Au Coeur du Desért (2016)
by Tauer

I had never tried ACDD having only sampled LADDM in the past and liked it very much. I actually think I may like ACDD a little better. It's got a nice amber note that rounds the scent out a little and seems not as dry as LADDM presents itself. Both are excellent, but similar enough that I wouldn't feel compelled to own both. I get the same feeling from Tauer's Lonestar Memories and Lonesome Rider, excellent and similar fragrances that are just close enough to only pick one for the wardrobe. In the case of ACDD or LADDM, I'm still split. Can't got wrong with either. Thumbs up again from Tauer.

If LADDM is a lovely walk on the dunes to the spice market; this is the desert stones of ancient cities, where residual scents of traded good scent the air -- drier and more intense. Good longevity, dry down is a play of scents that evolve like the lights striking the stones of Petra, letting highs and lows slow into a long slow slide of desert sunset.

Smooth and attractive. Has some green notes at the beginning, perhaps the patchouly is displaying mint-like qualities. Subtle spices and wood tones. Ending gets a bit sweet and battery. Low-key, and probably most people would like this.

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.