Tauer L'Air Du Desert Marocain Review

It's fall in Cleveland and it's the time for clambakes, apple and pumpkin foods. Clambakes in rural areas always seem to involve bonfires. And I always look to see what really compliments the dry weather and bonfires. For a long while, Chanel Sycomore always seemed to fit the bill or sometimes Mitsouko. But Andy Tauer's L'Air Du Desert Marocain really fits the bill for a lot of situations that has a roaring bonfire or a barbeque.

The full bottle Tauers that I own (3) always seem to get lost in my shuffle of Chanels, Guerlains and Amouages. I don't know why or how but they do. Probably because they can be so hard to match with events or the seasons can't cooperate to wear them, so I forget about them. But yesterday seemed to be a day for L'Air Du Desert Marocain.

L'Air starts off by being almost bone dry. I keep thinking that there is lavender in there but according to Luckyscent, there is no lavender in there. Bone dry isn't bad when it smells good, as L'Air smells good being almost bone dry. I really do enjoy L'Air and glad that I got a full bottle unsniffed.

Narciso Rodriguez For Her

Did you ever get to the point of sniffage were it's either you get to wearing maybe the same 14-20 perfumes and neglect anything new? Then it hits you after blogging about random, somewhat uninteresting things that at one point or another, you've already blogged about. Sniffing a new perfume was in order.

For three days, I've been wearing Narciso Rodriguez for Her trying to figure it out. I get lots of patchouli in the beginning and not much else, then the musk comes through. Somewhere, something else peeks through a little bit. Flowers? Fruit? I can't be sure but all I know is that I'm not liking this perfume as a whole. Patchouli is one of those notes that I am ambivalent about just like musk when they are dominant notes. It depends on how they are presented, I think.

What bugs me about this whole thing is that it seems to follow the your skin but better idea. That idea doesn't suit me because I like my perfume to smell like perfume, not the your skin bit better. And I like my musk to lend a sensual hand or somewhat of a slutty hand to perfume. Lasting power is decent and wears close to the skin. But it just seems to sit on skin with no further development after the first 20 minutes. I own perfumes that evolve over the course of a half a wearing. Hopefully, perfume will come away from the clean musk, your skin but better, fruity garbage that permeates the market right now.

Now I Know Why

It's been a slow and agonizing process of using up my smaller decants (thanks Surrender to Chance for those flash sales). But it can be a great thing too. I've had a chance to truly know if I still like, love or hate a perfume. I'm still hoarding my vintage Mitsouko, Deneuve and Jicky though. This time, I've landed on Guerlain L'Heure Bleue.

The first few times that I did try it after I reviewed it, that it was just the wrong me that day. Nope, I'm having a hard time getting past the composition as a whole. I want to like it but I can't get past the association of after visiting the dentist. Every time that I wear L'Heure Bleue, I get those phantom sensations of Novocaine wearing off. For me, this does suck because I love most classic perfumes and never had one that I associated so strongly with something that is just so horrible for me. I'm not sure if I should just toss what is left of my decant or wait a few more years to see if my opinion has changed.

Packaging and Bottle Design

Every so often, I get really get annoyed with a box that any new perfume and the bottle design. It's always a joy when I buy a full bottle of perfume, even if it is a backup bottle. But the packaging that holds the perfume itself is irritating. What has gotten me annoyed with this stuff is I got my back up bottle of Nasomatto Nuda.

I am not talking about when the package itself arrives at my doorstep. Getting my perfume, unbroken, is important. Everything (the USP box and peanuts) except my invoice and perfume gets thrown out. I've always liked how Chanel and Serge Lutens (export line) look and loved the packaging because it is minimal. The bottles are plain, the packaging is plain. All in the idea of that the perfume should not be judged by the packaging but in the perfume itself. Sometimes, less is more.

The whole Nasomatto line has gotten me a little riled. The glass that actually holds the perfume is just fine but the cap is just horrid. I mean, really? A round, wooden cap. The cap is huge and just doesn't fit. The skanky tuberose/jasmine perfume is great but the cap could have been thought out a little better. Too much bulk and it just looks bad because of the proportions.

Deneuve EDT Review

I'm sitting in front of my computer screen without a clear idea of what or why I am blogging for today. After a short road trip, I have forgotten all of my potential ideas and posts but then remembered the Deneuve EDT sitting on my dresser. I don't care if I am reviewing a perfume that I have already reviewed but I am. There are perfumes (Chanel no 5) out there that smell a little differently depending on the concentration and the variations deserve a review in their own right.

Deneuve was and is one of the first vintage/discontinued scents that just blew me away upon first application. I was first introduced to Deneuve by reading about it on perfume blogs and people saying that it was a real pity that it was discontinued. I hopped on over to the Perfumed Court and found that there was an offering of 8ml of the extract version that was a really good price considering what people were offering on Ebay for the same 8ml. The extract version just blew me away.

The EDT version smells almost exactly like the extract version but seems to be a little rosier than the extract version. The lasting power is surprisingly good for an EDT. Yes, I am still mostly hoarding my Deneuve because if it ever is going to come back, it probably won't smell the same.

Traveling and Stress

Traveling is always stressful to me. It's the packing and getting there that I find to be stressful. I don't care if I am going to be gone 3 or 4 days at most, I hate packing. Trying to figure out what I will wear for 3 or 4 days in advance. Right now, no 5 is not so much of a prima donna right now but really wants to go to Virginia with me. Mitsouko, Deneuve and Epic are asking to come along too.

I keep asking myself, should I take one perfume or two? Should I take anything expensive or vintage? Should I take decants or full bottles? At this point, it's pretty funny, I've already picked out just about everything clothes wise but cannot for the life of me figure out the perfume. Perfume is the ultimate accessory and sticks around for quite a while. I have decided that a lot of my 'strange' and niche perfumes are staying home. Yes, MKK, Arabie and a few others are staying home. I'm thinking of sticking a few random decants in my purse would be beneficial.

Yes, I Have Enough but...

The conversation of having enough perfume has come up for the 50 millionth time in my household today. It is always when I am either searching Ebay, ordering from Surrender to Chance or Ebay that this conversation happens. The logical part of me says yes, I have more than I could ever use in a lifetime. Illogical says no.

If I had just a bottle of Mitsouko, Lyric and no 5 and stuck to those, things would be fine. Fine as in there wouldn't be so many cardboard boxes lying around. We do ship a lot of things to my sister, so they come in handy. I think that it has to do with slowly but surely trying to get my hands on vintage perfumes. Mitsouko has always been an example of a hard to love for me. It did take me a while to fall in love with the current version of Mitsouko and it was hard for me to love the vintage version. Now I know why it was hard for me, even though I was fascinated by her. It was the peach note that tripped up my beginner's nose but it was the chypre structure that I loved. But it is impossible to find a really old bottle of Mitsouko that isn't a fortune. But no 5 on the other hand, is pretty easy to find and for some reasonable prices. I had to get 2 bottles of the cologne to compare. The first bottle that I had gotten, the edges are rounded making it look a lot more square. I'm thinking that this one wasn't kept in a cool place or just plain didn't hold up because toward the end, it smelled like no 5 but mostly of
nail polish remover. The other bottle smelled better after 20 minutes of the nail polish note.

After poking around Ebay, I found myself a vintage no 5 in extract form that was a decent price. I'm sorry if I'm not exactly willing to spend $100 or more for a half used 1 ounce bottle of extract. Yes, I am cheap when it comes to something used.  One of the offerings was scary though. It was mostly full but the color was pale for a vintage and it was noted that there was some kind of sediment at the bottom but when you shook it up, you couldn't see it. I saw the picture after shaking it and the juice looked cloudy. That make me wary to get it.