Buying Single Perfume Notes + GIVEAWAY

/ australianperfumejunkiescom

Hiya all.

I don’t know if you ev er think about the solo pieces of a fragrant puzzle? Recently I was buying some Scent Strip Cards for sampling fragrances wit the crew from Perfumers Apprentice which they sell for around $5/100. They also have a selection of single note oils, now there are many different accords used in perfumery for each facet of fragrance here they use just one of those accords and they seem to be mainly synthetic creations. Nevertheless they are an interesting thing to have samples of in case you can’t discern a note particularly well and want a correlation point. Perfumers Apprentice also has selections of aroma molecules that you can buy but I’ve not tried them yet.

(Ed: This post jumped up on the blog too early so if you’ve read it before, apologies. This is it’s right time)

Perfumer's Apprentice logo

 

From Perfumers Apprentice site:
What are Fragrance Oils?
Fragrance Oils are blends of Aromachemicals and Naturals that have been diluted for ease of use. They are easy to work with because they actually smell like what they are named after.
There are two reasons, however, that professional perfumers do not use Fragrance Oils.
1. Because they are pre-diluted by the manufacturer.
2. Because they are of unknown composition, with the manufacturer not bound to continue making the same product the same way.

Single Perfume Notes: Fragrance Oils

Perfumers Apprentice Frag Oil#1

These are so reasonable priced at around $3.50/15ml

Almond: Almond oil is a bitter almond smell like marzipan but it also has the milky quality behind it that makes almond so alluring. I can see when I smell this where so many perfumes use almond as a smoothing agent and a dry down component.

Carnation: Carnation is a sweet/buttery/pepper combination, not nearly as spicy as carnation in my head but I can see where Bellodgia by Caron gets its carnation fix now.

Geranium: Geranium smells like rose to me, the spicy, fruity, dry peppery rose that reminds me of but it not really like my garden geraniums.

Honey: The sweet, animal, urinous scent of perfumers idea of honey, normally this particular blend doesn’t seem like fresh honey to me but today when I opened the bottle to sniff it made my mouth water in anticipation and left and back taste in my mouth like I’d eaten honey. MMMM

Peony: Peony smells like perfume to me, not like a peony at all. It reads to my nose as a complete and finished fragrance and I have used it on myself as such. It’s pretty, light, fizzy and fun and smells like there was a lot of it in Burberry Brit.

giveaway ThinkDigitalWorldPhoto Stolen ThinkDigitalWorld

Fragrance Oils GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

We will have 2 winners for this draw. It would be more but postage is outrageous! Each winner will receive

1 x 1ml sample vial of all 5 Fragrant Oils (Almond, Carnation, Geranium, Honey, Peony)
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DO YOU WIN?

Open to everyone worldwide who follows AustralianPerfumeJunkies via eMail, WordPress, Bloglovin or RSS. Please leave how you follow in the comments to be eligible. I must be able to check that you follow so if you have an email address on your gravatar that’s different to your follow address then please email me so I know. Yes, you can start following to enter, in fact it’s encouraged.

All I need is you to tell me your favourite perfume note and how you follow for you to be eligible for the draw.

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Tuesday 8th October 2013 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by putting names on same sized papers, folded similarly, put on a tray and Jin will pick a winner (unless he asleep or studying then I’ll use random.org).
The winners will have till Friday 11th October 2013 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or the prize will go to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit.

Good Luck Everyone,
Portia xxx

70 thoughts on “Buying Single Perfume Notes + GIVEAWAY”

    • MMM Iris PattyP? There’s a lot of iris love going around right now. Do you like the rooty, earthy iris or the cool, metallic edge?
      Portia x

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  2. I follow via email and enjoy your blog, a lot
    My absolute fav note is incense- from your fragrant oils, carnation, by far
    Thanks a lot for the draw

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    • Hi there Irina,
      I am so glad to have you as a part of the APJ family. Incense is beautiful, we often have it burning in the house and I’ve collected different ones from many countries and religions, so many different combinations of scent.
      Portia xx

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  3. Hi there Ms Turbo,
    DNEM as I have many of these vials from The Perfumers Apprentice, so interesting to isolate notes. I like to add them to handmade body creams and sometimes soap.
    I also have a crush on incense, esp oud ones.

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    • Sure JackieB,
      Glad to have you as part of the conversation without entering you. WOW! You make your own creams and soap? That is cool? What kind of success are you having?
      Yes, I am a serious Incense Junkie. Unlike my perfume though there will be very little left when I die, I use it a lot to cleanse the house and to say thanks.
      Portia xx

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      • I have been concocting for a few years now, my husband will only use my cream on his face!
        Have to add too, the Sandalwood accord from PA is especially nice and I use it to amp up the $$$ essential oil.

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        • Wow! That is interesting JackieB, lucky husband

          We were recently sent some of the new Australian Mysore Sandalwood, it is spectacular with a real Aussie twist.
          Portia xx

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  4. I follow by email. Honestly, I don’t have enough experience with perfumes to say what is my favorite note….But I guess grassy notes? I like the smell of grass.

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    • Yay Belle, Grass and hay are very popular niche notes, you will have a terrific time exploring them. Have you tried anything with them in yet?
      Portia xx

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  6. This is all so interesting. I am slowly sniffing my way through groups of aroma chemicals from Perfumer’s Apprentice, trying to get a clearer idea how accords are put together. Gives me an idea what an extraordinarily complex thing the perfumer’s job is. But if anything, I am becoming less tolerant of the “take a standard tired formula and add a little more fruit” school of thought that seems to govern so much of mainstream perfumery. There is a huge complex world of possibilities out there!
    I follow by email.

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    • Should add that I haven’t tried their carnation note yet, which is odd because carnation is one of my top favorite notes

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    • FeralJasmine,
      I am scared to look too closely at them all in case it ruins the magic for me, I did want to get a handle on these 5 because they are used so much in perfumery and often I can’t tell which bit they are.
      Portia xx

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  8. Facebook-shared, twitter-RT, RSS because I love it, mail-no chance to miss anything!
    If I choose only one note, then it must be rose. 🙂

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    • Then this draw will be very exciting for you, though the peony is only a nod to what real peonies smell like it is still very pretty.
      Portia xx

      Like

  11. I am an incense fiend, although I am also very fond of woods like cedar, pine and hinoki as well. I follow by email. 🙂

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    • Hi Tara,
      Hinoki? I don’t think I know it, or maybe I’ve forgotten. How does it smell?
      Portia xx

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  12. Hey there Portia, probably doesn’t smell too lovely on its own, but enjoy galbanum as a note. I follow by email.

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    • Yes Caroline,
      It is lovely in fragrance but I’ve never smelt it alone either. I wonder, hmmmmm
      Portia xx

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  13. I follow by email, and this is a really hard question! I think it depends on the day, and the last week or so my favorite note has been vetiver. However, I am also fond of rose, jasmine and orange blossom.

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    • That is the most perfumnista-ish answer so far Nemo. He he he!! They are all lovely when done well in a way that our skin likes. Vetiver is an amazingly versatiloe ingredient, good choice.
      Portia xx

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  14. Follow by email. Out of those fragrances listed I’d say almond, but I’m also hungry and marzipan sounds delicious.

    Normally, I love rose and green scents.

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    • Yes, green, snappy roses are lovely. Have you tried Nikki de Saint Phalle? One of my favourite greens with a very pretty rose winding through.
      Portia xx

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    • Hi there Nadja sand,
      Leather,
      What a wonderful note, do you have a couple of favourites that you’ve been trying? I have quite a leather collection here too
      Portia xx

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    • Hi there LizK,
      I’ve just looked up Hinoki, does it really show lemon scented wood facets? How interesting.
      Portia xx

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  18. I follow by email.
    I loved the films about Dior and Chanel- heartfelt thanks.
    I’m very fond of sweet almond scent (which was used a lot in glue at primary school) 😉

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    • Hi there Patricia, those mini movies are interesting aren’t they. We are so lucky to live in the age of magic.
      Really almond in glue? Didn’t the kids eat it?
      Portia x

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    • I LOVE the name Gilda,
      Great movie, such good memories.
      Carnation and amber, do you have a scent that mixes your loves? There are quite a few out there.
      Portia xx

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      • Thank you Portia 🙂 I love your name as well.

        Rita Hayworth was sooo gorgeous.

        Two of my favourites are Opium (the original) and Spellbound. xxx

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        • Love the old Opium, but I’ve not tried spellbound.
          Rita Hayworth was my inspiration many years ago. Gilda, are you decent? Sure, I’m decent.
          What a movie.
          Portia xx

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  21. Hi Portia, I follow by email. My fav note has to be amber. No, sandalwood. No, incense. Ack. Thanks for the generous draw, as usual – I’d love to be included.

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    • Hey sallyM,
      Tell me some Ambers that are alone without the sandalwood and incense accompaniments, I thought that was how it comes mainly. I’m trying to think…
      Portia xx

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  23. Hi Portia, i follow by e-mail. I love carnation. but my favorite is lilac if it’s done right and doesn’t smell like urnal cakes.Thanks for the drawing!

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  24. Hi, I follow through Bloglovin 🙂

    I think my favourite note at the moment is coconut. So many of my happy memories smell of suncream so it has very positive associations for me!

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  25. Hi! I follow by email. Thanks for the draw!

    Carnation seems like the most interesting to me out of these–until Bellodgia I didn’t think carnations even had a smell (tulips too, this past year I really paid attention and they do, so many different varieties!) they all just smelled like florist-fridge.
    But I love honey too. I wear a lot of sweet vanilla or honey or earthy scents. Tolu today from my teeny sample.

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  26. Ooh, tough question. Amber, vanilla, and orange blossom are all contenders, but there are so many things I haven’t tried yet! I just discovered this spring that I love the smell of lily. (Arum, not of-the-valley.) Can I still enter if I can’t pick just one? I follow with Bloglovin.

    Like

  27. Oh, so hard to choose! I love neroli, ylang-ylang, incense, and lately honey (which is a huge surprise to me). I especially love all natural scents (and have studied aromatherapy off-and-on for years). I’m not always as fond of the artificial notes. Thanks for this opportunity! (I follow via email.)

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    • Interesting Kandice,
      I have some aromatherapy friends and they have attuned their noses to natural so thoroughly that anything artificial smells very bad to them, one friend doesn’t even use alcohol in her fragrances for the same problem and prefers to use hydrosols and oils as her bases.
      Portia xx

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  28. Hey Portia, am I late to the party!?? As long as it’s well done and not sweet, I’ll try/wear just about anything. But if I see a combination of vetiver, sandalwood, iris, osmanthus, grass, hay, woods, jasmine, tobacco or civet in a line-up of notes, I start hankering to try it! Probably vetiver if I absolutely had to chose, but I don’t which is what makes the perfume world so fabulous! I follow by email.

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  30. My favorite note is fig, I felt for it when I smelled Womanity and I am still searching fro more fig scent! I follow this awesome site via e-mail and I also tweeted! Thank you very much! Wish you all the best!

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    • So I have to apologize, because I forgot to uncheck this option that shows the last post on my blog and I could not erase my comment. I’m appologising because I don’t this to be some kind advertisement. I am really sorry, my apologies. 😦

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      • You’re supposed to put your last post there. I want everyone to be able to jump onto interesting peoples blogs and read their stuff too.
        It’s important that they can find you.
        Portia x

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