Andy Tauer's "Une Rose Vermeille"

*Current Fragrance: Une Rose Vermeille by Andy Tauer
*Currently Listening: Some Girls by Madonna

I should just come right out and say it...I am IN LOVE with Mr. Tauer's DELICIOUSLY WONDERFUL Une Rose Vermeille, so be prepared for some gushing....

Totally happened REALLY close to where I got both my undergrad and Master's. "Why son, that's the smell of money!" (Wait, that's for my Lonestar Memories Review...)

.....but of the NON Spindletop/Lucas Gusher variety. I appologize if I come off as a bit scattered and fragmented, but - it's been a while since I've loved a fragrance THIS MUCH! I have to say, it had to be my beloved Liaisons Dangereuses. I've chronicled both discovering it as well as falling deeper in love with it to the point I'm having "a not so secret love affair."

Une Rose Vermeille hits all the the olfactory/emotional right notes with me....but where to start.....hmmmm.... In times like these, one must ask the question: WWHP do? HP, you ask? Harry Potter? NO! American micro-tonal composer Harry Partch! Yes...What Would Harry Partch do? Why, he'd muse half crazily about rose petal jam, that's what!

I am a TOTAL sucker for jammy roses! Given that, I just KNEW I was going to be in love with Une Rose Vermeille, but I wasn't quite prepared for the emotionally evocative journey it took my on, but once again, I'm getting ahead of myself.

If I was going to put Une Rose Vermeille in a Rose Jam "category", it would be Rose Jam goes on a date. She's put on her red lipstick and she's rocking some Louboutin's; but that's just the short "sound-bite" version. The "real story", I think it much more interesting.

For me to really fall in love with a perfume, it's got to take me somewhere; and Une Rose Vermeille took my somewhere very specific a the very beginning. The first time I wore it, I just put it on; I didn't read the notes...I remembered there was rose and raspberry in there, that was about it. I just had this feeling I was going to love it, so I just dabbed it on and went on a journey. One deep sniff and I was instantly transported to being between the ages of 5-8. I explained this in No Disassemble Charlie No. 5's inaugural post:

As a girl, my mom wore Charlie as her perfume, and if you're somewhere between the ages of 30 & 35 (like I am - I seriously forget how old I am, and this is by design, so I don't obsess over it. That makes me sound daft, perhaps I should have just disclosed that...), I'm sure your Mom did too. As a little girl, I would sit indian-style on the floor outside of the bathroom (most likely singing something at the TOP of my lungs) in our mobile home (yep, mobile home) and adoringly watch her put on her makeup, fix her hair, and then spritz Charlie at the very end. I would smile in delight as the tiniest geranium, jasmine, rose, mossy woods, sandalwood, oakmoss, and musk scented droplets hit my skin. I didn't smell like a little girl anymore, I smelled like a GROWN UP LADY! I smelled like my Mom....and THAT was awesome! I also had this little habit (Mom, in case you're wondering what was really happening) of stealing my Mom's perfume bottles. Not full bottles, like...when they had a millimeter of two of liquid left in them...I'd tuck them away in my room where my Mom wouldn't find them (I remember a favorite hiding place of bottle was under the pillow in the crib for my baby dolls), but only after I sprayed all of my Barbie's hair w/ Charlie. (Wow! I was SUCH a girl!)

That back hit of the initial sniff of Une Rose Vermeille reminds me of the strong aldehyde laced initial droplets of Charlie. If you're getting upset that I'm comparing Une Rose Vermeille to Charlie...slow your roll, don't hate....just listen. I'm linking up a very beautifully crafted perfume that has evoked my earliest and one of my most beloved childhood memories. Nothing but love. Plus - I love how this is done in the opening where lemon, bergamot and lavender are used. Lavender...you are a wonder-scent! I love how the lemon and bergamot are taken from a literal citrus to a very sparkly and "perfume-y" territory with just a little lavender.

Naturally the mobile home I lived in growing up didn't just smell of ONLY Charlie.....there were other things that Une Rose Vermeille manages to capture. The roses....and when roses go jammy. We had rose bushes, along with SH#T-TONS of mint in front of the trailer (which explains my fondness for mint), but the ROSE-VIOLET-RASPBERRY heart very much makes me think of my Paternal Grandparent's "Farm". They had a pink sweet-heart rose bush near the gate to the part of the property where the barn was and the chicken coops were in my VERY early youth. They loved those rose bush so much, someone important gave it to them, I can't remember; and sadly I can't ask. All along the fence on the other side of the gate were muscadine bushes. I remember picking tons and tons of muscadines and they would eventually be made into jelly. My Granny also had a penchant for violets, which she would lovingly tend in the spare bed-room that housed a hot tub. (My Grandpa had some sort of drainage system rigged to where it all worked somehow, they - we're quirky!)

The dry-down of Une Rose Vermeille is just a comforting hug. On me the heart of the raspberry and rose linger (the violet is long gone) and the base of vanilla, sandalwood, tonka beans, and ambergris work as just a hug of baked goods, but in the SLIGHTLY sweetened way. Like if you could have peanut butter cookies without the peanut butter. Peanut Butter cookies are never sweet, but yet, are insanely awesome - but for this...take away the peanut butter!

Before you go thinking that Une Rose Vermeille is one big Fruity-Gourmand-Fest, hear me out. What makes this fragrance so delectably exquisite is the lingering of notes from head to heart to body (as Tauer calls them). It's the carry-over from the notes before that keep the current note layer in balance. It works like a kaleidoscope, all the notes are there, but they just come into focus at a different time to show a different "view".

I've gushed long enough for one day! I'd like to go into the name and the bottle, but I'll leave that for another day. Maybe when I actually am able to purchase my own full bottle and I can hear if those beautiful beads really do make the sound I think they do as they swish and swirl around in the perfume!

 Until then, Dear Mr. Tauer you have me completely hooked! I am absolutely smitten with Une Rose Vermeille.

*Currently Listening: Masterpiece by Madonna
**Photo Credits: 1) blog.chron.com 2) becksbrands.blogspot.com & 3) tauerperfumes.com