L'Air Des Alpes Suisses

On me, L’Air des Alpes Suisses is all about the tonka and ambergris and lily. But especially tonka. The best description I have for tonka is “creamy white and sweet” but now that I smell it by itself, without its frequent accompaniments like vanilla or amber, I’m noticing that it’s also got a cooling tonality and a sort of putty-like or play-doh-like texture. It feels more smooth and doughy, like fondant, than “creamy.” The ambergris blows a hot breath of golden earthiness around the tonka, and the lily gives it a graceful ornamental undertone. There’s a sort of pale-yellow, almost “lemonade” tonality as well, that I’ve noticed in the openings of some other Tauer perfumes. Sweetened citrus seems to be one of his signatures, along with ambergris and dry woods. It is a totally new accord to me, and totally enchanting. It smells like it could be some wonderful, impossibly luxurious soap or lotion that melts softly into my skin. The lily-ambergris is similar to the clean-skin vibe of the lily-musk in Kiehl’s Original Musk, but the tonka gives L’Air Des Alpes Suisses a luminous magic all its own. Then in the heart I start to get more of a dry, “spicy” herbal-woody scent. It eventually overtakes the pale tonka chord and makes L’Air Des Alpes Suisses into more of the evocation of mountain meadows I’d expect from the name. I think the thyme is most prominent, along with something bitter-medicinal. But the creamy tonka and lemonade isn’t dead! It floats above the herbal brush like a cloud. Where the pure, sharp herbs and the lemon note intersect, it smells like looking up into a brilliant sky. This is a similar effect, in a different key, to Tauer’s Phi: Une Rose De Kandahar. Phi was a layer of creamy almond-vanilla (spiked with cinnamon) over dark, earthy tobacco and patchouli. Basically, apricot-cream over mahogany brown. L’Air des Alpes Suisses is the same “cream top” effect, but this time palest creamy yellow over loden green. If anything, I like it even better. (Interestingly, Caron’s Third Man *also* has a “pale sweet yellow note over earthy-spicy green” structure, but in a low-fat form — its clear vanilla-lemon-jasmine topnote reminds me of refreshing ice wine, not creamy custard or frosting.) Wow. This is a masterpiece. Unisex, in the sense that it doesn’t fit neatly into gendered perfume categories. Men who find florals too soft or women who find lavender-herbal scents too masculine might have trouble. Me, I love it. Hike-in-the-woods meets lounge-at-a-grand-hotel? Hell yeah.

I've been wearing since late August to really understand the nuances before writing my opinion. At first blush, I immediately thought it was a copy or inspiration of Amouage Reflection Man. I've also worn Reflection for around a couple years, and side by side they are not as similar as I thought. Firstly, the opening of this is different, especially side by side with reflection. They both share vanilla and perhaps coumarin, but Reflection is heavy on jasmine wherein L'Air Suisse Alpes is pine, something rubbery like western oud, wild thyme, and a mountain air accord. The mountain air air is pretty good but not photorealistic IMO it's like a rendering of it, but still really good. Mountain air is hard to describe, but it also feels like a different version of the steam accord created in Penhaligon's Sartorial which is meant to replicate a hot iron in a tailor shop. I enjoy it, but I can see why some people may not. Beyond that it feels "rugged clean" with white amber and pine mastic feeling. In my minds eye, Reflection man is a clean shaven gentleman in a white linen shirt, and L'Air Suisse is Swiss mountaineer that has spent some time trekking in the snow and woods, finally arriving at the mountain base where the temperature has warmed up from the sun, but the day is still crisp. The snow is melting and turning into slush. He's still relatively clean but he carries the scent of his mountain travels on his person. Late drydown carries a soapy amber quality. I like both fragrances but I find myself reaching for the Tauer because it's just more interesting to me. I've also received compliments from strangers wearing it in public, so it's not so niche that it is off-putting to the average person. Great concept and really fun to wear. ----------------------------------------- Scent 8.8/10 Performance 8/10

This is my second Tauer fragrance, and I was specifically looking for something that could capture the spirit of spring in a way that stood out from the usual fresh scents. With a collection of nearly a hundred bottles, I wanted something special to make me instinctively reach for this one perfume in particular – and it absolutely delivers. From the start, the experience felt great. I adore the distinctive metal packaging, and the handwritten note from Andy Tauer himself adds a unique artisanal touch that enhances the overall charm. The signature Tauer bottle design – angular, bold, and tactile – suits the scent’s character perfectly. The visuals for this perfume are evocative and mirror the mood it sets: expansive, airy, and grounded in nature. The only minor drawback is the cap mechanism, which feels a bit less refined than the rest of the presentation. That aside, everything else radiates quality and intention. Scent-wise, it’s hard for me to pinpoint exact notes without looking at the pyramid– and in a way, that’s part of the magic. What I do perceive is an incredibly vivid impression of a mountain meadow right at the edge of a forest. There’s a green, resinous sharpness reminiscent of pine needles, mingled with wild alpine herbs and a breath of fresh, cool air. It’s a composition that doesn’t follow present trends; instead, it carves its own trail and I love that. Unlike many warmer weather fragrances that lean too heavily on citrus or aquatic notes, this feels grounded, original, and even versatile enough to wear during cooler days. It commands attention not through power, but through atmosphere – an olfactory escape into the Swiss Alps, bottled.

A long overdue sampling of one of the latest releases from Tauer Perfumes, the 2019 L’Air des Alpes Suisses, which unsurprisingly translates to “The Air of the Swiss Alps,” a fresh spicy aromatic fragrance that I instantly liked when smelling it Perfumology for the first time some months ago. My first reaction was that LADAS smelled like a spicy variation to Creed Himalaya, with mixed citruses and woods, complemented by a variety of spices, none too overwhelming but pleasantly accenting. The main standout notes to me are lavender, lemon, ambergris, birch, lily, rosewood, and nutmeg, with a handful of others. It’s a complex composition but the result is pleasant and fairly easy to wear, a year-round jack-of-all-trades that has freshness but not to the point of being bland or generic. I conclude that while Andy is not reinventing the wheel with these, it’s nonetheless a special twist on a familiar fresh spicy DNA that he makes his own, highly wearable and enjoyable and a bottle I’ll seriously need to consider buying. It comes in EDT concentration but feels like a comfortably moderate performer, not too airy nor pulling a disappearing act like many freshies, but certainly not as dense or rich as say, a Profumuma Roma fresh offering, with its high oil content. I don’t believe it’s in stock currently at Perfumology but other US boutiques like Luckyscent and Tigerlily carry it at its retail pricing of $135 for 50ml, in line with house’s pricing for most fragrances. 8 out of 10

TLDR: Freshly washed clothes drying in the air on a mountain full of flowers. Very floral and clean, ignore the rest of the notes listed above. This is complex the way Tauer scents tend to be, but I really only get a lot of florals and lemon. Not coniferous, no ambergris, not spicy, just super clean florals, and it’s beautiful and easy to wear. If you think flowers are feminine, you might be inclined to think this scent is too, though I’d say it’s squarely unisex. The comparisons by people below are so wild I have no idea what anyone is smelling. Comparing this to a Fougere is completely off the mark. The lavender in this is hardly, if at all, noticeable, and it shares nothing with that genre of perfume. I guess it’s like, adjacent to Reflection. I wouldn’t say they smell the same, but are in the same realm. Scent: 10/10 Projection: 6/10 Longevity:7/10 Full bottle? Definitely. Fans of Tauer who want something summery need look no further.