#andy tauer

Nose: Andy Tauer

notes: rose, amber, woody notes

Ok, Rose Flash might just be my favorite rose scent ever. It’s slightly honeyed, with both pink petals and green leaves, rich and dense like a tapestry or illuminated manuscript.

Definitely the Rosa centifolia May rose type of scent, like an old-fashioned, loose-petaled garden rose, rather than the redder, fruitier Rosa damascena type that shows up in “dark” or “dramatic” rose perfumes.

But unlike most “garden” rose scents, Rose Flash isn’t cold or tinny; it’s warm and weighty, and comes in a full spectrum of color from pink to gold to green. It’s like the Persian gardens from which we got the word “paradise.”

Over time, the rose gets a bit boozy, sweeter and richer than before.

Tauer Perfumes Golestan

Nose: Andy Tauer

Notes: ylang-ylang, bergamot, lemon; tuberose, jasmine, orange blossom, damask rose; ambergris, vanilla, patchouli, woods

Golestan opens with a rich, buttery, ambered pale-yellow scent, in Andy Tauer’s usual plush style with the hot breath of real ambergris beneath.

There are dense, honeyed, pollen-laden florals above — the orange blossom is especially prominent a few minutes in —but the overall primary impression is of golden slightly-sweet butteriness.

It’s a romantic, rich, emotional swelling chord of a scent, inspired (Tauer says) by a fantasy of Persian walled gardens.

Underneath, maybe an hour in, there’s a darker, boozier amber note that touches on masculine Oriental tropes (the sound of ice clinking in the scotch glass as you leave the sun-drenched garden to enter a dark wood-paneled study lined with leather-bound books.) This phase must be the “patchouli”, but it’s more about the warm-brown resinous trimmings that often accompany patchouli than the leaf itself.

I’ve never before encountered this particular combination of a buttery, orange-blossom-forward white floral over a dark amber, and I appreciate the originality. The overall effect is almost too rich for me — like pancakes with butter AND maple syrup — but it’s creative and it works.

And like almost all Tauer’s work, it’s well-crafted real-deal perfume, dense and rich while still giving a sense of space and inner structure.

Tauerville Vanilla Flash

Nose: Andy Tauer

notes: vanilla, tobacco, rose, spicy notes, patchouli

I’m not usually a vanilla person, but I can enjoy Vanilla Flash. It’s cheerful, but not too sweet, with a fine abstract hissiness to it, like the champagne-pale facet some Moroccan rose scents have.

A few minutes in there’s a boozier, darker aspect, but mostly Vanilla Flash is a happy, sunny-yellow vanilla. Yes it’s sweet, but it’s not too literally like birthday cake or vanilla pudding. Just…regular, friendly, casual yellow vanilla, with a slightly floral quality around the edges. Simple but rich and dense.

Over time, several hours in, it gets rosier. Rose-vanilla always has a sort of charming, romantic-ingenue, Disney-princess appeal; Vanilla Flash’s version is warm, rustic, and quite affecting.

Tauer Perfumes Incense Rose

Nose: Andy Tauer

notes: rose, clementine, cardamom, bergamot; castoreum, orris; incense, myrrh, resins, cedar, vetiver, labdanum, patchouli

This is how an incense perfume should smell!

Smoky, spicy, mysterious, romantic. Not overly dry like Incense Flash or even Attar AT, but still on the dry and unsweetened side.

Tauer Perfumes Lonestar Memories

Nose: Andy Tauer

clary sage, geranium, carrot seeds; leather, labdanum, jasmine; myrrh, vetiver, tonka, sandalwood

Lonestar Memories is a cowboy scent — an herbal incense leather evocative of horseback rides under a wide sky. It opens with a rich, brown scent, so smooth I can’t tell where the leather ends and the labdanum and myrrh begin. Maybe a little bite of bitter herbs and a touch of smoke.

Lonestar Memories goes more herbal an hour or two later, with a bit of an bitter/dried-shrubs edge. It’s not metallic the way clary sage often is, but more like the earthy facets of lavender. It feels like a scrubby chaparral seen through amber-colored glasses.

Tauer Perfumes Les Annees 25 Bis

Nose: Andy Tauer

notes: bergamot, orange, pear, lemon; iris, rose, ylang-ylang; benzoin, ambergris, vetiver, patchouli

Les Annees 25 Bis opens with bright aldehydic citrus and then becomes plush iris in the usual Tauer creamy-lotion style, with a sharp elegant floral above and a buzzy-sparkling golden ambergris base.

It’s an effortlessly wearable, modernized yet classical aldehydic floral. Not animalic high drama like Amouage Gold, but smooth iris cream and glittering champagne-gold spangles.

In the far drydown, 3+ hours in, it becomes a bit sweeter and even more plush, a creamy-powdery skin scent revolving around benzoin, ambergris, and iris.

Les Annees 25 Bis is a scent for an arrogant Art Deco goddess — who comes home, puts on her lotion, and changes into an ivory silk peignoir.

Nose: Andy Tauer

Notes: cinnamon, orange peel, rose, bergamot; tobacco, cacao, cypriol; ambergris, sandalwood, vanilla, tonka bean

Ok, so this is full of the standard Tauer preoccupations -- sweet orange and musky ambergris. Fruitier to start, muskier later on.

The fruit is actually kind of overwhelming -- it's very sweet, and has a lot of some aromachemical that's somewhere between canned peaches and canned mandarin orange slices in syrup. But it clears up fairly soon.

There's a fair bit of dried tobacco leaf in the heart, a bit sweetened with amber. More like real pipe tobacco than most "tobacco" fragrances.

The far drydown is all cuddly ambergris-tonka-vanilla glow, somewhat darkened by tobacco. Lasts all day and all night without losing its charm.

Tauer is always an ace with texture. This is a big, billowy cushion of scent, like warm night air, endlessly soft and rich.

A "sundowner" is British Colonial-speak for an evening cocktail...or hospital-speak for an agitated patient with delirium or dementia who gets worse at night. I'm sure the former was intended.