A special surprise for readers: A guest post from the ever-so-venerable Portia. Please welcome Portia of APJ to the Olfactics blog …We’re close.
Hey there Olfactics crew,
Liam and I have done a blog swap today so you can check him out over on Australian Perfume Junkies. Why? Well there is some pretty exciting news for our Australian readers. As you probably know Liam has started working for Men’s Biz and has done a sterling job of refining and curating their fragrance offerings. Last week it was announced that the Men’s Biz crew will be bringing in the Tauer Perfumes range to Australia for the first time. Cue great rejoicing among the Aussie perfumista community!
Tauer Perfumes at Men’s Biz
Andy Tauer is a superstar among independent perfumers, known as well for his fragrance as for his excellent knowledge and pioneering of the WWW and engaging a people new to the idea of blogging, independent perfume and online shopping. We watched as this self taught perfumer created fragrances that moved us, made our eyes roll into the back of our heads and our hearts flutter in the surprise and excitement of the genuinely original. Many of us were instantly hooked. Personally, I bought bottles for myself and for friends. Originally he was a luxury price point but lately he has become a very good value line, making fragrances well above their price point in comparison to other houses and though some perfumistas rumble that he is not so groundbreaking as he once was it is more because he has become swamped by the competition than because his quality or originality has diminished, in my opinion anyway. It is now harder than ever to release a fragrance to what has become a jaded and overfamiliar world of spoiled perfumistas.
So I’d like to introduce you to my three current favourite Tauer Perfumes.
Pentachords Auburn by Tauer Perfumes 2011
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
African orange flower, tobacco, sandalwood, cinnamon, amber
Pentachords. Five accords to create a fragrance. African orange flower is the bitter orange. So as far as I can tell the flower does not have the creamy breathy white floral sensual allure of the regular orange flower but a sharper, more astringent scent that is very sweet and quite shrill. Mixed here with sweet dried blonde tobacco leaves and a thick, glutinous amber the whole fragrance has the trademark Tauer crunchy sweetness but the whole scent is less opaque. Auburn feels like looking through expensive, whorled, amber coloured glass. The images are totally distorted but extremely pleasing to the eye.
Eau D’Epices by Tauer Perfumes 2010
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Cinnamon, cardamom, clove, coriander, red mandarines
Heart: Orange blossom, jasmine, orris root, incense
Base: Cistus ladaniferus resin, ambergris, tonka beans, vetiver
Citrus, clove and a barrage of spices with a softly breathy orange blossom open Eau d’Epices, it’s hot, dry and smooth. Like the spit of spices as they hit a very hot pan of oil in another room while you sit with an elegant Indian woman with hair freshly oiled, plaited and a garland of jasmine and marigolds in her hair. Sweet and alluring, I find Eau d’spices so wearable and comfortable even though I know it’s a big scent that can take over the room. Here the dry down is lightly salted, resinous and cool incense. Beautiful, wearable, different to anything else in my collection.
Incense Rose by Tauer Perfumes 2010
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Rose, bergamot, clementine, cardamon, Bulgarian rose
Heart: Orris, castoreum, woodsy accords
Base: Texas cedar, vetiver, myrrh, patchouli, natural frankincense (extrait of CO2 Boswellia Serrata), labdanum, ambrein
Ahhhh! Fanta accord followed by jammy roses and sleek, cool vetiver. A softly metallic iris and some woodsy incense that turns into the sweetest citrus/amber Taurade. Incense Rose is fun and flirty while being dressed up to the nines. A smily fragrance if ever there was one. There is something very olde world about Incense Rose, I could imagine it coming from the 1920s or 1950s, some bygone era where people were unafraid to be fully fragrant and signature scent was not said with a sneer. Available from Men’s Biz $209/50ml with FREE Australian Delivery
Men’s Biz Discount Code!
A special gift for Australian readers – a coupon code from Men’s Biz. Enter ‘APJ’ at the checkout.
Which is your Andy Tauer?
Portia xxx
Olfactics 
HI Portia, I have only smelt a small sample of L’Air du Desert Marocain and fell in love. I hope very soon to test all the Tauer’s available at Men’s Biz.
Hi there Virginia,
Get in there and sniff. You’ll be transported.
Portia xxx