Cedar, cedar and — can it be — more cedar? Christian Lacroix’s second foray into men’s fragrance delivers a successful woody aroma in a stunning indigo and silver bottle. With notes listed as Atlas, Virginia, Chinese, and Texas cedar, Tumulte Homme was created by nose Nathalie Gracia-Cetto.
There’s not much to tell about Tumulte, other than I love it. I detect the slightest hint of citrus at the opening and I want to say that the base also reveals a sandalwood note, but alas, I can’t find these listed anywhere. Slightly sweeter and not quite as dry as the Comme des Garçons Incense fragrances (think Kyoto or Avignon), with a nod to Diptyque’s Tam Dao, Tumulte certainly won’t win any awards for originality. But if you’d like to smell like an exotic temple, a carved wooden chest, or for those with less imagination, a shoe tree, Tumulte will make a great choice. Ladies — I haven’t tried the women’s version yet, but I’d definitely wager that the men’s version might be more interesting!
I sprayed this on around 3 in the afternoon at home and then headed out to meet a student — both the roommate and the student offered a compliment (within 30 minutes of application) so I’ll suppose the sillage is effective. Lasting power is about 4-6 hours, though 9 hours later, the scent still lingers. Definitely worth a try if you’re looking for that light, incense-ish fragrance that is neither smoky nor too sweet.
Christian Lacroix Tumulte Homme is available at strawberrynet.
31 Comments
Read more about commenting at Now Smell This.
It is a gorgeous bottle!I love the smell of wood and especially cedar chests so this sounds right up my alley!Nice bottle and a nice scent to go with it. I can only take so much floral and gourmand scents before I need a break.This sounds like a wonderful alternative.Thank you!
Marlen, I had no idea it would be so cedar-heavy, now of course I must get this one- for myself. Oh my, thank you so much for this review.
Marlen, I love wood scents and incense scents so now I'll have to sample this one. Thanks for pointing it out! Your reviews here are always top notch so please keep them coming.
Great review. “A shoe tree”…LOL! I can't wait to get this scent. Fortunately I love cedar and incense, but I'd be tempted to get it simply on the basis of the bottle being so stunning. Love it!
Yes, stunning bottle is right!
Sounds very interesting Marls. Thanks for the review. I wonder if they could have achieved a similar effect by using just one type of cedar. I know that the different varieties do smell slightly different from each other but would it make any difference to the unrefined noses of the non perfume cognoscenti?
Go on say it, Barry, stop waffling..ha ha!
Hi all!
I can't stop sniffing this one…the layers of cedar notes from light and bright, to darker and sweet certainly create an interesting effect. After a year of some rather disappointing releases, Tumule is a welcome change!
Aw, I'm disappointed – as much as I love reading your reviews M, there's usually the “bonus” fun of poor Neela being fooled every week!
You know, I already love the bottles, both femme and homme, for this scent, so I know eventually I will have to give them a whack. Ah, the lovely essence of “shoe tree.” All that woodiness sounds right up my alley, but then I'm not usually one to shy away from the “male” scents anyhow. I'll have to make a mental note not to forget to try it out.
Came back to say that I saw these for $26 or $29 at Strawberry.net with free shipping. Just sayin'. I think I am going to cave considering the price.
Nice review Marlen, I am so in love with both of the bottles (the women's is gorgeous, too). The men's fragrance sounds right up my alley, I love cedar and incense.
A 1 oz edp spray of the women's Tumulte starts at $30 at Strawberrynet.com, and the men's 1 oz edt spray is $26. I believe shipping is free. I'm considering getting the women's just to see if there might be something interesting about it, though really just to get the bottle…
Dear all,
Here are the notes that are presented on the Tumulte Homme tester in the shop :
top notes : juniper bay (juniperus communis), laurier (laurus nobilis)
middle notes : geranium (pelargonium graveolens) and elemi (canaris comune) (spice)
base notes : cedar, incense, sandalwood from Australia
Thank you Damien, glad to finally see a complete list of notes!
Hi Marlen.
Shoe tree? That's hilarious. In my mind, wearing this scent reminds me of a handsome square cedar dining table, complete with natural markings and an everlasting scent. Undoubtedly, not as sweet as CDG's Kyoto, Tumulte is d-r-y. But I guess that's very much of Tumulte's appeal. I often wear it straight after my evening shower, rarely in the day. The middle notes seem to escape my nose. Once I thought I smelt something flowery, but it was only fleeting. One slightly disappointing aspect is that it doesn't seem to truly stay on my skin, but it seems to hover over it, albeit for a long time. But often at the end of a long day filled with odors, traffic and madness, this almost minimalistic scent works wonders for my sense of calm and peace.
Note that I just found this in Marshall's for around $15. It is just as described. I love woody scents . Comparisions with Tam Dao and Kyoto are appropo. Tumulte echoes a bit of both with a distinctive frankincense note that is there from the beginning.
I got one at TJ Maxx too! Great price, and wish I could find another bottle, I'm worrying that it might be discontinued.
Bought this wonderful, romantic, woody liqueur recently – had an eye on it for ages and as Robin I am worrying a bit: it has a “niche quality” and a fashion house like Lacroix might want to discontinue it if the commercial success is not as expected.
I'd describe it like this: Pungent start with an almost medical Juniper note and a certain herbal freshness. What strikes me about the head is that I get no citrus note, which I find rather unusual for a men's fragrance. Then a long, dry and smoky cedar phase softening slowly towards the end with something that reminded me of patchouli appearing (very subtle) and an oriental, somehow vanillic sweetness after some hours which must be the sandalwood. I wonder if the development is also due to the different cedar species its composed of.
It's less powerful than I remember from testing it but it has a good lasting power. For a wood-based fragrance it stays rather close to the body. I like BanDaCat's description of it as “minimalistic” – it radiates almost spiritual serenity. It is not sold in the usual high street perfumeries and certainly deserves more attention.
Don't know if you got it at TJ Maxx, but the fact that so many bottles were dumped there worries me. Been keeping my eye out there so I could pick up a 2nd bottle, but no luck so far.
Lacroix's older fragrance “Bazar” is still arround, but I think it's out of production. It's rather annoyingly penetrating, though.
I'm in the UK where they have TK Maxx (I guess the same?), where I was looking as soon as I read you guys in the US found it there – without success. But: I found Anisia Bella and I love it! Though my favorite AA is Mentafollia, “sigh”… I guess you recognize a person with a good taste (like me of course
) by his or her preference for discontinued fragrances…!! Let's hope Tumulte is not one of them.
Aha, and I bought Anisia Bella at TJ Maxx last year. Love it when I see Guerlain AAs there. Hoping Mandarine Basilic might turn up eventually.
Yes, I'll keep my fingers crossed for TPH!
Hi, I live in UK but was more lucky with finding Timula in TK MAXX !
I went to buy a present for my mother in law yesterday and accidently found this fragrance on the shelf with the other toiletries. It attracted me by it's gourgeous package and a price of course – £6.99 for 30ml. RRP is 15 quid though – still cheap comparing to the other famous brands. So I decided to buy it for my husband. After reading your comments I'm looking forward to him trying it as I adore cedar wood! Hope you guys will find it eventually like I did – by accident!
Hope he will love it! You might give it a shot too, I wear it although I have to admit there isn't anything feminine about it.
Good decision! And I have to have a look again at TK Maxx soon!
For the AA, you make me curious, Robin – I'll try the Mandarine Basilic when I see it. I was always looking for an orange/green mint combination. Never found it (Dyou know sth like that?) but AAMB might go in that direction.
LOL — just mentioned MB to you on another post. Basil is sorta minty, but this really does smell more like mint than basil. There aren't that many mint/orange scents that I can think of offhand. Eau d'Orange Vert has mint, but I wouldn't go so far as to call it “minty”.
Haha, yes! Sorry, I told to you twice I got the AB… But you authors must get confused with all those posts addressed to you! Don't worry if you can't answer them all. And I got confused with the Robins… took me ages to understand.
And thanks for the tip.I actually remember now I was searching for orange FLOWER and green mint. I'm not a fruity person though I like mandarin and I often wear Moschino Friends, especially in warm weather. Mint is quite rare, intit? That's why I loved Mentafollia and Creed's Vetiver. Didn't buy them (yet) though.
I remember who said what for about 15 minutes, max
Aha, orange blossom & mint. Can't think of a single one, offhand.
Just received my bottle yesterday and I love it…. well not the first 5 minutes which to me smell more like pine scented cleaner but then the smoky incense kicks in. WOW! NICE!
IMHO Tumulte Homme is very worthy of comparaison with Comme des Garçons Incence serie–for a fraction of the price!
I heard today it’s out of production, boo-hooooooo!!! Need to order some online as long as it’s available.
Yeah, I’d assumed that since it was hard to find anywhere other than discounters. Thanks for confirming!
hi there,
i really like this scent and am bumbed it’s out of production. can you please share with me where it might still be available on line?
thanks!
At the moment, am not seeing it at any of the online discounters that used to carry it. Am seeing it on ebay though!