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Yesterday, under the bluest sky you can imagine, I did what I  try to do once a year at least. I visited Fedox valley, a side valley next to Sils Maria, at the very end of the Engadin. A place where you feel a bit closer to the sky and where you can gain energy and momentum for days and days to come.

Snow hiking. And they got a lot of snow. Thus, I was a bit closer to the sky and looked out into the coming months. As mentioned in my last post, I wait for a quote on the rose vermeille, and as soon as I got the rose vermeille on track, I will look into the Gabriel fragrance from a production point of view. I am not sure, whether I manage to have it all ready in September for the fragrance show in Florence. First goal: Get the rose vermeille out by then. And Gabriel (shortly) after. That’s my mid term perspective for September - X-mas 2010.  My short term perspective: Get everything ready for end March.
And for those of you who don’t remember Gabriel: It is, well…..green, flowers with lots of lily of the valley and a bit more ;-)

Picture: above Fedox valley, Feb. 21 2010

I wish you a lovely weekend.

Somehow, I am very anxious to get up these days. Today was slightly better than yesterday, yesterday, my body told me to get up at 4 am. Today at 5. I guess I am just greedy to catch as much as possible of the pre-spring feeling that is in the air these days.

Spring is nearer than before and I can’t wait for hyacinths. and lily of the valley. And maybe a mechanic. Or an archangel. Yes!

Picture: the sky over Zurich at 6 am.

A little video, showing you how the rose chypree is packed these days. After a few hundred of these you want to change your packaging concept, too.

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On the side: The Mémorables line, for the time being, will stay as you know it. Changes there come later in 2010.

Yesterday, we sat together, the IT guru, the branding guru and the perfumer to discuss the redesign of the www.tauerperfumes.com website. It is basically the last piece that needs to be ready by end April.  A few things I wanted to change that go beyond the layout of e-things.

My key goal for the new design. I want the website with some information on self and perfumes to be linked more closely again with the online shop. Right now, it is like two universes. Actually, with the blog, it is three parallel universes. And I can post on a perfume on my blog without you realizing it when you are on my website. This is not good. Thus, we are talking about a new information infrastructure. And a new shiny dress. I am curious to see what they come up with. Something simple, une petite robe bleu peut-être?
The shop will get a new dress, too. And a new technology at its base. The reason:  I want one system that runs everything. Right now I have three and this gets messy after a while. After some discussions, we decided to go for a simple CMS, Redaxo, that runs the perfumism site, too. It does what I want it to do.

Before our meeting, I had a serious look at my website. And then I decided that less will be more. It is quite a mess there. It is like a garden in summer, everything growing everywhere.
I keep the blog, for stories, communication with you, and to play games and for give-aways. I want it to be as simple, as little tech empowered, as possible. No cloud, no categories, no blogroll, no tags, … because I do not want any distraction and blingbling effects.

Thus, we have almost all e-things planned by now. One of the last decisions to take: I need to pick a photographer for the product photos.  Two quotes, two styles, I wish I could pick both. I am not good at saying no.

Picture: the backend… on the way to this post.

Maybe you want to visit Elena’s Perfumeshrine blog right now? She posts on PERFUMism.

I recommend leaving this blog now.

Thank you.

Last week, I had this meeting with one of my essential oil suppliers. Actually, it is the one that sells me 95% of all essential oils. Thus, it was an important meeting. Re: What can we do to increase reliability of delivery and how can we make sure that I get in reasonable time what I order. I was waiting for two months now for vetiverol, a wonderful woody, soft, vibrant golden liquid that is quite expensive, and hard to get in good quality.
Answer: I need to order earlier. Thus, I place now orders for September and December.

The reason is somewhat familiar, yet nonetheless worrying: There is a delta of high quality material on the market, for naturals and synthetics. The market for high quality essential oils, absolutes, resins and delicate synthetics is being grazed these days. The best quality goes to China. Yep. Because they buy a lot, and more and even more. Thus, buyers who used to be served with priority in the past because they were good buyers, find themselves second tier or third tier, fighting for high quality oils with companies such as Givaudan or IFF or others.

The market is narrow, with little depth, in a sense that there are not many suppliers of essential oils. A few big buyers clean up the shelves. What is left is not always 100 % convincing. As my supplier analysis all they get by GC MS (you need to ask your suppliers whether they do the same): They see what the get. And I was told that they get a lot of crap. Period.

Thus, I am on one hand ordering stock for X-mas now. And I am dealing with my supplier to stock a bit for me, in the form of pre-made mixtures, building blocks so to say. The good news is: I finally got my Vetiverol. Rose chyprée is safe for the next 1000 bottles. Uff.

Basically, all things that I need for the first presentation of the new line and Orange Star, the newest kid in town, are ready or arranged to be ready. This means: We ordered them and we just pray now that all will be delivered in time, early- mid March. Then we bottle and pack and label like crazy, drive down to Milano, with a set of bottles to present at the Esxence.

The box for packing will be ready by  mid April, a pre-shipped set of 144 pieces is on its way.
Thus, later in April, we will pack a lot of bottles in the new design, for shipment in May. I will also start a new collaboration with a few retailers. This spring will be busy for sure.

There is one, two items that need to be defined finally. One is the top cover going with the flacon. I will meet this guy from Austria on Wednesday, who produced samples for me and together with my design gurus we will decide what form and material to pick. So you see: Another piece made especially for Tauer. I just couldn’t stand the idea of fiddling an off-the-shelf top on my flacon. And I could not find anything that would not look cheap. Most of the covers on the market (and you will find them on the shelves in your perfumery) are plastic.
The other items that need some sort of definition are the pictures of products and the guy behind them… difficult!
Picture: Iris detail, taken about 2005

I wish you all a lovely weekend. Mine will be sort of a working weekend, but I am looking forward to getting some stuff done!

Below you find a picture, taking in Blangy sur Bresle, in one of the storage rooms of the company producing my bottle. Actually, it is a room filled with molds. They have lots of rooms where they store the molds of almost 100 years. They have over thousand molds and basically, there in these rooms, you will find a wonderful cross section of artful flacons produced in France in the last century, in a time when there was still something like a true perfumery.

The company is situated in a little epicenter of French glass making. Most of the other companies that used to thrive there have become either extinct, or they got big and produce now bottles by the millions, many of them belonging to large groups nowadays. It is quite a coincidence that the very evening after my visit in the little glass factory, I saw an add by a big, big, big producer of some sort of mass products, trying to build a personal touch and convincing us that they still have this extra care for their employees like a little company…

But there are a few little companies left, working in the good old traditional way, with care and attention to the detail.
I love the idea of becoming part of this tradition, and of working within this context.
On a more global perspective: It is the consumers who, by their everyday buying decisions, decides whether these traditional crafts have a future or not. Ask for products at low prices and this is what you will get: Cheap stuff.

Picture: a little part of the mold collection. France 2010

Back and Busy.

I got back from Paris yesterday, after a few highlights in a great city: The greatest highlight of all was my visit of the glass factory that turned out to be more artisanal than I had thought. Wow.  And a triple wow on the bottle. Love at first sight. Actually, we witnessed the birth of the first bottle, that ended in the trash because it was not perfect.
A lot of video footing and pictures came with me back from Paris, to be published end March.

So far so good. Next in line is a visit of my major supplier of fragrant material in an hour to discuss my options to grow with them, to fine tune stocking issues and make sure that they can follow my pace. And in between, I am amazed about the snow and winter and putting on another layer to keep me warm while I dream of printemps à Paris.

Picture: Printemps shop window decoration in Paris, seen Feb. 2010.

Enjoy your weekend!

I will, as soon as I have put the two batches of L’air du désert and Lonestar Memories together…

And as soon as I got everything ready for Paris, aiming at hitting the train tomorrow early, having lunch in Paris.

I will be back here on this blog Wednesday or Thursday.