Welcome to a perfumer's blog on perfumery

It is still beautiful out there. The sun shines under an immaculate sky and produces the greatest colors. Amazing.

Thus, in brightest sunlight, I will be fiddling with bottles and boxes again today. And, on the side, I plan in my excel file the stocks of fragrant starting materials, the X-mas scent gathering and whatever comes to my mind. As putting bottles into boxes is somewhat meditative, I come up with a lot of ideas… I guess I have a few posts ready for next week.

At the moment just this: I booked my flight for Kiev, March 2010…
I wish you a lovely weekend. Enjoy!

Picture: October sun, seen in Zurich.

up there, there is already snow. A bit more than I would have thought. The weather is so nice these days, perfect hiking weather, thus I decided to go up there for a hike. Starting somewhere at 1000 meters, going up to 1800 and then hiking for 6 hours. Uff.

While doing so, I enjoyed the fresh air and the time to think about things like what to stock up and what to do next. And actually, without knowing about the comments on my blog, I thought about the scents that are ready to be launched. Thus, here is the answer to what happened with the Orange Star. Orange Star is next. A first batch of 15 liter matures in the cellar. I tested whether I can produce it reproducibly in larger quantities. It turned out all good and thus, I will make another batch of 25 liters in the coming weeks, for spring 2010. On the other planned fragrances: More later…
And now: Happy pouring fragrances into bottles and thinking of mountain views.

Picture:
The view yesterday, close to the Klausenpass.

On the way up: autumn leave

Hurray, we have a winner of last Friday’s draw: It is comment 16 of Eileen that was picked by random.org. Congratulations to you and to all others: Please do not give up. There are more draws coming your way. Promised! Thank you Eileen for sending me your address.
Today, I will continue there where I stopped yesterday before sacrificing part of my hair for a hairdresser apprentice, supporting the poor guy in his exam by being a model with what is left up there.  Thus, I will pour more perfume into bottles and put labels on the bottles, and I will celebrate the shipment of an all time record order that finally leaves the tauer factory today. More boxes et al. than ever, which brings me right to the latest developments: I finally managed to decide on the dilution of my latest rose trial. I made a 15% dilution. This rose, it’s about rose….
You know: The trial needed to mature for a month. A lot happens in during this maturation time. The composition changes its quality and the ingredients find a new equilibrium. Basically, the hundreds of ingredients react and sometimes it is amazing how it can change. The dilution will again need to sit a few days before it is truly ready. But I can tell you so far: The latest take is lovely and interesting, at least for my nose because it brings different story lines together and spins a new idea of what a rose can be: Metallic spices, fresh red berries, warm citrus and a gentle sweet powdery softness. The rose is built on rose oil from Bulgaria (yep. Expensive. At least the quality that I am using; we are talking 10000 $ a kg, at least), extended by Bourbon Geranium, and a lot of little helpers. The steam distilled rose oil brings in the spices. The Vanilla CO2 extract was a great idea. It grounds an otherwise airy, aldehydic, spicy, fruity (red berries) rose. The vanilla makes it round and powdery. And the addition of more citrus (lemon, bergamot) to the top helps soften the metallic aldehydes that bring out the peppery spiciness. The composition is modern, and yet retro when it comes to its ingredients and the language in which it talks.

You see: I went to bed with 1000 roses. And 100 thoughts.

To contrast my work with the rose: I want to do resins again. I have my ideas there. I want it rich, and heavy and sticky. But first things first: Filling bottles.

(Picture: A drop of larch resin, seen 2009 in Graubünden).

Guess which color we picked yesterday for the ribbon that will go with the wooden special box that we will get soon for the air du désert marocain! (For my readers not following this story daily: It is about a special box for my air du désert marocain and the le Maroc pour elle, hand made in Morocco, 100 pieces to start with, as a special packaging for my X-mas. More on this woody ideas in this post on my blog)

You know: Actually, it is not entirely fair, because a) The colors do not really show well and b) you need the see it live, next to the box (or a box of the same wood).

And b) is eactly what I did yesterday, when visiting Pascal’s shop in Zurich, where he has the demo box. And although I wanted orange first (top row, third from right),  we came to the conclusion that the most elegant color, and at the same time the color that makes you least think in a funeral, and that best brings out the colors and patters on the wood is….

Color 577 (I call it mauve)

with a golden metal yarn.

In the picture below it is in the upper line the color on the very right. It is much nicer than it looks here!
So far so good. On the less good side: Shipment of the wooden boxes turns out to be difficult. 30 kg by post from Marrakesh: forget it! The Moroccan post demands to see every item that goes into a parcel, (yes. No kidding) hence you end up wrapping 100 boxes, one after the other, under the eye of a bored post officer. This sounds like a Rambo mission and as we do not have Mr. Rambo down there, we figured out that DHL might be an alternative. It sure is, for Mr. very rich. Thus, as we do not belong to this category either, and as Pascal is travelling to Marrakesh anyhow in a couple of weeks: We will do a door to door transport by paying extra suitcases and over weight with Easy Jet. Yep. And if the wooden boxes turn into a big seller, we think about how to tackle transport again.
The bottle neck of all business these days, it seems, is transporting goods from here to there.

And as we all have to wait for the boxes: Here is a teaser for you’ll folks. From the comments I will pick (totally unbiazed, using random.org) one guy or girl to win a bottle of the rose chyprée, and another bottle for his or her friends to share, packed and shipped all in one envelope, meaning two things:

1. You need to comment.

2. You might end up getting two rose chyprée bottles and will have to fight with yourself whether you really want to share ;-)

I will announce the winner in a few days. And for those of you who forgot what the rose chypree is all about: Try this link….

And now: Enjoy your weekend and the colors of the season.
picture: Example colors for the ribbon going with the wooden box, with golden metal yarn

Right now, I am happy owner of all the documents that I need for the registration of the LLC , the Tauer GmbH which should be a formalism. Amazing how swiftly they all work, the banks, the advocate of the notary,…. But then: I pay for every hand touching these documents… thus, they’ d rather be hands moving around swiftly.

Right now, I am putting the last teaser samples into boxes for the big shipment. Uff.

And then, I drive downtown with the bike, hitting real quick the shop, to make sure that we have the same ideas for the wooden deco box ribbon.

More on that one tomorrow.

Ah yes….on the way home: heading for the butcher. Today is steak day, to celebrate the paper work ;-)

picture: the working bench, with lots of samples (80 each), almost ready to ship.

I paid the GmbH starting fund on a Swiss bank account yesterday. The Limited Liability Company is getting closer. Now we wait for the confirmation, then we see the notary, then the Commercial Registry and then: Done! You know what: Actually, I should have done this loooong time ago.

I see my LLC’s popping up like mushrooms in autumn….you know: scented soaps limited, lonestar limited, funky rose limited, you name it.

But before are there: Parcel needs to get ready. And I am still phasing out of my office job, trying to pass on what I did to my successor as good as possible.

Ah… yes. I haven’t found time to continue working on the rose. But the GmbH will have time, for sure.
In the mean time, while packing, I think about LLC’s and mushrooms and what to do then…

Picture below: One of the mushrooms that pops up these days. A somewhat hallucinogenic mushroom, I was told, but the difference between a state where you see bright stars and a state where you do not see anything anymore, because your organs fail, is far too narrow. Do not eat. Sniffing is save, though.
Smells like fly agaric.

Yesterday, at midnight, or to be precise: 5 min after, we (me as IT project manager and my supporting IT partners, programmers and other cracks) could finally declare this baby as born. This is good news. It means that I can calm down now, and get into exit mode there, and into perfumery mode again.

The next tasks on the perfumery line: I need to get two shipments out. One is a big chunk of work. The biggest order we got so far. The W.-factor will continue working on the limited liability company paper work.

And I will dilute the latest take on the rose water, that is matured for a month now. I think I will do so today or tomorrow and will then talk about roses again….

But first things first. It is 7.30 am and I need to clean up the virtual mess of yesterday.

Almost there….this weekend, if all goes well, the IT project comes to an end. And then it is clean up time, emptying the desk and search for a bench to relax for a few hours. Officially, I am done end of November, but technically, I am almost gone now.
I will have more time next week again to post on what happens in my perfumery life (a lot!).

But, if I look at what is discussed on my blog: Things happen without me, too. Great!

Until next week, then. Enjoy your weekend. May it be sunny!

Picture: A bench, seen a few weeks ago in Graubuenden, sponsored by Pontresina.

A must read and a must compare: Luxe and trust, aka if you like this then you should try…

please follow this link to Michelyn’s thoughts on what folks should try,…. on fashiontribes.com….

What a joy on this grey, cold autumn day! Thank you Michelyn!

OK, still working on the edge these days, without diner, to save time. And mostly not perfumery related. This will hopefully find an end next Monday. Until then:a silent perfumer ;-)

But, in the train this morning, I need to think about what to write into the articles of my cooperation that will be founded in the coming weeks: Tauer GmbH (limited liability company) ante portas.

ok, we are getting there….”
Unter der Firma Tauer GmbH besteht eine Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung gemäss Art. 772 ff. OR….”

I wish you a lovely day.