Lavender is difficult, and everybody seems to be scared of lavender these days. Perfumers and perfume lovers alike. This and that you hear quite often when you talk with perfume friends, mostly followed by a “what a pity, as lavender is such a nice material to work with”.

Combine this with my love for fougères, and some really tough, super tough decisions that need to be taken, and you have the perfect cocktail for distraction: stolen play time in the tauer lab. For those of us who care about classification and boxes: Here is the picture on Fragrances of the World, by Michael Edwards, showing you where the fougères are positioned (click here, and try the fragrance wheel: Fun and concise descriptions!) I could not agree more: Men love fougères, feel comfortable with them, women find them appealing.

I guess besides this wonderful interplay of fresh citrus with green fresh spicy herbs and woody mossy notes and coumarin that does the trick for many, it is just comforting not to wear a dramatic memory of a perfumer. Or not having to sit in an imaginative garden with over sized fruits and flowers that mirror the twisted fantasies of a creator (me included). Sometimes, me at least, I do feel not like drama but more like peacefully resting in a bed of slightly earthy petitgrain, green-bitter galbanum, soothing bergamot, minty geranium leaves, fresh lavender, a dash of tangy rose oil on a solid base  with undramatic lines of dry and powdery woods, coming from ingredients like Nootka tree oil, nargamotha, patchouli, vetiver.

This is part of the formula that I mixed, using Nootka tree for the first time publicly, I  think. I love it, but it needs a very gentle hand, as it is quite powerful, and can easily be dominant, reaching out with dry woody hands. It’s scent is a bit like an amplified cedarwood, a magnified pencil scent, pumped up and made super powdery and super dry. Sort of.

Of course, you will also find magic potion ingredients in this formula of mine (24 ingredients in total). Like salicylates that provide “lift” and volume, or coumarin that you just need there.

So, yes the Nootka tree is gently dosed, so are the herbs and spices, and yes, I think I feel comfortable with it. I haven’t really planned this. It happened. I will soon (mid next week) close the tauer factory for two weeks, giving me the time to think this one through. I guess I might share it, on a somewhat private basis, without pushing it towards a global sales machinery. To do so, I am considering a couple of options (you remember: I cannot ship internationally anymore, for the time being). Options that might allow me to ship again, in one way or the other, maybe at the end of this year, maybe next year. Not super easy, but also nice to think and plan and worry about: It is the perfect distraction, too.