Fragrant greetings from Zurich, back from Antwerp! Wow, what a trip.

Today’s picture: A scaled down illustration that I painted while in Antwerp, when I had downtime Thursday and Saturday (not on Friday!). I used a picture of a petunia on  my phone as reference point to paint on my digital painting board. I took the phone picture here in Zurich, where I planted a petunia, a geranium and a busy lizzie while it was grey and cold a week or two ago. Planting little plants in spring for summer’s bloom works as antidepressant, it really does.

Anyhow: So I had some time on Thursday and Saturday to paint. The actual painting is A4, 300 dpi, but for the blog I had to cut it down. OK; I admit it… I love how the painting turned out (mix of digital pencil, water color and chalk). It is like mixing perfume trials: You never know what you goona get. Sometimes, things just don’t work out right. And sometimes they do. Often, the reason why a scent or a painting does not work out properly can be found  in the first couple of strokes. A line or one note is not right from the beginning, and you have no chance to correct it in the process. Except you paint over it all, or you erase it.

Petunias smell, a lot of them, and I wonder whether there is a petunia perfume out there…. Anyhow; I am now looking forward to summer, when the petunia will smell in the night, a dark voluptuous slightly off powdery scent that attracts a lot of beetles and night moths. If it survives the attacks of the monstrous Zurich naked snail until then….

So I was in Antwerp: Visiting Parfuma and Necessities. Two perfumeries, two different concepts, both great locations and for me: Both an interesting experience. Necessities has one of the nicest collection of selective perfumes. Without the “things you always see everywhere, like (your favorite pseudo selective perfume brand here)”, the scents that you find everywhere and still everybody thinks they are selective or niche or whatever. Really: a curated selection of brands! This is rare these days. It is a tough world out there….

Parfuma is different: Larger, covering it all: High end designers, all the classical brands and: Selected niche (and cosmetics, the best of the best, but there I am not an expert). It is – in my opinion- quite a challenge to balance these  worlds. Also for the sales people that I trained  a bit.  For me, it is always an experience, to see my flacons and the flacons of other “niche” brands, in proximity to Chanel 5 (to pick just one fragrance and brand). To be honest: I sometimes feel very blessed that I am -as brand- small and niche in niche in niche. A lot of things are easier if you are small.

Talking to the press, by the way, was cool, too. It always tells me again how special the story of tauer perfumes actually is, and with how many twists and funny sides over the years.

When I got home, I also had the good feeling of: “I guess I got there, finally.” I was referring to my packaging with the cardboard sleeve and the metal sliding box and  my flacons and what is inside the flacons and how it all presents itself; referring to the last post: the content…..

Time to turn the next page. But first: I go jogging. Now. Have a great Sunday!