Tauer Perfumes Golestan

Right, last week, I made noises about a load of samples dropping through the door. And they did. I received three samples from one provider plus a large sample set from a house I am not familiar with. I was planning to write about the first three samples together. But, once I started the Golestan section of the post it became clear that this needed to be standalone. So, that’s where we are today – and the other two will wait till next week.

Year ago, not sure how many, I read or heard about Tauer Le Maroc pour Elle and L’Air du Desert Marocain, his first fragrances made for a local friend’s shop, and set out to get samples. Duly arrived, tried the Le Maroc. Nice. Then probably next day sprayed on LDDM.

One of those ‘oh my’ moments, but a bit of a brain squeeze. I’d spray it on and smell and be drawn in over and over, like I did this for days, trying to figure out what I found so godawful compelling. Because it wasn’t specific notes that stood out. It was that overall smell on me. I gave up after a while and just accepted that I adored it.

I had one of my ‘I am at loose ends, I need some samples’ a number of weeks ago. I had seen something on Golestan and on something else that piqued my interest, so I went looking. I was able to order both at a new-to-me sample site here called Tiny Fragrances. Decent mix of stuff; good CS.

So, the parcel showed up and Golestan was the first thing I tried.

This was released last year (ie, 2022). First couple of samplings, this was a serious conundrum. It doesn’t smell of the notes list on me, at least for the first few hours, and I spent the times I sampled it trying to tease out individual notes without a great deal of luck before mostly giving up and just enjoying the ride. Because it’s a very interesting ride. And I was reminded of the experience I’d had with L’Air du Desert Marocain all those years ago.

The backstory on Golestan is Andy Tauer visiting a section of the Louvre he hadn’t been to before, covering the Persian empires and history. The visit sparked more research, leading to discovery of a palace called Golestan built in the 16^th century in Iran, which was also known as the Rose Garden Palace – leading to this perfume.

Edifice of the Sun section of the Golestan Palace

Per the Tauer site, “the perfume of a flower garden”. Notes include ylang, bergamot, lemon zest, tuberose, jasmine, orange blossom, Damask rose, ambergris, vanilla, patchouli, woody notes and cistus incanus (below).

What a list! But on me, this smells of what I ended up, after a bit of head-spinningness, labelling ancient dust (this was before I read the backstory, so I don’t feel I was influenced).

As soon as I got my first whiff off the wrist I went looking for a review from the first Perfumes: The Guide about Guerlain Habit Rouge because I recalled the subheader having something to do with dust (turned out to be ‘sweet dust’) and I wanted to confirm that what I was smelling made some sort of aromachemical sense.  Per Luca Turin, that dust ‘sense’ derives from an orange blossom and oppoponax accord. A rough slightly floral scratchy dust smell. Ok, thank you, that helps. There’s orange blossom in this, but not oppoponax. So, I wondered if the combo that led me to smell dust might be the mentholated aspect of tuberose and/or the ‘wood notes’ or the cistus incantus, which is listed as having a woody herbaceous aroma.

This smells on me like how I would imagine the air around an ancient site smells. But maybe somewhere in Greece with that floral herbaceous smell you get in the hills. As I said above, I have trouble teasing out notes on this – until it starts to dry down. So, for the first few hours I just get that uncanny dust aspect.

Interestingly, on paper, I found it much easier to delineate different notes, getting a fruitier, lighter perfume, with something candied.

In any case, this is gorgeous. It’s long lived on my skin, and only hours into its development do I start to get the Tauer-ade (that amber incensy sweetness). Otherwise, it’s that other-worldly dust which is decidedly not sweet and after a while I think I can discern orange blossom, jasmine and tuberose, but I might be making that up.

Oh, and before I forget, the bottle art is beautiful: a take on Persian flower paintings. I wasn’t hugely taken with the art on the Sundowner bottle (very much liked the fragrance), but this is lovely.

So, this is extrait de parfum, 50ml and around £165 here. On to the ‘want’ list it goes.

Anyone else smelled this? Thoughts?

Pics: Golestan bottle pic with permission of Tauer Perfumes. Others wiki