Today’s picture shows you the sky over Zurich, at 5.30 am, in a twisted way thanks to yesterday’s serious evaluation of the latest tuberose centered scent that I am working on since felt eternities. In reality, I started about a year ago. And am still not there where I need to be. I tested the last version and decided that it is not there yet, missing in longevity, and force maybe. At 5 I woke up and sort of felt what I had to try next. So I got up and took a picture of the sky that will see me fly through tomorrow, on my way to Paris, for a short, cheap trip. We are trying to safe money and hence the plane. Yep. Flying is cheaper than taking the train when not planning way in advance.

Paris will have me for two days, visiting friends, and a fair for raw materials. Fun! And important!

After 10 am, the peace was over, when I realized that I need to plan and pack a super urgent Fedex shipment, into my warehouse, though. But there was time enough to write down the new formula, mix it and put it into the shelf. It may rest in peace and mature now for a couple of days. I changed a lot: Simplified the core, extended the base, adding a few more base notes, and changing the proportions. The previous version, on skin, was nice for about 5 minutes. It would be the perfect duty free tuberose. Simply not good enough. Maybe as splash it might work.

OK. Time to pack and get the last minute things done before, yes , I know, I mentioned it before: Paris. 2 days without parcels and packs and more.

Another what’s up post after a busy weekend. The weather is great, and so is the pollen load that usually does not bother me too much. Except, when it is really heavy. Best is to stay inside and work. That’s what I will do in an instance, packing perfume, and answer mails in the factory.

Today’s picture shows you a white flower’s detail, lily, blooming these days in the house. I took the picture Sunday morning, and photoshopped it this morning. I kind of like this picture for there is a thin layer in focus only. I will upload a larger copy of it on facebook,  for those interested.

So… Lily: Would be a nice sotto la luna scent, too. What an opulent lady. Her fragrance is simply amazing. Intoxicating yet elegant, in a certain way. But for sure super powerful.  I guess Ms. Lily will have to spend the night out on the balcony in the coming days. I did a base, about two years ago, for Lily, kind of green and powdery: I will need to revisit this base soon, and compare it, with what I have in front of my nose and what the literature says. Think “head space”: Bo Jensen gives some starting information and an interesting link to a patent where folks protected a means to chemically reduce the scent production of cut lily and published some head space data. Interesting! You find the link on Bo Jensen’s site.

Another base that I did over the weekend: Rose. Kandahar rose oil being a central part, (10%), and Sunday saw me adding a couple of layers around it, like thin silk drapery. I also did an apricot-almond base (or cord). But when done with the two of them, I liked the rose so much and found it so soft and gentle: Anything that I will use around it in a formula will need to respect this gentle nature of the rose. Tricky.

And then, finally, I could do the long awaited dilution of the tuberose version 24. Love it. So far, so good, but I will need to have a closer look in the coming days. A closer look: This is true for a couple of other things, like Italy (think:  gloom doom  boom), the brochure that I want to get done and Paris, where I need to go to this week, for a fair. OK. I better get going now. Enjoy your day.

Today’s picture: labels for the new boxes.

Right now, I am finishing an interview about “niche” for Harper’s. A few questions, a few answers and a lot of question marks from my side. Question marks that go like “hmmm… actually … hmmm: good question”, or “well, somebody should say this, but do you really want to say this?” or “will anybody care, actually….?”

The entire interview is about niche, basically, starting with a question what the idea of niche is for me. My answer is something like: “In the past, up to a few years ago, niche perfumery used to be a term that defined a market segment and an artistic segment beyond the “mass market” and aside the “luxury perfume market”. Niche perfumery used to be low volume perfumery, with highest standards for ingredients and the formulas of perfumes, being sold outside of the main distribution channels, by selective perfumeries. Niche was characterized by highest quality standards for ingredients and creativity, and lowest marketing expenses and the abstinence from marketing blurs.

Nowadays, niche is dead and as a term, niche has become meaningless, as multimillion dollar brands try to define themselves as niche and marketing has absorbed what used to be invested into raw materials and creativity.

For consumers, it has become very confusing. Hence, I try not to use the term niche for my perfume house anymore. I use the term artisanal or haute perfumery for my perfume house, fitting much better. ”

When asked what the “modern niche” is now, I come up for the interviewer with:  ”Modern niche”, if you so want, is an industry approach to money making, by offering mediocre perfumes, with a marketing concept, and an exuberant price tag.

I wonder whether I will get printed. But now, I have to hurry to the factory. Packing niche. ah. no: packing …whatever!

today, just a quick post. Although it is still pretty early: I need to head to the factory and fill air in to bottles. And then put air into boxes. For this, I am printing cards right now, on my laser printer, that miraculously accepts the thick paper, which is right beyond its specs… although, funny enough: it only accepts the one side with the tauer logo in silver if put in bottom to head, not head to bottom like I should. Thus, we had to turn all label information that goes on this side by 180 °. The silver logo seems to confuse the paper detection thing. Well, must have to do with the past of the printer: It was standing in the offices of the Swiss Federal Bank. And wasn’t really used there.

Anyhow, while I fill air and boxes: Here is a quick update on the brochure thing. The picture shows you a full double page (left and right pages if you open up the future brochure thing), in the middle, and a cut of the preceding double page and the following page. The text is not really important, yet. I worry more about the overall visual impression. We have kind of 5 elements:

Large picture, overlapping to the opposite page

small picture, in a corner position, showing some detail of a picture that fits with the content of the text

text, scattered, that can be read and makes sense without following any particular order

semi transparent blue space at the bottom, with a personal statement

hand-written “motto”, header for  each double page

Do I like it. Yes. Do I love it. No. Could I go with it. Don’t know.

What’s missing? It is too geometric. Too nice without being creatively brave. It misses a few elements that render it “different”. I have a few ideas, though. I am considering cutting the square pictures and bring in some round forms, some background elements, maybe changing even the format from A5 to A4, allowing me to go bigger with the main pictures and still have enough room for the text.

We will see: I just wanted to share this with you. It is like with perfumes and their creation: even if you like a particular scent, even if you think, it is “OK”, you do not really love it. And this is not enough.

Right now, I am smelling rose oil, from a paper strip, organic quality, from Afghanistan. It is produced in quantities that are much lower than the demand as its quality is amazing. I was told that we have to wait for the next harvest to get more. I got 50 grams. I mentioned it before: The rose oil is the result of a DWHH (Welthungerhilfe) project running since a while in the Afghan region of Kandahar. A (German only) website informs about the project and let’s you see some nice pictures where the roses grow and the people taking care of them, picking them, distilling the oil.

Besides the fact that it is great quality. Like: Really great quality!, I love the idea of people cultivating roses instead of poppy. That’s a nice story. I will use the rose trying to come up with a Christmas special, a fragrance, that plays with roses. With 50 grams, you can do a lot of perfume…. thus: no worries. Rose oil is super intense, and for many not really “nice”, or “rosy” to smell. It is spicy, with hints of clove due to the eugenol, marzipan like, with some sour notes, fruity with notes of apricot, plum, peach, it is rich in citronellol. 33% of this particular rose oil consists of citronellol; this, together with two other terpene alcohols (these are simple organic molecules,  based on C5 units), i.e. Geraniol (22%), Nerol (13%), makes thus up more than half of what you get. Citronellol, geraniol, nerol are cheap and are some of the working horse molecules when constructing a simple rose. Thus, there is this citrus, waxy, typical sweet floral bright note of these terpene alcohol, very present, and inviting to play. I will do so this afternoon. I have some ideas, but am not sure yet, in which direction to twist this rose.

A bit cliché would be to bring it into a rough, earthy, dusty, bit leathery context. (see the pictures following the above link); reflecting the land and the rough life there. A bit less cliché might be to bring out the fruits (I have this wonderful apricot natural extract), and highlight the rose by making it airy, transparent and floral; reflecting on hope and visions.

Or do something totally different. Like a completely abstracted rose.Hmm… we will see. What I like about this little project: It allows me to work on roses again, learning more tricks, without the implications of later having to do a big launch. Just a little rose project, with raw material that comes from a region torn apart since decennials by war.

But before I can start playing there: I need to continue on the brochure, like in the last few days. Fun, and worth sharing. Tomorrow.

Today’s picture: A shot with the phone, a couple of Marguerites, photoshopped, seen yesterday in the area.

today’s picture shows you my working bench, with the keyboard that sits in front of the cintiq. There, on the cintiq, I will in a second work on a peony flower picture that I scanned yesterday. I hung the flower on a frame and let it sit right on the surface of the scanner without actually touching it. I will work on the picture, remove part of the dust, adjust the blackness: Scanning against nothingness gives a dark background, but as my room is not really nothingness, it is a tint off black.

The shows and structures that you see on the picture come from the drapes in the studio room. This pattern was the reason why I took the picture. I reminded me in the fact that I wanted to get things done a bit differently for SOTTO LA LUNA®, playing with pictures and moods, and doing so on a more “private” level. For the readers new to the idea of sotto la luna (under the moon): sotto la luna is going to be a line within the tauer universe that consists of flowers, blooming under the night sky, white flowers, either by color or by their perfume. White flowers are for instance: Gardenia (finished), hyacinth (finished), tuberose (not finished).  The  shadow pattern reminded me in it as I am thinking about visuals of the moon, the night, cities, white flowers and much more.

There is one arranged element in this picture: The flacon in the bright sunlight. It is empty. I brought it home from the factory in order to get some pictures done, of the cap, the relief on the flacon, on some details like the crimping edge on the flacon’s neck. When I saw the light playing with the drapes, I wanted to see the serious and somewhat austere flacon talking with these playful elements. It is these playful elements that I want to see with sotto la luna.

On various levels: the scent. the decoration. the visual. the message. Playful, for me, means also, not worrying about the many twisted things that happen these days in the industry and the places where perfume lovers gather. Or, like an other artist told me the other day “most of the discoveries can remain private”….and maybe they should these days. On a certain level. To be frank: It has become obsolete to  talk about inspiration as perfumer: not many listen anymore. too many scoops and visions and too many reanimated historic treasures behind too many scents have pushed the boundaries, the patience of perfumistas and perfumers. Not many listen and that’s actually a good thing: My hope is that at some point, perfumistas and art lovers will start smelling again and engaging with what’s real.

Thus, in a sense, playful means maybe not sending a message out really, not talking about it to the intermediaries, not serving a precooked soup of notes, doing things differently by not doing them, maybe.

Yet, you have me talking here, about not talking. I haven’t really figured this one out, yet. Maybe I will find a way to talk about tuberose (as example) and sotto la luna less through words but more through shadows playing on surfaces.

When you talk about a particular flower, take tuberose for instance, many seem to have very specific expectations. Mostly, I dare to state, these expectations are trimmed and defined by what we are served, by industry and by the so called niche. The mechanics are the same. I am convinced that by not talking about sotto la luna and tuberose (for instance) when I am done with it and present it, the more interesting it will become. Thus, tuberose, sotto la luna, will come, when it is ready. Right now, I am waiting for version 24 to mature and getting ready for dilution.

Coming back to the picture, there are bottles on the right side, a common theme in the house of tauer: Bottles everywhere. It is a constant fight to have enough space to place a mouse or a booklet. On the cintiq, you paint with the pen, directly on the sensitive surface of the screen (you do not see the screen on the picture), and hence I at least do not have to worry too much about mouse space. 

And now: the peony scan. Enjoy your day!

One of the things that I have learned these last few years: Things take longer than you think. This is true for all aspects of “things”. Like coming up with a changed packaging. Things take longer than you would think, and this is the case for the initial plan, coming up with the details and the design, executing the plan and getting all done, and finally bringing it all out and communicating it. So, it took really quite a while from the first discussions with my designer guru up to the first bottles shipped in the new packaging.

And I haven’t really talked about some details. So there we go: The new packaging consists of a tin box, rectangular, with a sliding cover, and a cardboard sleeve, the protects the tin and adds an extra layer of finesse. My goal was: Protection of the tin. And adding a stylish, luxurious, extra(vagant) element, without going blingbling. OK: I admit. A simple piece of paper, wrapped around the tin would do the same job, or a piece of brown cardboard. But in the end, a folded, ready to use sleeve translates into easy and fast to pack.

And, in my experience, in a first contact situation, for instance in a shop, the aesthetic quality, the charm and the value of the outer packaging communicate the values and significance of what is inside.

That’s why I wanted to have a shiny silver relief, without blingbling. Think: No Svarovski. No pearls. Today’s picture shows a detail, from the hot stamping treated logo. I was amazed about the quality of the printer’s job. Like “WOW”! Hot stamping is a technology (click here for Wikipedia’s information on it) that comes with a price tag, but it’s worth it: this bright shiny silver effect. On a structured cardboard: Superb.

Besides the logo, the claim “Immersive Sculptures® ” is also hot stamped.

In the internet, you do not see a lot of this: Most (all?) online shops do not really show the packaging. I, on my website, do not show the packaging either. Shame on me! I figured, I need to change this, sooner or later, at least for my site.

Bottom line of this post: Hurrah!! we have a new packaging with a hot stamped cardboard sleeve that sooner or later will find its way out there. Since its launch, the new packaging is protecting the Noontide Petals flacons. And right now, the first bottles of L’Air du désert marocain® in the new packaging have left the factory for some retailers. There will be a gradual transition, with Lonestar Memories following, Incense rosé, Incense extrême, Orange Star, too. And then the Homages scents, like Une Rose chyprée, Carillon pour un ange, and Une Rose vermeille. But that will take a while. Other scents that do not sell that strong, like Vetiver Dance, stay a bit longer in old packaging. I guess it does not really matter.

Enough packaging for now: Next will be another trial, version 23 (oh my.. this takes longer than expected, too), of a Tuberose, under the moon (Sotto la Luna). I guess I will talk about this in detail tomorrow.

I wish you a lovely day, may it be shiny.

Welcome to June 5!  When opening my email first thing in the morning, like I always do, before coffee, and totally unbalanced, I got the pdf from Forbes Life May 2013 which made me very happy. I shared the picture with the Lonestar flacon in the middle on facebook yesterday evening, under a brilliant evening sky, but did not realize how nice it is to be featured in Forbes Romania. And I love the picture, the arrangement and what folks at Forbes did with the colors. Great stuff!

Thus, this is a nice hop into June so far. The first 4 days saw me packing perfume, fiddling with photoshop, indesign, and today excel again. And screening and searching for a simple, affordable manual cellophaning tool: There are markets that demand that the packaging comes sealed in cellophane. I do not really like the alternative, shrink wrap, in PE or PP, as it does not look half as nice. Cellophane, sits neatly around the box (the cardboard sleeve in my case) and protects perfectly. So… In order to help my friends in these markets, I need to be able to offer a cellophane wrapped packaging.

Of course, there a companies out there that can do this for you. But I do not want to outsource this step either. By keeping as much as possible in my hands, and maybe the hands a helping fellow, I can keep costs down, am connected to what I do, and do not depend on minimal volumes and minimal transactions.

But compared to following  the European Cosmetic legislation that comes into force the next few weeks, the cellophane wrapping is nothing. If you want to get an idea, just a glimpse into how the EUROPEAN UNION feels there: click here and have a look at the pdf file with its 150 pages and uncounted annexes. Please have a look at the pdf file and imagine what it must feel like, for a young entrepreneur, somewhere in one of the EU countries, who wants to start a perfume = cosmetics business. And don’t get fooled and think that you do not have to follow this law: In some regions (think South of the Rhine), there is an administration in place that enforces this law. Without merci.

Basically, you cannot do artisanal perfumery in the EU. And this is just one example of what is wrong in this European Union of today. How uncool is this: I have perfumer friends who move to Switzerland these days, to start their venture here, because it has become virtually impossible to start there.  As nice as it is for Switzerland: This is so wrong. Sorry for being so explicit.

Anyhow, in the EU, nobody really seems to care, and the citizens seem to accept whatever comes from above, and so I shouldn’t worry either.

And I stopped worrying about cellophane wrapping. I think I found a very simple manual tool. I will give it another day of thinking, though.

How cool’s that?

From now on, the L’AIR DU DÉSERT MAROCAIN is “registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office”. This means a couple of things: Like I am now officially allowed to putting the ® symbol behind the name Air du désert marocain. And it means that I have to learn how to make the ® symbol: On my PC, I can do it by holding the ALT key and then typing 126 on the numerical keypad. And it means that, for a moment, I am pretty happy.

And, after these 5 minutes happiness: Let’s move on and get some packing lists done in excel.

There we are again: Monday, Monday, and a new week, fresh and untouched before us. Today I have a scan for you, an scanned bug, about 1 cm long from head to the tip of the wings, found dead outside, and scanned, with 10500 pixels x 10500 pixels. This results in something like 650 MB. For the blog I am reducing the size to 300  pixels but some of its beautiful features are hopefully still visible. I love, love, love this metallic transparent colors.

Regular visitors  of this blog know that from time to time I scan things, like Kiwis, chicken or flowers. Actually, the raw chicken scan is kind of… well: Special. Two scanned and super decorative motives, a cut kiwi and a cut strawberry,  found their way onto 120 cmx120 cm large canvas, printed in super high quality, framed and sit in the shop of Pascal, the bookshop where all Tauer Perfumes started. There they sit on the wall and folks who want to buy them could do so. Don’t ask me for the price: I do not know, as this is Pascal’s job. The pictures look super realistic and printed on linen canvas they have quite an artistic touch.So far, they did not sell. Nope. Although a lot of people ask about them: who made the pictures and what the story is behind them? Although the scans are liked a lot, they are not sold.

Anyhow: so far no sales there. Pascal and me discussed the “why”. We came to the conclusion that the format is just too large. Some potential clients said so, too. “Where to hang these pictures?”, that’s what it boils down to. Maybe. In sales and war, there is always a fog of incertitude. I will, if I find a moment of peace and time and feel like it, create another picture or two, starting with a scan and print them in something like A3 (or in between A3 and A4). I have a few cool scans and the only thing  I need to do there: Get rid of the dust particles and enhance the scans with photoshop.

The reason why I mention this: It is yet another good example of how we can all come up with great ideas and love what we do and forget that our potential buyers see things differently. If asked beforehand, they would not mention it. If asked to buy later, they don’t.  It is true for every market. You never know whether your potential customers will buy, until you have your product in the store. Asking beforehand does not always help. That’s why a lot of products (also perfumes) fail in the market. You never know. I find this super thrilling. So…. I am really curious whether we will see sales of the pictures if we adjust the size. Now, making these scanned image based pictures is not really a new business venture, not a serious one, but more a hobby, a distraction and joyful playing. But one fine day, I might decide otherwise. You never know…It would be cool to at least cover my expenses for the scanner.

And yes: I got so much great feedback and helpful comments over the last few days on the brochure state of works! Thank you so much. These comments and shared reflections and ideas helped me a lot. Thank you!