Part 3- Fully fledged perfumistas- share your fragrances

[shoeprincess2]

Part 2 is nearly full!

Thanks!

Testing Tauer's Zeta today. Oh my goodness. I am very much in love with this. It is very very citrussy - really bright and sharp and like whole baskets of lemons and oranges. But there's something very sweet and gentle in the middle of it, a bit like honey or warm tea. A lot of reviews call this summery and spring-like, and it is, but actually it also makes me think of hot lemon and honey in winter, very hot and freshly made with a really sharp note to it. The honeyish thing is very strong. There are some flowers, too, greenish ones, and the combination of the citrus and honey and flowers is a bit like bathing in herbal tea. There's something hot and steamy about it. I really really like this. There's also an almost soapy smell to it. With the whole bath, tea, citrus, honey thing going on, it's very much like a whole bunch of my favourite smells all rolled up together. Would highly recommend to lovers of citrus and green smells.

Haber, you've found something really unique. Iirc Andy uses
linden (=lime, tilia) exctract, a rare natural that comes from a family producer in Bulgaria. You are thinking of a tisane because it's the same stuff that's used in tilleul tea. I can't think of any other fragrance that smells like this. There is a lot of sandalwood in the composition too iirc. To me this is an Easter chick yellow scent.

clb so happy that you found Ninfeo Mio! Very tempted to wear it today - in need of something fresher after yesterday's sugar overdose.

I have the big Malle coffret. They had one before but it sold out - when I heard they are doing it again, I bought it immediately. 1/3 of the perfumes I really like - 1/3 are okay - 1/3 I don't wear: many of the no-gos are the masculines - I don't like the vetiver, the spicy scent has the wrong musk, Dans tes bras has a visceral kidney pie note, and I don't need a French Lover ;) Some perfumista friends bought a box jointly and were able to figure out likes and dislikes so that everyone got something good. I think these small bottles are rare enough to have some resale/swap value.

Tauer's perfumes tend to have a heavy-handed, sober, to the max house style. He is an orientalist at heart, renewing the genre much like Lutens/Sheldrake (to you: father of Coromandel) did a decade earlier. Mainstream hasn't produced really interesting orientals in a long time - perhaps not since Angel.

If you like lightweight and translucence, there are other houses for you: anything by JC Ellena (currently at Hermes), Goutals (current nose: Isabelle Doyen), and many new niche lines, like Olfactive Studio.
A very interesting niche line worth sampling is The Different Company. Started by JC, his daughter Celine Ellena took it over and she has an interesting style of her own. Plus the art deco inspired bottles are to die for...

Haber, my mum hates the smell of linden because she was given the tisane whenever she was ill when she was a child.
I love it, it's the perfect golden smell of Summer.
I have some Mac Naked Honey - it was a limited edition a couple of years ago and it's linden and honey. It's gorgeous but sweet.
Most lindens tend to tip over to the soapy sweet.
Might have to try Zeta.

I yearn to love Zeta - I adore the smell of lime blossoms. But - horrors! - I got a really strong note of pee. DH didn't notice it at all, and liked the perfume, but I had to rush to the bathroom and wash and wash and wash. But Haber's description makes me think that I need to be brave and give it another try, some time...

So far the only Tauer I like - and I really like it - is L'air du désert marocain.

Thanks for the recs, ProFumo. I'll look out for Olfactive Studio + The Different Company. Already interested in Goutals and will explore further and will have a shot at Hermès, too (I tried L'Ambre des Merveilles on paper yesterday at JL, but it was too sweet).

L'Ambre is sweet, it's the vanilla, the Original and the parfum are drier.

Thank you, coffee - will remember that.

Testing two barely-there fragrances today.
Osmanthus by TDC - smells weakly like a rubber doll's head, then fades into the softest but not unpleasant skin scent. If you want an osmathus that is like a glass of champagne, try Osmanthus by Ormonde Jayne.

Now wearing L'eau de Neroli by Diptyque (couldn't my sample of Tarocco). This is a soft but effervescent cologne with a modern base. Mood-lifting, but not very unique. L'Eau de Tarocco is much better. It is available as a roll-on cologne (20ml) for 30?/£28 so maybe I should just bite the bullet and buy it for spring and summer. Craving Vitamin C - have a citrus chicken tray bake in the oven

Clb I get the heady perfumey mix of linden flowers heavy with bees and pollen from the heart notes of quite a few opulent oldies - Bal à Versailles and Shem-el-Nessim for example. BaV can smell like pee and knickers too, so be careful around your husband...

I can't wear Zeta either - but am so happy that some of you can!

Caron's Narcisse Noir smelled of pee to me, too.

But enough of that - Ninfeo Mio smelling really uplifting and wonderful this morning.

I'm now feeling quite lucky that pee is not a note I seem to detect easily in perfumes! Yuk.

Still absolutely adoring Zeta. And I think I might get myself some linden tea, too! Mac Naked Honey sounds lovely.

It's interesting that you say Tauer is an orientalist at heart, Profumo, as I usually loathe orientals. Angel in particular makes me feel really unwell, genuinely sick. Perhaps there are others that I might like out there. It could be a new direction of investigation.

Angel is a hyper-sweet gourmand. Goumands are popular spin-off from the bigger oriental family.
There are a lot of drier woody/spicy orientals (masculines generally).

I like animalic perfumes- a hint of pee, feces, sweat, matted hair - I find too clean perfumes much more difficult.

Ah! I see. Thank you. I do like wood/spice.

Best osmanthus I've tried is still Eau du Fier.
It starts with the smokiest Lapsang tea type smell and then mellows to osmanthus.
Genius.
Sadly it had birch tar so it was discontinued.

Got my copy of the Turin/Sanchez guide today (bargain on Amazon). Surprised at some of the reviews, I really must have an unsophisticated nose . Particularly baffled at Estee's Beyond Paradise, I have sniffed this quite a few times in the hope it was as gorgeous as the bottle, and every time have though how watery and unremarkable it is, but they give it 5* and make it one of the to florals.

Isabelle- I was distinctly underwhelmed by Beyond Paradise too. I nearly fell off the sofa when I saw that it was in the guide. I am wearing Lonestar Memories today. It is bracing outside, so it is a perfect smell for me. Profumo- citrus chicken tray bake you say? Yum

I am wearing Teint de Neige today, I really like it, it had disappeared on me by lunchtime though, so much for the super lasting power and monster silage reported on Fragrantica reviews .

Really? Mine stayed on all day. Hmmm, that's interesting. Try putting some oil on your wrists (jojoba is best) and apply the dabber. It should extend the life of your fragrance on skin.

I put on LOTS as well, not with the dabber, I literally poured it from the tester bottle, used almost half the tester (lots on neck and chest). I have quite oily skin, and find most fragrances last a reasonable time on me with just a bit of unscented body lotion underneath (Coromandel lasted almost 24 hours!) and yesterdays Iris Nobile even lasted longer than the Teint de Neige.

Really? Oh my goodness. I don't usually recommend fragrances that have poor longevity, as I like a scent to stay with me all day. I have worn it 3 times now, and barely used any of the sample, as I have literally used one dab each time. The AdP scents are gone within 2 hours on my skin, so I am very surprised. So, it is an opulent scent, just very fleeting for you isabelle

I put TdeN on yesterday morning and i can still smell it now! unfortunately

Where did you get your sample from Shoe? I wonder if you have the EDP, mine is the EDT? or maybe it just behaves differently on my skin compared to yours. I still like it and it was lovely this morning as it was so frosty and it felt like the right scent for the day.

Mine was from Les Senteurs, when it was £5 per sample and no postage cost. It was ordered back in October, so yes, it may have been the EdP. It was only annotated as Teint de Neige on the card.