Tigerlust: SE

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Ships by end of July.

This perfume named itself.

Typically, perfumers have a vision in mind, be it a feeling they want to evoke or a marketing theme they have to match. It didn’t work that way this time.

It might just be what happens when frangipani oozes into orris root, or civet gets high on Sichuan pepper.

When crushed ambergris sticks to blackcurrant and castoreum goes for a swim in a lake of osmanthus, you don’t really know what to expect.

These combinations are uncharted territory. These combinations, combined into one perfume…

Pour obscene amounts of artisanal Sri Lankan oud and Maroke oud into this animalic coctail of contrasts and steep them in vintage Timor sandalwood, tobacco leaf and coffee flower.

You can’t help but smell it. Tigerlust. Call it primal, sensual — sexual — call it what you will. This must be what happens when musk comes into contact with gyrinops from the highest mountain peaks of Irian Jaya and they go for a stroll in the Italian countryside.

You don’t want to lick it, or bite it, or ease into a bath of it. Not just that. It’s a fragrance you want to embrace, to own without the paranoia of ever running out crossing your mind as even possible; to make it a part of you every bit as much as the steaming presence of an untamed lover’s skin. That IS what musk invites to, what the finest rose reinforces and Indian jasmine beautifies. Tigerlust.

The top notes are discreetly citrusy, the heart notes shamelessly saucy, and the base all oud slooshing oud drunk on oud, restrained as best it can by Mysore from the mid-70s.

Take any Top 5 list — make that any Top 10 list — of the most expensive/sought-after/precious perfume ingredients, and know that they’re all in here, waiting to be smelled and experienced. Those, and ones most of these lists don’t even know about. Decadent amounts of all of them in their most pristine form (100% natural, undiluted extracts), carefully proportioned not to let any one steal the show.

You’ve smelled it. The emptiness, the lack of something or another. That olfactory crave akin to the want for oysters or full-fat gravy. You want a proper farmer’s breakfast, but get ziplocked food juice to go, instead.

What’s missing is the fullness of a flower, full-spectrum oleoresin distilled, the inherent stickiness of oakmoss, and the raunchy wet granules of genuine musk.

So, take a break from the cosmetics aisle and treat yourself to age-old perfumery that stirred up all the sex appeal in the first place. A fragrance that’s real