L’air du Désert Marocain – A Tauering Accomplishment

First off I apologize to the readers for having to endure the terrible Andy Tauer pun. I couldn’t help it, and as reparation I will be wearing Acqua di Gio today. Okay, that’s actually a lie, I’m wearing Mechant Loup which will be reviewed tomorrow.

ANYway, L’air du Désert Marocain was one of the fragrances I was most excited about sampling in this experiment, it’s consistently been a favorite among Basenoters and the composition has always sounded top-notch. It is with a smiley face that I can say it didn’t disappoint at all.

The opening blast is dark and mysterious with an incense note dominating along with a somewhat bitter note that might just be tar. As it progresses the incense backs off a little bit and you’re greeted with a sweet frankincense note and the rest of the composition starts coming out of the woodwork. This is one of a very few scents that have conjured up a vision of what the perfumer was going for. The opening is the dark right before dawn, cold and bleak, and as the sun lazily rises and warms the desert sand, the desert starts taking on a life of it’s own. There are exotic spices reminiscent of spice merchants selling their wares, and a warm accord that truly reminded me of hot sand.

Needless to say I’m rather impressed with the creation. It actually reminded me of Jubilation XXV by Amouage when it was at it’s sweetest, they’re apples and oranges though. Given that it’s about a third of the price of the Amouage creation, though, I may find myself enjoying LdDM enough in its own right to spring for a bottle. I will eventually be doing a side-by-side test of these two and will report my findings then.

The bottom line is this is a magnificent creation, one that anyone that sees this as an art owes it to themself to try; I’m certainly wiser for the experience.

As an aside, there’s also a new link to Andy Tauer’s blog in the blogroll.