Tauer Perfumes Tauerville Vanilla Flash

Posted on April 14, 2015 by Kafkaesque

“Goldenesque” by Jason A. Samfield on Flickrhivemind and haikudeck.com

Vanilla Flash is Andy Tauer‘s perfect vanilla, a vanilla seen through the lenses of boozy Bourbon, heavy roses, tobacco, spices and patchouli. It’s the latest release from Tauerville, Mr. Tauer’s secondary brand, and quite an oriental vision of vanilla. While I do not consider Vanilla Flash to be a true vanilla soliflore, it is a fragrance that I think will appeal greatly to those who adore Tauerade, boozy vanillas and spicy roses — ideally, all three at once.

On his blog, Andy Tauer explains that his Tauerville brand was created in order to let him play more creatively:

To make a long story short. One of the best qualities for me, about tauerville, is: I can pick and place my scents. Place them there where I think they fit best. Following my instinct, and playing my cards on a growing table. And: I can play in tauerville, a bit more than I can here, on tauer perfumes. Playing means: Trying out new esthetics, complementary to Tauer Perfumes.

The 30 ml bottle of Vanilla Flash. Source: Tauerville.com

All the Tauerville creations are meant to be approachable and affordable scents, which is why they are released in practical, small sizes: a 30 ml bottle and a 10 ml roller-ball. Rose Flash was the first Tauerville scent and debuted in 2014. Last week was the turn of Vanilla Flash which Mr. Tauer describes on Tauerville as his sort of vanilla. “My vanilla. It is all in there that I love. Spices, roses, patchouli… and vanilla.” Sites like Luckyscent provide a slightly fuller list:

Spices, Vanilla Bourbon, Rose, Patchouli, Tobacco.

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Jacques Zolty Van-ile: Delicious Simplicity

Posted on April 7, 2015 by Kafkaesque

Photo & Source: The Kitchen McCabe. (Direct website link embedded within.)

Move over Tihota, I’ve found something else. Van-ile is almost as good, but costs much less. Imagine airy vanilla, wrapped up with ribbons of lemon, tangy orange, orchid floralcy, and clean musk in a silky cloud that soon turns into the delicious coziness of silky, cake batter-style vanilla made from expensive Tahitian beans. That’s the essence of Van-ile (officially spelt as “Van-île”), an extremely simple, unpretentious eau de parfum that bears a strong resemblance to Indult‘s famous Tihota for almost all of its life, only for a third of the price. It’s a soft, easy-to-wear scent that is so appealing, I bought a bottle for myself. It helps that Van-ile is very reasonably priced, especially for the quality in question, and I’m a sucker for a good deal. More than that, though, it’s been extremely difficult for me to find a vanilla that is neither so sweet it would trigger a diabetic coma nor too heavily imbued with the ghastly white musk that I loathe. Van-ile fits the bill.

Jacques Zolty. Source: fless.ru

Let’s start at the beginning, though, since Jacques Zolty is probably not a name with which you’re familiar. I certainly wasn’t. According to Fragrantica, he was a French supermodel in the 1970s and then, in 2007, founded a perfume house whose creations celebrated the smell, culture, and vibe of the island of St. Bart’s in the West Indies. In 2014, the brand was bought by Roberto Drago, the owner of Laboratorio Olfattivo. He asked Cecile Zakorian (creator of Masque’s Tango, Majda Bekkali’s Mon Nom Est Rouge, Jovoy’s Private Label, and other fragrances) to make two new scents for the line, and one of them was Van-ile.

Vanilla orchid flower via imgarcade.com

Van-ile is an eau de parfum that was released in late 2014. According to First in Fragrance, its name is a play on “vanille (vanilla) and île (island)… in French, the native language of Saint-Barthélemy. This fragrance is a passionate homage to vanilla planifolia, the sugar orchid that grows up symbiotically with the sun in the Caribbean and makes life sweeter on the most beautiful and glamourous island in the Antilles.” The perfume’s notes are:

Top Note: Bergamot, Orange, Almond
Heart Note: Vanilla, Heliotrope, Frangipani, Jasmine, Patchouly, Powdery Notes
Base Note: Vanilla Bean, Leather, Animalic Notes, Oakmoss, Musk

Source: cecilezarokian.com/fr/wins

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Indult Tihota: Delicious Vanilla, Cookies & Cream

Posted on December 20, 2014 by Kafkaesque

Source: Indult website

Tihota is one of those perfumes that comes with a legend: “The Holy Grail of vanilla fragrances!” or “The best vanilla ever!” It’s always the first name that comes up when people talk about vanilla fragrances, and people rave about it with the sort of adoration usually reserved for the great olfactory masterpieces.

I was highly skeptical. I’ve found few things with that sort of hype to really measure up. More to the point, I’m not really a gourmand lover and I have a low threshold for sweetness, so my experiences with other beloved fragrances in the genre haven’t been very successful. At best, I was unenthused. At worst, I was utterly traumatized by tidal waves of burnt saccharine sweetness that left me with an urgent need to scrub. Still, I’ve been on a perpetual hunt for the perfect vanilla scent, so I ordered a sample of Indult‘s famous creation, and kept my expectations low.

Colour me shocked: Tihota is excellent! Positively delicious, in fact, and it only becomes more appealing with each wearing. I don’t think I would describe it as the “perfect” vanilla, particularly in light of its price, but I completely understand the fuss now, and think that Tihota deserves a good chunk of its acclaim. Continue reading →

Couvent des Minimes Eau des Missions Cologne

Posted on December 7, 2014 by Kafkaesque

Source: footage.shutterstock.com

The buzz on Couvent des Minimes‘ Eau des Missions Cologne was loud, excited, and almost uniformly insistent: it was a bargain beauty that was an exact copy of Guerlain‘s very expensive Spiritueuse Double Vanille (“SDV“.) Or so everyone said, from perfume groups to Fragrantica reviews. One major reason for all the excitement was the price. Guerlain’s boozy, smoky, dark vanilla costs $260 for 75 ml. Eau de Missions is $38 for 100 ml, with smaller bottles available for even less on eBay. By the admittedly crazy, skewed standards of the niche world, that made Eau de Missions practically “free.” So, I bought one of the eBay bottles to see what all the fuss was about. And it’s true, there are strong similarities to SDV. However, unlike everyone else, I don’t think the two fragrances are identical. Continue reading →