Tauer Perfumes Sundowner

I lost my job (well, was made redundant) during the 2008/09 financial crisis and socked some of my redundancy payment into starting an online niche perfume shop. It lasted for six years. The key brand unpinning it lasting that long was Tauer Perfumes. I still marvel at Andy Tauer having that kind of faith in me given I was a complete non-entity in the perfume world. There are a number of things I’m proud of, one of which is basically having launched Tauer in the UK (my titchy online shop even made it into a holiday perfume list in the Financial Times).

I can still recall the first time I sampled l’Air du Desert Marocain and how blown away I was, which sort of gave me the oomph to write him about stocking his fragrances way back when.

So, given that and in any case, I was quite excited to read about Sundowner. Got my sample and sprayed right away – potentially having forgotten I might have sprayed on Byredo Mumbai Noise earlier (a bit on that below).

So, had to have another initial go the next day when I knew my skin was ‘clean’.

Per Andy Tauer’s website, “Surrender to the darkness of the night with a boozy cocktail and good dose of velvety smoky happiness with the last sun on your cheeks”. Personally, I think this juice is somewhat darker than these words imply.

Notes for Sundowner include tobacco, cocoa, patchouli, rose, orange peel, bergamot, cinnamon, cypriol, sandalwood, tonka, ambergris and vanilla. I am sure I can smell some rum but that may be the tobacco and the cocoa dancing together.

This starts out so dry I was a bit taken aback. It was astringent initially and I wasn’t sure that was going to work for me. But it warmed up and … ummmm … that rum which isn’t in the notes list and maybe is tobacco, cocoa, vanilla and tonka. Maybe this is the smell of tobacco leaves drying in the sun (I’ve never smelled that).

And then there is something sour in this – maybe the patchouli – but it’s not a ‘bad’ sour. A hay-like aspect maybe that sometimes comes with tobacco. The top of this is not remotely sweet in the way that l’Air can be. Is there some incense in there? Maybe not.

As it opens the sour aspect dissipates and the tobacco becomes more tobacco than hay, with maybe some orange peel and the cinnamon really starts to be apparent. After a bit longer I was reminded of the clove-stuck-oranges my son made in primary school at Christmas time which get muskier (and better) as they age.

I get that creosote note of Lonestar Memories which is wonderful.

Anyway, this dries down to tobacco, creosote, orange peel and cinnamon. To me, that sounds good and actually it is so much better than good. It’s still not sweet. It feels rough. No suede, no cashmere here. Something grungier and wilder.

This is Andy Tauer walking the line between beautiful and weird, which is where his best work sits.

A word on the bottle. Tauer bottles have that beautiful idiosyncratic shape and a wonderful heft. However, for me, the jury is out on the graphic design for this.

Further, Sundowner is sort of an odd name. To me, it refers to a cocktail had at sundown. In other reviews I’ve read, people seem to find a sadder meaning, relating to end of life. In neither case does it seem to fit with the fragrance. I have always felt that LDDM fit so well with the perfume it’s a bit odd that the name in this case doesn’t quite live up to the juice. Would that keep me from buying it? Of course not.

But will I be buying this in the short term? Really, I don’t know. I can’t think straight during the holiday season and anyway in the past six months I’ve said I wanted to buy something so many times it’s gotten sort of pointless. I’m thinking I’ll look at what I ‘really’ want to add to my collection in a couple of months, when the haze of turkey, sugar and over-hype has dissipated. I’ve got a significant birthday coming up – surely, it will need a bottle of perfume.

Just a note on the Byredo (def have a look at Patty’s full review of this http://perfumeposse.com/2021/10/19/byredo-mumbai-noise-review/).

I wanted to love Mumbai Noise for the reasons I do love Sundowner: beautiful weirdness. But, on me, MN doesn’t quite work. It seems to lack cohesion, I guess, and is so dry it gets a bit hard to take. Still, I think it is wonderfully interesting and we definitely don’t get enough ‘wonderfully interesting’ in perfumery today.

So, have you tried Sundowner? If yes, what did you think? And what about vs Mumbai Noise?

  • Musette says:

    I’m wearing the gorgeous, evocative Lonestar Memories today, in honor of your post! It smells like a Wynonna song on my wrist (I’m hearing ‘My Angel is Here’ as I sniff it).

    And congrats on actually setting up and working your online perfume shop – six years is a real achievement!!!

    • cinnamon says:

      I have never been able to wear LM without something to modify it but I still think it’s gorgeous on other people. Thank you regarding the business. But you’re the one whose seems to have been going for a good long while. A business is a hard thing.

  • Portia says:

    Hey Cinnamon,
    WOW! You opening an online niche store is bloody cool.
    Sundowner used to be the name of a holiday van in Australia, and a caravan park we would pass on our travels. It has really summery, beachy vibes for me. Young people from around the world seeing the east coast of Australia.
    I’ve tried neither but will probably get my sniff on them sometime.
    Portia xx

    • cinnamon says:

      Shop is long closed but I’m glad I did it. Very interesting, educational experience. Both are definitely worth trying.

  • March says:

    I love Andy’s work and this sounds like among his best — you’re right, somewhere between beautiful and weird. And personally I think the bottle design is gorgeous! If/when I get my nose back, Tauer seems a good place to start, they are generally not shy!

    • cinnamon says:

      I’ve got it back on today. Would imagine that when you are able to smell things this would definitely be worth a try. I need to sample the other things I bought at the same time but it occurred to me earlier the top of this is similar to Orris.

    • Musette says:

      I’m wearing Lonestar Memories right now – betcha you could smell it! Probably can smell it right now, all the way over here (I’m wearing a LOT of it)

      xoxo

  • Gina T. says:

    Tauer is a master and my favorite modern perfumer. I am in the U.S. and haven’t gotten my nose on Sundowner yet but really want to!

    • cinnamon says:

      I would think Lucky Scent has it already though I haven’t looked. This is just so good IMHO. Well worth trying.

  • Tara C says:

    I love Sundowner and am a big fan of a lot of his scents, mostly the roses and resins. His latest fresh scents haven’t been my thing, nor the oudh. I really disliked Mumbai Noise. It started off promising, but as it dried down it became a loud strident woody amber.

  • Alityke says:

    Excellent achievement on bringing Tauer to the UK!
    As for his fragrances the LADDM & Lonestar are all I’ve tried & both smelt of fence preserver to me. Whilst I could sniff a freshly creosoted fence very happily for hours, along with tar & bitumin, in a personal fragrance? Nope!
    Every Byredo I’ve tried has engendered a reaction of ‘Meh’ & a shrug. Not a single one has registered in my long term olfactory or limbic memory. Even if I fell head over heels with a Byredo the aspirational pricing would prevent me from buying

    • cinnamon says:

      Thank you. Everything about opening the shop was a bit of a leap of faith. I have a Byredo candle I really like — and would love to smell the Chai one (but I’m not buying unsniffed given it’s pricey).

  • MizChris says:

    While I have never met Andy, he seems like a sweet, kind, gentle person. For the most part, I don’t care for his work; Orris and Dar Maghred being the exceptions. Oh, and his candles are marvelous as are his soaps. I wish he’d make some body lotions.

    When he releases something new, I always try it. Invariably it doesn’t suit me. Kind of like Mandy Aftel’s work. This will sound odd (but so what?!)-both lines make me feel very anxious when I try on their respective scents. You nailed it, Cinnamon-‘a bit hard to take.’ The only thing of Mandy’s that I like, own and wear is Memento Mori.

    The Sundowner description sounded like something I could possibly wear and enjoy. I got a spray sample from LuckyScent. Hated it. I made myself try it at least once a day, at different times of the day, for a week, then sent it on to a friend. I don’t dislike ‘weird’ scents. In fact, right now I am going through a spell of burning different Tibetan incenses every day. They are the antithesis of what one usually imagines when incense is mentioned.

    The notes of coffee and tonka beans in Mumbai Noise are turn offs, as is that name. That line has never appealed to me. A friend bought me La Tulipe for some reason when it first came out. It was dreadful on me. There is something in the Byredo bases, maybe a musk, that plays foul with my skin chemistry.

    I thought Dusita’s Anamcara was going to be my latest full bottle purchase. A dab of it was good but spraying it on produced something shriekingly sweet. For the remainder of the holiday season, I am sticking to Guerlain’s (discontinued) Winter Delice or clean, unscented skin.

    • cinnamon says:

      I find myself currently being hopeful about everything I try. I think that relates to our current situation. I just want to find things that give pleasure. I think I might pull out Shalimar for Xmas this year.