Le Cri de la Lumière

As an iris lover, I have long wanted to try this scent. Featuring a light-yet-decadent powdery iris note as a focal point, Le Cri is a bright, clear aldehydic floral scent with a soft yet satisfying chypre base. The aldehydes add subtle sparkle, brightening the florals to perfection without overpowering the scent with blinding white soapiness. It is a exercise in balance, with each note serving to complement the iris-rose accord beautifully. So far, I am very impressed with Parfum d'Empire as a house, and quite admire Marc-Antoine Corticchiato's work as a nose. Le Cri is very different in style to the dense, mossy compositions I have already tried from Parfum d'Empire (Corsica Furiosa, Vétiver Bourbon et al.), but it is just as good. Le Cri opens with a delicious, powdery iris note, feather-light yet luxurious. The luminous aldehydes round things out, adding a crystalline quality to the florals. As it develops, rose emerges, and in doing so, forms the lipstick accord that forms the heart of this scent. The raspberry complements it perfectly here too, adding a hint of fruitiness. As it develops further, the musky ambrette emerges, complementing the powdery iris-rose accord to perfection. It is softly sweet, slightly woody and very smooth. The earthy patchouli forms an unexpected, subtle chypre base alongside the woody notes and musk, tying everything together beautifully. It fades to a musky, mossy skin scent with remnants of the powdery florals remaining. Sillage and longevity are moderate. It is a feminine-leaning, transeasonal, daytime scent in my opinion. A beautiful, lightweight iris-rose chypre, Le Cri is immensely wearable and exudes sophistication. If Serge Lutens Iris Silver Mist is a steely grey thunderstorm, Le Cri is a bright, cloudless sunny day. 4.5/5.

Le Cri would make Chanel No. 18 blush with an underachiever’s embarrassment. “You call that ambrette seed?! I’ll show you ambrette seed!” The two have more in common than either Polge or Corticchiato would like to admit, I suspect. Ambrette, fruits, iris, a woody base, and seemingly the same abstraction. Both want to play with light. Where No. 18 wants to bend light through a prism to create a kaleidoscope of purples, pinks, reds, and blues, Le Cri wants to cast a heavenly glow straight into your eyes like you’re being lifted out of your body by The Almighty Himself. Once that white glow subsides at the top from the ambrette and iris, an incredibly potent combo that is nearly blinding in intensity, then comes a burnished bronze of warming light evocated by powdery and sumptuously textured pink rose nestled on a base of milky woods that is likely some mix of high-quality materials pushing sandalwood, cedar, and rosewood. After wearing it for a few hours I finally Googled it and, a bit to my surprise, this perfume has garnered a lot of attention by perfumistas and critics, and even Mr. Turin who apparently, like myself, also smelled more than a connection to No. 18, as have many others. So, I guess the question is do you buy this instead of No. 18? My answer is yes, depending upon what you want. Corticchiato’s style is a lot more straightforward, no surprise. Le Cri seems to be a lot less challenging than No. 18. I love No. 18, so don’t get me wrong here, but where No. 18 succeeds in genuine mind-blowing complexity and challenges, Le Cri succeeds in being simple but it’s done exceptionally well and with exceptional materials.

I had sampled this (on paper) nearly three times and had nearly given up. Each time it was ghostly, barely there, I struggled to find it on the strip. I was incredulous as ambrette, iris and rose are all favorites and this brand is my absolute favorite, desert island brand. Then the temperature rose about 10 degrees (this is wintertime in Canada) and I tried once more, determinedly, on skin this time. There it was! Green, woody, tart, sparkling, starchy. This time it projected and rose to meet my nose. It seems decidedly classical in its design and proportions but also modern and like a kind of new age anti-perfume as well. Green apple, pear, musc, steam, linen, light. A hint of frozen red berries. Twigs in the wind. Bread notes. Steel. 10/10 this is a masterpiece. UPDATE: I love this so much I didn't really care if it was one of those perfumes I barely ever use, cause I have many I hardly use but still love lots, but I find myself using this one quite a lot. It's easy to wear as I don't think it reads as floral so much as just a tart, fresh, green musk. It kinda has a low profile which works when I don`t want to make a huge statement to those around me, but still lasts a long time and is there for me to notice. I will be buying (multiple) back up bottles although I'm praying it's a permanent scent in the PdE collection.

This is a very very great fragrance. It's a floral musky woody fragrance. The three major notes are ambrette, iris, and rose. It is inspired by the abstract painting "The Scream" by Edvard Munch and the child's birth. The ambrette is a beautiful ingredient I love a lot giving it a musky and powdery dimension. These days most musk fragrances use synthetic musk which I found very unpleasant on drydow. But there are few, like this one, that use an expensive ambrette (a plant-based musk), which has the complexity and will not turn to synthetic smells on dry down. And then a beautiful dance of iris and rose. I don't know how the perfumer did it but these flowers are so greatly well-blended together. To me, the top notes of bergamot, aldehydes, and raspberry were unnecessary and did not add any character to the fragrance. They just added to make it more pleasant. These notes give virginity, elegance, and passion to the perfume. It's more feminine but men can wear it as well. It's not very loud and I like the projection as it is. Amazing stuff 9.5/10

One of my favourites of Parfum d'Empires range so far. Though apparently most similar to No 18, Le Cri de la Lumiere is in fact very evocative of the general Chanel house style, being replete as it is with aldehydes and iris. I'd even say it's not a million miles away from Irisss by Xerjoff or Iris Poudre by Frederic Malle, though Le Cri is rosier than either. The aldehydes in the opening give the classical angelic/cloud-like effect you'd expect: a weightlessness and, to some extent, soapiness of an ethereal nature. The heart has a note-perfected iris-rose combination, with both clearly detectable to my nose and smelling of powdery rose with some soft, cosmetic-rooty undertones. The base is musk, again in a very Chanel-like style. It's a really exquisite scent and very classical in feel - likely not quite daring enough for those looking for unconventional fragrances. It's something of a masterclass in classical feminine perfumery, and has the string-of-pearls, lace gloves feeling you'd expect. Top-tier soap scent.