Perfume Review: Maison Gabriella Chieffo Taersia  (Luca Maffei) 2016 + A Maelstrom of Desire Draw

Dancing in the Rain, Simon Wilkinson©

Sounding the depths of the cry for freedom that is so often dormant in the human heart until some impetus crashes meteor-like into the sleepwalking that often passes for our everyday lives. Who doesn’t, in the dark unfettered depths of Soul, hear there a longing for complete freedom, abandon, a break with all the convention and conformity that impose themselves upon us via the invention of culture and its prescribed traditions? –Andre Whidas, 2014, commentary on Albert Camus’s, ‘The Adulterous Woman’ 1957

Gabriella Chieffo 

 ‘A Woman of Substance’ was my very first impression of Gabriella Chieffo, with a strength that stretches out from her uniqueness and powerful vulnerability. A creative who immerses herself in her creations, so that we who wear her fragrances are graced by a glimpse her enigmatic self .The perfumes etch themselves into our flesh as if tattooed indelibly by her artistic hand. Taersia is the second creation from the 2016 collection, it means ‘storm’ in the Southern Italy dialect, telling the story of a moment anything could happen, the moment of destiny unfolding and the embracing of uncertainty and dangers. The fascination of an ancient story according to which in the past, young women were not allowed to smell the scent of Tuberose as it was thought to awaken ‘impure thoughts’.

Only Lovers Left Alive 2013 starring Tilda Swinton

Perfect strangers, ‘wild reckless people who met by the sea in need of wind and wet kisses’, it beckons us to explore when touch becomes a conflagration, movement fluid, and bodily lines of form dissolve. We all know that mad feeling that envelopes us when our desire is aroused, a driven force to explore, spirited into an in-between realm where we lose sense of time and space, of our reality. A rousing invitation rather than a formal handwritten note requiring a polite RSVP, this is a carnal, Maenadial scent. The words of John Malkovich, in his role as Vicomte de Valmont, 'Dangerous Liaisons', rings in my ears, ‘It’s beyond my control’.

John Malkovich and Michelle Pfeiffer in Dangerous Liaisons (1988)

The summons in the opening of Bergamot, Ginger and Elemi, is a provocation, warm and sultry, verdant and wetly tumescent tropical bush, a herald of the incoming tempest, the heated winds far out at sea, airs laden with unseen portent of the storm building. Rousing and warming it prepares the ground for the Tuberose to break the surface no demure virginal of latent power, it is a curvaceous invitation and rises in my senses as a definitive seducer.

The Tempest, Lissa Bockrath©

Denuded in the shallows marveling at the force of the storm, slate blue in the sky, knowing I can do nothing more and desire no more than to be inundated by the deluge, crackling energies and rain on my skin, willingly betraying reason.

Tuberose, Imogene Cunningham 1933©

.A maelstrom of Tuberose, white, creamy and rich, saturated with enriching coffee, and the resinous sanctity of incense and myrrh.  Heady and intoxicating, permeating all the notes,to bring me into the eye of the storm, where all is electrified and my senses are reeling, another touch, another kiss, elemental exposure and grasping flesh, on and on until all distinctions between are dissipated and two exist in a vortex of storm borne delirium. Knowing in its retreat, I am reinvented, shaken, gasping for breath.

.Angelina Jolie in a Poppy Field, 2001 David La Chapelle ©

The base unfurls, a tumescence of sexual afterglow, patchouli and musk, the warmth of suffused, blood flushed bodies and the curling, intimate touch, soft and tender, animalic purring.  Woods and Amber complete the dry down into a blissful repose.  It should be reveled in deliciously slowly.

Black Water, 2016 Vitravian Studios©

No returning to my previous self from this tuberose soaked intensity, Gabriella has in this raw and vibrantly explicit scent dispersed a breath of metamorphosis into the grey recesses of human confinement.

Photo: Gabriella Chieffo

You are so very dangerous, You know exactly 

What you want

And you know

I want to give it to you -Samuel Decker Thompson

Top notes: bergamot, elemi and ginger; middle notes: tuberose, incense, myrrh and coffee; base notes are patchouli, cashmere wood, cabreuva, white amber and musk.

Sample received from Gabriella Chieffo, with thanks. Opinions my own

Danu Seith-Fyr, Contributor

Thanks to the generosity of Maison Gabriella Chieffo we have a draw for a registered reader in the EU, USA and Canada for a 100ml of Taersia. To be eligible please leave a comment with what you enjoyed about Danu’s review, where you live and which movie, poem or book brings to mind reckless desire means to you or if you like tuberose perfumes. Draw closes June 1, 2017

We announce the winners on our site and on our Facebook page, so Like Cafleurebon and use our RSS FEED…or your dream prize will be just spilled perfume

 

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33 comments

  • fazalcheema says:

    This is quite an artistic creation. The diversity of contrasted notes such as tuberose, coffee, and musk make it hard to predict how the fragrance may smell on skin. I have mixed relationship with tuberose because I love some tuberose creations like Dior Poison and Malle Carnal Flower while others are more challenging. The movie that brings to mind reckless desire is Cruel Intentions. I am in the US.

  • MichelleU says:

    Big fan of tuberose not just in perfumery but I love the flower itself.

    The whole review is very evocative and it is no surprise that tuberose brings the carnal, raw inspiration.

    When it comes to reckless desire in movies I can only think fatal attraction but when it came to a book it made me shift towards Perfume:Story of a Murderer and what reckless desire turned into obsession can do.

    I am a reader from the EU! Wish you all the best!

  • I love the photographs in this review!
    A book that comes to mind about reckless desire is My Education by Susan Choi.
    A great tuberose perfume is By Kilian Beyond Love. I think real tuberoses are amazing! I had some actual tuberose tubers that for years I’d plant in a pot outside for the summer and then dig up, dry and store in a paper bag in my closet for the winter (like dahlias). Alas, they fizzled out one year.
    Thank you for the chance to smell this intriguing beauty! I live in the U.S.

  • Wow, I am blushing a bit from this review. Nice work.
    I thought for the longest time that I didn’t like tuberose, but then tried Hiram Green Moon Bloom and my eyes were opened from there. This sounds delightful and would be honored to get a chance to try it.
    The first movie that popped to mind when thinking about reckless desire has to be Wild at Heart. Oops, blushing again!

  • VerbenaLuvvr says:

    Wow, I need a cold drink after reading this review! 😉 the description reminds me of the scene in Gone with the Wind where Rhett breaks down the bedroom door and tells Scarlett no lock on earth could keep him away. I live in the US, thanks for this chance

  • Well, shucks… This was quite the review! 😮 Danu, you were beyond thorough and it made me think of when I was a young teen and with a friend of mine, we quickly scanned a “bodice ripper” novel in a small bookshop in Solvang, California lol. Yes, well, suffice it to say, I adore Tuberose(and many other white florals), but I don’t know if I have ever associated it quite so much with a storm of desire. Perhaps that is just my lack of perfume experience *cough*. However, in regard to a “maelstrom” of desire… Well, storms can be so many things.. Either beneficial in the long run or utter disaster, right? Personally, I thought of the quote, “Can a man scoop fire into his lap and not be burned? Or walk on hot coals and not have his feet scorched?” as I read this review. I suppose it is that very real risk of personal conflagration that is the ultimate draw. Buyer beware! Lol
    The raw materials of this perfume sound AH-mazing though! Tuberose, coffee, myrrh, ginger, musk, bergamot and cabreuva!! Heck, I don’t even know what cabreuva IS, but I’m sure it goes well with the Tuberose and I would be thrilled to try it! Carefully…
    I live in the USA. 🙂

  • GrandmaGaga says:

    One of my favorites is The Piano, great romantic film! I am in the US and this perfume sounds wonderful!

  • coconyc205 says:

    Wow what an amazing description of this perfume! I am in the US, best of luck to everyone on the draw!

  • This review is so amazing. I have enjoyed to read every sentence of it.
    “The dragons covet gold, with a dark and fierce desire.” From my favorite movie, The Hobbit. This quote is the first which comes to my my mind with the desire word.
    I have not tried any tuberose perfume yet, but I think I would very love it. Thank you for the chance. I live in Europe.

  • BethMongold says:

    What a HOT review. I hope the fragrance lives up to this “tuberose soaked intensity.” I LOVE love love tuberose, my favorites are Anatole Breton’s L’eau Scandaleuse and Hiram Green’s Moon Bloom. I live in Colorado USA. Thank you!

  • I liked the description of the scent notes which was made by Danu with such an extreme ardour.
    I like tuberose perfumes; from the very few I have tried, Do Son lasted on my mind.
    I live in EU.

    Thank you.

  • BlessedTA says:

    I really like the pictures. My favourite tuberose perfume is Fracas

    Hello from Canada. Thanks for the chance.

  • Sounds gorgeous! I love tuberose perfume and Narcotic Venus is my favourite, but this sounds a lot more sensual and sexy. Thanks for the draw! I live in EU.

  • ntabassum92 says:

    Very sexy and gripping description! I love that it’s likened to a storm. I’ve never thought about it, but that is what romantic entanglements are like. I’m in the US. I love tuberose perfumes, because they remind me of my mother 🙂

  • NiceVULady says:

    Wow, that’s enough to make me want to reach for a fan. I do like tuberose although I don’t have a favorite. Others here have mentioned The Piano and the scene in Gone With The Wind. The latter still makes my heart go pitty-pat. Thanks for the draw. I’m in the USA

  • What a SENSUAL and POETIC review!!!
    My favourite tuberose perfume is classics of tuberose perfume- Fracas
    fom USA

  • Hikmat Sher Afridi says:

    Wonderful review! In short I’ll say this review blooms the tuberose before its blooming season. Tuberose is one of my favorite note in perfumery and I have so many tuberose based perfumes in my collection like Guerlain Mahora, Fracas, Poison, Hypnotic Poison, JPG Fragile, Truth or Dare, Versace Blonde, HdP Tubereuse 3 Animale, Giorgio Giorgio Beverly Hills, and FM Carnal Flower; and many others to get like award winner Dusita Melodie De L`Amour and Coty Sand & Sables etc. The movie that popped up to mind is MOULIN ROUGE.
    Thanks to the generosity of Maison Gabriella Chieffo and Cafleurebon for the opportunity to participate in the draw by letting my relative address is US.

  • Another tuberose, which is this time a “Maelstrom of Tuberose, white, creamy and rich”: hummm, it sounds so good, I just need it!

    I have only two tuberoses in my collection : Carnal flower and Tubéreuse criminelle…

    I live in EU.

  • A beautiful and bad perfume at the same time. The review is very well written-
    ‘scent of Tuberose as it was thought to awaken ‘impure thoughts’.

    In USA.

  • The notes are certainly intriguing. I have 2 fragrances with a coffee note. I recently became enamored by patchouli so I would love to try this. I am not much of a movie going person and most of my reading is non fiction genre, but the ladies of “Calender Girls”popped into my mind. Perhaps this fragrance would have helped put them in a more relaxed state for their photo shoot as they were following their passion for the charity. Great article, I shall never look at tuberose the same again. I live in the US.

  • Bryan Christopher says:

    I’m a very big fan of tuberose (or white florals in general) fragrances right now. Based on Danu’s review, I will really like it, as he describes it beautifully. I’m in the US. I think James Dean’s Rebel without a Cause is apt for a movie about reckless desires, as it’s about teens, and teens tends to do crazy stuff.

  • kaitracid says:

    I think this was the most erotic review of a perfume I’ve ever read, so this was an interesting read 🙂
    I do love the smell of tuberose, so testing this would be great! US

  • Well that review was a little steamy.. I really like the smell of tuberose. As such, I’d love to win this fragrance.

    I live in the USA.

    Thanks

  • Very evocative review. Thank you! I really want to put my nose on this southern Italy storm.
    Thank you for introducing another interesting perfumery house to me.
    I am in the USA.

  • I love how Danu created a sensual and seductive aura in his review to match the sultry feeling of the scent. The use of a storm of tuberose tumescent afterglow and the vivid description of the opening has me lemming to try this…and until reading this I had never heard of Maison Gabriella Chieffo…but from the sounds of it her company bears sniffing into!

    I live in the USA.

    The novel The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCollough has always been one of my favorite forbidden and reckless love stories. Father Ralph DeBriccasart first cheats Meggie out of her inheritance of the Drogheda sheep ranch through the machinations of Mary Carson (who loves Ralph but it is unrequited). Then, after trying for years to fight their forbidden love they meet on a secluded tropical island as man and woman only and Meggie becomes pregnant, raising her son Dane as her husband Luke’s. Dane drowns towards the end of the book (ironically after he takes vows to be a priest himself) showing the sins of the father can be visited on the son and one act of reckless abandon has far reaching effects.

    Brokeback Mountain is my other favorite reckless love story, if we are talking of cinema and movies! The way Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhall are powerless to stop their all-consuming passionate (and taboo forbidden) love affair is achingly poignant.

    Tuberose was a note it took me a while to “warm up” to, but now I own Malle’s Carnal Flower, Matriarch’s Forbidden and several others-all of which I find intriguing and sensual. I love how in olden days young women were not allowed to sniff that blossom as it were ignite or stir impure thoughts!!

  • What I loved about this review: “A maelstrom of Tuberose, white, creamy and rich, saturated with enriching coffee, and the resinous sanctity of incense and myrrh. Heady and intoxicating, permeating all the notes,to bring me into the eye of the storm, where all is electrified and my senses are reeling, another touch, another kiss, elemental exposure and grasping flesh, on and on until all distinctions between are dissipated and two exist in a vortex of storm borne delirium. Knowing in its retreat, I am reinvented, shaken, gasping for breath.” What person in their right mind wouldn’t want to get their hands on this fragrance?! So many images saturated with emotion. That moment that excitement that pleasure, captured in time. I adore tuberose.
    I live in the US

  • Fanning myself quite the erotic review”the base unfurls a tumescense of sexual afterglow”
    I love Fracas the tuberose that is everything
    Hmmm sexiest movie scene I think Basic Instinct
    I live in Canada

  • I love tuberose and this review makes me want to try Taersia very bad! The fresh opening of bergamot and ginger, the heart of coffee and incense, the dry down of patchouli, musk and woods over a lush tuberose sounds very tempting. Would love to win this draw! USA

  • xXxrootxXx says:

    Hi really enjoyed danu’s sensual look into the fragrance ,danu describes fragrance fantastic you can almost smell them,great review.I havent tried many tuberose dominant fragrances but i do enjoy the note when done right in perfume.I wud absolutely love to try this perfume myrrh ,incense yum…..I live in canada

  • scensodine says:

    Tuberose is my top favorite note of all and i dig for anything indolic!
    The first thing in this review that startled me was: young women were not allowed to smell the scent of Tuberose as it was thought to awaken ‘impure thoughts’. I didn’t know that and to be honest i think it are men that can get impure thoughts when smelling tuberose on a woman, LOL!
    This is a horny review and i love it!.
    I immediately think of vampires and especially the movie Dark Shadows.
    This because of the lust for not only blood but love and accepting.
    And the movie wicker park where a man get’s obsessed by a women.
    Maybe because she is wearing Taersia? 😉

    I’m a perfume addict from the Netherlands, EU

  • Tuberose is definitely one of my fav notes! This fragrance sounds great! I’m in Canada and thanks for the draw!