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das kleine Buch der grossen Parfums

Tania Sanchez’ and Luca Turin’s “Little book of Perfumes” is translated into German and Pascal, the shop owner of Medieval art&vie brought me a copy. This shop is the bookshop where everything Tauer began; at least when it comes to perfumes that are sold.

Funny: in German the title of the book is literally “the little book of big perfumes”. You see: in German, the translators added a “big” (= gross). That’s kind of interesting and OK with me. But I guess it tells us something about German versus English. And – on a side note- I just realized that actually, I should be writing this post in German.

Anyhow: I got the book and I learned again how eloquent and thoughtful the two write about perfumes. And how interesting some of their sidetracks are. Like Luca Turin’s starting note about “Beyond Paradise (by Estée Lauder): “Parfümerie wird nur dann zur Kunst, wenn sie der Natur etwas hinzufügt.” (Perfumery becomes art only when it adds something to nature). Nothing really spectacular about this statement, but so true. Perfumery is about abstraction. And much more, of course. And Luca Turin continues further down ” Women have no business smelling like flowers”. Again: So true. And, to add two bytes from my side: Women have no business smelling like fruits either.

I really love this book: besides the fact that L’air du désert marocain gets a lovely review, it is full with witty thoughts and notes on the side that make you smile and think. I wished I could write like the two of them, especially when talking about my own creations. Not  my job, maybe.  The other day, I was trying to explain to a perfume lover what NOONTIDE petals is about. I ended up with “roaring twenties”. On a serious note: I will get the labels for the samples in a day or two. And at the latest by then, I should start writing about  NOONTIDE petals. Maybe I will do it differently than what I have done in the past.

I guess I will have time to think about it today: Job today -among other things- filling sample vials with NOONTIDE petals.