From the outset Beyond Love looked like a challenge to me. Tuberose – well, the most I could say about that note until recently is, I am glad when it doesn’t bother me, I am glad when I don’t smell it in an accord, or when it is only extremely subtle. Tuberose, in most cases, is just not to my taste.
But my taste is expandable and my persistence, when I want to try somehing, is impressive, if I may say so myself. And this dogged re-sniffing has poven very beneficial in the past, I have broadened my horizon considerably and have found love or at least appreciation where I never sought it in the first place or where I never thought it would hide.
Beyond Love is a tuberose soliflore and a great one at that, so much is clear from the start. Awarded four stars by Luca Turin and several loving reviews on the blogs, I knew if I wanted to love a tuberose fragrance this was a good place to start.
Created by Calice Becker, Beyond Love includes notes of coconut accord, Egyptian jasmine absolute, tuberose concrete, tuberose absolute, green tuberose, tuberose petals accord, ambergris and tonkin musk.
The first few times I wore this, I just did not see what the fuss was all about. Why do so many people love tuberose? To me it was a sickly sweet, somewhat plasticky bubblegum smell, that above all, screamed “I am pink!” at me and did not possess any restraint, subtlety or even a hint of the alleged sexiness.
Then I wore Beyond Love as a sleep scent. I slept like a baby and the first thing that came into my waking consiousness the next morning was that wonderful smell. The drydown of Beyond Love nudged me gently awake and induced a quiet happiness, almost a smugness at my great smelling night shirt and wrists.
Beyond Love opens with a strong coconut-jasmine-tuberose accord and develops into a lush tuberose that stays for hours and hours. I love the late drydown best, when the tuberose is subdued and the gently musky amber base is apparent in all its smooth and soft glory.
Beyond Love or tuberose in general will not ever be what I crave before all else, but I have used my mini vial several times now and delight in the fact that it is so new and different from all else for me, since I don’t normally wear white flowers, let alone tuberose soliflores.
It is a good thing that an infatuation with a certain brand often leads me to investigate all there is fromt he line, leads me down roads less olfactorily traveled and thus enables me to find unexpected gems.
It is less of a good thing that I can never stop at one perfume from a line, I need to try them all. 🙂
Another tuberose I can recommend to the tuberose-skeptic is Mona di Orio’s Tubéreuse.
Olfactoria's Travels 
You know, tuberose is my favoritest flower and I was very surprised to discover that I have trouble with the note in perfume..There are only 2 tuberose perfumes that I love : Tuberose Criminelle and Carnal Flower. I tried Beyond Love a few times, but couldn’t love it. It smelled like somebody had applied white chalky tuberose paint on my skin. Then just the other day, I applied the teeniest dab on my skin, and realized that it was indeed pretty. And for somebody who likes the note, I can now see how it could be a favorite. Not sure if it’ll ever be mine- but I’d like a sample at hand to wear a bit once in a (long) while ..:)
Tuberose Criminelle – I just cannot wear this, the top notes kill me. I am no moth ball! 😉 I realize that is kind of the appeal here, going from ugly to beautiful, a perfumed masterpiece, but I just can’t…
I’ll definitely dive into the tuberose world now though, Carnal Flower is next on my list.
It took me time to appreciate floral fragrances – 5 years ago I would have firmly stated that I hated anything rose and tuberose.
Of course, after a lot of sniffing, I discovered that floral fragrances are actually the ones I love best (with few exceptions), and that I have a particular strong addiction towards white flowers in general and tuberose in particular.
Beyond love was, together with fracas, a turning point. While both of them feature a candy-sweet stage I would happily do without (and that made me scrub BL the first time I tested it) – the rest of their construction is absolute perfection for me.
The way good tuberose fragrances secretely smell of skin – whether said skin is warm (fracas), silky smooth (beyond love), soft and cool (tuberose criminelle) or soaked in dirt (carnal flower) – is probably the reason I love them so much. They just blend in.
On the other side, I’m on the fence on Mona di Orio’s take: isn’t it a too-literal translation of Vamp à New York? I like Mona’s version better, but the price and the lack of originality are at odds. Truth to be told, if the price were reasonable, I’ve would have happily probably caved in for both tubérose and vanille.
p.s.
I still don’t love roses: I’ve come to like some, but love: no! 😉
The way we evolve towards notes or perfumes we never thought we could tolerate, let alone love, is what makes this perfume journey so entertaining, even after years.
I know and like Vamp a NY and while I see the similarity to Mona’s Oud, I find them to relay a wholly different vibe. Tubereuse is evening, dancing in a little black dress and meeting an exilarating man. Vamp is very unvampy for me, more like a ride in a cabriolet, wind in my hair, in jeans, on a summer’s day, feeling great about life. But that is just my feeling…
p.s. Roses – did you try Amouage Lyric or PG Brulure de Rose?
“But my taste is expandable and my persistence, when I want to try somehing, is impressive, if I may say so myself.”
This made me laugh! And I could do with taking a tuberose flower out of your book, and being a bit more persistent with scents, because my initial impressions of Beyond Love were a little bit along those bubblegum lines, and I thought this was probably going to be too Tropicana for me. But I only tried it once, and never as a sleep scent. And sleep is something I could really do with!
I hope you get a good nights sleep soon with or without Tuberose! But give it a shot, it may work wonders. (Another great sleeping aid for me is Lira, maybe it is worth another sniff as well. 😉 )
I remember Lira! Right arm, near the elbow, managed to get it slightly muddled with the next one up… : – )
That’s the one! 🙂
Ah tuberose, one of my absolutely favorite flowers and note for perfumes! For me it is hard to not fall in love with a tuberose. Oddly enough I was so infatuated that I tried buying tuberose bulbs for my balcony. I get so much sun that it could be Mexico out there! Alas, there were no tuberose bulbs to be had in Vienna. Now I have to resort to finding devious means to get them. Spot on with the review of Beyond Love. So happy to see that you are finding some admiration for the flower.
No tuberose in Vienna, that is sad…but I’ m not surprised.
Kilian’s tuberose is really lovely. What is your favorite tuberose perfume, Sandra?
My favorite tuberose perfume is Carnal Flower during warmer weather as it warms to my skin. But I also love Tubereuse Criminelle and L’Artisan’s Nuit de Tubereuse. I find it such a warm and sultry note. But perhaps it is the Latin in me that just cannot get enough. I do wish it were easier to find exotic plants and spices here. It would make everything so much more exciting. Thankfully Vienna has come a long way in the 17 years I have lived here with respect to foods, now it is time for plants and spices.
Carnal Flower will definitely be my next tuberose adventure. 🙂
Vienna has changed a lot in the last years in terms of becoming more sophisticated, but there is still a ways to go…
Once again a great review, B! I am amazed that you got past your wariness of Tuberose.
I got a sample of Beyond Love when I bought Nuit de Tubereuse (you know, the perfume that is not really a tuberose perfume) but was horrified and threw the sample in the darkest corner of my “no box”. I normally wear a scent more than once but this one was just too much. However I may revisit BL soon as there is a sample of Carnal FLower on its way to my postbox. 🙂 Maybe my nose will grow accustomed to it…
Only a few months ago, I would have totally agreed with you and I called BL horrible as well. But horizons expand and noses adapt. 🙂 Tuberose is certainly an acquired taste for me, not a natural love, but I’m glad I persisted. I think of everything I would have missed otherwise. 🙂
Out of the entire Kilian range, I found this to be the 4th best behind B2B, A Taste of Heaven & Incense Oud. It reminded me a lot of this lollipop from my childhood – http://www.handycandy.co.uk/mega-double-lolly-p-496.html
But as with Love and a couple of the other Kilian scents which share this lolly-like note, especially in the drydown, it wasn’t strong enough and lacked development to be considered FBW in my opinion. I don’t think I’ll ever find this scent anything more than “quite nice”.
Hello Aaron,
thank you for commenting!
I agree on the lollipop note, it really distracted me in the beginning.
That was some lolly you had as a
kid, I’m sure it is the horror for dentists far and wide. 😉
It is not FB material for me either, but a lovely indulgence now and again (or as far as my 7,5ml take me.)
I don’t know what tuberose smells like. I enjoy several floral notes: magnolia and iris among them. Maybe this would be a good one to sample and learn a new note.
Well, once you smell tuberose, you will remember it. It is an easy note to recognize, it is very distincitive, but it is a love or hate note for many.
I’m one of THOSE tuberose people. The people who just can’t get enough, like it in nearly all forms ( the light, the heavy, the perfume-y, the natural ). When I first smelled Tubereuse Criminelle, I knew it was me-in-a-bottle on first sniff and it’s been number one ever since.
I love Beyond Love ( it’s tuberose; I can’t help it ), but for me, it’s tuberose parked on neutral: neither loud nor soft; frilly; non-weird; pink-smelling tuberose. I’d happily own a bottle and use it but I’d never pay for a bottle. A fragrance I find similar but like more is Peche Cardinal, a true ripe peach on top of creamy Beyond Love / Private Collection Tuberose Gardenia style floral.
I have two suggestions for tuberose for a tuberose hater: first, Caron’s Tubereuse; second, Parfumerie Generale’s Tubereuse Couture. The Caron is introverted and sophisticated and a little odd, kind of a chypre-mood if not chypre-smell from a mossy-animalic violet leaf accord. It does not shout. Tubereuse Couture goes spicy and fresh with ylang and cane juice, and wears very light while being persistent. ( Also, maybe Parfums DelRae’s muguet-y green Amoureuse, but apply microscopically: this thing is so powerful it could turn an innocent into a hater of ALL florals if handled improperly. )
Check for tuberose flowers at the florist, too; the real thing is quite unimpeachably beautiful, and inadequately captured by even the best soliflores, including everything mentioned here ( Carnal Flower comes close, but only in the top notes in my opinion. )
Oh dear. Reading this answer makes me read like a tuberose missionary. Carry on…!
Thank you for your tuberose treatise! 🙂 Seriously, I appreciate your thoughts, as a newly reformed tuberose hater, I need any help I can get. And so will many readers! I will look for tuberose at the florist, but I am not sure it will be available here. But it is certainly worth checking!
Sugandaraja rules! 😀 These are what are needed!
aaaah tuberose!!! I learned to love tuberose long long time ago. Since then, I’m a tuberose junkie. Ok, I’m a gourmand & a floral & a chypre fan… but also I’m a.l.w.a.y.s tempted by the ones about tuberose. I’ve realized that it’s one of the most delightful and interesting things in Perfumery…. and truly addictive! I don’t know why do I get little bit ‘horny’ when I’m wearing tuberose scents, probably that’s the reason why I don’t wear them all the time, but just for a while. 😦 I’ve read somewhere that same thing happens to many women, I mean that aphrodisiac effect. Why is so explicitly sexual is a mystery to me.
I’ve tried many tuberoses… in different genres, types and forms… I couldn’t decide which one hooked me more, everyone
This Beyond Love is a missing one for now… I hope to try it in short!
I find tuberose often overwhelming, but I have learned to love and appreciate it. Kilian’s is a beautiful and elegant one.
🙂 Sure! if your review is positive, it must be moved to the top of the list!
I do not like tuberose. Not only in perfume but as a flower as well. Kilian’s tuberose is one of those I can stand in small doses and it doesn’t give me headaches. I’m working on that note. I’m not sure if I’ll ever love it but we’ll see.
I could have sworn I’ll hate it forever, but someday the interest was there. 🙂
Your review has made me pull out my sample and try this again, I just can’t get my head around it and I’m not sure what I think.
Perhaps it’s just a little bit too cold for me?
I wouldn’t ever think about BL as cold, but that is a question of individual perception, I guess. I have tried a few more tuberose fragrances since I wrote that review, and I guess it might be too clean and possibly bland for your liking. It is like a perfect image of a tuberose, not a down and dirty version, maybe it is that static quality you perceive as coldness?
There’s definitely something cold and almost menthol in the top notes. Perhaps your right, I’m used to more ‘lush’ tuberoses and BL has that static quality. I can tell that it’s really well made but I’m on the fence about whether I’d wear it.
My rule of thumb is, if I am on the fence about wearing it, I probably won’t wear it – so I’m free to move on, and there is so much yet to be discovered, that it is just as well. 🙂
That is a VERY good rule of thumb!
Pingback: Beauty Lies In Simple Things – Review: By Kilian Rose Oud | Olfactoria's Travels
Pingback: Round And Glowing – Review: Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle Carnal Flower | Olfactoria's Travels
Pingback: The Hills Are Alive… – Review: By Kilian A Taste Of Heaven, Absinthe Verte | Olfactoria's Travels
Pingback: Sway With Me – Review: Mona di Orio Les Nombres d’Or Tubéreuse | Olfactoria's Travels
Pingback: By Kilian Beyond Love EDP Perfume Review | EauMG
Great Review! A ex tuberose hater here! Tuberose scents used to bother me as much as it did to you when I was younger but then one day I sniffed Chinatown from Bond and I was shocked by its white flowers accord that I bought it compulsively, then I decided to get deeper as you did on this white flowers field and I discovered Fracas that shocked me even more, cause suddendly everything was clear, that was the perfume my grandma used to wear so I fell deeply in love with that but as a guy I just couldn’t do anything about it but sniff it from time to time and remember my childhood (lately my grandma moved to shalimar by guerlain btw). So i went thru a lot of other tuberose scents, carnal flower and tubereuse criminelle above all. But then one day my dad brought home a couple of those Bykilian fragrances (as we are both collectors 😉 ) and within the bag and those beautiful boxes there was a sample of this gracious Beyond love, a pure and gentle take on this flower. It was love at first sniff and since one of my best friends was looking for an alternative to her carnal flower, I gave her this beyond love sample and she bought it immediatly after. So after all this long and fantastic path, I went to my very personal point of view about this masterpiece, I hope you can enjoy it if you feel like it, you can find it here http://www.scentedlife.it/giada-portrait-beyond-love-bykilian/
Keep up the good work, I’m a huge fan!
Pingback: That Smile – Review: Hiram Green Moon Bloom | Olfactoria's Travels