Fleur de Tabac is an incredible tobacco flower type base created by the master perfumer Jean Carles at the end of the 1920s when he worked for Roure. It encapsulates not just tobacco flowers, but the distinct scent of the entire plant as it would have existed in the early 20th century before genetic modification and cross breeding altered it forever. Fleur de Tabac was most likely the foundation of the now all-but-disappeared perfume of the similar name by Cherigan in 1929 but its most famous outing was as a key note in Schiaparelli's groundbreaking 1937 fragrance Shocking (also by Jean Carles) as part of its central pink flower accord. The base is presented here in an essentially unmodified form. Miraculously the formula of Mr Carles has survived the onslaught of regulations and the only necessary tweak was the replacement of a trace amount of a prohibed musk. Fleur de Tabac is like nothing you have experienced before. It is a truly unique and astonishing piece of fragrance history. This base is proof that perfumery has been, and can again be, an art form.
