The Note: Tuberose 🕊️𓇢𓆸🤍

This is perhaps embarrassing to admit as someone who co-runs a fragrance Substack, but for years I thought tuberose was a version of rose. In my head I just combined turbo (not in the word) and rose, and thought it was just like a super intense type of rose? Idk, I was held back in elementary school. And during these, let’s call them, “ignorant years,” I avoided what I thought was this super extra version of rose because I am a minimalist Virgo who doesn’t actually want people to smell me. Then on year four of my fragrance journey I learned that tuberose literally has nothing to do with rose! But I was right about one thing: it’s turbo! Tuberose, a tropical white flower native to Mexico, is not for minimalists. She is LOUD. Creamy, indolic, humid, she can go in the direction of bubblegum, menthol, and at times, rot. This is a note for our main characters, our fire signs, our big personalities, our femme fatales, and, I’ll say it, sluts. While I am a perfume minimalist, I also, to quote Lana Del Rey quoting Walt Whitman, contain multitudes. (I am also a slut.) So I fuck with tuberose—mostly in the privacy of my own home, mostly after a few drinks. This is the kind of note that really shines when your nasal passages have been slightly dulled and your spirits artificially lifted via alcohol. Tuberose is, coincidentally, also a note for drunks. So without further ado, here are our 10 favorite tuberose—pointedly not rose—perfumes.

—Anna