I am back from Rome. Back from a city that I visited quite often in my live but I never experienced it so busy like these last few days. I guess the beatification of Pont. Max. JPII filled the streets of Rome with happy folks last week, happy in anticipation of things to come. People want the former pope to become sanctus as soon as possible. Sanctus subitus.

Rome IS amazing: History on every corner. Your eyes move from a Roman column to a church that was built in the fourth century with pieces of art in it created by the master Michelangelo and back to a Roman brick wall with happy modern live in between.

Being part of this city for a few days leads to instant happiness. And you see angels everywhere. Small and large, angry and happy angels.

Rome is in a sense a city of angels.

More on angels and Lily of the valley: I invite you to follow this link to an interview on Fragrance Belles-Lettres.

Enjoy!

it is in full bloom, the pink hyacinth, down in the 2 meter square garden, and when getting closer to this delicate lady for a picture, the fragrance is close to overwhelming.

Thinking about it: This IS a perfect name for a fragrance… PINK HYACINTH.

Actually, its natural scent is overwhelming. And one fine day I wish to continue with hyacinth and come up with a nice, decent take on this flower. Without mechanic, if you know what I mean. If you don’t: here’s the hint to what I am talking about on PerfumeSmellinThings (click here).

The pink hyacinth that blooms right now next to a blue variety smells quite differently in comparison to the blue one. What is a roasted spicy undertone in the blue one, is a sweet caramel line with some silvery decoration on it.

I love hyacinths. Maybe on reason is its rareness. You cannot get hyacinths in the flower shops in autumn. Well, I guess you could if you really, really, really wanted it and did not worry about your CO2 footprint. But it would not be the same. Hyacinths belong to our spring. Basta. The same -by the way- is true for fresh asparagus or strawberries in March. They are everywhere in the shops, asparagus from Mexico or Peru, Stawberries from Morocco or Spain. And I am sure this IS wrong. It is wrong because waiting for these spring delights is part of the joy, and the CO2 footprint is so much larger than waiting and getting them from the farmer around the block.

And they taste better.

Thus, we wait … and while I do so, I pack more boxes and get shipments ready and while you do so , you may want to visit Elena’s Perfumeshrine blog and read her review on ZETA -a linden blossom theme- and make sure you take your chance to win a sample. Here is the link to her review.

Enjoy!

As promised: I  show you a teaser photo of the green flacon. But do not take this green for certain. It is a touch too bright. Colors are like describing perfumes….there is quite an ambiguity going with them. Later today I shall get all the labels from my printer (yep: Another delay as one of the cutting  tools there did not work properly). Thus, I will have everything (except the green beech wood top cover that will come in the next days from Austria. I will show you a picture with the labels on and the fragrance in.

But, to be honest: I am in total love with the green. And with the Linden blossom fragrance that will find its way into it, as soon as I got a few large orders out of my way. I hope I can ship the first flacons early April.

And for those of you interested in reading a thoughtful review: Please visit Ermano’s blog. We got together in Rome and I gave him a sample to review, provided he gives me a big hug in return. He sure did. Thus, here is his review, click here. Enjoy!

Today, I share two news with you. One most lovely and interesting review of the Carillon pour un ange, and news on the Carillon pour un ange related e-book project that I consider a failure and stop by now.

I can feel how we are starting to look forward to spring. My planning looks forward  into spring and sun and warm temperature again. And flowers around me.  Thus, the review of Carillon pour un ange on the Non Blonde-Blog (click here) fits perfectly. It is lovely and beyond the fact that it is utterly positive, it reveals an aspect that I miss so often in discussions on perfumes: A note or an ingredient can be interpreted in different ways. Even if you do not love a particular component as a line or note in perfumes, not every perfume with this note will be a no-go perfume and not work for you. A rose can be done in a thousand different ways. You might fall deeply in love with version 999. I stumble over it so often: perfume lovers will not try fragrances because they see a note in the description that they do not like. Beyond the fact that a note is not always congruent with an ingredient: Not every note xyz is done the same way by every perfumer. And the more niche you go, the more you can expect notes and shades in perfumes done from scratch and not by reaching for the pre-mix bottle in the shelf.

I invite folks to challenge their likes and dislikes on a regular basis. Otherwise, you might deprive yourself of wonderful experiences.

Related to the Carillon pour un ange, I invited perfume lovers to share: I wanted to collect stories, pictures, poem, memories on Lily of the valley, collect them, layout them as e-book, and use this e-book for charity, channeling some of the media attention I will get in the next months away from the perfume to the e-book project. I imagined that we can motivate some 50 or so perfume lovers and bloggers alike to write a little piece of a few lines or a page, and take a moment to create and be part of a larger fabric. I thought so because I see all those bloggers and writers around me writing about all new launches and beyond. I announced the project in the major blogs, repetitively mentioned it, but only the misunderstanding that it is a draw gave me some contributions.

Thus, I was wrong.

My lesson learned: The community does not collaborate on such a project. I did not get enough contributions. We got most contributions because perfume lovers thought they can win in a draw.

My consequence: I stop this and I will do the charity for myself.

Please do not send any contributions anymore.

These days, as I have a lot of fragrances to pack, I have some time to think. Less time to write, unfortunately. While packing, I look into some phenomena that I find worth thinking about and I dare sharing one or two with you. I came to the conclusion that Facebook is boring and rather annoying. I am amazed about the amount of nothingness happening there. And I wonder how investors can spend so much money to be invested in it.  But then, the Golden Sachs boys did a few other odd investments the last few years…

I considered my facebook appearance an experiment and I am not sure whether it is a pleasant experience so far.I am considering changing my presence there to a simple fan page. To be decided….I feel that 2011 will be year where communication is goint to be king for me.

Next to communicate: I look closely into a few perfumes and I need to write a piece on one of them. You would not believe how difficult this is, especially if the perfume is a top notch 5 stars fragrance.

Finally, I start thinking about how to communicate on the Carillon pour un ange, a fragrance that will start selling in many perfumeries this spring. By the way: you find a lovely recent review on the Olfactoriatravels blog. Right now, it is exclusively sold by Luckyscent and in my shop. In March-May 2011 it will be available as part of the HOMMAGES Line. I want to create some PR for this fragrance. Difficult!

It is amazing how important words are when dealing with perfumes.

“There seems to be more magazines about gardening then there are folks actually working in a garden”, the W.-factor wondered this summer when we were both  staring at the display of a newspaper kiosk, while waiting for a train to bring us home to town from a Swiss village.

“It is about sublimation”, I replied. “These magazines allow folks to dream and change their state. It is not about what there is, but it is about the sheer potentiality of what could be.” I continued. And while we kept on staring into the display, we realized that the need for sublimation seems endless. Horses, gardens, houses, cars, decoration, dogs, cats, tress, cooking….

My mind brought me back this picture of us inspecting the kiosk display while riding the Piccadilly line from Russel Square this October. I flew in to London via city airport which is quick and easy. My way out , after a training session on Friday with the folks from Les Senteurs and a scent getting together on Saturday,organized by Ronny from Scent and Sensibility, was via Heathrow on a very busy Sunday morning. The tube was already quite full with tourists from Spain (I never figured out why so many folks from Spain are visiting London). Then the two rushed into the coach, all sweaty and  smashing their suitcases somewhere and then they sat next to me.

She on my right, he on my left. A couple in their forties. Upper lower middle class, if you know what I mean.

We Swiss are not entirely accustomed to the concept of classes, as we only tend to think that we all belong to the wide, extra large middle class (actually, almost everybody belongs there). Thus, we have the middle class, and then the very rich that  got rich by getting heavy, undeserved bonuses (there are other rich folks but we do not talk about these in Switzerland it seems; somehow they are classless), and we have the folks with an “immigration background”, a term that fits with many as we are in the middle of Europe and quite attractive as country to our neighbors, one reason being taxes, but this is another issue.  Thus, I may miss some fine tunes there in judging my UK folks and to which class they belong.

“We should have taken the car!” , he will say angrily for the rest of the journey, at every stop.And then fall into oblivion again, watching a spot between his shoes.

“We will never make it”, she would reply, equally frequent  and equally angry. And between the stops of the tube, she would go through 3 magazines with gardens that were so photoshoped and perfect, that even the British subject’s Queen can only dream of such garden beauty.

My neighbor sitting next to me on my way to Heathrow went through the magazines, one after the other, and she sublimed between tube stops into a garden watching suburban dreamer.

I wondered how long it will take them to blame each other. They did not. I guess they were a happy couple.

Today’s picture shows you a scan from  Tatler’s magazine, featuring an article on horse and leather and a lot of recommendations for leather fragrances and some of their backgrounds, mentioning Lonestar Memories, as Brokeback Mountain fragrance. Happy sublimation ahead. Love it.

More reading for you today (tomorrow will be no post, I go for a hike):

EAU D’ÉPICES, featured and reviewed in Spanish by Una Aventura Olfative. Click here (English Translation via google possible).

Mandy Aftel and Andy Tauer: Letters to a fellow perfumer continued on Nathan Branch’s blog, with an interesting technical detail on the Linden blossom extract, directly from the producer. Enjoy!

Yesterday, we packed a few more soaps, in my little room with a view, and a blue sky with a gentle October sun shining outside into trees in golden fire. When the sun shines into the piles of soaps, cut and ready for their cellophane-wrap and the paper wrap and the PP-bag, then the soaps start to gleam and shine in an all natural gold. The color comes from the essential oils of mandarine and clementine. And as I use a lot, a very lot of these oils, these soaps get a lovely natural color. (that’s we call them mandarines ambrées, by the way)

Before you switch into soap excitement mode, though: These soaps are a gift that a Zurich apothecary makes to his clients at the end of the year. We will not sell it.Yet.

We got the first 150 or so done and packed. But as the pouring and cutting is a bit slow, the W.-factor, quite artfully builds a soap pouring frame and my brother who works in glass produces a glass plate going into the frame to pour the soaps onto. We shall go into heavy duty pouring and cutting and wrapping mode next week. Actually, on a side note: For the frame we visited a local do it yourself shop thing. A shopping tour that I always love. It is such a down to earth environment, no fancy bling bling, but a lot of guys and girls checking out tools and machines and some of the machines are really big and the guys and girls are really butch, although I do not know whether a girl can be called butch. Well, I  guess we loose topic here.

Besides thinking about shades of green, outside of any eau de cologne context by the way, I engage into more textual work over the weekend, writing open letters and stuff.  Thus, stay tuned and visit us again next week. Finally, for those familiar with Spanish: Here’s a lovely take on the ROSE VERMEILLE on a Spanish blog called SHIMMU. Click here.

And here are my best wishes for your weekend, enjoy!

After yesterday’s news on my brand being soon available in France, here comes the next exciting news. Tauer goes south. Actually, this is true in a very literal sense. I will be in Madrid, end November, presenting my brand to folks from the press, as my products will very soon be available at Le Secret du Marais in Madrid. I ship the first parcel down there end next week. I am very optimistic that my brand will feel very much at home there. And I have a good excuse to travel to Madrid.  So this is a good news.

On an other note, concerning yesterday’s post on the “SCENTED CARDS”: Actually, I did not outline enough that these cards are quite high tech, and quite hand work. The paper is sort of soaked with the scent but in a way that does not destroy the paper’s structure and any embossing. We will go for the luxury top end version and will also use some embossing on the card. The “IMMERSIVE SCULPTURES” claim of the brand will be embossed. Unfortunately, to start with , we cannot make these cards available to the whole world… money wise, this would not make sense. I consider it an experiment and then we see.

Ah, yes: The card will be scented with CARILLON POUR UN ANGE, and if you wonder what others think about it, you might want to read Kevin’s review, over there on NowSmellThis. Do not miss the comments: EMERGENCY SCRUBBER SURVIVAL KIT  might come in handy.

And finally, another tauer centric picture goes with this post: It shows you the folded paper inlay for the HOMAGE flacons in the pentagonal metal box in dim light. As soon as we will have used up the first round of boxes, we will switch the inlay for the entirely tauer line to this folded design. The second version of the fold paper is being produced now; it should be a touch easer to fold… and the second production round of boxes is on their way and sometimes the W.-factor and me worry about where to fit these cubic meters.

I guess this is enough for one post now. Except maybe this last little note: Today, I will melt some Benzoin (Benzoe Sumatra resinoid) for some experiments on the side. I love, love, love this….

OK. Back again.

The new kids in town, ROSE VERMEILLE AND EAU D’ÉPICES, are online and as always, I tend to forget the implications like an e-mail box filling ah! and oh!’s and ???. I guess I am a lucky guy these days. Furthermore, we had to do an open heart surgery kind of thing on the newsletter that is scheduled to leave the house in a second… the patient survived, but we needed a stent. Unfortunately, we were not able to convince Magento, the software behind the Tauer Perfumes’ website, to send the newsletter out. Thus, my helping IT guys had to  find a way around, with me in the background whining and begging and forgetting that there are more important things in life.

OK, back again, still thinking Florence (pasta!) and scents seen @Florence…. hmmm: A tough one, I feel like I need to make a few comic strips on that one).

A few were actually good, worth trying. Let us talk about these. Olivier Durbano’s latest was for sure one of them. Olivier is with the same super trooper distributor in Italy, Guido from Profumimport, and our stand always feels like family. A family of noses, perfumers, that care for what they do and each other. Thus, Olivier showed his newest kid in town, too. It is a truly stunning rose, he uses a lot of the most expensive rose oil, and came up with a rose that is truly original, spicy and floral, but never sweet or cloying or soapy. Stunning and very, very wearable for men and women.  You find a recent review on it on Sorcery of Scent by Dimitri. Bottom line: A rose like you do not find it anymore these days, except with a few artisanal perfumers. Available soon from Olivier Durbano and in shops that care for artisanal perfumery, such as Luckyscent.com

Must try.

And off we go for a few days.  Pitti and Florence: We are almost there!

In the mean time, enjoy Persolaise’s review of UNE ROSE VERMEILLE by clicking here to get to Persolaise.com.

I feel like this review is important. And I feel like I need to talk a bit on the Rose vermeille in the coming weeks.

I will be back next week, with my first newsletter edition (please consider and do not forget to subscribe) ,  more facts on my new babes in town, pictures  and hopefully juicy stories, on perfumery and what happens in the large world of fragrances.