making of

Vanilla planifolia shortage

I always say: do not buy a lot but buy quality. It will make you more happy in the end. Quality is, of course, very subjective and when it comes to perfumes also tricky to see, sometimes. The prices especially in the luxury segment do not reflect quality but are marketing decisions.

This post is not about pricing, though. It is more about what makes fragrances special: it is what goes inside; the composition and the quality. Both make a huge difference. And quality: goes for naturals and synthetics. And if many of my fans say about creations of mine: genius or bravo etc. , it is actually a bravo! for my raw materials suppliers producing specialities beyond the ordinary. Putting these naturals in, however, is not always easy.

Having said that: Tauerville Vanilla flash is basically out of stock, with a few bottles lingering here and there. New stock: ordered from my supplier for a long time now but…. we still face a vanilla planifolia shortage.

I use a high tech CO2 natural extract, 12% vanillin, of Vanilla planifolia in Vanilla flash from my Tauerville collection. 2017 was a bad harvest and getting qood quality of natural vanilla pods was difficult for the producer of the extract, Flavex. We now hope for later in spring 18 when new Vanilla should be processed from the 2018 harvest, mostly coming from Madagascar, one of the poorer countries on this globe.

Here’s the irony: I produce luxury products, we consume luxury perfume products and can afford them because somewhere on the globe farmers are working for almost free. If we’d to pay western salaries to the workers in the fields, it would be a different world.

I decided to sacrifice some of my last stock that I kept myself, for emergencies. The picture shows you part of the 1kg bottle. Thus, I hope that by spring, I will have more stock of Vanilla flash.

Prices of natural vanilla have gone up, significantly, of course , too. But I have decided that I will keep the Vanilla flash price for this batch.

Thus, let me wrap up:
A cyclone devasted parts of the vanilla crop in 2017 in one of the poorest country, natural vanilla got harder to get and costly, Vanilla flash should be back for my retailers in spring 18, and I kindly ask all perfume for their patience and thank them for their appreciation of the real thing.