Month: May 2013

Chile Vanilli By Brent Leonesio for Smell Bent

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 24 Comments

Hello lovelies,

Make no mistake, I am a Smell Bent fan girl. I love their fun and interesting take on fragrance, their gorgeous Chairman and their price point. Smell Bent’s modus operandi is to spend all their money on the juice and little on the packaging, next to nothing on advertising. Now that is a sensible niche game plan to me, and it’s generating worldwide interest. Recently I dropped by the website a grabbed a couple of their perfumed oils.

Chile Vanilli By Smell Bent

Chile Vanilli FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Patchouli, Vanilla, Cinnamon

Firstly, I love the little oil pots from Smell Bent with their glass want applicator in the lid, it feels very new and ancient at the same time: this is how the Indian and Arabic oils are often presented and it’s really easy. Another wonderful thing about oils is that you get a longer wear time and slower development of the fragrance, though in Chile Vanilli’s case not really important because on me it wears quite linear. A lovely soft, warm blend that is perfect for Spring and Autumn. Today Sydney is a little brisk and I am feeling cuddled and coddled in a divine dry dessert fragrance that is delicious without being overly food-ish, though there are bakery moments towards the dry down. I think the patchouli, which is not excessive, keeps the composition grounded and earthy.

Smell Bent oils FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Though Chile Vanille is fragrant, it will not skunk those around you, especially in the oil form. I think it would be a perfect work, date, dinner scent where you want to smell fresh, clean, warm and inviting but not announce your perfumista status too loudly. In oil form there is less projection though any length of time spent somewhere and you will be smellable, soft but invasive.

For a complete list of the current, and often changing, Smell Bent choices go to the Smell Bent Site (<<<JUMP) my Chile Vanilli 8ml Oil was around $20, super good value for money!!

Here is a shot of the lovely, movie star good looking Chairman at Smell Bent, Brent Leonesio. If that’s not a good reason to go check out the Smell Bent Site then I don’t know what is.

Brent Leonesio FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Until tomorrow, Be Nice To Yourself.
Portia xx

150,000 VIEWS CELEBRATION GIVEAWAY WINNER!

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 6 Comments

Hello APJ Crew!!

I hope you enjoyed our giveaway. It has been really fun and THANK YOU all for your lovely well wishes. We are glad you all are loving APJ as much as we are. Let’s find out who won the FENDI Donna.

150,000 VIEWS CELEBRATION GIVEAWAY WINNER!

FENDI Donna 5ml 99perfumePhoto Stolen 99perfume

WHAT COULD YOU WIN?

1 x 5ml mini FENDI Donna EdP
P&H Anywhere in the world

I review it for APJ HERE! (<<<JUMP)

HOW DO YOU WIN?

Open to everyone worldwide who leaves a CONGRATULATIONS in the comments section.

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Sunday 5th May 2013 9pm AusEST.
Winners were chosen by putting names on same sized papers, folded similarly, put on a tray and TSO Jin picked them.

Winner EverythingHealth

SaffyIsHere!!

CONGRATULATIONS!!Ha Ha HA!! I am laughing that Jin picked you out after you giving me a nudge yesterday! Fabulous!!

You have till Wednesday 8th May 2013 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or I will give the prize to someone else.No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit.

Thanks Everyone,
Portia xx

Safran Troublant by L’Artisan Parfumeur 2002

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 50 Comments

Hello Fellow Fume Heads,

Sometimes I read other people’s reviews and I am swept away by their incredible love, moment, articulateness or sheer joy at a perfume. It’s like the love is transferred by osmosis through their excitement. Safran Troublant is a case in point, I read a terrific post and could almost smell the fragrance while reading, at that same time I was ordering some splits from my favourite split enabler, Ruth K on FFF, and wondered if she had a bottle lying around that she would like to share 5ml of. Oh yes she did, in its old packaging and everything. YIPPEE!

Fragrantica has Bertrand Duchaufour and BaseNotes has Olivia Giacobetti responsible for creating Safran Troublant. Mystery!!

Safran Troublant by L’Artisan Parfumeur 2002

Safran Troublant FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Passion flower, sandalwood, red rose, vanilla, saffron, sugar and ginger.

What a terrific scent. It is so calm, collected and unpushy. When I wear Safran Troublant it encases me is a glorious and interesting magic that is sweet and delicious without being particularly edible, though foody it is. Does that make sense? The spicy rose, ginger and vanilla are what I smell most through the whole life of the fragrance but I think the saffron is just not a note I’m familiar enough with to really understand how it fits here. Sometimes people mention that there is a clean plastic-ish smell to it, well I often find that in roses too, are they the same? Is it a particular molecule that gives me this reaction? Dunno gang but I love it.

Safran Troublant Sugared Rose ediblecraftsPhoto Stolen EdibleCrafts

Some of the bloggers have called this a comfort scent, a warm blanket to wrap yourself in on a cool day but I find it much more aloof than that. It’s a cool Autumn day filled with rain here in Sydney and I am not feeling the warm wrap effect at all. Sweet, yes, warm, no. Rather a cool sweetness, a green sweetness, Safran Troublant feels like an expensive sweetness that relies on sophistication and prior knowledge to enjoy it fully. Like Bach, so pretty and intricate to listen to but when you start to study him it becomes a math equation, a geometric vision in sound. L’Artisan is often like that for me. Very pretty and wearable by almost everyone till you start to try and dissect what it is you love and it is so far out of my knowledge realms that all I can do is go back to, “I really enjoy how I feel when I wear it.” Curiously, I smell it for hours and hours but the people around me say it’s too faint to discern, interesting huh?

Safran Troublant Red Rose Girl LayoutSparksPhoto Stolen LayoutSparks

You will not skunk your colleagues or dinner guests even if you, like me, spritz with abandon. Safran Troublant is an introverted perfumistas scent, not that you are unsmellable but it flies under the radar.

Further reading GrainDeMusc and the reason I got my hands on some Safran Troublant was the recent post at Kafkaesque
L’Artisan Parfumeur has 100ml/$145
Libertine Perfumes in Australia has 100ml/$169 including postage in Australia. Good deal!
SurrenderToChance starts at $4/ml

Has it ever happened for you? Read a review and can’t help but buy the fragrance? Which fragrances have you done it for and are you happy with your purchase?
Till tomorrow we wish you only good,
Portia xx

Bellodgia EdP, Parfum & Oil by Ernest Daltroff for Caron 1927

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 32 Comments

Hey Hey Stink Monkeys,

Do you ever fall so in love with a fragrance you want to own EVERY available strength and vintage? I have a couple of fragrances that that has been the case for me. Guerlain Shalimar, CHANEL No 5, Versace Blonde, Boucheron Trouble and

Bellodgia EdT, EdP, Parfum & Oil by Ernest Daltroff for Caron 1927

Bellodgia FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Carnation and rose
Heart: Jasmine, lily-of-the-valley and violet
Base: Musk, clove, vanilla and sandalwood.

As you may have guessed by the heading I have different versions of this amazing fragrance. This is the order I fell in love with them: EdT, EdP, Parfum and then by luckiest chance the original Oil. I will often layer Bellodgia with oil on wrists, parfum behind knees and EdP on chest, my EdT has about 2 sprays left and never gets pulled out any more, though I did just order a new 30ml one with the purple leather coating, YUMMY. Each one is from a different vintage by the smell of them and the oil is absolutely killer, even the slightest scraping will keep me deeply fragrant with sillage that fills a room in moments. You can smell it on your person but it stealthily creeps around a room until it takes over and becomes the rooms scent, then it lingers for hours.

Funnily, Bellodgia was released as a softer, less in your face sister to much of the Caron work. Nowadays you would be hard pressed to find a young girl willing to be so fragrant and bombastic. My how times have changed. Though Bellodgia has been reformulated there is still a very good nod to the oldest of my collection, the oil which was completely sealed when I received it so not too much air let in to destroy it. I love the opening, so rich with promise and pungent.The crisp minty crackle of carnation cutting through the floral bouquet and vanilla. There is a real rose note that is both spiced and sweet, I think the bouquet is amped towards making a lifelike but still cryptic version of rose, the cloves from the base help too.

I don’t really get the white flowers in the heart but I think that’s my terrible nose, the rose is superstar on my skin and the violet, earthy green and fresh, seems to serve as a counterpoint rather than a feature. Then into the warm and deep dry down where I think Bellodgia really comes into its own, the musk (and I think the oil has the real deal) vanilla and woods all seem to lay a deep downbeat while this fantastical spicy rose maintains its hold for hours and hours.

Do you want to feel like a fabulous flapper, a naughty, nascent beauty ready to pounce upon an unsuspecting world? Bellodgia will definitely put you in the mood, no matter how unlikely we are ever to fit into that category. Dreaming is free.

Caron Bellodgia Flappers StyleIconicPhoto Stolen StyleIconic

Further reading BoisDeJasmin and Olfactoria’sTravels
EssentialMall has the purple leather encased 30ml EdT for $33
SurrenderToChance has a selection of Bellodgia including vintage EdT, EdP & Parfum

Till tomorrow, we hope all is light and joy in your house. If it’s not though, like the rainy weather it will clear. Promise!!
Portia xxx

Villeroy + Boch – LoopArt Project

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 4 Comments

Hello Fragrant Fumies,

I am often inspired by the depth of commitment shown by artists. It is rare though that a multi national company shares this view or that they give us stories of such behaviours. Here is a 6 minute mini movie by the Villeroy & Boch brand. One I have loved for years because of their fun and often gorgeous tablewares that so many of my friends families used as we were growing up. It shows how the company has been created with the idea of art as king and how they keep that idea going into the 21st century. Inspiring and interesting.

Villeroy & Boch Second Glance Bowl Villeroy & Boch Second Glance EbonPhotos stolen Villeroy & Boch

Portia xx

Villeroy & Boch – But Different!

2nd Glance #1 – LoopArt Project

Celtic Fire by Anastasia Brozler for Union 2012

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 21 Comments

Hello Fragrance Buffs,

This crew started up last year and they are getting quite a following. Unfortunately I can’t get into their site to get more info.

EDIT: From the Union Fragrance site thanks to Val the Cookie Queen: Anastasia Brozler is Union’s gifted and passionate Creative Perfumer. Anastasia’s background is in bespoke perfumery, creating personal scents for a coterie of international clients from princes to ballerina’s, actors and politicians. She has established a reputation as the woman that can achieve the impossible from re-creating the scent of your favourite car to that of your grandmother’s handbag!

Celtic Fire by Union 2012

Celtic Fire FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accord:
Top: Oak, balsam fir and pine needles
Heart: Marmite (unnamed on Fragrantica)
Base: Birch, myrtle and peat

Righto! Before we start to talk about the fragrance the bottle looks AH MAY ZING in the photo and I am tempted to lash out and grab myself one before I’ve even tested how good the juice is. I KNOW!! Outrageous.

Sometimes when a fragrance arrives, and I grabbed this decant from SurrenderToChance in a Weekly Chance Special, like Celtic Fire did today I am unreasonably excited. Having read loads of reviews when the brand launched last year and most of the scentbloggosphere was going completely SpazLaLa for them and falling over themselves to add platitudes to praise, I now am at a fever pitch. Honestly, this is not a good way to start a fragrance experience.

Celtic Fire Campfire pbasePhoto Stolen pbase

How did it smell and make me feel? Smokey, like, bonfire BarBQ and charred meat: Birch-tar-y like freshly treated leather hides awaiting stitching, The pine needles pass me by but there is a mulchy, freshly turned earth, sexy gardener sweat accord at the start that has a curious sweetness and the heart is almost pretty and not nearly so aggressively manly. Marmite? Like Vegemite? Really? A salty, tangy, sweetness that I suppose, with auto-suggestion on, you could call Marmite. It makes me feel interesting and alluring, not because it’s sexy but because it is so far removed from what people smell like, so to smell like this is enticing. I do get slight reminders of Interlude Man but not the moaning ecstasy that it engenders. I would be extremely comfortable wearing Celtic Fire and have enjoyed wearing it over two days, before and again after getting ready for work. My decant is dry.

Celtic Fire softens considerably after the first 2 hours and becomes a smell of bushfire or bonfire night on your clothes. It is murky, sweet, smoky, animalic and still very beautiful. Staying like this for hours and hours and I can’t pinpoint its leaving because it has become me so slowly. I am surprised that no one has commented on Celtic Fire over my two days of wear, maybe it doesn’t project as far as I thought?

So even though I was in a fluster of over-excitement it didn’t diminish my enjoyment, Celtic Fire has passed with flying colours.

Further reading TheBlackNarcissus and TheCandyPerfumeBoy
Available online at Selfridges (100ml/£125) and HenriBendel (100ml/$185)
SurrenderToChance starts at $5/ml

Did you try this line yet? And??

See you tomorrow,
Portia xx

150,000 Views! Celebration GIVEAWAY!!

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 93 Comments

HEY HEY HEY APJ!!

In 13 months we have TODAY reached a milestone! I am very impressed with what we are achieving here at AustralianPerfumeJunkies. Thanks to all of you. THANK YOU to all of you. Our readers, contributors, friends, family and everyone who has helped us get here to 150,000 views. I am amazed that together we have done so much, and this is only the beginning!

150000 KitsunePhoto Stolen Kitsune

CELEBRATION GIVEAWAY!

FENDI Donna 5ml 99perfumePhoto Stolen 99perfume

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

1 x 5ml mini FENDI Donna EdP
P&H Anywhere in the world

I have dug this up from my special secret hoard of vintage fragrances. Almost full and in perfect condition, it smells so beautiful. Currently I’m seeing these rare beauties on eBay for nearly $70. Launched in 1985 this fabulously hardcore vintage fragrance has EVERYTHING, a big fat bombastic floriental that any new perfumista must try and many a long timer would remember. I review it for APJ HERE! (<<<JUMP)

HOW DO YOU WIN?

Open to everyone worldwide who leaves a CONGRATULATIONS in the comments section.

Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie 150,000 views FENDI GIVEAWAY!! http://wp.me/p2fQBU-1ze

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Sunday 5th May 2013 9pm AusEST and winners will be announced in a separate post then.
Winners will be chosen by putting names on same sized papers, folded similarly, put on a tray and TSO Jin will pick them. He doesn’t even stop watching TV to do it usually.
The winners will have till Wednesday 8th May 2013 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or I will give the prize to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit.

Good Luck Everyone,
Portia xx

150,000 LincolnElectricPhoto Stolen LincolnElectric

Dudley Hugs A Tree

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 12 Comments
treehuggerfilmsPhoto Stolen treehuggerfilms

 

Dudley Hugs A Tree

Dudley was walking through the bush, when he came upon a old bearded bloke hugging a magnificent Eucalypt, with his ear firmly against the trunk, moaning softly.

“Just out of curiosity, mate,” he asked, “what the hell are you doing?”

“I’m listening to the music of the tree,” said the scruffy looking fellow.

“You’ve gotta be kiddin’,” scoffed Dudley.

“No way mate, it’s the most beautiful thing you’ll ever hear,” said the bearded bloke, “Give it a try.”

Dudley was skeptical but curious, so he wrapped his arms around the tree and pressed his ear up against it.
Quick as a flash, the bearded bloke slapped a pair of handcuffs on him, took his wallet and car keys, stripped him naked, stole his clothes and fled.
Two hours later an enormously muscled and hairy woodsman strolled by and spotted the stark naked Dudley handcuffed to the tree.

“Bloody hell, what happened to you?” he laughed.

With enormous relief Dudley told the bloke the whole terrible saga about how he got there. When Dudley finished telling his story, the woodsman shook his head in sympathy, walked around behind him, kissed him gently behind the ear and whispered, “This isn’t your day, cupcake…”