Attar AT
Tauer (2017)

Attar AT is excellent work. It succeeds both as an attar and as an atmospheric set piece in the Tauer manner; it contains exotic raw materials but somehow conjures up more of that tough old Americana (cowboy boots, pilgrims, vast open spaces of the American plains) than it does the East. It opens up as an extract of pure boot leather, with a dense wall of fuel-like jasmine, birch tar, and castoreum-driven leather hitting the nose all at once.

But despite the tarry creosote-like tone and the fact that Tauer has used materials like this before, mainly in Lonestar Memories and L’Air du Desert Marocain, Attar AT does not make me think of his other perfumes. The leather, although smoky, is smooth and dark, and, crucially, completely free of competing notes like amber or citrus. There is no Tauerade. It is powerful and concentrated at first, but soon becomes very quiet and almost linear. A rubbery jasmine appears just past the opening notes, relieving, albeit briefly, the almost matte darkness of the leather accord.

As an aside, it’s funny how noses differ: my husband smelled this and immediately said that there was jasmine in this, as well as a little bit of oud. I, on the other hand, can only smell the jasmine briefly (it is similar to the phenolic jasmine used in the topnotes of Anubis by Papillon, for reference), and the impression of oudiness is only a background one, playing second fiddle to the leather. However, at a distance and at certain points of the attar’s development, it has something of the leathery, fermented smokiness that I associate with oud oil. In general, I think it’s fair to say that Attar AT genuinely has an oud-like tone to it at times, but that it in no way dominates.

Perception of sweetness seems to be subjective, but I’d peg Attar AT as being un-sweet, which is not to say that it is piercingly dry or sour. It is more a question of lacking sweetness in the form of amber or a syrupy floral note; if you know the sappy, sooty darkness of perfumes such as Heeley’s Phoenicia or Le Labo Patchouli 24, then you will know what I mean – an unsentimental, un-sweet darkness that nonetheless possesses so much texture and energy that it never tires the nose. Dusty, dark woods in the base only confirm this impression. There is no creamy sandalwood or welcoming amber in the drydown to placate the sweet tooth, only a continuation of the main accord of dark, smoky birch tar leather. As an attar, Attar AT starts off very strong and dense, but soon loosens up into something much softer and quieter. It wears close to the body and doesn’t project much. However, longevity is excellent. So far, so standard for an attar. But people will want to know if there is anything of Tauer’s synthetic signature in Attar AT: my take is that it doesn’t feel synthetic to my nose at all, but be aware that birch tar in high concentration can have a bitter, metallic sharpness to it that some noses may interpret as synthetic. The only hint of something unnatural comes when you try to wash it off, and then (only then) something synthetic does linger on the piece of skin you’ve just washed.

Masculine? Yes. I’d even go so far as to say that this is super-macho, especially during the first couple of hours when the leather is blazing streaks across the sky. Attar AT is more evocative (for me) of the landscapes of the American West than of the deserts of the East; something about it celebrates the good-natured but tough manliness of the men who had to conquer large stretches of the American West on horseback, hungry and alone. This is a theme that seems to course through much of Andy’s work. Having said that, there are plenty of women who like this sort of dry, unemotional scent, and I count myself as one of them. Overall, this is a great *masculine* attar for a very reasonable price, and also yet another addition to the attar genre that proves that you don’t have to be Muslim or be located in the East to make an attar that smells authentically, genuinely good.

I got a little bottle (although, I believe, it is the only size there is) of AT, as a gift with purchase from Luckyscent, and it's great. It is a tough little guy, like a mechanic's overalls, the scent of 40 weight motor oil, monkey grease, and petrol–itself a strangely addictive scent, with that weird bit of sweetness that one gets from the drop or three of gasoline that sometimes gets on my hand when I finish filling up the car.

It goes on with a shocker of an opening, hard and leathery, and unapologetically artificial. Petrol notes sometimes denote the presence of jasmine (Fahrenheit and Salome both use jasmine in this way), and I wonder if that's part of how Tauer constructed its accord. Petrol is also so popular now, especially in masculine-marketed fragrances, that at least half of my boyfriend's most loved and worn perfumes smell like automotive shops. It's probably the most distinctive fragrance trend in modern perfumery (aside from women's Modern Musky Florals), so if that is your kind of thing, you'll love AT.

The fragrance softens as it warms up. About 30 minutes in, I notice what I think is an oily rose hidden somewhere in its pockets, that reminds me of the Balsamic vinegar rose of Rose Flash. Tauer tends to use some of his accords, in rearranged configurations, across his different perfumes, and this one is almost like Hyacinth and a Mechanic, retold as Rose and Mechanic.

A spicy accord appears as well, with nutmeg, and maybe allspice, and possibly red chili flakes–hot spices that warm the nose, like the spice in Tauer's Sotto la Luna florals, or even ELDO's Spice Must Flow. They do not take AT in a gourmand direction, but they give the dense main accord a sense of lift, and that's what I smell in the perfume's wake when my boyfriend wears it (it is hard to smell one's own sillage, so I have to deduce from his). The spices balance the savory rose and chemical refinery accords, in a weird, but appealing, trio of voices, that harmonize like a bluesy seventh accord, somehow melancholy but also edgy. It reminds me a little of Le Labo's bizarre Patchouli, which leads me to believe that there is patchouli contributing to the mix, as well.

It is unlike the more traditional floral attars I own, it packs less of an obvious aromatic punch, as a dab doesn't waft off skin and fill a room the same way that my Amouage attars do, but they're unusual attars. It stays close to your body, with sillage rather than projection, an effect I expect from parfum and attar formulations, as they have significantly less volatility, because they have, respectively, relatively little, or no. alcohol in their formulae. In its latter stages, the hard leather changes to something more plush and almost buttery. The drydown turns progressively more floral, with a juiciness emerged that reminds me of the watermelon rose from some of Maria Candida Gentile's perfumes, that I think indicates good quality natural rose ingredients. The gasoline accord ticks on alongside until the very last stages. It blends very well into skin, a “you-smell-good,” rather than a “your-perfume-smells-good” kind of fragrance. It lasts about eight hours on skin, maybe longer with a little heavier application than I prefer.

I'm a great fan of Tauer's perfumery. I think his training as a chemist, must have taught him to find beauty in strange, atypical scents, and also taught him some technical tricks that fool the nose into experiencing textures, like AT's transition from hard to soft. AT is a very specific perfume, rather than an all-rounder/crowd-pleaser, and some people might find it hard to wear, if they are not comfortable with hard, smoky, funky, abstract, chemical scents. But, there is nothing out there like it, and that makes it worthy of a test, at least. It is very stereotypically masculine in style, so if you are interested in manly floral scents, or if you like shadowy, smoky, mysterious perfumes, you should definitely check this out. Its retail price is extremely reasonable, a tiny bottle of AT should go a very long way, because it is not the kind of thing to douse oneself in. Too much of this would be unbearably harsh, and I think Tauer made the right choice, when he crafted this to be an Attar.

I am not crazy about the one-to-five star rating system, but I am learning to use it, and make it meaningful for myself. I rate perfumes according to originality, quality, wearability, interest, and, finally, how much I like them. This gets a solid four stars (I see how it could be a difficult perfume for some people to wear), and an obvious thumbs-up. Plus, I just love the little bottle ...

Smoke. Motor oil. Leather.

Tauer Attar AT: born to be wild.

I Bought it after felling in love with its dark aura, I'm really addicted to this Attar.
At first, I liked its smokiness and the "dirty" and earthy sandalwood, but it surprises me with new facets every time I wear it. Some jasmine is definitely there but it's not perceivable every time I wear it, nor does it perform continuously. When it's there it's like a ghostly veil turning round a corner, you can defintely see it for a moment, but it remains at the very edge of your "visual" field. other times some labdanum appears and persists for quite a long time.
I think the facets vary basing on the skin's warmth and the external temperature, and personnaly I like this attitude a lot. The birch tar opening is not for everyone, but I'm a great fan of "a city on fire" and other smoky fragrances so I like it.