Tauer Perfumes- L'Air du Desert Marocain

Back to the beginning, part II

Sometimes, not often, you try a perfume and see the stars. Not the vague twinkle you catch over a heavily populated suburb, not the scientifically accurate stuff in a planetarium, but the stars and sky as you imagined them in your childhood, full of wonder and possibilities. They (and the perfume in question) make everything else disappear.

L'Air du Desert Marocain, the second fragrance Andy Tauer created in 2005 for his emerging line, Tauer Perfumes, has been that thing for me from the very first time I tried it. Sure, the magic probably comes from the irresistible combination of incense and ambergris, as well as from a very Shalimar-like structure of citrus (dry rind, no juice) over an elaborate oriental base. We can analyze the notes of L'Air de Desert Marocain until the camels come home, but that will not explain the emotions behind it.

It's in the clarity of the desert sky, the dry air that makes you hyper-aware of any hint of a breeze, the smoke coming from afar-- is it the campfire of a friend or a foe? You close your eyes and you're there, heading towards an adventure; you can feel a tingling sensation in your fingertips-- it's almost there, oddly familiar like an old memory that's right at the edge of your conscience.  You desperately want to go. But any second now you'll awake from one this early morning dream-not dream, and it will all fade away like a Fata Morgana in the desert.

Notes: Coriander, Petitgrain (Bitter orange), Lemon, Bergamot, Jasmin, Cistus, Bourbon Geranium, Cedarwood, Vetiver, Vanille, Patchouli and Ambergris.

Tauer Perfumes- L'Air du Desert Marocain ($125, 50ml EDT Intense) is available from Luckyscent, MiN NY, and tauerperfumes.com.

Images:
The Moroccan desert via kizie.com
Illustration from The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Photo of Verushka in Morocco by Henry Clarke, 1963