Launched in 2017, Nuit de Bakélite is the fifth fragrance from Naomi Goodsir Parfums and another outstanding one from this young brand.

It opens green and sweet from a note of angelica. Violet leaf is here, too. It adds more green to the opening, along with that distinctive metallic tang I love. Galbanum elongates the green, but with a bitter, bracing edge to it that softens as the fragrance evolves to a flowery heart with tuberose at centre-stage. This is not the tuberose I was expecting. This tuberose is surrounded by a veil of green so that it smells and feels, like the stem more than the flower. And it isn’t indolic; that aspect has been stripped out so that the lush, creamy aspect of tuberose becomes the star, heightened by buttery orris. Right about here in its development, I get a whiff of camphour, that aspect of tuberose that always draws me in. It may be put here to reference the plastic smell of Bakelite, but I don’t get that effect on me. And it doesn’t diminish my experience of the fragrance one iota that I don’t. When it starts to bloom, karo karounde, a scent-cousin of jasmine, amplifies the tuberose, but also warms it with its spicy aspect. Ylang-ylang, rich and floral, also supports the tuberose as aromatic davana, bitter and herbaceous keeps that green gently humming. It is simply stunning – and it’s not finished yet! At the base, Nuit de Bakélite gets leathery, deliciously leathery, supported by rich, aromatic tobacco and with resinous, smoky, woody undertones from styrax and gaiac wood.

Nuit de Bakélite is not a tuberose I know. You can’t hide a big flower, but you can showcase other dimensions of it, which makes this Nuit de Bakélite a new, exciting, original interpretation of tuberose. This is one fragrance that’s not to be missed.

Notes: Angelica, violet leaf, galbanum, orris, tuberose karo karounde, ylang-ylang, leather, davana, styrax, tobacco, labdanum, gaiac wood.