Often when I am going to bed for the night, I will test two different fragrances of similar qualities, one on each arm in order to compare them side by side in a relaxed undistracted state. In this way I am able to distinguish the voluptuous berry rose of Bulgari from the cool dry rose of Stella McCartney. I can tell you how the pricey Drole de Rose is almost indistinguishable at times from more pedestrian Red Door Revealed. I can more easily pick out the individual spices in Youth Dew and Opium when testing them against one another.
A few evenings past I settled in for bed with a drop of Christian Dior Dune in the crook of my right arm and Andy Tauer’s L’Air du Desert Marocain on my left arm. The first blast of each was heavy spices, so much that I had to keep my face away while they dried a bit. About 10 minutes later I checked again and each had begun to show it’s personality.
Dune, an oriental floral launched in 1991, is very warm amber and wood with baked vanilla and bright yellow flowers sitting on a bed of powder and dried orange rind. This is the Bollywood movie version of a desert scene. Women are dancing, their Technicolor saris blowing in a soft breeze. A sultan rides in on a well-groomed camel covered in embroidered tapestry. The tinkle of tiny bells can be heard and the hot sand mixes with the smell of sweet pungent desert flowers in shades of red and gold. This is the desert of our fantasies.
L’Air du Desert Marocain is an oriental spicy fragrance launched by Tauer Perfumes in 2005. Again there is a very warm amber, creating the hot dry sand aura. This time I sense no flowers. There is a somber tone, the sacks of coriander and caraway being carried by the animals are heavy and will bring a good price….whenever we finally get there. I’ve never been to the Moroccan desert but wearing this I suddenly remember that I have been there in another life. This one is masculine compared to Dune. A cloud of dust, the relentless sun, the dirty mineral smell of the camels, leather and burlap are all present. This is the desert of reality.
This is interesting to me, that a perfumer could create such a true to life scent but most people would prefer the more impressionistic version, glossy around the edges with the gritty parts left out and a bit of imagined zing thrown in. Perfume consumers often demand something be mixed with violet to make it less sad, something be mixed with lilac to give it a bit of edge, something be mixed with musk to make it less aggressive, something be mixed with jasmine to balance it’s narcotic headiness, etc. We think we want the real thing but we actually want the movie.
Stay tuned for new posts. I plan to talk at you about every musk I’ve tried (a lot!), my favorite type of perfume reviews to read and …fruity summer perfumes I want to drink even though I know better.
