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Val the Cookie Queen
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Beloved APJ Readers!
It´s 21.30 and my APJ deadline has been and gone and I am late. I just got back from work where I have been prepping the cookies for the up-and-coming Cookie Run. That is four days of work, several hours a day. As of today I have the BlondesWunder helping me. For money, not love. It cut my work load immensely. In my last post I mentioned a new My Indigo store had opened in Innsbruck and this week another opened in Vienna. Wipes brow. That makes uhm, thirteen stores.
As I pondered this post and what to write about it made me wonder, why do y’all read APJ? Why do we read perfume blogs in general? Fun, information, humour, updates? I don´t read as many as I used to. I have my favourites and there are a couple I will not even give a click to, because I dislike them SO much. But you´ll never know which ones, hahahahaha!! I totally enjoy the English perfume blogger scene as I have got to know many of them in person, not least of all A Bottled Rose and Bonkers About Perfume. The three of us regularly chat and share our joys and worries, personal challenges and probably some tears too. I could not imagine my life without them.
PDI
It has been extremely hot here, up in the centigrade thirties. I have been wearing Serge Lutens la Filled de Berlin and Malle´s Portrait of a Lady. A lot.
Hot House Roses for Knackered Queens
La Fille de Berlin by Christopher Sheldrake for Serge Lutens 2013
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Rose, geranium
Heart: Palmrosa
Base: Patchouli, moss, honey
I wonder if it is a little dramatic to say that this is my very favourite of all the Lutens? Jammy, rich and smooth. Rubescent. There is a slight greenness to it, but it is rather understated. It dries down to such a musky, richly honeyed amber and lingers for hours. I have only recently started to wear it. It has been BlondesWunder´s signature for the last three years and for that reason I left it alone. I bought a 50ml bottle for her a few weeks ago, before they are sold out. But now it´s mine. As Tara says LaFdBisthebombdotcom.
Portrait of a Lady by Dominique Ropion for Frederic Malle 2010
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Turkish rose, raspberry, blackcurrant, cinnamon, clove
Heart: Patchouli, sandalwood, incense
Base: Ambrosian, benzoin, white musk
As far as I understand it this is a fairly divisive perfume? I wonder if people are wearing it in the wrong temperatures? POAL needs heat and skin and lots of both. The materials used are superb. Don´t be put off by the long list of notes. The main players are rose, patchouli, frankincense and the sticky resinous feel of maybe labdanum? Earthy, mature, and strong, it bleeds confidence. In amongst the warmth of rose and patchouli is a damp incense. Like breathing in the chill of a cement floored cellar. Melds into the skin. Very beautiful.
So for whatever reason you read and mingle with the APJ crew, we´re thankful for every one of you. Do you like your roses in the heat?
Knackered Bussis
CQ
(Ed: Photo credits to Val unless specified. Lovely huh?)
Australian Perfume Junkies 
I read to learn of new perfumes to feed my addiction and make perfume friends. I wear my roses all the time in all seasons.
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This time next year I will have worn my roses in all seasons and hope I have a couple more for the collection!! Yeah, we all feed out addictions huh? xxxxx
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Heya Val,
You know my roses. Yes, I love them in the heat.
Mohair, Agent provocateur, Ballets Rouges, Fille en Aiguilles, Une Rose, Lipstick Rose, Mitzah, Oud Isfahan, Midnight Oud, Essences Insensées Rose de Mai, Rosa sur Reuse, Wild Roses and many more. LOVE roses so much.
Portia xx
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Mitzah? Oh shit. I have a feeling I need to retry that and get the idea out of my head that I hated it. Yes. I will do that, I know it is still available online but not in the stores? What about the new smaller bottles???? Bussis. xxxxx
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Yeah, only in Paris.
Maybe we should meet there and shop for roses?
Portia xx
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I’m so happy you love FdB too, Val. When I first fell for it I was disappointed to read others didn’t feel the same. Just not exciting/daring enough. I sang its praises anyway. It’s my fave SL.
PoaL does bleed confidence! I didn’t know that one was divisive. It’s a kickass rose. Even if it’s not for you, you have to admire it.
Can’t imagine my life without our little coven either.
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Coven? I knew there was a name for it. Really? Exciting and daring usually means weird. Not my thing, Hahahahaha. FdB is glorious all day and all night. xxxxxxxx
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Hey Val, love your rose choices. I only ever wore PoaL in the heat. Congratulations on your new store! Sandra xoxo
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I need a couple more roses. Help. xxx
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This post made my day, for the word ‘rubescent’, which I had to look up, and will now try to shoehorn into conversations as often as possible – potentially tricky on the colourless topic of my current work project, but we’ll see – and also for your kind words about our threeway friendship, which also means the world to me.
I really need to retry FdB – I know I like it, but I think it got overlooked in the noise of testing a bunch of things in Liberty for my friend Jessica. PoaL I love to sniff on you but don’t feel drawn to it myself for some reason. I do like Lyric though which is broadly in that stylistic vein.
Am so glad you have the daughter in the business. If you keep expanding, you will need to rope in Meeps too! If she keeps practising her standing, no one will notice she’s a cat.
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You had to look it up? My life is complete. 🙂
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Those are the roses! You picked my top two favorites! I also love SL Rose de Nuit, and Tauer Rose de Kandahar. In the awful heat we’re having they all can be a bit cloying, so I save more for fall and winter. I love reading these posts to feel connected to other scent-obsessed people, to learn more about perfume in general, expand my too-large collection.
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Oh yeah. I love Rose de Nuit as well, and have a bottle of it. I think I better wear that tomorrow. Hahahahaha! Expand your too-large collection. Go girl! 😉
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I had my long period of Oud with roses and saffron (a.o. Asrar Attar by Amouage) – but it seems to be over now. I’m all for fresh and transparent these days. I’ve never tried La Fille (never seriously), and while I loved the book and film “Portrait of a Lady”, I didn’t like the parfum of same name : it smells like lipstick on me. Which is not ncessarily bad, but I don’t want to smell like one. But than again, winter is coming…
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Lipstick? Really? Sure you are not confusing it with Lipstick Rose? I never had a relationship with rose and oud but now I am ready. Maybe. 😉 We need to do breakfast. Drop me a line. Bussis galore. xxxxxx
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I love Fille de Berlin and got two bottles of it not long after it was released. And one of the best hunts this year has been finally getting vintage POAL though it was not cheap. I lost an amazing auction for it back in 2014, I think, and since then regretted it every day. This acquisition was not cheap but some say you need just one spray so I guess I will be fine for quite some years.
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I would absolutely love a bottle of the original PoaL. I have never hunted down anything online and am terrified of doing so. Any hints?? Need to look around. Hmmmmmm. Now you got me thinking Fazal. Not good. 😉 xxxxxxx
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I think you have to spread the word around if you are particularly looking for a perfume. While I lost the first auction on ebay, the vintage bottle I got this year is due to the kindness of a friend. He alerted me to a sale post on FB but I didn’t have funds at the time. He purchased the bottle because he didn’t want anyone else to buy vintage POAL besides me. We have traded perfumes with each other for a long while so that helped, too. Once I had funds, he sold me the vintage POAL because he was happy with the current POAL he has. Some people are fine with the POAL even if it is a little less dense or a bit changed because the vintage POAL scares some people who monstrous it it.
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****scares some people as to how monstrous it it.
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Thirteen is an impressive number (and my favorite)!
I don’t think I’ve ever worn PoaL in the heat: for me it’s a cold weather perfume – and I like it a lot. But since you’re saying it’s good in the warm(er) weather, I might try to wear it over the weekend: we have a heatwave coming.
I love many roses in general but rarely wear them in summer.
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Hi Undina! My favourite number is 11, just for the record. OK! I will be wearing it in the cold I promise. 😉 I will have fun in the winter trying roses as it has been this spring and summer that launched me into the big time rose vibe. Lots of love to you all. xxxxx
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My fave number is 11 TOO! SNAP!
Portia xx
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❤ ❤ ❤
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I love Portrait. It took me almost a year to appreciate it and figure out when to wear it. And for me that means in the dead of winter. If it’s above 10C, I cannot wear it. It’s too much. I would suffocate in it if I tried to wear it in our current 40 degree weather.
One spritz and it lasts three days. If it gets on a sweater or hoodie it lingers forever even after a wash or dry clean.
I don’t seem to have as much time to read blogs as much as I once did. I like to visit here when I can and of course at Bonkers, too. There’s also Bois de Jasmine. A few others I visit on occasion, but those visits are rather sparse.
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Evening from here Tatiana! I am in total harmony with your blog reads! I shall try Portrait in the dead of winter. I didn´t own it last winter and have only been wearing it in the heat. Cannot imagine it in the cold, but will most certainly try it. And since I can´t stop wearing it …….. 🙂
(I would love to get a hold of some of the old stuff. If it comes my way I will grab it. But what I have now is nuclear enough!) xxxxxxxxxxx
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I read blogs because not many people are perfumistas and for fun. But lve cut down to a few favorites. I’d love to hear what yours are. So far roses are one of my less appreciated notes, I like to smell them but not wear them. The two exceptions are Lyric and Parfum Sacre.
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Hi Mariann! I cannot get enough of roses right now, and should probably add Malle´s One Rose to the list. Also beautiful, but just one spray. Bonkers, A Bottled Rose, Perfume Candy Boy and Apt are the four most read. But I squeeze in a few others too if the perfume or topic interests me. I must say I grew into rose, I haven´t always loved them. I must retry Lyric, it’s been years. baks for the reminder! Love,Val xxxx
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These are two of my very favorite roses. I adore FdB and get annoyed when people don’t! Mohur or Une Rose would complete for a triad.
I’ve was heavily reading perfume blogs and still do, although there are some I really hate. (And some that go on and on and I skim.) I desperately want to know if they overlap with yours, but we all have our secrets!
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I would love to discuss the hate ones but it would be so unladylike. 😉 I have Une Rose and have been wearing it a lot too. One spray at a time. It is soooo beautiful. I also have Mohur but don’t actually count it as a rose. ❤️
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“A rose by any other name…” Is frankly shit to me, give me a rose, or give me cookies! I love my Rose scents that much. There are so many, I don’t even know where to start but my favorite is still Rose De Petra, it’s the one I reach for the most often.
As for blogs I read them all, personal feelings aside. I always find something to learn or something I’ve never known before and that never fails to interest and engage me.
😘😘😘😘 MWAH! Big kisses from the Upper Left-Hand Corner!
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MWAH right back. What a kind loving person you are. I will try and reflect your tolerance and willingness to learn. Rose de Petra? Must check it out. 💋
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