New year, new fragrances.

I know it's been a while since I posted. I'm making up for it by offering you three very different fragrance reviews at once.

Tauer Perfumes L'Air du desert marocain

The first new fragrance I sampled of '09: Andy Tauer's L'Air du desert marocain.

According to LuckyScent,

L'Air du Desert Marocain is the scent of desire, inspired by the fragrant world of the Maghreb desert, powerful, sensual and pure. It's a dry, resinous cedar scent, rounded out with rock rose and jasmine, and hints of typical Moroccan spices such as coriander, cumin and petitgrain. A unisex scent, the cedar and vetiver base notes hover over a fine amber background.

L'Air du desert marocain notes: Coriander, Petitgrain (Bitter orange), Lemon, Bergamot, Jasmin, Cistus, Bourbon, Geranium, Cedarwood, Vetiver, Vanille, Patchouli and Ambergris

When I first put it on out of a tiny one mil sampler with a wand, my initial thought was "Wow! I will never be brave enough to wear a full spray of this." Even after wearing it, I can't believe I started 2009 off with L'Air du desert marocain. The reason it shocked me was because I told a fellow perfumista that I could not even imagine purchasing L'Air du desert marocain because it was just so BIG. On me the spice notes initially overwhelm the cedar and vetiver notes, but on dry down the base notes come forward equally powerfully. L'Air du desert marocain is this audacious fragrance that enters a room about five full minutes before you do. It doesn't just hint that you might be worth looking it, it rolls in with the wearer under a full tilt spotlight, chorus line kicking back-up, belting out "Look at meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

I have a hard time imaging buying a full bottle of L'Air du desert marocain because I don’t think I’d be in the mood to wear it often enough, though I might be willing to buy a decant or go in on a bottle split. But what a compliment to Taurer perfumes that they have made something that is clearly and unavoidably beautiful and almost overwhelming in its artfulness. Truly one of the loveliest fragrances I’ve smelled, even if it isn’t for me. Andy Tauer described it this way, “Imagine finding peace in a room, lying on the bed, exhausted from the heat of the day, with the window open, letting the cool air in which still is very dry and filled with the scents from the near desert and overlayed with the spicy scents of the streets below.” That must be one helluva street, Andy.

For additional L'Air du desert marocain reviews, see Scentzilla,
The Non-Blonde, and The Scented Life.

Cumming the Fragrance

According to the fragrance site,

CUMMING is different on everyone, for like every great fragrance, it changes on your skin over time. The longer you wear it and the more you sweat, Cumming gets deeper and sexier.

Base notes of leather, peat fire, highland mud, burnt rubber and white truffle ground the scent with rugged sensuality, while the core notes of cigar, heather, Douglas fir and rubber contribute to its sharpness. The fragrance is completed with spicy top notes of bergamot, black pepper, Scotch pine and whiskey.

I picked up Cumming in the “boozy scents” sampler over at The Perfumed Court. The TPC ladies noted “whiskey” next to Cumming, and I’ll give them alcohol-y, but not whiskey. I’m a whiskey drinker by choice, and really drink very little besides the hard alcohol (hey, I know what I like!), but even the beer I like tends to be aged in whiskey barrels, that’s how much I love whiskey. And I just don’t smell whiskey here, though there is something alcohol-y about it. I definitely smell the leather, fir, and tobacco notes on me, but with something biting enough that makes it something you imagine it smoothly burning on the way down. Truly lovely and totally worth a purchase.

For more reviews of Cumming the Fragrance, see Perfume Smellin' Things and Now Smell This!.

Michele Bergman Black Gardenia parfum oil

Like floating in and out of a dream. The blossom may be snow-blind white, but there is something deeply mysterious in the soul of gardenia and this silken oil blend captures it. Initially intense, Black Gardenia softens and becomes exquisitely fresh as it warms on your skin. The beguiling heady sweetness of the beloved flower is rendered with a haunting delicacy and touched with the barest whisper of dark intentions. Like the lilt of the sirens song or the fragile glow of a will o’ the wisp, this fragrance reminds us that something extremely beautiful can also be extremely dangerous. Mesmerizing.

The initial impression that Michele Bergman Black Gardenia parfum oil’s makes the mishmash fruit smell of candy necklaces and braclets. On me it just reads as sort of sickeningly sweet, less flowers and more thick sweet ooze, like the cross between a candy store and a Yankee Candle store, if Yankee Candle only made sweet floral and food scents. On the dry down the floral notes strengthen and the candy begins to recede, but it remains a mishmashy one note song, like strongly smelling cotton candy. While Luckyscent lists “Halle Berry, Rosanna and Patricia Arquette, Shiva Rose, Stevie Nicks, Rebecca Romaijn, Janice Dickenson” as “in the know” on this one, and they can keep it, because it clearly wasn’t meant for me.

For additional thoughts on Black Gardenia , see the Luckyscent customer comments.

Photos from Luckyscent and the Cumming fragrance site.