Description
“Le Cri’s soaring cry is a call for rebirth. Crystal-clear ambrette, a vegetal musk with eau-de-vie facets, irradiates an opalescent iris shot through with glowing rose. In the shade thrown by these lustrous notes, a subtly woody base brushes against the skin. Luxury, brought to light.
Le Cri de la Lumière, The Cry of Light is a fragrance that revolves around three major ingredients. It begins with the crystalline scent of the ambrette. It is a variety of hibiscus coming from India and giving fruits with small seeds in the shape of beans. It is precisely these which are distilled to obtain essence of ambrette. The smell is musky, powdery, animal and somewhat fruity. It is accompanied by one of the most noble flowers of perfume: the iris. This ingredient reinforces the nobility of the fragrance The Cry of Light. Indeed, the iris is one of the most expensive products in the perfumer’s palette and is reserved only for prestigious perfumes. Its powdery and elegant breath is accompanied by Turkish rose. Symbol of the perfume par excellence, we say she is “the sugar of perfumery”. Its fruity note here recalls the smell of sake and its romanticism is omnipresent.” – a note from the brand.
Le Cri de la Lumière was launched in 2017. The nose behind this fragrance is Marc-Antoine Corticchiato.
OrvilleIng04 – :
The niche and commercial perfumery of the present time is very concerned with serving the trends according to the market in which the brands work and with this one loses a very important aspect of creation: the artist’s journey in search of the message, a personal reflection that ends up becoming something universal. In personal reflection on luxury and its morphological origin in the word lux, light, Marc-Antoine Corticchiato produces a contemporary masterpiece.
It is interesting the elements that Marc-Antoine Corticchiato chooses for this, for as much as they are trends and elements of luxury they are used with a greater purpose, where the message that is said is as important as the words chosen. With ambrette, iris, rose, patchouli and other elements the perfumer and owner of Parfum d’Empire reflects in the classic and luxurious chypre structure to extract a difficult aspect of it: transparency in contrast with luminosity.
The very choice of the type of chypre employed here is interesting, as it exemplifies very well the multiple meaning of the word luxury, which has both the connotation of something superfluous, greed and richness. The eighteenth-century chypres perfectly represent all these aspects, with fluoerescent floral structures designed to dominate the environment. Here Marc-Antoine Corticchiato cuts off the excesses of rose fluorescent chypres, capturing the richness of materials and shines the idea to reverse the emphasis of a chypre: instead of the darkness of the base is the light of the body and heart that reigns.
The perfume opens on the skin with a clean and bright aura and curiously if you know the aroma of ambrette seeds one can perceive its delicate and fruity vegetable structure already in evidence with the contrast of the light of the opening. This is modulated around a noble floral body, where the rosy nuances of ambrette contrast with a boozy rose and combine to a sophisticated powdery iris nuance. Patchouli emerges over time to bring the darkest and most earthy aspect of a chypre, but even the patchouli here is modulated to serve the purpose of light without letting the perfume darken in its olfactory texture. The search for light reflection in luxe produces a result that is in fact its luxurious in its essence, an interesting and very well composed work from well known and used elements. A real luxury in all its aspects.
MigAmiree – :
9 – Woody, vegetal rose. Lots of powdery iris on first smell, but quickly turns into a citrusy aldehyde-musk combo. This, unfortunately, is one of those things my brain interprets as “old lady” so we’ll see how this goes.
9:30 – after a rather confusing journey of notes in 30 minutes, it’s sitting at the bergamot being super hyped up on top of some sort of dry, peppery floral that isn’t rose or iris.
For the rest of the day it was just a super perfumey white floral. There are better offerings both in the genre and from this house. Meh. It teetered on screechy in the heat (90+ degrees) but never quite got there, which is actually reasonably impressive.
Longevity was extreme but sillage minimal after the first couple of hours.
ironestone – :
I have a hard time smelling this one. In the vial I get something floral. On paper it’s a little more salty and on my skin it’s… barely there. I have a dab tester, not a spray (sadly) which is probably part of the issue. But this is incredibly soft and indistinct to my nose. I would love to test this with a spray sample sometime and see if that helps it bloom!
racyUnoriaror – :
From the first sniff of Cri, you’re drawn directly to the center of the perfume. Perfumer Marc-Antoine Corticchiato even factors in the volitility of the alcohol burning off and uses it to segue into a lustrous accord with the olfactory dynamic of an eau de vie. The topnote is like the scent of Poire Williams brandy or Slivovitz, where the fruit is pressed so far into the alcohol that it is reduced to essentials. It’s neither juicy nor sweet and has an incisive slant. My note from first sampling Cri de la Limière reads, “Super fruity but dry as fuck.” Not the loftiest of insights, but apt. The Poire Williams note is the perfect backdrop for a sleek iris note. Woody, rooty, cool to the touch. Matching iris to the desiccated fruit brings out the vegetal nature of ambrette.
Cri de la Lumière is a closely tailored perfume that holds to a tight dynamic range. Rather than broaden the composition the musk accord focuses it, though the perfume sidesteps the strictness that a minimalist approach can impart. The rosy, fruity facets of ambrette are balanced by a plastic quality that gives a deliberate synthiness to the perfume. The fruit appears embedded in clear lucite and the slightly peony-like berry/rose gives a transparent pink sheen to the perfume. The effect is perfectly calibrated and though subtle, is durable. The fruit gives Cri de la Lumière a stained-glass effect and despite the specificity of the fruit notes, the perfume reads as fairly abstract.
The perfume’s woodier side reveals itself periodically like a bit of slip showing. Once I spotted it, I couldn’t stop looking for it to reappear. This sort of diversion is a good example of how Corticchiato’s perfumes engage the wearer. Whether in a forceful perfume like Tabac Tabou or a more watercolor one like Osmanthus Interdite his perfumes reward your attention with engaging olfactory shapes and transitions. The perfume plays subtly with the animalism found in musk ambrette. (Musk ambrette smells like a sweaty, imaginary fruit.) Of the various dimensions of the material, the animalic feature is among the most durable. Corticchiato doesn’t hide the material’s ‘skin’ side but he does nest it fairly deep into the perfume, where is is a quiet foil to the plastic, acrylic details.
from scenthurdle.com
Haikeagrirm – :
This is so pretty–a warm, crystal rose, not too loud, softly burnished by a powdery grey iris around its edges, set in an ethereal ambery glow on a pillow of steely watery musks.
anton69 – :
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.
xcho86 – :
On my cooler than average skin, the fragrance opened with bright airy and slightly fruity Rose scent. I detected the somewhat bitter, musky and metallic Ambrette note together with powdery Orris almost immediately. At that point, Le Cri de la Lumiere reminded me of Cabaret by Gres for its fresh powdery, somewhat Aldehydic and fruity Rose scent. As the scent developed, the powdery vibe sort of tamed down the brightness of the fruity Rose and the musky Ambrette became more prominent. I personally find this fragrance a bit too feminine to be called a unisex fragrance. In general, it is a beautiful Rose/Orris/Musk fragrance with moderate to soft sillage. I personally would probably layer it with a more woody or earthy fragrance to make the scent a bit less feminine.
Chesterfid – :
Gentle and classic iris-aldehyde start, green, with undertones of what I can only describe as cereal (meaning flour-like, hay). Very pleasant. I put some on my skin. Alas, it gets louder and looses the understated, quiet and relaxed charm – instead it becomes a hissy, annoying thing, a glass-scratching sharp fingernail, all big bold radiating molecules without fine-tuning. I washed it off.
ujkjec – :
Bright musk mellow blended with rosiris flower!
It’s the sharpness of a 80s powerhouse, and a luminous of the 2017 bright sun blended together to form “Le Cri de la Lumière”. It’s quite bright with musk mellow, iris, roses, black pepper, lime, patchouli, and huge doses of aldehyde.
This is chypre based fragrance with roses, iris, & musk. Quite interesting.
MusinRG – :
More feminine to me, maybe the iris? Sillage and longevity were not that great. The scent didn’t seem natural and seemedn somewhat synthetic on my skin. I received this as a free sample and won’t be making a purchase.
K_lion_v – :
After a brief whiff of a waxy, faintly rooty, lipstick-like iris, Le Cri de la Lumière soon bursts into a dazzlingly bright light of ambrette. It has a somewhat starchy, grainy texture, underscored by the iris lurking around. There is also an astringency over the steamy, clean vegetal musk, swinging back and forth between the alcoholic taste of pear liqueur, and the fizzy, faintly soapy aldehyde.
If ambrette and iris make the main body of the glaring white beam of Le Cri, it’s the rose and a green nuance that transform it into an opalescent gemstone. The rose here is slightly tart, reminiscent of the wine-like facet of a classic damask rose-patchouli accord but much, much softer and less saturated in tone. In the Fragrantica interview, M. Corticchiato talked about using a cleaner version of patchouli and vetiver, and creating a lightweight moss-like greenness thanks to other innovative materials. I’m unable to perceive patchouli or vetiver in a distinctive manner, but the mossy greenery without its heaviness is spot on to describe the green nuance that I smell in Le Cri. Actually, Le Cri reminds me of a rose version of Heeley Chypre 21, which also focus primarily on a clean, vaporous white musk and a diaphanous mossy greenery.
This olfactive firework doesn’t last long, though. After about 2 hours, Le Cri is already a gentle, smooth clean white musk with a drop of sweet pear juice. To be clear, the musk here doesn’t evoke laundry detergent to me, but reminiscent of the sensual smell of skin freshly out of bed.
Afterwards, Le Cri retains this innocent, pure clean musk skin scent until the end. It stays close to skin for the most of the time, and lasts about 7 hours on me.
Le Cri de la Lumière aims to interpret the light with its perfume, and I think it succeeds beautifully with this radiant, crystalline composition. Its first 2 hours let ambrette shine like a glowing star among other supporting notes, demonstrating that one can make a clean fragrance without sacrificing its nuances or sophistication.
However, as smooth and versatile as the dry down is, I’m still a bit disappointed by the quick silence of the gleaming ambrette. Moreover, I was not touched by it on a personal level like with many other creations from Parfum d’Empire, probably because this type of clean, aldehydic floral green musk is ultimately not my cup of tea.
That being said, Le Cri is definitely among the better-made perfumes in this genre. If you enjoy sparkling, pure white musk with a nod to classic aldehydic and chypre perfumes, I think Le Cri de la Lumière is worth considering at least a test.
bond01 – :
Transcendent. Luminous. Crystalline.
epinamycapmex – :
This surpasses even my high expectations. A luminous, sparkling ambrette opening is joined by a truly gorgeous and elegant combination of rose and Iris. Over a woody chypre base. Parfum D’Empire is one of my favorite houses and their Tabac Tabou is one of my most cherished scents. Le Cri lives up to the hype. It is nothing less than a radiant masterpiece.
Олеся16 – :
Weeping Nude by Edvard Munch 1913