Today I want to give you guys an overview on a very cool new Tauer project that I hope you’ll follow. There will be six parts to it, hosted on different fragrance blogs, and most or all of them will have samples of the new Tauer fragrance associated with this – Miriam – to give away. So yeah!!!!!! I’m going to pull a little from what Andy has described about this project directly just so I don’t get the details wrong:

“Perfumer Andy Tauer and filmmaker Brian Pera announce the launch of a ten year collaboration between the arts of film and perfume in October with a new line of fragrances, Tableau de Parfums, and the series Woman’s Picture, an ongoing collection of short films which inspire these scents.  The Tableau fragrances are packaged with the films and accompanying novelettes inspired by the principal characters of the series.

Miriam, the first fragrance of the Tableau de Parfums line, reaches back in time. It is a fragrance inspired by the first episodic short of Woman’s Picture, featuring Ann Magnuson in the title role, which gives life to a character in the middle of a storm of memories and an uncertain future. The Woman’s Picture series and Tableau de Parfums focus on perfume and memories: To celebrate the launch of the projects, Brian Pera conducted filmed interviews with women involving their childhood memories of the perfumes their mothers and grandmothers wore.  These will be broadcast over the months of September and October on this blog and others.

Please consult the list of participating blogs below for related upcoming features involving the launch of the Tableau de Parfums line and the Woman’s Picture Film Series. After an introduction by Andy Tauer on September 1 at Perfume Shrine, the interviews premiere weekly as follows:

September 7: Persolaise
September 14: Olfactorama
September 21: Perfume Smellin’ Things
September 28: The Non-Blonde
October 5: Perfume Posse

Check periodically on these sites and on http://perfumeshrine.blogspot.com during the month of September and the first few weeks of October for other related content, such as interviews with Andy Tauer, filmmaker Brian Pera, and cast members of the Woman’s Picture series, including Ann Magnuson, Calpernia Addams, and Amy Lavere.  These events conclude with the premiere, the third week of October, of the short film MIRIAM and its companion prequel, ROSE, on evelynavenue.com.

Miriam eau de parfum launches October 7 at the Scentbar in Los Angeles. On October 6th, several of the Woman’s Picture shorts, including MIRIAM, will screen at the Royal T gallery in Los Angeles as part of the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time event.”

Six blogs will present a series of interviews with with women about their childhood memories of the perfumes their mothers and grandmothers wore.  The schedule of who has what and when is below:

We will link to each blog on the day they present so you don’t forget to visit!

Patty

Sorry, guys and gals, I had a longer post planned for today, but one crisis, and then
another (cracked oil pan in my car), prompted a slight change of plan.
So in the interest of brevity, here’s a fun fantasy post for Wednesday.
If you had to limit yourself to only one perfume house and could wear only three scents from that house, which would you choose?
I know there’ll be some Guerlain lovers weighing in, as well as fans of Chanel, Serge, etc.
As for me, it would be tough, but with price and availability (location-wise at least) no object, that made
it a little easier. I also took into consideration the weather/seasons to ensure that I had a great scent to
wear no matter what time of year it was.
All things considered, I think I’ll go with these three from Le Labo:
My beloved sunshine-bright Tubereuse 40 (I know you guys are sick of hearing about it); the yummy
warm vanilla incense of Vanille 44; and the elegant, calming simplicity of Gaiac 10.
Can’t wait to hear what your picks are!

Tiger Powers is the face (and other body parts) of Opus Oils.  Opus Oils is a shop in Hollywood that I really like; they have a winking, playful thing going on that is backed up by seriously nice scents that come in a range of products from oils to body butters.  I’m a big fan of their Dirty Sexy Wilde, and really like a lot of the others, like Jitterbug.  Like those, the nose behind this scent is perfumer Kedra Hart.

Star Fu$%er (the name is redacted since this is a family blog) is a decidedly smooth little number with (quoting from the press release)

Key Notes Include: Lime, Green Mandarin, Lemon Essence, Italian Bergamot, Wild Orange, Orange Flower Water Absolute, Lavender Seville, Jasmine, Sandalwood, Iso-E Super, Amber, Vetiver, Black Agar, & Oakmoss

It’s bracing, smooth and quite wonderful in that Eau Sauvage/Acqua di Parma old school good smelling kind of way and I thank them for that.  While we were having high 90′s and humidity I was surprised at how long-lasting it is.  I wore it to a last-minute garden meeting with some of the locals which involved a lot of cheek-kissing with ladies who move and shake.  A couple of them who could be well described as “Doyennes” complemented me on how delightful I smelled. I didn’t offer up anything but thanks, although I’m certain that they’d merely smile at the name.  It’s a wink and a nod that you could actually take to a garden party or the company picnic or even to be sentenced and think all the while “I smell like outward respectability, but inside I’m still a Star Fu$%er”

Which makes it perhaps an accurate reflection of the Tiger Powers I’ve met.  He’s handsome, intelligent and witty and when he isn’t posing in harness or cowboy drag I’d bet he’d charm the living daylights out of your bosses wife.

Star Fu$%er is available in various sizes and formulations at his website.  If you’re in Hollywood, call ahead and visit the shop.  It’s always nice to spend time with people who are as talented and genuinely nice as are Kedra and Tiger and their crew.

Go Away, Irene! Scat! G'wan!!

By March (yes!  it’s true!  I posted this on Saturday, with a Sunday update at bottom.  We are fine, just a little yard cleanup.  Hope the rest of the East Coast Posse is too.)

The air is heavy and still this morning, overcast – not Irene herself knocking at my door, but the weather she pushed ahead of her.  It still feels ominous, no birdsong from the trees.  I gave up on the morning paper and decided to write while the electricity’s still on.

Like my east coast brethren and sistern, I’ve hunkered down.  Spent the last three days in measured preparation – batteries, flashlights, non-perishable foods, gasoline in the cars, gasoline for the generator blah blah (I skipped the extra toilet paper; what is that all about?  Actually, don’t answer that.)  I reacquainted myself with the mysterious workings of the generator, which is now locked and loaded.  Well, actually, it’s chained to the side of the house and blockaded by my SUV (a precaution against thieves, not the wind).  We’ve taken down and stowed everything outside that I can envision as a projectile in 100-mph winds.

They keep messing with us, forecast-wise.  First it was kind of … eh.  Then they upgraded.  Then Kate, who lives on the eastern shore, called to tell me the watermen were pulling their boats.  If you live near the coast, you understand that level of code-dire immediately.  The watermen do not pull their boats for any little ol’ blow.  That’s when I got busy double-checking the windows, revising our sleeping arrangements, and pre-loading the generator.

A hurricane smells like Karma.  No, I’m not saying I deserve it – who the hell deserves an angry visit from Ma Nature?  This, the same week we had that bizarro mid-Atlantic earthquake?  Whiskey tango foxtrot, people.  (Also while I’m being completely random, my understanding is we completely misuse the word karma in its proper meaning.)  No, a hurricane smells … faintly and creepily of ozone in the distance, although maybe that’s my imagination.  The bird-absence does disturb me.  I’m talking about LUSH Karma, which I reviewed here, describing it as “an inky-green scent somewhere between vetiver and pine, with a pale-straw-citrus note of lemongrass and a resiny base.”  That was the spray-on.  In the push-up solid it seems sweeter….  like if they made a lemongrass-incense birch beer.  I wouldn’t want to drink it, but it smells wonderful, and completely weird.

In the meantime, there’s the EdP of Guerlain Jicky sent from a dear, dear friend – didn’t Luca Turin say it’s closest to the original, intended smell of Jicky?   Any Jicky fans know the huge difference between the lemony effervescence of the EdT and the heavy-lidded skank of the parfum… you know, this middle ground smells like I’d stomped through a field of Martian lavender, and the girls detested it.  I gave myself three (okay, four) unhealthy sprays before heading off for errands the day of the earthquake, and I did get a couple funny looks.  I have a theory that to some people it smells like household cleaner – like, I just took a break from scrubbing the bathroom tiles from top to bottom to run to CVS for a hot minute because I realized I was out of toilet paper.   What version of Jicky do I prefer?  I prefer all of them.  I think I’ve decided, after much experimentation, that the EdT layered over the parfum is the most lethal my personal favorite.

Mariage Freres Marco Polo Tea – no, no, that’s not a new perfume.  Lawl – I can see you hardcore perfumistas jumping onto google (Mariage Freres now has a fragrance line?!  Who do I know in Paris….)   Nope, somebody sent me a care package with Marco Polo tea in it.  I like tea.  This tea smells and tastes divine.  I am no tea connoisseur.  I also got a mixed tea care-package from another sweetheart with good summer herbals (like raspberry for iced), and some interesting chais, and I saved the USPS shipper box so I can smell it.   The only common teas I don’t like are the Greys, Lady and her husband the Earl (although I like bergamot just fine in perfume), and lapsang, which I adore in perfume and in tea is like drinking through a dirty sock.

HOWEVER.  I’m going to close today’s random perfume, freak-of-nature, and March-resurrection post with this hot tip from me to you tea freaks out there – my friends went camping, and they stuffed all their teas into a Zip-Lock bag for a week, mixing her lapsang and his Twinings English Breakfast together.  I brewed myself some English Breakfast at her house when they got back, then spent three minutes huffing it in ecstasy, and she finally understood my incoherent moany questions and explained how she did it — make a faintly smoky English Breakfast.  So – if you’d like to experiment, take your favorite black tea, tuck it in a sandwich baggie with some lapsang for a day or three, wait till the smell transfers a bit, and brew the black tea.  Yeah, yeah, some of you tea queens are already making mental workarounds for the fact that I used tea bags (quelle horreur!) and Twinings (le monsieur yuck!) but the concept’s still worth exploring.

PS apologies, this isn’t proofread as carefully as usual.  Also, they keep comparing this storm to Isabel, and if they’re right, DC will be shut down for the better part of two weeks.  I hope they’re wrong.

Sunday Morning Update — we’re fine!  Power never went off, basement is dry.  Heavy rain and 35 – 40mph winds most of the night.  Lots of leaf litter but surprisingly little damage in the immediate area, except for two trees down from our neighbor across the street.  Glad I didn’t park there.  Still gusty.  Fingers crossed for NYC and the rest of the north...

March

I’ll admit, I’ve made a whole pile of mistakes over the past few years, the most galling of which has been trusting a certain individual to have my back during a very difficult period. Without wearing that one down to a nub, I do claim responsibility for it and all the others. However, I did something really stupid a couple of weeks ago and I’m still feeling the effects of it.

For the past 3 years, I’ve been taking a certain medication just to take the edge off. For the past couple of months, one of my big projects has been writing extensively about this type of medication and how its side effects can wreak havoc on those of us who have been taking it since it was introduced about 20 years ago. I think I know the details better than a physician at this point, including the names, manufacturers, side effects, everything.

Speaking of side effects, I got it into my head that I wanted to stop taking this medication and decided to wean myself off of it on my own. I made the mistake of thinking I knew enough to do it, but alas, I knew nothing.  The first week was not bad, but after 10 days, I was just about ready to swallow whatever was left in the prescription bottle. The side effects were prolific: dizziness, nausea, insomnia, inability to concentrate, and a general sense of dread that washed over me like sewage. Oh – and the destruction of my sense of smell. I think that side effect has shaken me up worst of all.

My schnoz is recovering slowly but surely. I actually had to take a break from any and all things scented, including shampoo and shower gel. Anything stronger than Ivory soap was an assault on my senses, and I’m still not able to sniff certain scents yet. It’s funny because this happened to me once before: when I was supposed to move to Toronto back in 2008 and was nabbed by the Canadian Border Mafia for supposedly attempting to “immigrate illegally” from the U.S. As much as this ailment alarms me, it amuses me that when the going gets tough, my sense of smell shuts down. How weird is that?

So, a little advice from me to you: never, EVER attempt to wean yourself off anything without help from a trained professional. I was so incapacitated at one point that I placed a call to my family doctor back in New York and cried to her about what an idiot I am. She was always really great to me, especially when things got tough. Talking to her made me feel much better, even though she was the one who wrote me my first prescription. It has helped me tremendously, but now I’m scared to death about what’s going to happen when I do try to properly stop taking this stuff.  I’m going to need many hands to hold, that’s for damn sure.

Here’s a Friday question for you (I won’t call it a poll because it probably doesn’t apply to everyone): Have you ever done something, or gone through a traumatic event that affected your sense of smell? My re-focused, inquiring mind wants to know!