Before leaving for Italy: A long post!

Good morning from Zurich, where the roses are blooming, and where we still enjoy the bright light of late spring, like beatles coming out of the ground, spreading the wings and taking off into the sun. Today’s picture shows you the sun breaking through trees, taken at 10 am the other day, when biking over the hill. Everything is green up there, but the multitude of spring greens still pervades the uniform summer green that will set in in a few weeks time.

Before continuing talking about roses and asking you a question: Here, a few thoughts from a guy who planted tomatoes a while ago and reads in the newspaper that about 60% of all restaurants in Zurich do not operate with a profit.

The last few days were nice and warm and I could watch the tomato plants growing on a daily basis. I planted the plants (urban farming like) into old ethanol cans, and am looking forward to eating locally produced red fruits one fine day: Provided mother nature is nice enough. Often, she isn’t and is generous with everybody else, but us. So I read a book the other day, and realized that my planting, buying locally, buying small, (… other recent trends avoiding big business, add them here <….>) is in line with a societal pattern we see these days. People loosing trust; trust in corporate conglomerates, trust in government and its  institution, trust in previous peers and leaders, trust in money, but this lost trust in (paper) money will be the end game, really. So, what do people do: we all look for values that we can trust and find them locally, in small entities, products where we know what they are, where the come from….

Bottom line: My tomato planting is also sign for a larger shift of trustworthiness taking place. cool. we are all part of it.

The other day in a shop here in Zurich: “Who made your <your favorite product here>?” The same line of thought makes a lot of sense in perfumery: I will keep this in mind. Because when it comes to my produce, the answer is quite simple. Who made your fragrance? Andy Tauer, from A to Z. It would be cool to also provide where all the its and bits of packaging etc. come from.

Profitability: Like the news anchor, I am smiling over my face, but try to make serious face announcing the next topic. Profitability. Of course, it is intrinsically linked to the points mentioned above.  When it comes to perfumes, low volume, selective, niche, you name it: many, many are not profitable, really. A lot of people life from these new brands entering the market: The perfumers, the bottle producers, printers, the ladies packing the perfumes in Vietnam or France, the packaging producer, maybe the retailers, too. But often, the brand owner does not really end up with a reasonable profit. It is like with the Zurich restaurants. There are too many, and too many thinking it was easy, too many are not realizing that the job is not done when the first 6 scents are produced and out on the market, or hidden in some sort of conceptual fog. It is then when the job actually starts.

I mention this because, recently, I got so many questions from perfume lovers and going to be perfume brand owners that it is time to repeat here: I do NOT give advice nor do I consult. The last couple of weeks it was for sure a dozen “How do I find producers and other suppliers for my fragrances, what retailers to work with?, find out about the regulatory needs, how to pack perfumes, how talk to bloggers?”. These days, everybody seems to either open a noodle shop or a perfume house. Tonight, I will go out, having dinner. Locally, right over the street. A profitable restaurant, because the did not start with the goal of getting rich and famous, but just wanted to cook good food and offer a nice place to stay for a while. But I bet: It took them a couple of years.

And now, here’s  a little question, thanking you that you continued reading all the way down:  I find summer to be a difficult time for perfume. I hardly wear perfume in summer, really.

I have been working on a rose for a while, a complimentary scent in a way, complementary to my existing roses that are somewhat on the heavy side. I wanted a light, airy, rose for summer, staying close to the skin, wearable in the heat, like a refreshing rose water, with some lasting power, but not for a whole long day. A summer rose that feels like smelling one of these very fragrant roses that you find in old gardens, hints of spices, a citrus floral happiness with a dash of soapiness in the best sense of the word, oscillating between floral delicacy  and a musky skin.

I find summer to be a difficult time for perfume, and as I am not an expert when it comes to wearing scents:

What do you actually wear in summer?