Au Coeur du Desért (2016)
by Tauer

This is a smashing fragrance! I wanted to speak only about Au Coeur du Desért, but it’s impossible to separate it from the association to its older sibling L’Air du Désert Marocain, so I’ll say this. Everything that lovers of LADDM say about it is what I experience with Au Coeur du Desért, but not with L’Air. It was a surprise that all the descriptions of LADDM fit Au Coeur du Desért instead. I always wanted to experience what others described of LADDM, the soaring sense of dry, wide open space. But the vanilla and amber in it never affected me that way. From what I notice, the vanilla and amber were reduced or taken out and replaced with balsams in Au Coeur du Desért. I like the more natural, cleaner, balsamic notes as opposed to the absolutely ubiquitous vanilla (and the amber) in LADDM.

Only one other fragrance gives me the sense of adventure Au Coeur does and that is my long-time favorite, Bandit. I cherish the friskiness of Bandit, though it’s not as effective in its new formulation. It always made me want to put on leather, jump on a motorcycle and head off toward the horizon. You know how you’ve always been looking for a fragrance to express something, but didn’t know what that was until you smelled it? Au Coeur gave me a journey I didn’t quite know I craved until I smelled it - a dust-tinged adventure, rough and casual, bright and golden; radiating dry wood and resins that are a joy to breathe, opening up the sky above me and the air around me until I find myself in a spacious place above the things I hate most about travel - the hubbub, the buzz, the details and schedules, the bustle and disconnect; the crush, almost, of the air around you - and instead gives me the journey I imagined, the existential journey. Au Coeur is huge because of its space-creating ability - I can entirely inhabit it. I can’t do that with many, so that is the peculiarity of this fragrance for me. Others say LADDM does this for them, but it never did for me.

Of course, the quality of the space makes all the difference. I find in its shimmering bone-dry woods, lean and clear resins and balsams, a calm centerdness that lifts me out of my head, out of the buzz, out of the city, out of traffic and electronics, to where things become clean and clear, and makes my journey more what I want it to be instead of staring at only what is before me. It gives me a vast desert space, that quality you recognize from being in an actual desert.

I can’t help but be struck by the understanding this was one purpose of many ancient ‘perfumes’ - the consciousness shift, the spiritual space opening, the transport to another level, the absolute beauty. It is one of the abilities of natural and essential oil formulations to this day and it’s a wonderful thing. Natural fragrances have struggled to become more than marginalized in the face of synthetic commercial fragrances, pooh-poohed partly through its own lack of care, but dismissed a little, not perhaps understanding its psychoactive abilities, its deep touching of what fragrance is truly about, or perhaps deeming that a subject aside; yet when a synthesized fragrance comes along that can reproduce something close to that, we’re awestruck. I’m aware of the irony, even in myself.

I have an unreserved love for Au Coeur because of the experience it gives me. This is the reason I wear and seek out fragrances, though I’ve felt it few times. It makes this timeless for me, neither male nor female, young nor old. Really a wonderful fragrance, on my required list.

Similar to LADDM but not as sweet. Still plenty of dry, woody incense, some leather and florals but it's missing the heavy amber-vanilla that sweetens it up and makes LADDM seem more unisex, where Au Coeur de Desert feels more masculine. The drydown comes in very late, like 8-10 hours later and it finally gives way to some ambery-vanilla sweetness that I find is the best part of the scent.

Performance is really good, with strong projection on very little sprays and all day longevity.

Much better without any cumin, as in L'air du Desert Marocain. Slight smoke. Sweet boozy amber. Dry. Warm. spicy. Sugary, resinous patchouli and ambergris. Perfection! Oddly enough I get a whiff of something reminding me of pipe tobacco. Nevertheless I am in love.

I put a sample of this on one wrist and spray from my bottle of LADDM on the other arm to compare. ACDD has less citrus/incense/spices up top, going on very complex, lots of woods, amber, patchouli and maybe a bit of iris. It is very rounded and smooth and deep, with constantly changing facets. As it settles after a couple of hours, it forms a warm, morphing mix of amber and woods with a bit more incense or cedar showing up after a few hours. It's still in evidence the next morning post-shower, long after LADDM has faded. All in all, it is a beautiful variation on LADDM. I would guess it has more longevity and less projection - it feels more intimate with less of that sense of wide open spaces I get from LADDM.

I find it a lot less complex than L'Air du Desert Marocain. Weirdly when I first put it one, it had a really sweet, chocolatey beginning - which no other review I've seen has remarked on. From then on it's all leathery wood and incense with no really noticeable change as it dries down - which takes a long, long time. It's very good, but it can't really compare to the subtleties offered by LADDM.