A couple of SQs ago, alytike wrote about Radical Rose by Matiere Premiere: “The opening was a gorgeous plush rose vanilla. […] The spearmint chewing gum joined the party & these 3 notes stayed for days! I mean scrubbing & multiple baths/ showers. It just didn’t know when to quit!” And it reminded me of that commercial for the Energizer Bunny that keeps going and going and going…
Saturday Question #190:
Do You Have “Energizer Bunny” Perfumes In Your Collection?
It doesn’t matter whether you appreciate their tenacity or get tired of them—name the heroes (or culprits?)?
My Answer
Tauer Perfume’s L’Air du desert marocain, which I like, is so potent and tenacious that I have to decant it into a dab vial to apply just a tiny amount; otherwise, it overwhelms me. I think that this is how it should be worn. Or diluted to the EdT strength.
How about you?

So please my words inspired your post. A silver lining to Radioactive Rose, as I now call it.
Yes I have another “Energiser Bunny” actually in my collection. In fact a few of the same scent. My collection of vintage Opiums. The 1979 version is so strong & long lasting it stops me sleeping! Beautiful but I have to spray a hankie & tuck it under my bra or on a scarf. Though even after washing it can linger. With each decade it becomes a little less overpowering.
Same goes for my vintage Poisons
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I also have my vintage Opium ‘family’ and it’s hard to beat.
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The beauty of designer scent when they were owned by the house not by a conglomerate who care only for the bottom line
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I’ve never worn Opium, but I remember it from decades ago!
Maybe you can get a small bottle with a stopper or a rollerball to decant it into? This way you do not need to spray but could apply just a tiny dab – as people used to do in the past.
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I did have a 60ml dabber bottle from the 70’s but sold it on as it was evaporating.
You’re right about decanting out. I’d have to wear Hazmat gear & do it outside!
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I agree with alityke on the Poisons. I have a vintage edc of Poison and even that is pretty impressive. As for the Tauer, I only have one of the little minis, it truly only takes a couple of tiny dabs for the whole day. I have a vintage mini of Jacomo Silences which will stay forever, that’s a one dab use for me. I never wear it, but I have my moms old bottle of Tea Rose/Perfumers Workshop which lives for days (I remember when she bought it – a childhood trip to the big city, Marshall Fields in Chicago – probably late 70’s when I was still in elementary school and it was brand new.)
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I have several Tauer’s perfumes (mostly in a travel spray form), and I cannot wear them sprayed either. So, minis for his perfumes is the way to go!
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I would have to say Dry Wood by Ramón Monegal. A very tenacious citron bomb, which settles into a satisfying peppery, woody fragrances. Apply in small quantities, otherwise you’ll be scrubbing for two days.
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I remember trying Dry Wood soon after Monigal’s perfumes appeared in the US, but I think this one was too masculine for my liking, so it never went beyond a sample dab vial, hence I didn’t experience its nuclear power.
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It is very masculine, and a favorite of mine, Undina.
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I don’t think I’ve had any perfumes stay on skin after a shower, but some definitely remain on clothes after washing them. By then it’s only the stinkiest molecules that cling on and I’m left wondering which perfume it was. They were usually samples I didn’t buy afterwards – not sure if any I own are like that. With a sample of Élisire Oderose, the shirt hung in the closet next to the one I’d worn with the perfume later smelled like it had the scent fully transferred over!
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I experience the “closet transfer” more than once, but luckily those all were scents that I liked (since I rarely wear samples). The downside of that is that if I can at least try to remember what perfume I wore when I was wearing a particular blouse or sweater, it is a lot harder to figure out which item was the source of a “cross-contamination.”
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Guerlain Tobacco Honey and Dior Tobacolor are nuclear. Can only wear a tiny dab at a time.
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Haven’t tried that Guerlain yet, but agree about Dior.
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Tauer’s L’Air du Desert is definitely a ‘live forever’ scent. My vintage Shalimar is the most persistent. It lives in drawers, on clothes,, after showers. It’s gorgeous, but it has 9 lives for sure.
I don’t own Ysatis, but I tried the original once and it wouldn’t die either. Could not wash it off, arrgghh. I think it took 3 days to finally disappear from my skin.
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I don’t think I’ve ever experienced perfume that would last that long on skin. I don’t think I’d like that…
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Interesting that vintage scents are coming out top in the “everlasting” category.
I wonder how much of this was that people didn’t bathe/shower as often, so the scents were made to cover & work with a bit of body odour?
Ysatis was another of my 80’s loves but not one I chase now.
LADDM refusing to die? Bad enough it smelt like kippers to me, I can only imagine how bad festering kippers is 🤢
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I remember times when perfumes came mostly in 7-10-15 ml flacons with a stopper. So, at the prices people paid for those, 1-2 dabs was all that was used for a daily wear. And IFRA back then didn’t exist. And animal products weren’t banned.
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Somethings have improved. Killing animals purely for their secretory bum glands was cruel
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I agree with the part of not killing animals. And even ambergris with its unpredictable nature of harvesting is fine to replicate rather than stop production because it’s unavailable. But limiting natural ingredients because someone might get a rush, G-d forbid?! (OK, someone please take away this horse before I fully mounted it ;) ).
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Chanel Coco, Givenchy Amarige – ooh, shudder! Also Mona Di Orio Nuit Noire, and a few unlikely musky culprits, such as Chanel 1957 and L’Artisan Parfumeur L’Eté en Douce. I think I amplify musk in scents, which go on to haunt me for hours afterwards.
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Coco! Of course! Yes, it stays on forever (especially on clothes – not that I mind). I didn’t like MdO’s one – not because of its tenacity, don’t remember 1957, and never tried that L’Artisan.
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I got rid of most of those monsters. I usually hate it for a perfume to last so long on skin. For example, I ditched Tauer’s Au coeur du désert, because once applied it was impossible to get rid of by any non-lethal means. Most of the bunnies that I have known contained heavy doses of woody ambers, too, which I mostly dislike on other grounds as well. But I do still own Bogue MEM and Zoologist Bee, both of which last into the next day on me. For that reason, I wear them more seldomly than I would like to. Vero Kern’s Onda (the EdP version) surprisingly also lasts 24 hours on me, but it becomes a very lovely skin scent, barely noticeable at all.
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I’m with you! While I don’t mind going to bed wearing perfume I applied earlier in the evening, I prefer to wake up alone ;) (or, at worse, it should be gone by the time I’m done showering).
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