One of the pleasures of searching out artisanal producers is discovering, among the millions of independent artists and craftsmen spread out across the globe, a unique, singular voice that grabs your attention, much like someone tapping a knife against a crystal glass in a large, crowded and very noisy room.
Reading from independent Swiss perfumer Andy Tauer’s blog, or even better yet, spraying one of his perfume creations into the air, is a lot like that — there’s a pure, unambiguous tone to seemingly everything the man does (and is), and once you experience this ringing directness, you feel compelled to stop for a closer look.
British Beauty Blogger (dot-com) wrote a witty wrap-up of a PR meeting with Andy back in June, and she cut right to the chase of why Mr. Tauer has the devoted fan base that he does, and what makes him so gosh-darn likeable amidst a sea of creative ego and commercial sameness:
“Andy Tauer is basically a regular guy . . . He’s not a bullshitter, he’s not trying to convince anyone his products were passed through the eye of a needle at midnight by scented elves, but my goodness he is coming up with some pretty amazing fragrances . . . (And) it’s not cheap, any of it (£90 a bottle), but it’s never seen a factory production line (Andy makes all the perfume himself, at home), doesn’t come with any high opinions of itself and will challenge every olfactory expectation. It really doesn’t come much better than this.”
Tauer admits that it was an addiction to Mandy Aftel’s book, Essence & Alchemy, that lured him away from his career in Information Technology and set him down the path toward becoming an independent, self-taught perfumer with a cult brand carried in select and highly specialized fragrance boutiques scattered throughout Europe, the UK and North America. But while his roots are in the natural perfume movement, he began including synthetic materials early on and his formulae are now careful blends of both the natural and the synthetic — though incorporating natural materials of higher quality and in far greater concentrations than what’s generally offered through most mass-market retail brands.
*NOTE 1: I contacted Avery Gilbert about whether he thought it was true that commercial fragrances still contain genuine natural essences and absolutes (because sometimes their marketing material says they do, yet they often smell like they don’t). His response: “Yes. But then a 0.00001% (concentration) is just as true as 0.001%.”
A box of Tauer Perfumes’ Une Rose Chyprée
When I asked Andy which of the perfumery essences he first experimented with were his true loves, he immediately pointed to orange blossom and labdanum: “I remember the siren song of labdanum and orange blossom that I heard when I placed my first order for essential oils and absolutes. I still hear the siren when it comes to orange blossom, and I’m still a big fan of labdanum extracts, such as ambrein — think “pineta”, pine wood, ambergris on a chord of wood, dry fir needles under a Mediterranean sun, woody pine incense . . . seven out of twelve of my fragrances feature ambrein as an ingredient.”
*NOTE 2: Hence, the coining of the term, “Tauerade“ — a riff on “guerlinade”, a house accord used as a base for a not insignificant number of Guerlain fragrances.
He explained that he doesn’t create with a particular demographic or client base in mind, but keeps to his own vision and feels that his distinctive and definitely left-of-mainstream style “addresses the connoisseur, the perfume lover with some experience” — kind of the way a bottle of dry French Bordeaux requires a more seasoned palate than a four pack of Bartles & Jaymes. Though he draws the line at being challenging and quirky for the sole sake of being challenging and quirky.
“When creating a perfume, and not a room spray or an artistic installation, the ultimate goal is to come up with something that people can wear,” he said. “If you push boundaries into a territory where consumers can’t follow you anymore because your scents have become completely unwearable, then you’ve pushed the boundaries too far.”
And while 2009 and 2010 have seen Andy busy with several new fragrance releases, an expansion of his brand into Italy, plus a complete overhaul of his website and a total revamp of his packaging, possibly the biggest kick-start to Tauer’s indie career so far was the five-star rave review he received in 2008 from Perfumes: The Guide co-author Tania Sanchez for his fragrance, L’Air du Desert Marocain.
*NOTE 3: Ms. Sanchez’s writing (and life) partner Luca Turin, a biophysicist and principal subject of the book, The Emperor of Scent, described another of Tauer’s highly singular perfumes, Lonestar Memories, as “Strange but nice” and gave it four stars.
Andy even includes a snippet from the Marocain review at the end of every one of his emails (“brings images of Morocco and the dry desert to mind”), so I was curious as to what his reaction was when he first found out about receiving such high praise in a widely published book.
“I saw an advance copy of the book before it was released,” he wrote in an email message from the Mediterranean, where he was taking a very rare vacation (DIY business people hardly ever take a break). “I loved the text and realized that Tania had come up with an American metaphor for my Maghreb Air du desert marocain . . . but I was not expecting the high interest by perfume lovers that followed the book’s publication. I had no idea that people would take those five stars so very, very seriously!”
*NOTE 4: I asked Donna Hathaway, guest writer for Perfume-Smellin’ Things and the Portland fragrance writer for Examiner.com, whether she thinks Andy’s work stacks up to the commercial competition. She replied: “His signature masterpiece, L’ Air du Desert Marocain, is not only one of my favorite ‘masculine’ scents (although I wear it myself), but one of my favorite perfumes overall, and I’m a big fan of ‘old school’ French perfumery . . . As an admirer of Caron, Patou, Rochas, Le Galion, etc. it really surprised me to find such original and compelling work from a self-taught perfumer.”
Andy debuted his new packaging with the release of Orange Star
But once an indie artisan achieves a sudden creative success like Andy did with L’Air du Desert Marocain, it’s tempting to keep the ball rolling down the same track in order to capitalize on consumer demand . . . or, at the very least, squeeze every last drop out of what could very well be a short-lived market trend. Wait, scratch that — I suppose it might be tempting if you’re not Andy Tauer.
“I remember a few months after Tania Sanchez praised Marocain,” he said. “I got these recommendations from ‘experts’ telling me that I needed to produce a flanker, another version of Marocain but with minor changes, because perfume lovers now expect that. From an artistic point of view, this is incredibly boring, and from a commercial point of view, it might be the first step toward the gigantic graveyard of perfumery where so many of the now abandoned commercial flankers rest peacefully.”
Tauer’s sense of independence is so fierce that he even refuses to offer a bespoke-custom service, explaining that he only enjoys creating when it comes out of his own imagination, and that the compromises necessarily involved in offering a custom service would suck all the joy right out of the experience.
“I don’t ask consumers what they want,” he said. “Of course, I hear perfume lovers expressing their wishes, but it’s not really influencing my work . . . (instead), I try to create fragrances that will stand the test of time, sitting in my little boat and rowing steadily forward rather than attempting to catch each new wave that passes by.”
***NEXT: Part 2 of The Artisan Series: Andy Tauer
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