Tauer Perfumes Noontide Petals: fragrance review & draw for (unreleased yet) samples

From the noontide sun depart
Here belov'd awhile repose
And the murmurings of my heart
Let me tenderly disclose,
to my forest rose.[1]

Alles ist Licht (Everything is light)

Source: google.com via Perfumshrinee on Pinterest

Writing the first review on Noontide Petals, the as yet unreleased newest Tauer perfume, means I get to -in a way- shape how the fragrance might be examined by those who will experience it next. So if I were to give a direct image it would be light, blinding light scattered through a vitrail pane with geometrical designs, imbuing everything in its path, softening the delineations of objects, creating a haze of happy numbness. It was Luca who had long ago envisioned an apparition of light in regards to a Bernand Chant composition: seraphic angels singing a concert of clean notes with bits of an organic chemistry treatise and a woman dressed in white, with an impeccable silvery blow-dry, descending from the skies smiling, like an Atlantis TV-hostess. Different though the scent in question may be, the impression is nonetheless simpatico to the one that Noontide Petals created in me upon smelling it. This hugely aldehydic floral fragrance is simultaneously clean, very floral and sweetish in the White Linen, Estee by Lauder (a Bernand Chant composition, by the way) and Chanel No.22 mold, with that impeccably "coifed" feel of retro aldehydics, of which Tauer's Miriam fragrance was one great paradigm. In fact the turn that Noontide Petals takes for a while after the initial spray is referencing a segment off Miriam, with an even more retro, more sparkling soapy manner than the rather more soft-spoken Miriam.

Geranium and ylang ylang are commonly used as modifiers to leverage the intensity of the fatty aldehydes in classic fragrances. The trick works; a ton of aldehydes is almost too much to stomach without it, such is their engine combustion for flight that you feel like you're straddling the side wing of a Boeing 747. This sheen opens up the flowers, giving them the propensity to unfurl unto the ether. A giant rose is immediately perceived in Noontide Petals, much like in White Linen or No.22, soapy and warm, bright yellow [2] and strikingly spring-like under the winter sun. The citrusy touch on top serves as balance to the sweet floralcy of white petals (natural jasmine and tuberose), cradled into a soft, perfume, posh base with a warm, very lightly smoky effect that recalls things like Chanel, Van Cleef & Arpels and other insignia of class and refinement of another era. Simply put, Noontide Petals makes me want to press my jeans, break out the Hermès scarfs and the long, 20s sautoirs of shiny pearls and go out for a morning sip of champagne for breakfast and laugh and laugh with spirited company.

copyright Andy Tauer for Tauer Perfumes

In short, if you're a lover of aldehydes in perfumes and have been longing for a good, potent, gorgeous dosage to hit you over the head in infinite style, look no further than Noontide Petals. If you have a problem with aldehydic florals you should also try it for the heck of it: it's definitely an impressive fragrance, very well crafted. For those of you who have identified a "Tauerade" base common in most of Andy's work, I can see no sign of it here, as I couldn't see it in Miriam either. In that way these are fragrant releases apart. But none the less beautiful for it!

For our readers, 3 samples of the unreleased fragrance by Tauer: Enter a comment, saying what you would most like or dislike about aldehydes, and I will draw three winners. Draw is open internationally till Tuesday 19th midnight. Winner will be announced on Wednesday.

[1]Rexford, George C., compiler and arranger; Lover, S.; Woodburry, I. B.; Thomas, J. R.; Wurzel, G. F.; Lavenu. Beadle's Dime School Melodist: A Choice Selection of Familiar and Beautiful Songs, Duets, Trios, Etc. Arranged in a Simple Manner for School Singing, with Elementary Instructions Suited to Children of the Most Tender Age . New York: Irwin P. Beadle and Co., 1860. [format: book], [genre: song]. Permission: Newberry Library Persistent link to this document: http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/file.php?file=beadle.html
[2]It could be Pantone 7404

I got the news today, oh boy!

Not very fine news, that is. This is for John and his family.

Fragrance Layering: A Layman’s Guide on How to Layer Perfumes

So you’ve decided to layer, the art that involves applying more than one fragrance at the same time. You have amassed your scents, put all your samples in order. Now what?

~by guest writer AlbertCAN

Fragrance layering sounds impossibly chic, but often harder than a trifle dab of this and that. Part of the delicate problem lies knowing the basics of your fragrances, somehow understanding how to rev the aromatic engines in harmony. Thus in layman’s terms I am here to put together a concise, easy to follow guide on the fundamentals of perfume layering.

via scent compass

Before the layering can take place I want to show you a few simple application rules. Some of you might know this already but I prefer covering all grounds. Still, for those of you new to the game: less if always more. Discretion and common sense always is the key to success in fragrance layering: to start always choose to play with two. More only if you are confident.
Even perfumer Jean Claude Ellena advocates some wild combinations of scents (Angel and L'Eau d'Issey together?)

Pic Source: jillmckeever.blogspot.com via For Strange on Pinterest

1. Layering doesn’t have to be merely pairing equal-concentration scents, meaning that parfum A can blend beautifully with, say, eau de cologne B. In fact that’s often how I layer. This is also taking into the accounts that historically houses (such as Guerlain and Chanel) have separate formulations for parfum, eau de parfum and eau de toilette even within the same line. (Personal example: Chanel No. 19 parfum & 4711 Eau de Cologne)

2. Ancillary products, such as deodorants, body lotions or body creams are absolutely fair game layering with regular fragrances. Still, often they are designed to amplify and to hold onto the fragrance molecules a little longer, so please take that into consideration when layering. Nothing worse, say, a tuberose body cream with an extremely diffusive spicy 80s fragrance! (Personal examples: Terre d'Hermès deodarant & Creed Green Irish Tweed eau de toilette; Chanel Allure Homme Edition Blanche deodarant & Terre d'Hermès eau de toilette)

3. Layering doesn’t mean applying everything on the skin. Try misting your undergarments with fragrance X and apply fragrance Y on your skin. (Personal example: misting Hermès Hiris on a garment & wearing Guerlain Mitsouko parfum to boost the iris effect)

4. Layering does not mean applying everything at the same time. Sometimes heavier fragrances such as the orientals or the chypres have lovely drydowns to pair with a different fragrance. (Example: extending a few drops of Guerlain Shalimar parfum with Guerlain Jicky eau de toilette)

5. Layer with purpose. Most of us in the know layer because we see an improvement in the combination, not because we want to wear something nobody else has. (If I do it for vanity reasons penning this article would be self-defeating.)

I shall further illustrate the last rule: I enjoy wearing eau de colognes but the sillage and the longevity of each, by themselves, tend to leave me wanting more. So my staple combination is actually 4711 Eau de Cologne x Chanel Eau de Cologne x Tom Ford Neroli Protofino, spraying 4711 on the garments (not directly on fabrics), body mist with Chanel, and then a discreet spray of the Tom Ford on my forearms as punctuations. Those three would last me a good 10 hours.

via www.ninfeobeauty.com

Which brings me to the central theme of fragrance layering: the preferred method is to involve citrus-based or simply light-handed fragrances, as they are flexible enough to meld with the bolder fragrances—and always heaviest first and the lightest last. As I have mentioned with all-citrus fragrances one can layer 3 fragrances effortlessly, but if a heavy oriental, classic aldehyde floral or a chypre I would first try with two fragrances. I would also recommend:

• finding a common theme with the fragrances—such pairing a soliflore with an oriental (Guerlain L’Heure Bleue parfum & Chanel 28 La Pausa comes to mind).
• extend the nuance within the lighter fragrance—for instance I would describe layering Piguet Bandit with Osmanthe Yunnan as “the S/M tricks occasionally enjoyed by sexually frigid suburban housewives when their marriages are on the rocks”!
• (only if you know what you are doing) pair with another fragrance a very similar structural analogue: for instance the aforementioned Shalimar/Jicky combination. I also love smelling Givenchy Ysatis with Estee Lauder Knowing—but only with a deft hand on a very chic person who knows what on earth they are doing. Not for the faint hearted!

Now one caveat: marine/aquatic fragrances are case by case only, since though they are generally light in nature Calone (the watermelon-smelling "fresh" molecule) can be extremely dominant and unpredictable. I have never, for since, tried layering L’Eau d’Issey Pour Homme even though I have worn it since 18!

So there, now you are ready to play. How to test? The safest say is to spray the choices on test strips first—weeding out all the bad choices before applying gingerly on you. And just like entertaining: never prepare something for the first time right before a major event—stick with a tried and true layering combination in this case! Good luck!

For inspirations here are some further ideas:
Combos published in French Elle (21 July 2003)
Les Tuileries Bizarre Layering Challenge of the Day

PS. My all-time favourite layering combinations:

Chanel No. 5 Eau Premiere & Hermès Un Jardin après la Mousson
4711 Eau de Cologne & Chanel Eau de Cologne & Tom Ford Neroli Protofino (and if I am feel like pulling all the stops maybe an accent of Guerlain Eau de Fleurs de Cedrat)
Guerlain Shalimar parfum & Chanel Cristalle Eau Verte
Terre d’Hermès deodorant & Creed Green Irish Tweed
Robert Piguet Bandit & Hermès Osmanthe Yunnan

Currently I’m experimenting mint (Prada Luna Rossa, Cartier Roadster, Guerlain Homme) with iris soliflores (Hiris, 28 La Pausa)!

Pic Source: Uploaded by user via Vicio on Pinterest

And a few of Elena's perfume layering suggestions:

Le Baiser du Dragon parfum + Narciso Musk for Her oil = the most delicious baby powder scent

Lancôme Trésor + Bvlgari Black = sweet, peachy rubber

Youth Dew body cream + Old Spice = delicious spicy carnation

Pacifica Spanish Amber solid + drop of Serge Lutens Ambre Sultan = mellow skin-like amber

Thierry Mugler Angel (preferably a fav product in bath & body range) + Serge Lutens Clair de Musc = a more floral & lighter Angel

Shiseido Feminite du Bois + rose hydrosol = lighens the oriental and emphasizes the smoother notes

Jo Malone Red Roses + Jo Malone 154 = woody, dark, earthy roses

The Body Shop Citrella + The Body Shop Amorito = Pink Sugar on the cheap

Serge Lutens Ambre Sultan + Serge Lutens Vetiver Oriental (both in tiny dabs) = gorgeousness!

YSL Opium + orange blossom soliflores = summery Opium

Dior Dioressence + Eau de Merveilles (Hermès) to reinforce the ambergris scent

Stay tuned for follow-up post, with perfume layering suggestions by perfume Francis Kurkdjian and by Serge Lutens!

We also welcome your own Layering Suggestions & Tips or Questions in the comments!

Prada Luna Rossa: Fragrance Review & On the Modern Urban Male Accord

~by guest writer AlbertCAN

History has a way of repeating itself, though from a pragmatic point of view it isn’t always monotonous. More and more I’m convinced that aesthetically modern perfumery shares a great deal of similarities with arts in the Shakespearean era: it’s not the originality of the subject matter that interests the audience as a whole, but the deliverance of a story or the treatment of the subject matter. After all, before Shakespeare there was Christopher Marlowe; before William’s “Troilus and Cressida” there was Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Troilus and Criseyde”. Likewise before Chanel Coco Mademoiselle there was Thierry Mugler Angel, Narciso Rodriguez For Her before Guerlain Idylle. I am, of course, by no means implying that there’s a modern perfumery equivalent of Shakespeare, Marlowe or Chaucer among us (‘tis not my place to ascertain), nor am I condoning blatant olfactory plagiarism, so unfortunately flooding the market these days. Rather, nowadays it’s all about the paradigm-shifting quarter turns.



Enter Luna Rossa: the latest woody-citrus masculine offering from Prada affirms to me the notion that we, as a civilization, has reached a consensus on the idea of how men of the early 21st century to smell like, so much so that I am terming the olfactory backbone “Modern Urban Male Accord”, or MUMA for short (after the cultural phenomenon “Sensitive Female Chord Progression”). I am by no means implying that Prada Luna Rossa is the archetypical benchmark of the story, but rather a reflection that the world has really reached the critical mass on this front long ago that a proposed cultural moniker is in order.

Prada Luna Rossa, created by perfumer Daniela Andrier and named after the brand’s America’s Cup Challenge team, is supposed to be an “unconventional marine fragrance” featuring lavender. The unconventionality here refers to the novel derivations of ingredients, for instance the mint: the Maroccan Mentha spicata var. crispa Nana, which made its perfumery debut in the blue special edition of Montblanc Legend by Olivier Pescheux. Further, I have observed the following critique on Scent and Chemistry’s facebook page:

Albeit being fresh and minty, spearmint also has a dirty side to it. Leave a blotter with any spearmint oil for a day, and it will smell 'dirty wet cloth' the next morning. This fate is quite a danger in any fragrance heavy on spearmint, but not so in 'Luna Rossa', where the spearmint is softened by vegetal and dusty rose accents, green angelica, and a papyrus/blond woods accord heavy on Iso E Super.

The lavender used is an absolute, though surely further treated after extraction to clear off the burnt-sugar nuance often associated with the material. Then there’s the requisite modern masculine base notes: musk (ambrettolide in this case) and ambergris in the guise of ambrox. The overall effect ticks all the right boxes: fresh, soft, clean and sporty.

How does the fragrance stand in terms of its olfactory genealogy? I would position Prada Luna Rossa to be a kissing cousin of Chanel Allure Homme Édition Blanche, also having an herbal-white musk-ambrox alignment. The mint motif also positions it to be the neighbourhood of Cartier Roadster. In fact, to the readers of this blog I can sum up the genre in three words—contemporary sports cologne—and many shall have a firm grasp of its overall feel and sillage. Thus we have a basic feel of the Modern Urban Male Accord.

Now I know many readers among us may bemoan the examination of the greatest cultural common denominator, but the rationale behind MUMA is worth pondering here. Decades before, when the idea of an ideal gentleman was different, we had the fougères and the chypres. Chanel Pour Monsieur, a fragrance many has considered to be a masculine archetype, is within the same era such as Monsieur de Givenchy. Then Christian Dior Eau Sauvage. Then Calvin Klein Eternity for Men, etc. Years from now, when the tastes of the general public have changed, MUMA would simply be a reference point from the past. This too, as they say, shall pass.

The heart of the matter is that men’s grooming and sartorial trends have always been slow and relatively unyielding in their evolutions. Conformity may be too harsh of a word here, but nowadays most men dress to blend in, not to significantly stand out, to shock. Having fashion retail experience I can report that most men don’t view clothes shopping their ideas of fun, preferring to get what they need in the store and moving on. I think the sociology and the marketing catering to the men is beyond the exploration scope of this article, but if consumers vote their ideas of what a modern man should smell like with their money, based on the recent releases we have a fairly good idea on our perception of MUMA.

Perfumer Jean Guichard once quipped that every good fragrance needs a ‘duo’, meaning the interplay of two contrasting ingredients. It’s a summary on fragrance construction, of course, but an elegant mean of understanding the basic principles nonetheless. As far as I can tell MUMA is the contrast between aromatics (geranium/mint/lavender etc.) with modern fixatives (white musk/modern amber/others). Add dihydromercenol for a fresh laundry effect, generic spice and some metallic nuances. Repackage and repeat.

Needless to say major launches from big houses rely on MUMA not because of its artistic merit, but rather under the cultural and social norms there isn’t a great deal of room to negotiate the artistic direction. Enlightened consumers, however, can choose to layer MUMA in interesting combinations; Prada Luna Rossa, for instance, works very well with Hermes Hiris, as I pleasantly discovered today. (Mint and iris, where have thou been all of my life?) There: a contemporary male fragrance does not need to be monotonous. How it can be used is a far more interesting exploration.

Photo: Prada Luna Rossa via Moody Report

The winner of the draw....

....for the newest Ormonde Jayne bottle is Anon/Marika80 (at yahoo). Congratulations and please email me with your shipping data so I can have this in the mail for you soon.
Sorry for the delay in announcing, folks, I have had my hands full these past few days.

Thanks for the enthusiastic participation and till the next time!