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Again: No post today, as I am too busy to do serious writing. I’ll do some serious presentations today, wearing Lonestar Memories. I love this fragrance; well…I guess I am somewhat biased there; one reason is: It is in a way a comfort scent for me. It lets me feel good somehow. Like sitting, with a thick, somewhat rough cover on your knees, on the banks of a river, watching the sunset after a full day in the sun, feeling the evening air flowing in, cooling down the red nose that got burnt because you forgot to put on sun tan, sitting there and nipping on your Chardonnay, or beer, and waiting for the sun to go down.

No post today….
and I am wearing: nothing! except for the last traces, the final notes of rêverie au jardin, that I applied yesterday evening, after reading a lovely mail.  A soft, decent skin scent with traces of vanilla, amber, soft vetiver, tobacco.
Perfumery will be in sleep mode until Friday evening…but then….bang, bang! Parcel here, new mod there, and more…

Greetings

Returned safely, I have the pleasure to talk to you about my trip to Brussels which was far less comfortable than expected. It started with a security check queue that was threatening to reach beyond customs. After queueing for half an hour and a hectoliter of liquids picked out of hand luggages in front of me later I ended up in a full airplane with a Ms unknown and a baby, insisting on a business seat (she had booked economy) because she had a baby with her. The Swiss crew was resistant and wanted to place her somewhere in the back where there were (miracle!) two seats empty. She did not want to walk back there, hence she looked at me and urged me to move back. Talking about her never flying Swiss again and that she paid 600 Francs for the ticket and that for this price she and her BABY! deserve a first class seat….(my ticket was 1380!) and I constantly wanted to ask her how she managed to get such a cheap ticket…but no chance!
The airplane was already 30 minutes late by then, because many travellers did not make it into it due to the security check. Hence…they had to find and unload the bagagges of these poor fellows again. I was sitting right in front right at the border between the beautifull and wealthy (Business) and the grey sheep (economy, I love sheep!): Stubborn I showed my foot (the broken one), pretended to feel miserable and with 1001 bad words the lady and her peaceful baby went to the back of the airplane. The baby had probably 10 valium in the morning milk. It was sleeping the entire flight.
When we landed we could not dock, because the docking mechanism was broken and the airplane stood for another half an hour 10 meters next to the docking tunnel thing.

Finally (miracle again…the docking mechanism worked again) I hobbled out, realized we docked at the far end of terminal B, which is closer to the sea than to the exit, and I sneaked towards customs and the taxi stand where the entire Commission and half of India, a quarter of Poland and the entire working population of Brussels seemed to wait for a taxi. The queue was gigantic, and moving slowly, but after another 30 minutes I catched my taxi to a grey meeting building and a meeting that fitted the building. Well…be it.
On my way back I had to deal with the cab driver not accepting credit cards (I had no time to change my Swiss Francs….), trying to persuade him that Swiss Francs are good, Euro is bad and that I am an honest man… and collapsed on a seat somewhere in a terminal, when suddenly Ms  Musk , basically undiluted but pumped up with some salicylates sat next to me. Amazing. Musk, musk and more musk. She was on her way to Warshaw. Still dizzy and shaking I entered the plane, just to meet Ms unknown and her baby again, fighting with the crew because she wanted a business class seat. Because she was travelling with a BABY!
She had to move-after 5 minutes of arguing and threats never to fly Swiss again- to a seat back in the plane, finally, and our eyes met for a glimpse of a second. I think she hated me, thoroughly. I sat again in row 4 (economy). The baby was still sleeping.

I just realized that tomorrow will be no time to post. Hence: Here’s the promised spices post. The original first trial for the eau d’épices or -how ever you want to call it- goes back to December 2004. It was a lucky strike, I guess. The original goal (writen down in the excel) was: “Spicy, fresh eau de toilette pour lui”.
Even back then, in a time when I had not even launched Le Maroc pour elle, I loved French words…they make even a simple trial sound somewhat more elegant. Thus, I looked back to the original formula over the weekend, trying to understand it:
14 compounds, being
Coumarin
Frankincense, CO2 extract, India
Ethylcinnamat
Vetiverol
Galbanum, essential oil
Methylantranilate
Cistus
Cardamon, CO2 extract
Linalool
Linalylpropionat
Terpinylacetat
Cinnamon leaves essential oil
Corriander
Green Pepper

What I still find amazing is the diffusive power and the strength of the composition. In the mean time, it got a little bit softer. Looking at it, the composition lives from a tension between the woody spices, especially the cinnamon leaf with cinnamon bark notes, and the orange flower, in the original formula in the (cheap) form of methylantranilate. This I tried to increase, make it a touch more floral by building an accord with nerol, aurantiol, red mandarin and orange flower absolute (much more expensive). The spices got softer and reduced, pepper is deleted and cistus replaced by ambrein. A good spoon full of orris and bergamot helps to sooth the overall impression, without making it to nice…if you know what I mean ;-)
Thus, the overall composition is still simple (22 compounds) but in a sense more balanced. W. still likes it, which is a tough challenge, as he loves the first version, that I find too harsh.

The bottomline of all this: An entire composition may life by a simple juxtaposition: Spices and a flower line behind woods. Simple, ain’t it?
next: Wait and see how it develops while maturing. Orange flower is tricky and I have seen many compositions fouling. Let’s hope for best.

Still somewhat lightened by the idea of one of my babies being nominated the weekend balanced the airiness of the perfumer by the responsibility of the producer. I made the master batch for the Rêverie au jardin, trembling hands, the nose soaked in musky lavender and woody pleasures. Quite some stuff to mix, I can tell you, and I think this is the most complex formula so far. Not that complexity in itself is good, but I guess it is like a palimpsest of a lengthy journey. Anything to shorten?…. I am afraid: I guess not.
What’s next there?

- Wait for a couple of weeks and sniff later. The mix has to mature now, where -this is chemistry!- things react and the fragrance develops like a good wine.
- Dilute and wait again, at least one month. Again…maturation taking place….and then somewhen in mid-late-spring the scent will be ready.
- Until then: Get the labels printed, get the flyers for the samples ready, get the ribbon in green (I already picked a shade of green that’s really nice), get more boxes to pack things and then….pack things in spring!
Lucky me this is still far away, as there is a rough week ahead right now with one highlight chasing the other. One day in Brussels , followed by three days of conference here in Berne where I have partially an active part; ultimately all this presenting and travelling will shorten my posts this week.

Hopefully there will be a minute time tomorrow to keep you updated on the spices front of W.’s favourite….

Wow.

I am wordless, almost. Just read that Lonestar Memories is nominated, in the 7th Basenotes fragrance awards, in the category best new fragrances. wow.
Well, I guess I have to thank you all, who voted on basenotes. Thank you! And here you find the nominations, including the nominated best fragrance blogs, where you will find some of my favourite blogs. Congratulations to you all!
http://www.basenotes.net/industry_news/20070112awards7.html

approaching the weekend. Finally. With most of the graphical-visual layouts for the rêverie au jardin done: Time to work on the spicy note that I mentioned Monday and to try some accords I have in mind. I want to continue exploring a couple of synthetic deligths that I haven’t mastered….and I feel like playing, fooling around a little bit. 

Somehow, I can’t help, I feel an urge to come up with something a little bit louder and provocative and dirty and …. brave. Something like the most beautiful flower bouguet, soft, delicate, sweet ambrosia, in the dirty, oily hands of a half nacked maintenance man. Something like that…something like a erotic feminine hyacinth peacefully joined with the scent for Mr dirty with the perfect torso.

Since a while I have this idea to visualize a theme/concept/idea and  in parallel work on the scent. To compose what I paint and to paint what I compose. I will have to do some thinking there. It might be fun to explore a scent, make mods and in the same time do the oil-painting, layer over layer, in line in a way with what goes on in the mod bottles and in the mind.  I have never done this. I wonder whether one influences the other.  I wonder whether this has been done before? I wonder whether I have timet to do this.

Positive side effect: At the end there would ideally be a fragrance and a picture to go with it…Well, the weekend is around the corner and there will be time to think, and dream…best wishes to you all.

Off for the weekend….

 (picture from www.sxc.hu, uploaded by Lucretious, the perfect torso)

Continuity is comfort in life. You know what’s to come and what to expect. It is like living with selective serotonin re-update inhibitors or other comfort makers / little helpers; we tend to get used to things and like them the way they are. The SSRI’s have the positive side effect of making us truly happy by their shifting of our brain messenger’s levels to appropriate levels. As a matter of fact, we have pretty good soma nowadays and I while writing these lines I feel urged to do some brave new world reading in my upcoming vacation end February.

So, there is continuity in my life, too. Like watching Home Order TV. I watch it when I am really tired and can not cope with the Simpsons anymore. And I watch it when preparing samples or boxing perfumes…endless repetitions of how wonderful this and that is and how little is left! Priests sing their chants on the birth of a new cooking machine, sing the evangelism of how wonderful it is and the miracle it does, cutting everything into little pieces within seconds and Oh miracle! so easy to take apart! and then, I feel comfort and guidance in my life. Well, not really, to be honest, I am a silent watcher and (except for once) never buy. I seem to be immune to their and other priest’s messages.
Writing this, I am listening to Steve Reich’s Tehillim. Wonderful! I do not understand the Hebrew psalms but I can somehow feel the beauty. And then, who dares to object a biblical text like:
“Who is the man that desires life,
and loves days to see good?
Guard your tongue from evil,
and your lips from speaking deceit.
Turn from evil, and do good,
Seek peace and pursue it.
Continuity in my life seems also to be about sample vials purchases. About a year ago, I was posting on my attempt to buy sample vials. This year, change within continuity, I am proud to announce that I just ordered again…a couple of 1000 pieces that we will easily use, In-Sha’-Allah!
Here is the link to last year’s post on sample vials: http://tauerperfumes.blogspot.com/2006/01/il-minimo.html

After a joyful evening with some heavy language, dead bodies all over, a fantastic DiCaprio! in “departed”, a glass of Shiraz and wonderful conversation, I realized how beautiful and peaceful life in a one-man company can be. No departed spies and counter-spies (both called rats) sneaking around me and my excels and mods. The only worries: Keep my firewall tight and my virus scan active and my mods limited to a countable number.
The postman will hopefully bring today or tomorrow the last ingredients for up-scaling and mixing the concentrate at day x, for a still undetermined numbers of bottles to launch at a still undetermined point of time in 2007. At least I think I know the final concentration (15%, eau de parfum strength): Testing a few concentrations from 8 to almost 20% I found 15% to be perfect to bring out the notes, with the right intensity and balanced appearance. I was pretty amazed on the differences and would not have expected such change in the overall appearance, especially of the head notes; I think with the chosen final concentration the green, fresh top notes come out best.
In a sense, there is some melancholy going with it, the day when finally the formula is carved into stone, being a moment of now-or-never; this is the moment when the musing about a green leave here and a woody stick there and a fresh lavender flower on top of it comes to an end:
Rêverie au jardin… be it…back to French names!

Greetings from the garden

When sniffing perfumes with Vero last Saturday in Zurich (my Lavender and Vero’s Vetiver and Orange flower) we also had the pleasure to visit Chamade (aldehydic roses, somewhat heavy, on a nice guearlinade, but not really my gusto). While chatting we put our noses over some over-the-counter samples that I got from obscure places, such as import perfumeries. And we soon decided that comparing apples and pears is not fair and does not make sense and we moved on to other topics, ….

Such as the explosion of number of perfumes on the market and al these new brands and how many of these will continue to be successful in a couple of year’s time. And we discussed technical issues, such as how long it took Roudnitska to create a perfume and that time is an important factor in creation. Especially, if you do perfumery the old fashioned way, i.e. using high end quality naturals and synthetics additionally, to put things into perspective.
It needs time to think and time to rethink. A good formula needs months, years sometimes, to develop in your head, to mature in bottles, to find the appropriate dilutions, to stand the tests once diluted.

Chances are good that there is a correlation between the time invested in the creation of a perfume and for how long it will stay on the market.

Today’s savage chicken fits somewhat with today’s post…. ->Savage Chickens