Le Cri de la Lumière Parfum d'Empire for women and men

It is soft and uninspiring to me.
I smell violet, soft leather / suede.
Verbena and aromatic notes.
Reminds me of cheap fragrances from the past like sex appeal from Jovan for some reason.
4/10

This seriously smells like light, in a cathartic way. There is a tart raspberry and citrus, and then a big dose of aldehydes, with a heart of iris and rose combo. French chic, and true niche here. Worth every penny.

I've never been a big iris fan to begin with, and the muddled opening here with too many competing florals doesn't help matters. Eventually this quiets down to a fairly pleasant musky and lemony rose, but it takes a while to get there.

I am a huge fan of the house of Parfum d'Empire, so my hopes were high for this; but I can't say I would ever seek this out.

This is going to be an odd comparison, but hear me out. You know how Vietnamese food is so satisfying because it hits the sweet, salty, sour, fresh and spicy taste buds all at once? Le Cri pulls off the equivalent in terms of olfactive accords. It is at once an intensely fruity rose and a musky iris, and an animalic Ambrette seed. There is nothing missing in Le Cri. And yet there is not too much of anything either. Le Cri tells a story about balance.

Perhaps because Le Cri is hitting the sweet and floral and musky and animalic notes all at once, it triggers the dopamine receptors like I’ve never experienced before. It is a thing of wonder and very, very addictive.

Musky (slightly animalic) scent with herbaceous freshness and bitterness. Some waxy powderiness from orris root that balances the fresh side. It’s cosy but usually. Reminds me a bit of L'Attesa Masque Milano.

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It's great, but why does it resemble The Portrait of a Lady? The note list has not much in common.

This is a very very great fragrance. It's a floral musky woody fragrance. The three major notes are ambrette, iris, and rose. It is inspired by the abstract painting "The Scream" by Edvard Munch and the child's birth.

The ambrette is a beautiful ingredient I love a lot giving it a musky and powdery dimension. These days most musk fragrances use synthetic musk which I found very unpleasant on drydow. But there are few, like this one, that use an expensive ambrette (a plant-based musk), which has the complexity and will not turn to synthetic smells on dry down.
And then a beautiful dance of iris and rose. I don't know how the perfumer did it but these flowers are so greatly well-blended together. To me, the top notes of bergamot, aldehydes, and raspberry were unnecessary and did not add any character to the fragrance. They just added to make it more pleasant.
These notes give virginity, elegance, and passion to the perfume. It's more feminine but men can wear it as well. It's not very loud and I like the projection as it is. Amazing stuff
9.5/10

As an iris lover, I have long wanted to try this scent. Featuring a light-yet-decadent powdery iris note as a focal point, Le Cri is a bright, clear aldehydic floral scent with a soft yet satisfying chypre base. The aldehydes add subtle sparkle, brightening the florals to perfection without overpowering the scent with blinding white soapiness. It is a exercise in balance, with each note serving to complement the iris-rose accord beautifully. So far, I am very impressed with Parfum d'Empire as a house, and quite admire Marc-Antoine Corticchiato's work as a nose. Le Cri is very different in style to the dense, mossy compositions I have already tried from Parfum d'Empire (Corsica Furiosa, Vétiver Bourbon et al.), but it is just as good.

Le Cri opens with a delicious, powdery iris note, feather-light yet luxurious. The luminous aldehydes round things out, adding a crystalline quality to the florals. As it develops, rose emerges, and in doing so, forms the lipstick accord that forms the heart of this scent. The raspberry complements it perfectly here too, adding a hint of fruitiness.

As it develops further, the musky ambrette emerges, complementing the powdery iris-rose accord to perfection. It is softly sweet, slightly woody and very smooth. The earthy patchouli forms an unexpected, subtle chypre base alongside the woody notes and musk, tying everything together beautifully. It fades to a musky, mossy skin scent with remnants of the powdery florals remaining. Sillage and longevity are moderate. It is a feminine-leaning, transeasonal, daytime scent in my opinion.

A beautiful, lightweight iris-rose chypre, Le Cri is immensely wearable and exudes sophistication. If Serge Lutens Iris Silver Mist is a steely grey thunderstorm, Le Cri is a bright, cloudless sunny day. 4.5/5.

Stepped into a mud puddle of old petals. No one note stands out because they're all calling to me at the same time. Run away.

Ahh, Mr. Corthicchiato, you quickly became one of my favorite noses.
Perfect word to define his style would be sophisticated.

Le Cri is a beautiful fragrance indeed, it has an ability to grow on you with every use. With every new use and also the amount you spray or even the weather outside you will uncover a new facets of this fragrance.
In the alchemy of scents, ambrette seeds, iris absolute, and rose unite. Their mingling forms a fragrant masterpiece—a tapestry of musky allure, velvety elegance, and floral enchantment.
I still have this for week or so, so I am still delving into this fragrance, deeper and deeper with every use.

There is one fragrance, however, that I am constantly reminded of every time I wear Le Cri: it's Comme des Garcons 2 in a silver bottle.

rich velvet catches the light and gleams and sparkles at the folds, with muted shadows that withdraw into blackness; thats how this feels. velvety orris with wafts of crystalline rose. a twinkling chandelier in an echoing hall, and the cool twilight air that passes through a set of chimes.

To my nose it's a perfectly crisp and clean ambrette. Nothing that could be associated with a powdery fragrance, no boudoir, no baby powder, no makeup powder. It might be the most inoffensive scent I smelled in a while. Perfectly unisex.

The opening is largely beautiful sparkling aldehydic iris tinged with rose - basically what I wanted No.5 to be like - but once that phase is over it becomes a bit of a disappointment. Note that I am not much of a fan of rose, which as it becomes more prominent after the opening to me, may be why it doesn't do much for me.

Do we smell the same perfume? To my nose there is no sign of iris, rose or almost every note stated here. It's not powdery nor floral at all. Instead I get an immensely screechy, dirty, almost alchoholic like patchouli and leather. I don't normally have a problem with these notes, but here they are just too much. It's a firm NO from me.

A floral mess out of which a strong (and very persistent) violet note emerges and screams to me: "Don't wear me!"

I hear your cry.

Violet Chanel No. 5. A no for me.

A stunningly beautiful, ethereal, feminine-leaning floral. I can't believe it has such a (relatively) small note list. The rose is wet, dewy, and surrounds the iris, which is pitch-perfect.

Top 5 roses I have smelled, and top 5 florals. This is a relative of Nishane Sultan Vetiver and Atelier des Ors Rose Omeyyade, in my mind. All have the rose or a rosy scent as the centerpiece, and the centerpiece is surrounded by various other florals. Really like this mildly ambery scent profile that all these fragrances share.

I got my bottle of Musc tonkin today from ZGOperfumery.com and they were very generous. I received 4 free 1ml samples of Le Cri and 2 other samples that I didn't know they were giving me. So, I'm a happy camper today. Le Cri starts off w/ a blindingly bright aldehyde w/ a sharp violet tone, it almost overwhelms and has a very Chanel like quality. As the fragrance settles, I begin to like it a lot better. The violet and iris are toned down by a kind and generous, yet soft soapy rose and all the florals become cloaked in a beautiful musk. This perfume is aldehydic, floral, powdery, soapy and w/ a very clean musk. The soft and slightly sweet raspberry is coming in for me now, it is not strong or overdone as it is in so many super sweet perfumes of today. It is just there enough to give a subtle sweetness to the perfume and keep it a bit more in line w/ the tastes of today. This is a perfume that is an ode to great perfumes of yesteryear. Very freshly clean but in that style of clean from the 19th and early 20th centuries. White bar soap, women's dressing powders, cosmetics and various violet, iris and rose perfumes mingling together on a posh and elegant woman's vanity. This is the type of perfume that I would have to spray my clothes w/ first and walk away for 5 minutes. After the initial blast of very powerful Chanel like Aldehydes and a sharp violet it become quite beautiful and very wearable. I will have to live w/ this a bit longer to decide if I would like this to be in my collection. It might be something I just buy samples of from time to time.

Edit: 1/3/23 Revisiting my samples of this again after reading Elena P article here about Hermes Rouge and how it is a perfume touched by the Snow Queen's magic. I think Le Cri is such a perfume. The more I smell this the more I smell a garden that has been visited by the Snow Queen. Her breath froze the roses, violets, broom, iris, and they cry for the light and warmth of the sun to revive them. This is now a love and I also think it is a transitional perfume, winter to spring. A floral for a March/April snowstorm or a March/April snow melt. Stunning.

Perfect even in cold weather. The rose, of spectacular quality, is icy and mentholated by patchouli, and made colder still by iris. Warming slowly on skin, it reminds one that winter and spring are twined.

Another rose iris combination
It’s undoubtedly sharp
It’s definitely sour
Is it good ……….yes
Is it great ……..no
would it add to my collection……no
I noticed something since it’s fragrance number 8 that I tested from this brand their rose notes are actually on a lower quality side
Any scent that says rose here it’s very sour and almost synthetic feeling
It’s a good experience but not enough to get
Longevity was above average

The closest example to this I can think of is Thameen Patiala. The scent profile is very similar. Aldehydes, roses, musk. Except Le Cri smells lighter, more effortless. They are both very unique in the realm of perfumery. I kind of like this strong, citrusy aldehydic take on a rose. It appears fresh, crisp, clean, but has some interesting nuances.

I did not have high hope for this. My body chemistry hates rose and musk combo, they smell like wet socks on my skin. Since Parfum d'Empire now offer sample set which is very convenient, I think why not give Le Cri a try?
The moment I sprayed it on my skin - Oh, beautiful! Aldehydes and iris change everything. Bright and uplifting floral scent. Like a shaft of sunlight shines through curtains, onto the pink rose bouquet by the window.
It seems that Parfum d'Empire have changed its name from Le Cri de la Lumière to Le Cri. I don't understand. The original name sounds so poetic.

Marc-Antoine Corticchiato has been the object of my affection with his thought-provoking and beautiful compositions, and Le Cri is no exception, as he weaves iris here with a radiant Rose de Mai/Rosa Centrifolia (at least to my nose), clear, sweet, honeyed, nearly peony-like.

It's flourish of extravagant aldehydes, raspberry, and bergamot ushers in this iris and rose waltz, and once its all really set in motion on the skin, its breath, its water, and slowly grows plusher and muskier as an ambrette fleshes out, pouring its seed into a woody vessel and filling the room with a amorous congress that makes the iris blush. The bearded iris just brushed its stubble on salty, heated regions causing rapturous delight in my nose. Sniff, sniff, oooh....

Definitely and undoubtedly a fragrance of utmost caliber, dense, raw, natural smelling, yet also very unusual for today's standards.

Given the relatively affordable price, I struggle to believe Cortichiatto somehow manage to sneak real iris concrete in this one, one of the most expensive raw materials in existence. Having smelled the real deal, it smells nothing like standard iris accords, think of a dense, dusty, oily and slightly raisin-like essence as opposed to the puff of sweet baby powder we are used to in something like Dior Homme.
I get a very accurate recreation of iris in Le Cris front and center, dusty but velvety and oddly 'pale' and sitting 'ontop' of it I get a sweet dewy feminine rose imparting a pink hue on everything and underneath a fuzzy patchouli mixed with clean vegetal musks.
All in all I get the mental imagine of watching materialized dust particles under a ray of white sunlight.

Out of several shocking avant-garde houses I have sampled, Parfum d'Empire, a house complained about for being to mature leaning and traditional, has provided me with the most polarizing fragrance experiences thus far. Le Cri is no exception, clearly intended for women in my mind, it would be very interesting to smell this on a sophisticated lady.

Such a beautifully radiant rose. I don’t get much powderiness on my skin. It opens up with the aldehydes and makes me feel as if I am picking roses in a garden filled with irises AND roses. A very lovely scent, and happy to wear this throughout the spring!

Le Cri, a powdery floral iris from 2017.
Wearing a light retro style coat, it completely returns to the traditional French fragrance creation.
Although the fragrance is ordinary, it is fortunate that the structure is clear and the performance is still good.
Aldehydes and white musk, which give Le Cri an old-time vibe, carefully wrap a modern core.
Let me try to always have a "new" sense of cleanliness.
When roses overlap with iris and cedar, iris has a slight upper hand. The irises here are as delicate as skin and as soft as downy.
Gurgling, silty bubbles of Musk Mallow and patchouli emerge. I suspect that Le Cri contains a small amount of ionone.
Try to distinguish it from the powdery feeling, vaguely, the fragrance will be bright for a while, and then dim for a while, and suddenly, you can't smell it.
Normally, I don't get tired of smelling that fast, guessing it's a particular element that interferes with my nose.
With the rise and fall of body temperature, Le Cri finally silently faded out.
I don't even know when it left.

This is my ultimate barbershop musky floral woody chypre. I know, chypres aren’t fougeres… but this is a deeply mentholated perfect woody patchouli with enough wet clean steam ambrette to fill a rosy iris pink-gray shave cream laundromat dream with bubbles of refracting light.

Sultry as a stubby face on the never ending on-clothes on-hairy-chested woody musky manly drydown.

The ambrette and patchouli are so deep and rich and earthy yet radiant, clear, and smooth. They are subtle but intense. I use 6-8 sprays on moisturized skin. The atomizer is so tightly tuned you can control the rate and location of dispersion with precision. This fragrance’s floral ingredients are somehow pure, almost too clean, but the base notes hold them to the wet vegetal woody ground.

I sprayed before bed and woke up 8 hours later in a plush floral-woody-musky cloud.

The perfume to me is not synthetic smelling at all as the below person describes. It is a little aldehydic so maybe that's why. Very elegant perfume! With class and a certain coolness.

The beginning is a beautiful duet between rose and violets, however, it quickly becomes too synthetic. Beautifully blended synthetics. If there had been some naturals in here to moderate the chemicals it would have been superb.

IFRA was supposed to save us from allergies but I am fast developing sensitivity to modern compliant perfumes. I can taste the chemicals and some of them give me headaches. I am gravitating to vintage and artisan perfume houses more and more.

This scent is a bonafide scrubber. And I did. What is interesting: my first impression was "must buy now" but I've been sniffing long enough to know scents need to be worn 3-4 times before an accurate impression emerges.
With each wearing I enjoyed this less and less, finally hating it. Whatever chemicals are driving the base notes wind up with that "sick human" vibe. Not the vibe you want during a pandemic.
Whatever goodness was bottled evaporates with the first 1-2 wearings.
Do sample multiple times before comitti g to buying it.

This is what Chanel is supposed to smell like. Sublime, abstract rose-Iris accord lifted to the sky on aldehydes, with enough ambrette and patchouli to keep the fragrance warm, woody, and radiating for 6 hours on skin, 12+ on fabrics.

Update: 24 hours later it’s still going strong on fabric.

Parfums d’Empire Le Cri de la Lumiere (2017) - luminous iris - #marcantoinecorticchiato is making me a fan of his and could easily be a creation amongst my collection of classics with Chanel and Guerlain. Starts with a fruity and tart Raspberry-Bergamot opening. I get some aldehydes, but this isn’t in the same context as Chanel no. 5’s waxy smell, but creates a crisp and luminous effect leading to the heart: Iris and Rose. It’s base is supported by Ambrette Musk, woods, and Patchouli giving it a foresty-earthy mossy base and refocuses your attention back to the Orris. It’s construction and transitions so effortless and beautiful. It reminded me of a #russianballet dancer I got to watch. Sure, she was a technical ballet master, but her dance transcended time itself - transfixed and in awe.

Blind buy based on rave reviews and straight away I was a bit disappointed. This is not a fragrance you can fully appreciate straight away, it takes a few wears. And one you wear for yourself as others are not likely to understand. It’s like you have to train your nose to smell the beauty others have assured you is there. It’s an elusive scent in that the initial few wears it fades so quickly that you don’t really realise what you’re looking for. But by the fourth or fifth time you wear it, the scent has imprinted on your memory and you begin to recognise how wonderful it truly is. It’s effervescent yet opulent. Even though I have in excess of 200 perfumes in my collection, I don’t have anything like this. I would say with confidence that this is a perfume for connoisseurs as it takes experience and patience to fully appreciate this gem.

Bought a sample from LuckyScents after seeing Luca Turin's praise for it. Opened with something smelling like a combination of fennel and rose, and then dried down into something indistinctly rubbery and odd. Not a fan of this one. Despite the rose note, the drydown makes this one feel unisex.

-Opens weird and sharp-smelling.
-Dries down to reveal more prominent aldehydes, and a hint of turkish rose.
-This scent isnt mainstream for sure. It's interesting, like many others in its lineup.
-Not fbw due to the strange opening. (-)

Kathleen Battle in a bottle. It seems otherworldly, very beautiful but high and piercing. Every time I smell it, I think coloratura soprano; this has never happened to me with any other scent. Because of that, and likewise for the first time ever, I am tempted to layer it with something more... Barry White?... to give some bass to the proceedings. Experiments ongoing, and suggestions welcome.

Opens with the biggest blast of ice cold razor sharp aldehydes up your nose ever! What a ride! Loved that part. Unfortunately it doesn't last long. After the glaciated roller coaster shower of D-flawless perfect sparkling diamonds is over, then it gets really dry and screechy. Knife edge thin on a point this one is, no depth. Perfectly airy yes it is, no density. Devoid of all living sensuality whatsoever. So very pretty and shiny. Fresher than my damned dryer sheets. I wish my lysol clean linen spray smelled this fresh. This is surgically fresh. Sterile autoclaved fresh. I seriously want a room spray that smells like this. This is actually the PERFECT GODDAMMED AIR FRESHENER!!!!! WooHoo! That's it! I want all my household products scented with THIS!! Too bad MFK, your Aqua Universalis has nothing on this one for super clean and fresh. Screw all the citrus wannabees. THIS is the supreme scent of FRESH! I guess if you work someplace really stinky, you could spray yourself with this and feel some relief. Hell..... spray it all over your clothing, I would. Male, female, nongendered, dogs, cats, closets, furniture, anything that needs freshening up, spray THIS! And it stays that way too. Amazing how it keeps that FRESH feeling going on and on. I personally don't want to smell like this. I just want my laundry to smell like this. The smell of inanimate sterile cleanliness. But as a perfume on living skin........ridiculous to me and on me. Maybe for Halloween if you go out dressed as a robot or synthetic android type. Sort of makes my sinuses feel clear though. Nice sort of nasal experience. Everyone should sniff this.....just for the experience.

Vintage. Powdery. I smell aldehyde, rose and musk. -

Quite an intro. Unbelievably gorgeous, perfumer’s dream of iris and rose and musk to get things started while the scent is at its’ most potent. Beyond this a quieter achievement. A rose that breathes. A thoroughly modern lite pink musk of raspberry and rosewater that I could wear everyday and not feel like a dandy OR a vixen, but like St. Valentine after a bath. The very best of the recent rose/iris/musk concoctions.

I can barely get anything from this. For the first 20 minutes it's just ambrette. Eventually it emerges as an ultra light, creamy cosmetic smell, with an aqueous rose and pin pricks of raspberry, bathed in musk and soapy aldehydes.

It's pleasant...and clean; would make an inoffensive daywear scent for the office, but I've smelled lotions in the Body Shop that have the same vibe and performance to be honest.

I read about this in Turin and Sanchez's second book of perfumes and was compelled to seek out a sample. I expected much.

The top note is indeed one of the most exciting I have experienced. It really does evoke sun and light, not so much over water, like Hermes' Eau des Merveilles Bleue, but on a mountaintop. Skiing in brilliant sunshine.

And yet, the drydown just didn't live up to the promise of the opening accord. It resolves to a rather nothingy floral that on some days suggests washing up liquid.

I so desperately wanted to love this perfume because Luca Turin was so unstinting in his praise. I eked out of the sample over a year, every time hoping my opinion would be changed. Alas. Disappointed every time.

Begins with an extraordinary dance between rose and iris... so well coordinated, bright, and tangy-green with musk and Ambrette that it’s hard to distinguish the rose from the iris. As if a new flower has been created. I’ve never smelled quite as crisp and clear a floral accord. The Iris somehow blends with the aldehydes to lift the rose.

I love it. I can see why Luca Turin loves it. Dries down to a woody lightly musky Ambrette floral pillow. (But it projects a lot for at least the first 3-5 hours!)

The alchemy that makes the rose-iris so brilliant is that rather than a typical heavy patchouli rose and a typically powdery iris, instead it’s a floral with both the fresh intensity and fast-evaporating qualities of citruses. Yet they last!

I apply three sprays of Cri de la Lumiere—and it lasts, as an ambery uplifted yet crisp floral, all day. Beware: for the first hour your WHOLE house will smell like HEAVEN!

I’d buy a FB for a gorgeous spring scent. I’m male and this floral WORKS.

This is s bit like standing downwind in the winter air of Portrait of a Lady. It shares the fruit, rose and iris notes but on an absolutely sheer and watercolour level. I find it very easy to wear when I am going to work or out for the day, to cover myself in a crystalline rose and iris but then forget about it. Herein lies the problem for me: it is just too polite. After the incredible opening, it dies away too quickly.
I found that I needed to apply the scent very liberally. I drained my bottle fairly quickly, which speaks of how much was needed and also how easy it was to wear.
I feel a bit obtuse for complaining; if I want something stronger, why not just go for something infinitely more dense, like POAL? I thought I hankered for a POAL suitable for the summer but it turns out that it is a bit disappointing once the top notes fade... Or maybe it is because my summers are not hot enough. I suspect that if I lived in a 40 degree summer, this would be just the thing.
This is my issue, not that of the perfume. The top notes are absolutely stunning and it gives a fantastic crisp shirt feeling when you spray it on. It is a stunning, and distinctive scent (much more punch and rose than Fleur de Peau, in my view). It just isn't what I was after.

Le Cri de la Lumiere reminded me of two compositions - Fleur de Peau (which I'm largely anosmic to) and Superstitious. It is an aldehydic iris-rose, with lots of musk (ambrette seed); luminous because of the aldehydes. The aldehydes are underplayed relative to vintage aldehydic florals, and the iris-rose-musk accord is nice but not a novelty; very minimal soapy vibe from the aldehydes. It wears too close to skin, and the base is a light accord of florals, musk and soft wood.

Overall, I'm not really convinced by Le Cri; it isn't a great iris scent, and definitely not one's first choice for an excellent aldehydic floral (I find Superstitious to be much more convincing and on a different level). Le Cri is definitely not bad but middling, too weak and eventually underwhelming. Not to mention, not sure why this eau de parfum is nearly two times as expensive as Ambre Russe or Wazamba.


2.5/5

i own vintage version of Amouage Gold extrait bottle (spray), La crie in the drydown has a lot in common with that beautiful rose aldehydic/incense scent! So much that i was stunned how come :) Amazing! becasue that old vintage beauty is not available Le crie makes it possible to smell today like could smell the most expencive ingredients from vintage Gold. Le crie at the opening is alcoholic and not the most pleasant thing to smell, but after 15 minutes it inflates itself into the Eiffel tower building. Very unisex to my nose, very earthy iris, neutral, very white in character. And great performance.

It starts with a morning fog but you know perfectly well there will be bright sunshine in a few hours. Then, comes one of the most exquisite smell of a Turkish rose and continues to be there throughout your olfactory journey. Iris only accompanies this beauty along the way.

Bright, beautiful, classy and somehow very happy.. I love it..

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.

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!

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Transcendent. Luminous. Crystalline.

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.

Have to be tested, a must.

Weeping Nude by Edvard Munch 1913
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