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Post by Portia
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Hello Fume Family,
I know that if you don’t live in australia you could be forgiven thinking that we never have a cold, wet or grey day. Well that’s simply not true. We know that our weather is very mild and are mostly able to get around in jeans and a jumper if it’s winter. Sydney though is a city of many moods and recently a few of my mates published beautiful non-sunny Australian photos on their social media. I thought you might like to have a look too.
Winter Barangaroo from Ferry by Kath Coulter
Winter Rain Off Bondi Beach by another great, longtime mate: Stafford Hamilton
Winter Sunset in Clunes by Melita white from Perfume Polytechnic
For those of us in Sydney, or indeed anywhere in the Southern Hemisphere, you’ll be past mid-winter by now and probably desperate for a reminder of what it feels like to be warm. Here are a couple of super summer reminders…..
Sydney Winter: Summer Reminders
Fleur No 1 by 1000 Flowers
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Green notes, galbanum, narcissus, hyacinth, iris, magnolia, violet
Galbanum and the cool wash of florists fridge air meet in this sheer, clean, crisp fragrance that is all about how to beat the heat. It seems counter intuitive to wear something so Arctic-ly bracing but it has so many summer memories for me that it works to remedy my ennui.
Granville by DIOR
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Mandarin, lemon, thyme, rosemary
Heart: Pine needles, dyer’s gorse
Base: Black pepper, sandalwood, woody notes
Granville is one of the classiest colognes I know. When it was released I bought 2 x 10ml and went through the first in no time but completely forgot I had a second. Now its sweet herbal/citrus opening with cool, dry, cracked black pepper and a very soft whisper of breath or fur, I’m never quite sure which, is still with me. Wearing it tonight has me smiling in remembrance of sunlit warm days.
Ormond Woman by Ormond Jayne 2002
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Cardamom, coriander, grass oil
Heart: Black hemlock, violet, jasmine absolute
Base: Vetiver, cedar wood, amber, sandalwood
Strangely I find the herbs at the top of Ormond Woman warm and fleshy, I wonder if its the jasmine? There is something delightfully human under all the clean green and synth woodsiness. An oily warmth that makes the whole fragrance really comfortable and while it harks back to summer it also has the feeling of cuddling together under the bedcovers and keeping the cold at bay on a winters Sunday morning.
Tropic of Capricorn by Olympic Orchids
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Mango fruit tincture, jasmine, frangipani, tuberose, magnolia, osmanthus, maile vine (a common component of floral leis), Bourbon vanilla, Africa stone (hyrax), ambergris, benzoin, New Caledonian sandalwood
I love the fetid, sensual, over ripe swamp that is Tropic of Capricorn. While everything else only list has been cool and green here we have fire and danger, excitement and lush tropical nightmares. This is what the animals of summer smell like, how pan might smell in his erotic goatiness. Tropic of Capricorn is the tribal community gathering, musical beat, the fire and the sacred ceremonies of indigenous people. Hot, heating and full of magical promise.
Sydney from the North Shore at Greenwich taken by my friend-since-Kindergarten, Tim Kelly.
What do you suggest as a memory of summer or if you’re in the northern hemisphere what is helping you beat the heat?
Portia xx
Australian Perfume Junkies 
FCUK Friction for Her on days where I need a sunny pick-me-up. It’s a beachy-fun scent, but very wearable on a cold day.
That said, I love winter and overcast, blustery days. :3
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Morrigan I am 100% with you on the wintry, blustery, grey days. Love them.
Sometimes shocking your system fragrantly works beautifully to enhance the experience.
I also love the smelling of summer in the grey, that fresh on fresh. I forgot to put Cartier II in, it’s another I adore in the cold.
Portia xx
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Lovely images! I especially like that shiny water as seen from the ferry.
There’s been a bit of warmth in the sun here. Roses in the Parliamentary rose gardens have got their first shoots. Yay! Soon we’ll be munching our lunch out there among the roses and wisteria.
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Heya Anne-MarieC,
Today was so warm and sunny up here in Sydney that I was sitting in the sun in a T-Shirt with Scott while we did the office work.
How lucky are we to be living in paradise?
Portia xx
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I confess I like the turning of the wheel of the year, grey as it has been here recently. My community plot is full of cabbages and kale, and the native eremophilas are in flower.
I am enjoying the warmth of Habit Rouge Dress Code, stolen from my husband. Is it true that Guerlain is bringing this back???
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Hey JackieB,
I didn’t know Dress Code had been taken away. I’m sure it’s on sale here still. Haven’t been to the Guerlain counter this month but….
You have a community plot? That is cool.
Portia xx
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Oh please let me know if you find Dress Code, it seems to be out of stock everywhere.
Xxx
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Hey JackieB,
You’re right. It’s gone. Not even on the French site.
BUMMER!
Portia xx
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Very interesting list! I will have to seek these out. Especially the 1000 Flowers.
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Hi Cynthia,
1000 Flowers is a beautiful independent perfume house. They do some lovely work. Not outrageously expensive either.
Portia xx
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Hi Portia,
Off topic, but do you know what happened to the Tommi Sooni house in Australia? I had Passiflora, which I love, and always wanted to get No. 2, but they don’t seem to be anywhere.
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A tale of woe Cynthia,
Sadly the house closed without warning. I didn’t even get a moment to stock up on my loves (which was the whole range) and sadly only have 2 of them.
The email went dead and nobody seems to know what happened with everything. So sad.
Portia xx
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I love the photos it looks as if you could almost tough the clouds.
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Hiya Hazel,
Some days it feels like you could. All these shots were taken on the same day and I was trolling the social media sites thinking how talented my mates are and how beautifully they have captured cool Australia.
That’s how this post began.
Portia xx
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Hi Portia! Great photos and no fear Dress Code is being brought back, albeit in the new Guerlain packaging and bottles! I always turn to Diorissimo when I need a lift in the never-ending winter of the PacNW. Also Ostara (which has been DC’d), and Fazzolari’s Au Dela Narcisse. All gorgeous secnts, cheery and uplifting.
What’s a Barangaroo?? Xoxo
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Aha! Thanks Robert. Of course YOU have the scoop. Phew! I really liked it too but was too slow.
Barangaroo is a small new suburb made of mainly reclaimed land right near the Sydney CBD which our government originally slated to be 50% housing, offices and shopping in high rise and 50% public waterfront parkland. It was a brilliant vision of integrated high rise living and we were all extremely impressed with it. Then they got greedy, added a casino and i think the current count is around 75% buildings and 25% parkland. Still very beautiful but by cutting the area in half it means only a third of the amount of people can comfortably share the area.
Portia xx
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We want to move there! Lovely pics! How welcoming are you all to Californians….? For summer memory or beat the heat moments, I resort to SL vanilla, M. Romanza, Kenzo Elephant (I think that one works well in the heat), any number of Jasmines, Hiram Green Moon Bloom, and occasionally Issy Miyake L’eau D’issey & Pleats Please for fast-n-fresh. Guerlain Chant D’Aromes is also easy on a summer day.The orange blossom and bitter almond in Elie Saab’s L’eau Couture refreshes me, and recently, I ordered some perfume and matching hand lotion from Highland Lilac of Rochester which is SPRING (and with the heat and fires in Cali, that’s what I want to be reminded of). I’m looking up your listed frags now–they all sounds so tempting!
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Hi Shiva-woman,
Australia’s govt, much like anywhere else, accepts anyone young, rich and prosperous. As any of these diminishes it gets more difficult.
As a people I think we are pretty good at welcoming everyone. There are good and bad people, welcoming and xenophobic, and all the other great and ghastly that you get elsewhere but with mainly better weather and a laid back attitude.
You have a sensational list of heat beaters. Totally agree that Jungle Elephant is a good summer spritz and L’Eau d’issei Homme Intense is one of summer spritzes too.
Portia xx
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Hi Portia – grey and rain look good from drought-stricken and fire-plagued California! I just moved back from a cold climate. There, when longing for something besides snow and slush, I relied on orange blossom (Fleurs d’Oranger, Cologne Bigarade and Seville à l’Aube) and BWF (Olène and Carnal Flower). Except for the CF they’re all decants, so had to be husbanded carefully for the most desperate days. I still remember how nice it was to get that first blast of citrus blossom when it was below zero outside!
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Hey Hey Empliau,
Even paradise like California has its downsides. We get terrible destructive bushfires here too. Sydney has been getting better at safety burning so we haven’t seen a really bad one for a couple of years.
Seville a l’Aube is a wonderful summer spritz, I love how the cool incense and smoke keep all, that fleshy orange blossom under control.
Citrus is like the universal healer.
Portia xxx
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Love those pics of cloudy/rainy weather. I live for days the sun doesn’t shine here in hot, humid Florida.
Olympic Orchids Blackbird always conjures images of blackberries growing in fields of native grasses turned brown & crackly under the strong summer sun, albeit in a much drier climate than here in the swamp.
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Hi JulieF,
Florida is a whole ‘mother story. It’s like you guys live in the tropics. Does the rain cool tor fall warm?
Portia xx
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It depends on how high the rainclouds are. If the rain is falling from relatively low, the rain feels “room temperature”, but if the clouds are those high “anvil” clouds & the rain is coming from very high in the atmosphere, it can be really cold. If it rains late enough in the day so the sun doesn’t come back out, it can cool the evening nicely, but if it rains in the morning or middle of the day & the sun comes out later, it’ll be like a sauna. With mosquitoes.
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ACK! Mosquitos!! They adore Jin, I think I’m used to them but they drive him crazy-er.
Portia xx
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I got Bruno’s Lampblack and am in love. Vetiver is not a note I enjoy unless it is done in the way it has been done in Lampblack, Encre Noire etc. Have not smelled Sycomore yet but so many say it is similar to Encre Noire which is lot cheaper.
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Nice Fazal.
Anything to beat the heat is cool by me.
Portia xx
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