Tauer Perfumes

Two reviews from the absolutely lovely and charming Swiss indie perfumer, Andy Tauer, whose blog I read regularly for insight into the mind of a perfumer....

Reverie au Jardin
Notes: lavender (high altitude mountain lavender from France), galbanum, fir balm, bergamot, rose absolute, frankincense, ambrette seeds, orris, vetiver, tonka beans, oakmoss, vanilla, ambergris, sandalwood and cedar wood

Sweet, spicy, and bracing, all at the same time, the lavender's herbaceousness sings out at the beginning of this scent, a touch soapy and a bit green. Like a walk in the woods, the green is reminscent of trees, rather than grass.  While the lavender is prominent, I can also smell the warm vanilla-almond quality of tonka beans and a lovely frankincense note that create a softness to mellow the initial sharpness of this fragrance.  The drydown on me is all vanilla sweetness over a faint echo of what came before, plus iris, sadly without any woodsy notes. 

L'Air du Desert Marocain
Notes: coriander, petitgrain, lemon, bergamot, jasmine, cistus, bourbon geranium, cedarwood, vetiver, vanilla, patchouli, ambergris

Although there is no leather note, that's how this smells on my skin -  the musty smell of well-worn leather goods.  This is spiced with coriander and the barest trace of citrus.  The drydown introduces a subtle cedar note.  It takes me back, not to Morocco, for I've never been there, but to the antique shops my parents used to haunt when I was growing up, and to the auction gallery I worked in for a few years in the early 90s.  This is the scent of old leather upholstery on wooden furniture, remnants of furniture polish, and the dusty scent of antique Oriental rugs.  The vanilla in the drydown adds a quality of sweet tobacco to the mix, reinforcing my reminiscence of the past. 

Hours into the drydown, L'Air becomes a fantastic woodsy amber.  A gorgeous, gorgeous scent that is most definitely on my wish list.