This post brings you the recommended shipment deadlines for X-Mas gifts ordered in my online shop.

But first things first. It is only a few days ago since I was in Paris, and yet it feels like it happened in the last century. Almost. This alone tells me how fast time seems to go by the closer we come to the festivities and the end of the year. I  guess the felt time gone by  is somewhat proportional to the tasks accomplished in this time period. Maybe it is just me getting older. Anyhow. As it feels a long time ago already, I picked today’s picture and adjusted it real quick with an app on the iphone and uploaded it to share it with you.The picture shows part of the decorated window of the perfumery Marie-Antoinette, where the Loretta presentation took place (Place St. Catherine, Paris); to the left Tableau de Parfums and to the right my portrait, presenting roses and an old flacon, that I used originally to fill une rose chyprée.

I like this image because it reminds me of the little flacon and how fast things change. I tend to forget: It is a bit more than 7 years only since I presented my first scent. It is 2.5 years only since I presented the new pentagonal flacon. And , yes, wow!, I am looking forward to a new year, 2013, with new fragrances and a changed box and more. So definitely, WOW! Things change fast these days. For everybody, almost everywhere. Remember how you shopped for X-mas presents 15 years ago? I bet you did not do it through Amazon.com, or Luckyscent.com.

And to be honest, and in light of my impatient nature and my urge to move on: I like it that way. Let’s hurry into a bright future. 2012 is so yesterday already. …

Just in case you want to ask me: No, the little flacon will not come back, and right now I have no plan to introduce a lower volume flacon. Just a quick note, kind of in brackets: I read a comment in one of the blogs the other day, where there was a discussion why brands do not do more decant sizes, like 5 or 15 ml. Here’s why: Filling a 50ml  flacon or a 10 ml decant, packing it, labelling it, making shipment papers etc.  is all the same work. Thus, it does not pay off. Not really.

Anyhow, brackets closed. In this blog post, I actually wanted to mention the frightening fact that between January 1 2013 and now there are the holidays! We are approaching the holidays really fast. Frightening in the sense that I am not entirely ready yet. Are you?

Although, the truth is: I am half ready. I got all the raw materials to make this year’s special soap (rose….hmmmm!) and I started a batch job in the back of my mind to come up with a Christmas card, and a few other things I want to do for the holidays. The batch job is not excecuted to completion yet, but it is running. “Batch job”: I used this term quite frequently 20 years ago. It brings back memories of my days at the university in Zurich, where I had my first email account, on a VAX. It was a bit hasslesome to get into the server, and I used it mostly to get calculations done, some sort of genetic algorythms and search for similarities in genetic and protein databases. Anyhow, I sent my first email something like 23 years ago. And trust me: 23 years ago, you would not even dream of sending youtube videos links over the mail. At least me wasn’t dreaming this.

So, yes, X-mas ante portas, and with it lights and blingbling, and a lot of joy and dispair.Dispair because online placed orders arrive too late. We had a lot of communcation going forward and backward due to parcels on their way to somewhere.

So, yes, let’s use this post to announce it officially: If you want to buy presents for yourselves or someone else and you wish to see these fragrant gifts under the tree by December 24: Make sure to order early!
CENTRAL AND SOUTH EUROPE: by December 10 at the latest.
EASTERN EUROPE: By December 5 at the latest.
USA, FAR EAST, AUSTRALIA: by December 5 at the latest.
JAPAN: By December 10 at the latest.
SOUTH AMERICA: By November 25 at the latest.

Yes, shipment to some countries takes that long, especially the closer you come to the holidays. Have a great start into your new week! There are only 6 more to go before we hit 2013.

Antonio’s perfumery in Paris is called Marie-Antoinette, like the famous wife of Monsieur le Roi, Louis XVI, both decapitated, madame on October 16 1793. When she lost her head, she was call Ms. Capet, and had sort of lost most of her priviledges beforehand. She, like many others, were wiped away by a revolution, starting 1789, followed by quite a disaster in Europe. We tend to forget that revolutions normally come with bloody hands and mouth. And it is usually not the wise and gentle who surf the waves of the masses, inflamed by anger and hunger and ideas. Marie Antoinette lost her head, Europe went to war, has seen the  rise of Napoléon,  who -what irony!- became *empereur* later, and it continued to be a mess for quite a while. Actually, it was  really a disastrous time for Europe, for quite a while.  Imagine how shocking the events in France at the end of the 18th century must have been for the elites, the aristocrats. You hear from your cousin or friends in France that everybody was kicked out of their palaces, had to flee, hide like lepers, and quite often lost not only all their influence and money, but also their life.

Quite shocking, indeed. Revolutions come with a certain surprise element. You never know what you gonna get, until it’s there and then it is usually too late. For sure there was a need for a French revolution, as the elite kind of lost their minds before losing their heads. An irrational exuberance, an unseen and unpaid for extravagance of the elites, not realizing the power of new ideas and the misery of the masses, coupled with an enormous dept, people being hungry and without jobs, the elite proving its incompetence on a daily basis and a couple of other factors. I leave the search for similarities to today’s situation in some countries to my readers.

You cannot understand today’s Europe without knowing at least a bit about the French revolution. It changed the name of the game in Europe. So you see: Paris makes me think.

Paris is different. It really is. Today’s picture shows you a woman I have seen on my way to the bathroom in a Paris restaurant: I went to the bathroom  and on the wall, there was this lady. Amazing, isn’t it?

And Paris is chic. Chic and luxurious is not the same thing. Thus, contrary to the way of life of the queen and the king before the revolution, Antoni0′s shop “Marie-Antoinette” comes with a certain modesty: but the little shop gleams with hard to find scented treasures. I love this place. It is so different to many of the other supper luxurious places where everything is bling bling and gold and -yes: boring.  At Marie- Antoinette you find lovely perfumes and you find a super nice guy who will not tell you what to buy but he will tell you what’s behind a scent, and why you might like it. Usually, he is right when he pickes a scent for somebody. Quite an amazing talent!

It was there at Marie-Antoinette, and we celebrated Loretta’s appearance on Wednesday evening, with many perfume loving French fans and friends, and me speaking in French about the why and how of Tableau de Parfums. Aside from my troubles speaking French ( I miss the practice), it was a lovely evening and I think Loretta made a really nice first impression.

So that was nice. And I came back to Zurich with a lot of impressions and thoughts to follow.

Fragrant greetings from the TGV, on my way to Paris, gare de Lyon. This time, it is a really nice coach, all new, on two levels, and instead of the dark purple, the colors of the seats are sort of light blue. Much nicer!

The Lys du desert that I put on yesterday before going to bed still lingers on my arm and I am curious how long it will stay there.  It was quite a desert night with it. In the most pleasurable way.

I guess, while in Paris, I will wear either Loretta, to celebrate the moment, or the upcoming Noontide petals.  (comes in 2013)

We will see. First things first now: falling asleep while getting there.

This morning, I picked the winner of last week’s draw, or rather random.org picked it. Thus, someone somewhere will open her email today or tomorrow and hopefully smile. I haven’t posted on the blog for a few days as I wanted the draw to get its well deserved attention and as I was super mega giga galactical busy. You get the idea.

Today sees another super…. busy day and then: Uff! I will sit tomorrow morning into a nice 2nd class seat, in a train, for 4 hours and will relax. Paris is on the agenda. Just a very short trip, but worth it: Antonio, lovely shopkeeper of Marie Antoinette , one of the loveliest and cuttest perfumery in Paris, will launch Loretta and I will bring some samples and meet and greet perfume lovers there. I am so looking forward to it. If you are in the region: Paris, Place du Marché St. Catherine, Marie Antoinette, around 6 pm, Wednesday, November 14.

There was some time last week, nevertheless, the think about perfumes and compositions and I had a look at the Lys du désert’s formula. It was a look at something that I had created a while ago, a look at things from a distance so to say. Quite interesting. It is a rather concise formula. Optimised, and in a sense, the different lines within the fragrance are clearly carved out. So yes, it is a little bit like a screen print, but colored, and every color is a line within the scent that tells part of the story. I remembered that I wanted to do it very right for Luckyscent: So I optimized the formula and tried to make it as complex as necessary and as optimal to produce as possible. The result: ingredients. Among them rose absolute, jasmine absolute, cedarwood, cistus ladaniferus extracts (two different). The rose balances the composition and adds a floral quality without the scent leaving its unisex territory. The jasmine is part of the desert lily heart, again without leaving the unisex trail. And the two cistus extracts are part of the dry amber chord that dominates the base. Ah…. and yes. There is bergamot, lots of it, to brighten and enlighten the top notes, and in order to add this hint of lush green.

I wish you a great start into your week.

Today’s picture: a picture taken in Joshua Tree, the way I see it. sometimes.

So I am back from Paris, and can look back to an evening with Maccarons, champagne, wonderful people and a secret star: Miriam, the fragrance. In a sense it was the European launch of Tableau de Parfums. Miriam has arrived in Paris, now. I took a picture inside the shop, looking outside, and I find it so “French”. An old Citroen, champagne, perfume…

The event, which was absolutely lovely and brought me together with wonderful people who were all enthusiastic and passionate, took place at Marie-Antoinette. This is Antonio’s little paradise, a wonderful little cozy shop in the middle of the Marais which is a quarter in Paris worth exploring.

Here is a picture of Antonio right in front of his shop. He is the most charming guy imaginable.

Alors: A ne pas manquer sous aucun prétexte….

Now, I am getting ready for my meeting with my designer who supports me and endures me in my endless wondering about my packaging. I am looking forward to sitting together with Donovan Gregory, from the Designers Club, and designing my world.

Today’s picture shows you a TGV in the gare de Lyon. These trains are fast. And the new ones are really comfortable. It is actually better than flying.

Fragrant greetings, today from the train to Milan (again), where I will stay for a day, sleeping in an affordable hotel, and trying not to get homesick. It has been a while since I slept for a couple of days in a row at home.
But I do not want to complain. In the end, it was me who decided when to go where. Next week, on Monday, you will see me in Paris(again), where I am doing a little, but nice!, event with Antonio to officially launch the fragrance Miriam in Paris at Marie-Antoinette. Probably one of the cosiest selective perfumeries in Paris.
But first Milan. I am so looking forward to visiting Esxence. We decided again not to exhibit, we = me and my Italian importer. I am too small and cannot afford to present my fragrances twice a year. Although we would have great news for Italy to present: Tableau de Parfums, with Miriam, is ante portas in Italy.
And talking Tableau. Yes, we did it. Together with you. We reached our kickstarter goal. I thank all of you who pledged and supported us by sharing and by spreading the news. So this is over now and I am very happy that it all worked out so nicely. It will be my job to actually make these soaps and fill the Dark Passage and Loretta purse sprays.
I wonder how many mails I will get in the coming weeks wherein folks ask for a Dark Passage sample or a purse spray, on exceptional basis because they heard about it or missed the campaign. I have not really come up with a plan there. I will probably come up with a page on my site where I say no. Thus, I can reply to these requests by simply sending a link. You would not believe how many mails I still get where perfume lovers ask for Orris, my limited edition fragrance created a couple of years ago…. and yes: just in case you wonder, no chance. Orris is gone.
After all these kickstarter posts, I would like to end this post with a little note on hyacinth. I have a few blooming right now in my little garden. After running and packing and jumping forth and back all day yesterday, I took a few minutes off, sitting next to the pink beauty.It was simply amazing how leathery this scent seemed to me. A sweet spicy green creamy leathery scent.

It is spring and the world looks different. More colorful, and warm and sunny. Wonderful. Soon, the world around me will also look different because I am on my way to Paris, where I will attend the big, BIG, official shop opening of Jovoy, THE niche store in Paris these days. I hope that I will meet a lot of perfume loving French there and I can’t actually wait to see the new shop. I visited and was shown the premises before Jovoy moved in and I can only guess how glorious it must look now.

Thus, this will be an all exciting trip. A short trip, though. I am back 48 hours later, and will have to continue there where I stopped yesterday: Bottling and packaging more Miriam, Tableau de Parfums.

Before leaving, I want to share a video with you.  Click here to view it on my vimeo channel. I got the chance to talk to Al, Streetscents Al. He told me how everything began and where he is heading. And he got the chance to smell Loretta, the second fragrance from Tableau de Parfums, scheduled for release in September /October 2012. A pre-release of Loretta is available as part of the Kickstarter campaign (hurry up, it ends March 29) supporting Brian Pera’s film ONLY CHILD.

Enjoy!

this post is about to seduce you and introduce you to the wonders of bars and codes.  No, I am not talking about codes that act like tags when it comes to perfumes. Like white musk=”inoffensive little thing  for the office”, or spices=”for men without really being spicy” or other funny notes that actually do not exist except in the mind of some PR guys.  On the side: If you feel like writing the ultimate perfume PR, make sure to visit Now Smell This and enter your contribution to the “PRIX EAU FAUX 2012″. I like this competition a lot.

No, I am talking serious codes. Bar codes. I got mine since a while, but never used them. Or better said: I am registered with GS1 in Switzerland and got my Tauer bar code with a set of 1000 numbers. Thus, there is still some room for new products. The bar code is a 13 digit EAN-13 code. The code for the air du désert marocain, 50 ml , edt you see in today’s picture. Bar codes come in handy for many things. And some retailer need them and want them. Like Jovoy in Paris, where you will soon find my brand, and where I will travel a couple of times this year. Which is nice (both) and for sure worth a few more posts in the future. Right now, I do not print the code directly onto the packaging labels, but as I am completely changing everything, or rather optimizing a few packaging issues within the next 12 months, you will see the bar codes on new labels in about a year from now. For the time being, I have individual labels printed. I got all the bar code pictures yesterday, and made all sticker bar code pictures ready.

And had the computer crash in regular  intervals. Time to get a new one, I fear. Or rather hope.  I want a Mac.

Ah, and yes, this post is about more bars. Soap bars. A much more sensual thing that bar code.  I was fiddling for quite a while on a fragrance for a special, very special soap bar. In the mean time, the fragrance mixture is a perfume by itself. Not that I will start selling soap bars. No way. But I wanted a scented soap bar that is a little bit beyond the ordinary. For a special occasion. I think I got the formula right and stable now. The soap bar with the fragrance was stored for a while, and is in use since a few days in the house of tauer. I cannot pass by the bathroom without smelling. Fingers crossed that all goes like we plan it and that the soap bars will see the world beyond my bath room.

Notes are: Rose, Jasmine, Tuberose.

So I was in Paris, yesterday and spent about 5 hours there. Enough time to hop into the Metro, visit Bon Marché, get frightened by the sales assistants there, get bored by the selection there, and hop over to the Grande Épicerie du Bon Marché right next to it. There: Paradise! I ended up over an hour in there, strolling through the selection of spices, fresh vegetable, cognacs, armagnacs, honey, cheese, fish. It is like the best this planet has to offer in one spot. I ended up buying a Calvados, for poor W.-factor who had to take care of orders and samples. 15 years old (the Calvados) and the lady waiting behind me in the queue at the cashier’s confirmed: “c’est un bon calva! “.

She was eating a croissant that she got in the shop , and threatened the cashier to continue eating it and when its gone she we go , too . And not pay, because it took forever. The Calvados bottle (the one from the very back ) was not labeled properly. The cashier asked me to get another one, which I did not. I am a bit stubborn there and insist on me being served when I spend money. Thus, I told her that she might rather go there herself. But she could not, or was not allowed, and hence we discussed about client and service and in between she tried to call for help. The cashier on the left did the same as another bottle brought by another client was without price.

In the end, it all solved itself out, with smiles, because I got the calvados, and the lady behind me had eaten her croissant.

Anyhow: Paris called me to get together with Misha, from Woodley and Bunny, Brooklyn, NY. It was the easiest and most convenient place to meet for the two of us. Woodley and Bunny has my brand in New York and we discussed this fact, their plans, and the future. Actually, we talked a lot about 2013.

It may sound weird, but that’s the way it is. We sat there, under a blue Paris sky in bright sunlight and talked about spring 2013.

Thus, I picked a picture for today that fits: It shows you an Oregano sprout sitting in a glass in our kitchen, with little roots (after treating it with root growth hormone): A little start for a big Oregano plant later and lots of pizzas.

Today, I was so busy that I had no time doing any blogging. I was heavy duty working on packaging concepts with my Adobe Illustrator. The packaging concept is for another project I am working on and I can tell you more about this very exciting development in May. Every day I am getting a bit better there on Illustrator, and by the end of this project I will probably have mastered 40% of its functions.  Amazing what you can do with this piece of electronic logic.

So I spent my day in front of the computer, and will also spend a good part of my night in front of the same computer. I wonder how many gallons of Swiss Alpine water had to flow through a turbine somewhere in the mountains to produce the electricity that I used today. A lot, I guess. Let’s hope it was worth it.

Before getting fixed on my computer, I was piling up two piles of boxes on two palettes in the morning; thew will be traveling through the same mountains right now. Uff! That was my exercise for today.

And before that I was in a last minute effort making a few lot labels. You can see them in today’s picture: They are the lot labels for the upcoming PENTACHORDS, that I will launch in September at Piti. Thus, mark your calendars, because September 10 is the Pity weekend in Florence.  And this year, Piti is going to rock! I am considering to do some prelaunch measures with these PENTA babies that are so special. Thus, I needed a few samples to start with.

It has been a while since I last talked about actually creating a fragrance. It is always amazing again how much time and efforts go into sharing the fragrant babies with the world. But then, to be honest and frank, sharing them is equally interesting and rewarding like creating them.

Before I can go a little bit more into details on the PENTACHORDS -WHITE, _AUBURN and _VERDANT: I need to go for a day to Paris. Thus, I will spend some good 8 hours in the train tomorrow. Time to answer a few e-mails on the go.