Tauer’s L’Eau is a beautiful meringue. It feels plump and full in a way citrus shouldn’t. Thank lemon blossom – an exceptionally soft and quite palpable note that delivers a distinctively tart note of lemon zest merged with a powdery, ethereal floralcy. Like many L’Eau’s before it, Tauer’s take is just as anti-perfume as the rest: it is of blushing skin washed clean with expensive ivory soap. It is a fluid that coats the skin in a thin veil rather than dresses it.

L’Eau smells soft, insofar that it could be invisible and clean, with a lightness that contrastingly reads as thick. This impresses me – it’s tense with the disposition to spill into murky and thick (Cologne Indelible), and you can very easily see that happening, but L’Eau remains plump, fluffy, and light like a Swiss meringue: lots of air and a heavy feeling of space is suspended and packed within, and that contradiction is intriguing.

And just like a Swiss meringue, L’Eau is glossy with its swirl of Tauerade hidden right at the heart of the fragrance, adding a translucent pearlescent sheen and an effervescent charge that reaches right through to the absolute edges of the composition. It is not at all monolithic, but a thick cloud of gas with properties like a cool fluid.

Photo from Parfumo

L’Eau moves quickly on opening, with a torrent of lemon blossom with its soft pastel saturation washed in echoes of lemon sherbet, salty ambergris, and the faintest herbal twist (in my mind, I find thyme, or perhaps something alpine) that reminds me of off-sweet alpine liqueurs rich in herbs, citrus, and frigid air. Orris root must be mentioned, and I can imagine this plays an imperative role in achieving that effect (orris is especially prevalent in herbal digestifs) – it gives an anchor of weight without heavy contrast.

The opening stage is transient, and the herbal qualities make way for sophisticated and refined tones of white musk which marry with the focal note of lemon blossom, fixed with sheer and lightly smokey woods.

This is every bit Tauer as it is un-Tauer, strangely invisible yet entirely generous in its composition. Tauer works teach one about a generosity of fragrant materials, and L’Eau is no exception in all of its gossamer plumpness. It’s just less obvious about it. A bit too invisible for my tastes, yet it’s a considerably strong offering from Tauer. A delightful anti-perfume.

Swiss Meringue.

Subjective rating: 4/5

Objective rating: 4/5