportunity when it comes to tuberose vs jasmine, but it does seem like greater things have been done with tuberose, so far. I tend to think that’s because jasmine simply hasn’t yet been done to death yet, but we’ll see!
Glad someone else finds Kilian’s marketing annoying. I’m not entirely sure why he/they annoy me so much — they’re surely not the worst, but that statement about Americans “understanding” luxury really floored me.
R, while I do not think that it is cat’s pajamas, I somehow fell for its green galbanum-jasmine combination. While objectively I can see that there are other just as good jasmines at less of a price, but love is never rational…. Not sure what draws me so much to this fragrance.
It is so true that love is never rational! And I do love green jasmines too…I’m still waiting for my perfect green jasmine 🙂
Guess it’s too bad that Jasmin Vert really isn’t that green…
I have never smelled anything from By Killian yet. All I can say is since I was a little girl, I always loved jasmine. I will have to give this one a try, even if it smells like the prettiest-pretty jasmine, that suits me just right. Right now I am going crazy with my sample of Tom Ford’s White Musk collection though. Quite expensive, yes, but to me it doesn’t matter when I love a perfume that much. i just ordered a bottle of White Suede, but I also really like the Urban Musk. But the one I’m crazy in love with is the Jasmine Musk. Oh my god!! The most darn beautiful jasmine, with such an animalic touch. So just different than any other jasmine and so gorgeoys… Why did I order a bottle of White Suede then? Because it’s almost like Creed Love in White to me, something so comforting, pure and angelic. Easy to wear even for bed, or cuddling with my baby:) I was thinking which one should I get next, Urban Musk or Jasmine Musk? I really want them both, but I can’t wait to smell like my most beloved Jasmine Musk every day… I wanna make it my signature. The one I haven’t tried yet is the Pure Musk… if I get to try that one too, and love it like the others… it will hurt my wallet haha. Tom Ford’s White Musk collection has already gotten me crazy… so I’m afraid to try another pricey line these days:) By Killian might have to wait.
LOL…yes, it sounds like your wallet has plenty to contend with already.
I bought a small bottle in a split last fall and, while I do love it, and while it is an excellent re-creation of a real jasmine vine’s scent, I like you have quite a few jasmines and so the little bottle will probably be it. And will continue trying to grow jasmine, so far having had not the best success in our climate!
Try treating it like an orchid. Grow it inside, make sure it’s got a big enough pot to spread out a bit, let it show you what window it likes (believe me, the plant will let you know,) and the (the most important bit of advice I’ve ever gotten,) LEAVE. IT. THE. HELL. ALONE.
(seriously, that was the advice.)
Works wonderfully. Also, always water with warm water. Like just warm enough to be comfortable but not chilly on your wrist.
It’s easier in California than Pennsylvania, that’s all I know.
That’s one of the few things I miss about south Florida – being able to grow jasmine bushes outside with little effort! I do love jasmine, especially lately, and I’me njoying sampling – but the price might scare me off this one. For a while….Who has other jasmines to recommend?
Many here:
https://nstperfume.com/tag/jasmine/
I’ve heard the new LUSH Gorilla Lust perfume is a great jasmine, and reasonably priced!
It is very sweet, and very strong, but if that sounds good it will probably work for you.
What are some of your favorite jasmine fragrances, R?
Again, Serge Lutens A La Nuit probably top of the list, but I’ve reviewed many other favorites:
https://nstperfume.com/tag/jasmine/
Sorry I’m too lazy to list them!
Hi Robin: nice review. I know I’ve tested a few of the By Killian’s but I can’t ever remember b/c of the name. I’ve not tested this one though. I do like a good jasmine, so I’ll try and sample this one eventually. I recently tested a nice natural jasmine – the Gelsomino from DSH. Your reveiw of the Love & Tears makes me think of a defanged AG Songes.
Hmmm. It isn’t really a defanged Songes….for one thing, it’s way more focused on jasmine (it really is a soliflore, and Songes isn’t) and it’s tropical but not THAT tropical.
Good to know. I haven’t really got into that many tropical fragrances, so I have few reference points.
I remember trying this but I have no recollection of what it actually smelled like which is not a great sign, is it?
Silly marketing aside, I thought some of them were nice enough (Beyond Love, Back to Black) but none blew me away. I find Prelude To Love the most enjoyable of the lot (even if not hugely original) and would gladly wear it if someone gave me a bottle but probably wouldn’t buy it myself.
No, not a good sign!
Too green and clean for me. When jasmine is done like that it hardly smells like jasmine at all to me. Almost closer to LOTV. And I don’t really get Beyond Love either, though I have tried (and though I adore Carnal Flower, and DSH Tubereuse) so you and I can stand in that corner together, R.
Always nice to have company!
I’ve said it before, but I’m nuts about BK Liaisons Dangereuses, Rose Oud and Pure Oud. Also Straight to Heaven and Beyond Love are favorites in their category (lavender and tuberose, respectively). I just love Calice Becker’s approach to these notes. For example, LD is gorgeous rose and plum but somehow light and dry in a way that gives it almost an incense quality, to my nose.
Admittedly, I did search out discounted bottles of the two ouds, which would otherwise have been out of my price range.
Have not really tested this jasmine or Prelude to Love yet.
The ouds were even more expensive, no? Glad you found discounts.
i love love love the natural smell of the jasmin flower< and chinese jasmin is a little softer….and therfeore the only soliflore that i like is pure essential jasmin oil…and that goes for about US$120 for 5ml……tried so hard to love a la nuit….to no avail. Maybe at a different time in my fragrant life. Not going to Killians!!!
Interesting. I’m not sure I want to wear jasmine straight up…I need a little something else. My perfect jasmine, as I’ve said here before, would be very green w/ some incense.
May I say I was so scared by this one that I was in panic not finding a bin to throw the blotter? I love Beyond Love, though I’m not into tuberoses. But this one is so strong. I would have loved to take the time to understand it but I just couldn’t stand it. And I am a person who can take a lot from a perfume. Most probably it’s a glamorous lady scent.
Sorry it was scary!
Karin, bless her, sent me a generous sample of Love&Tears and I wore it off and on for a couple of weeks. I agree it has “beauty without personality.” And it doesn’t “go” anywhere, and that irks me, given the price point. I’m ok with scents that don’t go anywhere when they are at Demeter’s price point, but not this.
I DO like it for layering, and that is what I’ve been using the rest of my decant for – to call attention to the jasmine in other fragrances where jasmine is a minor player. For that, it works great.
I can believe it’s great for layering…wouldn’t mind having a decant for that if it were much cheaper.
Hey Robin (a bit late commenting here): I just wore this today and I do think it’s perfectly beautiful… and if I was a huge jasmine nut, I might buy a refill bottle (priced comparably to Serge). However, I’m not a HUGE jasmine nut, and I won’t buy this. Somehow, BK has managed to generally be off my radar, though several scents are really nice. I don’t remember Beyond Love but I might have a bit around somewhere.
I’m not familiar at all with A La Nuit. I should try that. One of my very favorite jasmines — and I was truly in love with this one for awhile — is PG Drama Nuui. It reminds me exactly of a variety of climbing jasmine that’s used in a lot of landscaping around here, and I love the evocative smell.
(Just a jasmine side note: I’m sad that that chocolate ganache company you reviewed once — with jasmine flavored chocolate — is out of business — I looked for it a few months back. I’d have loved to taste that product.)
Hi Joe, I am a huge jasmine nut! And I submit to you that that’s exactly why I don’t think this is worth the money, HA.
And yes, I was so sad to see that company disappear! Rococco (British chocolate company) makes a jasmine chocolate, and I have some but haven’t tasted them yet. Their rose chocolates are wonderful, so I’m hopeful.
Hmmmmm, I wonder if I’m hyperosmic to indoles. I found this lovely, but quite dirty/animalic, like jasmine with a whiff of the monkey house.
Interesting…I have said before that I don’t think indoles affect me the way they used to, but you’re the first person to call this one dirty.
I am quite late to the party – I tested Love and Tears this saturday, during a jasmine week: I had this huge jasmine craving, with the first signs of spring! 😉
My own comparative list:
I find a la nuit lovely, very simple, and without any striking personality (I can’t help to wish someone put a base in that Lutens, to make it i) last, and ii) upgrade to “perfume” – rather than being a smell).
Nuda was too much cheap white musks, and the indolic part was really over the top…
Jasmine of jardin retrouvé is extremely nice, and leathery, but a bit too airy… Great quality/price ratio!
Love and tears is the only one that really feels like a real perfume, albeit a simple one, instead of just a smell. It’s the more polished of the lot. And it struck me as very elegant and happy. Is it also the more pleasant?
Anyway, I really liked it, and 45 euros for the 30 ml refills falls in my “I can deal with the price” cathegory.
I would be very happy with any of the above, except for nuda, but I should do further testing. I will try the BK again.
Or maybe just settle with Joy!
Or go to Paris and test Sarrasins.
😉
HA…Joy will always trump them all 😉
“Love” and “tears” certainly go hand in hand often together, don’t they…
robin, you must try la haie fleurie. it is a really stunning and unique. crisp and cool, like jasmine in autumn, if that makes any sense. it’s the only jasmine i’ve smelled that isn’t at all tropical or girly – it’s more of a beautiful elegant british lady than a sexy hawaiian girl. i think you’d love it.
a la nuit is stunning, i agree, but a little diapery on me, and love and tears (i love the name, and i love the killian marketing exclusivity angle because frankly, i hate the idea of smelling like other people) a little too clean and almost fruity. i wear them all, being a white flower person, and i also love montale jasmin full, but that to me is just a pure straight jasmine, not as unique as la haie at all. would love to know what you think of la haie!
LHF is not a great favorite of mine, but admit it’s been some years since I tried it. I always preferred La Chasse though.
Hi Robi
VERY late to the party, I know…I am a huge jasmin and lilly of the valkey fan and this is one of the rare jasmin/ lotv scents that doesn`t turn all mothballs on me (A la nuit being my favourite jasmin-no mothball in there). But I couldn’t quite say why it was not instant love for this one.I have worn it for 5 days exclusively now and I think it remjnds me of too many other fragrances (I personally get a strong EL Beyond Paradise vibe from the opening and something in the drydown reminds me of RL Safari). I usually do not have problems with similarities, but somehow here
Ok, here I go, late and in disagreement, I admit that by Kilian perfumes are among the priciest but I also gotta admit that I find them utterly beautiful, almost out of this world beautiful and some of my favorites and it is a big thing that I even have a thing for their florals and categories I do not normally fall for. I for a long time refused to love niche fumes for their prices and unavailability where I live. Now they are becoming a bit more available and the prices, well, they are steep but of course we have birthday lists and so on. This is how I became the owner of Le Labo’s Rose 31 and Iris 39 (again a house from which I love soliflores and even a rose when I want my rose in very small concentrations), as well as Back to Black. Back to Black to me is the most amazing fume I have ever smelled, simply intoxicating and I sure have a thing for a lot of their ouds but and here is the strange thing, I love their florals and that is saying a lot. I find Beyond Love the best tuberose and wow I am into Love and Tears, to me this is a painfully stunningly beautiful jasmine, animalic, which is how I want my flowers, and making you cry beautiful. Of course I also tend to get the travel sets or just refills as I still refuse to spend over 100 Euros on packaging as amazing as it looks.