Author: australianperfumejunkiescom

DSH Perfumes: Dawn Spencer Hurwitz

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Post by FeralJasmine

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Quick mentions: new favorites from DSH

Sorry Junkies, I got a very late start on this post and have to make it brief, but I wanted to mention a few things that I’m enjoying during this lovely holiday season. It’s no secret that I admire Dawn Spencer Hurwitz and, although I’ve only sampled a small part of her compendious and addictive line, I have some loves there. So here are a few that seem especially suited to the holidays:

DSH Perfumes: Dawn Spencer Hurwitz

Mahjoun DSH Perfumes FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

DSH Perfumes: Cimabue

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Neroli, nutmeg, cardamom, bergamot, amalfi lemon, bitter orange, clementine
Heart: Carnation, jasmine, geranium, tuberose, beeswax, saffron, clove, cinnamon, rose
Base: French labdanum, sandalwood, opoponax, benzoin and vanilla

I seem to recall hearing somewhere that Cimabue smells like Safran Troublant to some people. I’m not one of them. Certainly the rose and saffron are there, but the cardamom is pronounced in Cimabue, while its lovely companion notes prevent it from going dusty, as cardamom is prone to do. Spicy and sweet, it’s a delicious holiday treat. The sillage is particularly delicious, and I only wish that it were a bit stronger. Many of the DSH perfumes hug their wearer closely, and I could stand a bit more potency myself.

DSH Perfumes: Mahjoun

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bitter almond, cardamom, cherry blossom, lavender, lemon, orange
Heart: Bulgarian rose, fig, hazelnut, honey, nutmeg, orange blossom, sugar date
Base: Amber, cedar, cinnamon, clove, olibanum, sandalwood, Arabian myrrh

This one is pure rich luscious honey. To my surprise it doesn’t have much beeswax or hive scent, which I think of as the natural adjuncts to honey. Just all honey all the time. Listed notes include citrus, cedar, and Amber, but mostly I just smell honey. I like it by itself, and I also like to spray it over more austere ambers to give them a touch of holiday sweetness and joy. If I’m in the mood for a real hive scent, I may dab on a trace of beeswax absolute and overspray with Mahjoun.

Vanilla Cinnamon home fragrance DSH PerfumesPhoto Stolen DSH Perfumes

DSH Perfumes: Vanilla Cinnamon

DSH Perfumes gives these featured accords in one line:
Cassia, Cinnamon Bark, Cinnamon Leaf, Clove Leaf, French Vanilla, Spice, Sweet, Sweet Cream, Vanilla, Vanilla Absolute, Vanillin

DSH has just started offering room scents, and this is the only one that I’ve tried so far. It’s offered in a regular or small travel-sized reed diffuser. The notes are summed up in the name, but it is somehow much lovelier than I expected. It’s also rather light and subtle, a far cry from the “cinnamon bun” scents that make the air at the mall so gooey. I love it on the coffee table, and I’ve been known to use one of the reeds to dab a bit on my wrist before drinking my morning coffee. Yum. You need to try this one if you have any taste for vanilla scents.

DSH Perfumes site has a wonderful selection of fragrances and an excellent Sample System starting at as low as $4

A joyous winter solstice to all of you, enjoy the long dark fragrant nights, and make sure to find a little of the quiet repose that winter seems made for.
Have you tried any of the DSH Perfumes?
FeralJasmine x

Vierges et Toreros by Antoine Lie + Antoine Maisondieu for Etat Libre d`Orange 2007

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Post by Trésor

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It is my honest opinion that all of the best things in this life are dichotomies. Be it the vivid contrast of petals of crimson velvet and piercing, sinister thorns or the magnificent juxtaposition of a beautiful woman wearing a luxuriant piece of jewellery with her lover’s threadbare t-shirt. It’s a marvelous balance as one entity seems to bless the other with splendid context. Rarely is this concept more evident than in one of my most beloved tuberose elixirs, a study in the contrast of unbridled eroticism and graceful fragility of pulchritudinous vestal blossoms. Rarely is it so poignant as in Vierges et Toreros, a positively bewitching brew from the house of Etat Libre d’Orange.

Vierges et Toreros by Etat Libre d`Orange 2007

Antoine Lie + Antoine Maisondieu

Vierges et Toreros Etat Libre d`Orange FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Bergamot, nutmeg, pepper, cardamom, ylang ylang, tuberose, leather, animalis, costus, patchouli, vetyver

The inception of Vierges et Toreros is something of a cataclysm, a bracing lightshow of sizzling black pepper and the undeniable titian hue of rich bergamot. The two collide with effervescent calamity, unapologetic and resolute in their tumultuous flight of combat. This sequence, harsh and captivating, makes way for a tremendously sexy accord of leather. Leather which I can only describe as possessing the naughty and immaculately subversive redolence of a man’s leather jock strap after a rather ambitious wearing. It’s unctuous, sweaty and blackened with oozing tar. An obsidian harness binds the blooming and narcotic tuberose that follows and defiles her virginal petals with exquisite filth.

Vierges et Toreros Etat Libre d`Orange Hylas_and_the_Nymphs WikipediaPhoto Stolen Wikipedia

As she spirals downward into an atramentous underground she begins to erupt flares of icy menthol and releases a petrol fog as if to celebrate her newfound state of being. There is an auerate glimmer of sweet nectar upon the petals of ylang ylang that have been showered with scintillating particles of warm nutmeg and enveloping cardamom; a masterful juxtaposition which ricochets the ambience of this composition into an entirely different realm. The mood has changed and the vapours rising from my skin now call to mind the intangibly beautiful erotic essence that rises from the bodies of two people who have just made love. Gone is the bondage and, it is now a luminous stratosphere of tenderness and warmth; the afterglow. In this base lays a smoky note of vetiver, cradled upon the most beautifully delicate patchouli leaves. It is this stage that is my favourite, each element of the composition can be traced by their illuminated tendrils that are traipsing soulfully through the olfactory fantasy. Now, with the volume lowered to an opiate hum is where I simply sit and take in the soft symphony playing out before myself and revel in the aromas until it finally fades into oblivion.

Vierges et Toreros Etat Libre d`Orange Lily_FairyWikipediaPhoto Stolen Wikipedia

Vierges et Toreros lasts about 6 hours on my skin and wears quite beautifully with a sillage that is pronounced but not at all overpowering. A funny little side note: I often receive compliments when I wear this particular potion from just about everyone you could imagine. The last time I wore it both the receptionist at my dentist’s office and the man who prepared my drink at the coffee shop told me I smelled beautiful. Based upon that I can safely say it’s not just me enjoying another strange perfume, it’s actually pleasant to those around me as well. Trust me, that’s not always the case. Give Vierges et Toreros a go if you’re looking for a new twist on tuberose or just want to try a fragrance who’s beauty lays in how they are just a bit rough around the edges.

Vierges et Toreros Etat Libre d`Orange Torero_ecuatoriano WikiMediaPhoto Stolen WikiMedia

Further reading: Smelly Thoughts and Bois de Jasmin
Parfum1 has $85/50ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $4.75/ml

Have you tried this so called masculine tuberose? What did you think?
Trésor xx

Eau de Gingembre Salade Dressing by Annice Gourmand

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Post by Val the Cookie Queen

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Seasons Greetings APJs and friends!

I do like to cook and contrary to popular belief can do more than make cookies. We have access to so many ready made things,
that it is surprising that anyone cooks from scratch at all, certainly in our overfed western world. One thing that I never buy
is ready made salad dressing. Most of the time I chuck on oil, vinegar and a drizzle of pumpkin seed oil. High days and holidays
I take an extra five minutes and mix up something little tastier.

Eau de Gingembre Salade Dressing by Annice Gourmand

Presented by Cookie Queen for APJ Christmas 2014

ginger PDPics PixabayPhoto Stolen Pixabay

Notes listed in one line: ginger, garlic, onion, carrot, sesame

The following is a rough guide. Make it like this, and then you can change it to suit yourself. If you randomly throw in 3 carrots, and
only a little oil you will get a pudding you know? Always get to know a recipe first, then tweak it!!

PREPARE:

1 clove of garlic, chopped ( no need to use 10)
1/4 of an average sized onion, chopped
1 grated carrot, average size – don´t ask me to define average, just not a radio-active 1 kilo carrot
1 heaped tablespoon of grated FRESH ginger, a little more if you love ginger

Whisk the above ingredients in a food processor. I use the stainless steel blades in my small processor. You could use a hand held blender of course.

Food_Processor WikiCommonsPhoto Stolen WikiCommons

THEN ADD:

1/2 teaspoon of mustard
teaspoon or two of tamari/soya sauce
teaspoon or two of apple juice
a few drops of roasted sesame oil – go easy on it otherwise it is too strong OR a tablespoon of white tahini –
1/2 cup of oil – I use peanut oil because it is flavorless
1/2 cup rice vinegar

AND PURÉE THE WHOLE LOT UNTIL BLENDED.

Taste it and add salt to taste. I am a salt junkie so I don´t want to say how much to put in! If it is too thick add little water, or apple juice, squeeze of lime juice 🙂
You can keep it in the fridge in jar with a lid for, hmmm, dunno, a couple of days? Never had it around long enough to find out.

Salad_Mediterranean WikipediaPhoto Stolen Wikipedia

Best on a crunchy mixed salad of rucola, green leaves, radicchio, chicory, fennel, alfalfa sprouts ……..

“Maybe Christmas,” he thought,
“doesn’t come from a store.
Maybe Christmas … perhaps …
means a little bit more!”
And what happened then …?
Well … in Who-ville they say
That the Grinch’s small heart
Grew three sizes that day! (How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss)

I wish you all “Ein Guten Rutsch ins Neue Jahr!”
(A good slide into the new year)

Bussis
CQ

Rosarium Blends Dom by Catamara Rosarium

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Post by Azar

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Hello APJ,

We all know that perfume evokes memories, changes moods and perspectives, makes us feel beautiful and desirable, serves the purposes of seduction, warms our winters, cools our summers and transports us to lands near and far away. Some fragrances also seem to increase our self-confidence and amplify our power. I wear my “power scents” for the same reasons that some people wear their “power suits”. I have an “armory” (so to speak) of bottles that provide much needed support (power shots) for a variety of occasions and purposes. Today’s review is not about one of those but about a new fragrance, Dom by Catamara Rosarium. Here is a description abstracted and condensed from the Rosarium Blends website:

“Dom – A charm for establishing your sexual dominion. -To lure that which you desire the most. Wear to invoke and manifest your deepest, darkest desires in the flesh. This perfume is for domination in all manner of ways and can be worked with lots of different intentions: [To dominate] a problem in your life, perhaps to dominate your boss, or a coworker, maybe to dominate a spirit… The perfume can also be used to repair damage…giving renewed confidence. The perfume itself is the base for many forms of magic… The only limitations are the ones we create ourselves.”

Rosarium Blends Dom by Catamara Rosarium

The Perfume Power Suit

Rosarium Blends DomPhoto Stolen Rosarium Blends

Rosarium Blends lists these featured accords in one line:
Vanilla, Smokey Vetiver, Neroli, Lemon, Patchouli, Myrrh, Mugwort, Black Storax

As far as I am concerned domination (whatever that means) is only a very small part of personal power. Nevertheless, I find it intriguing that any scent can have these magical effects. This summer I received a small sample of Dom and subsequently purchased a 9.8 ml bottle, which is fast disappearing.

Rosarium Blends Dom Dali Persistence of Memory libguidesPhoto Stolen LibGuides

My first impression of Dom is that of smoke, vetiver and vanilla laced with citrus blossoms and mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris). This mugwort is not at all dry. The vanilla, the sweet black storax (styrax) and the rich, earthy, slightly damp and spicy myrrh amplify the natural resinous qualities of the mugwort (AKA European artemisia). As the fragrance develops it becomes an almost gourmand confection of vanilla, lemon and artemisia (a gothic lemon bar!). After two or three hours this strange, dark treat dries down and finishes with more vanilla and incense. Dom is actually quite tenacious for a natural perfume. Even after 24 hours a little bit still lingers on my skin. Also, the sillage changes with body temperature. The hotter I am the more this fragrance projects, even after several hours of wear.

Rosarium Blends Dom John_Henry_Fuseli The_Shepherd's_Dream WikiCommonsPhoto Stolen WikiCommons

I love wearing Dom but I can’t really say that it fills me with a sense of power. I do find that people are drawn to me when I wear it and that problems and misunderstandings just seem to melt away or are resolved with gracious good humor. The single issue I have with this perfume is that whenever I wear it I tend to lose focus. I find that I am drawn to myself, fixated on the scent, continually sniffing my wrists, completely under the spell of the smell.

Rosarium Blends has $15/4ml spray or $30/9.8ml splash

Azar xx

Giveaway lavanyasrecipesPhoto stolen lavanyasrecipes

Perfume Power Suit GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 2 Winners who will each get a sample each of these 6 fragrances:
Rosarium Blends Dom
Vintage Karl Lagerfeld’s KL (carded)
Vintage Lucien Lelong Sirocco
Olympic Orchids Olympic Amber
Annick Goutal Grand Amour (carded)
Rasasi Amber Ood CPO
P&H to the world

HOW DO YOU WIN?

Open to everyone in the world 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.

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Leave a comment about YOUR power perfumes, which scents do you wear to boost your confidence or are there perfumes that make you feel invincible?

Extra Chance?
Tweet:  http://wp.me/p3PURw-3tF      

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Thursday 25th December 2014 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by pulling names from a sunhat (maybe)
The winners will have till Sunday 28th December 2014 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.

Breathe: Afternoon Of A Faun: Etat Libre d’Orange

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 22 Comments

Sometimes APJ,

You can merely tread water and breathe, stand still, look around you for a moment and breathe. Three deep breaths, in through your nose and out through your mouth. It’s interesting how this small thing can put a little perspective on the world you inhabit. It gives you time to remember that no matter how bad your predicament, others are much worse off. It also gives you a moment to say thank You for something, anything, the one thing good you may be able to recall.

Tonight I am wearing

Afternoon Of A Faun by Ralf Schwieger for Etat Libre d’Orange 2012

The Afternoon of a Faun Etat Libre d`Orange fragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Bergamot, pepper, cinnamon, incense, immortelle, orris root, myrrh, leather, benzoin, rose, jasmine, oakmoss

I like to spritz like crazy and just sit somewhere quiet and breathe in the green peppery leather that is both warm and cool on my skin and works perfectly in winter and summer, giving almost entirely different rides in disparate temperatures.

Today it’s been a fizzy green citrus floral that burned down to a slightly sweaty leather/woods/incense feel after wearing it to work. Now I’m home and changed I enjoyed the ride so much I am doing it again.

Double spritz on chest and Breathe

Breathe

Breathe

Aaaaaaah. Heaven.

I have been a super bitch this week. It’s the end of a completely fabulous year and I am tired, we are all cramped in this apartment, there is still masses of unpacking undone, Christmas is upon us and to be honest, I am a cranky ole bitch. It’s been a don’t even look at me the wrong way this week because I will gut you with a look and feed your entrails to the dogs with my words. Jin came and had a quiet word to me tonight about it and he is right.

Breathe sunset danigeza PixabayPhoto Stolen Pixabay

 breathe

verb: breathe; 3rd person present: breathes; past tense: breathed; past participle: breathed; gerund or present participle: breathing
take air into the lungs and then expel it, especially as a regular physiological process.
“she was breathing deeply”
synonyms: inhale and exhale, respire, draw breath, puff, pant, blow, gasp, wheeze

Breathe Siam Sunset Steve Jurvetson FlickrPhoto Stolen Flickr

Further reading: Chemist In A Bottle and The Non-Blonde
LuckyScent has $149/100ml
Etat Libre d’Orange has €110/100ml (Delivers to the world)
Surrender To Chance starts at $4.50/ml

What do you do when the world overwhelms you?

I could do with some hints……
Portia xxxx

I have written about Afternoon Of A Faun before and it was 22 December 2013!! How freaky is that?

Candles by Peppermint Grove Australia 2014

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 8 Comments

Hi Crew,

I happened to wander into one of my favourite Sydney fragrance and beauty stores SWS Spring with Jin and a couple of our mates after dinner, as always when greeted by Moody the proprietor I asked, “What’s New Moody?”

A brand new Aussie candlemaker has emerged in December 2014?? Brand new, need to see and sniff? OK

Candles by Peppermint Grove Australia 2014

The Peppermint Grove Candles come in two sizes $17/60 gram and $40/350 gram with a very pretty bow on the front of ribbed glass reusable vessels, so girly. They are not on the website yet but you can call and order and they will send them out. GREAT idea for last minute Christmas Shopping. So reasonably priced and they come in beautiful boxes and have a metal cover or base.

Peppermint Grove Australia 2014 #1

Peppermint Grove Australia 2014 #2

Peppermint Grove Australia Candle Scents

Black Orchid and Ginger

Burnt Fig & Pear (Interesting and fun)

Freesia & Berries

Gardenia

Lemon, Basil & Mandarin

Lemongrass & Lime (If you like the way spas often smell, you’ll love this. Clean and natural smelling)

Oceania (My personal favourite, you can smell the salty sea breeze)

Patchouli & Bergamot

Vanilla Caramel

Wild Jasmine & Mint (Very nicely done on a vanilla base, I would burn this in my home)

SWS SpringPhoto Stolen SWS Spring

Peppermint Grove Australia 2014 #4Phillip & Graham, our dinner partners that night and long term mates, with Jin

Site:
SWS Spring

Address:
SWS SPRING
48 Dixon St,
Haymarket Chinatown
Sydney NSW 2000

Telephone:
+61 2 9212 7356

Ask for Moody, he’s the sweetest ever,

Portia xx

Dries Van Noten by Bruno Jovanovic for Frederic Malle 2013

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 14 Comments

Hiya Wafty Wanderers,

Here’s my point of view. It is merely supposition and has no direct basis in fact or information received. If Estee Lauder has bought Frederic Malle then things are going to change. There is a little twinkle in my brain saying Malle would rather sell his company than change the formulas to IFRA comply. Estee Lauder on the other hand will go through and do the best possible reform they can at the best price, get IFRA approval and take it to a whole new mainstream level. I repeat, this is all supposition….

In other news I think Dries van Noten would be a perfect Christmas scent, modern and old fashioned come together beautifully here. It may have pushed Azuree out of the way this year….

Dries Van Noten par Frederic Malle 2013

DriesVanNoten FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Sandalwood, guaiac wood, tonka bean, vanilla, saffron, jasmine, musk, bergamot, lemon, nutmeg, cloves, patchouli, woody notes and peru balsam

Last year when I tried Dries van Noten I was instantly in love, then I did not buy a bottle because other more pressing things took over my head and up till now it had not happened. So while I was in Chicago, filled with the fear of reformulation I decided to plunge on the 50ml bottle.

Dries Van Noten par Frederic Malle

Here’s what I wrote in my last review, I think it sums up Dries van Noten perfectly:

…Warm marshmallow sweet and slightly spicy vanilla open(ing) that smells so familiar, like someone I love is nearby, even though I’m sure that I’ve not smelled this mix before. Every time I wear Dries Van Noten it has instantly calmed and unruffled me….

Each previous time I have worn Dries Van Noten for the purpose of reviewing it has grabbed my head and asked me to just sit and enjoy its beauty. The whole fragrance feels extremely uncluttered, though it is dense. It goes through a milky, nutmeg stage that reads egg flip to me. An egg flip was dinner sometimes when we were young and made as a great treat for us kids, whole egg, nutmeg, vanilla, ice cream and milk. It was huge and delicious. Nowadays when I (remember) how strict Mum’s budget was I think that maybe she was eeking out her ration by giving us a liquid dinner out of, at that time, extremely cheap materials. I’ll never know now but my sister Jodie and I would feel so great on an egg flip night.

 Dries Van Noten par Frederic Malle Egg Flip WikipediaPhoto Stolen Wikipedia

Simple, warm, comfortable and yummy. Dries van Noten is the most deliciously wearable oriental fragrance. Simple yet complex and it moves me in unexpected ways. It’s like a cocoon of scent that I can curl up in, feel safe and peaceful and remember simple times. Also 100% wearable outside the front door and nobody will be skunked or outraged. If you are after boundary pushing, freaky, “can’t believe they put this shit in a bottle” then move along, you will hate Dries van Noten. If, on the other hand you are all about smelling fantastic then give it a whirl.

Dries Van Noten par Frederic Malle Louis Comfort Tiffany Window Plum Leaves FlickrPhoto Stolen Flickr

Further reading GrainDeMusc and Patty at PerfumePosse
Frederic Malle starts at $125/3 x 10ml (I think this is IDEAL for splitting)
SurrenderToChance starts at $6/ml

Have you tried dries van Noten? Did it send you or bore you to death?
Portia xx

What were your most reached for fragrances in 2014?

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 31 Comments

Hey Hey Fumies!!

The other night I was reading Perfume Shrine and they had this question. I found it so interesting what everyone had worn. We talk a LOT about the newest, freakiest, skankiest and get really hardcore on the blogs every year but to see what everyone really wears, in real life, is great.

So I’d like to put it to you APJ.

What were your most reached for fragrances in 2014?

Shalimar EdC Shopping

My first answer is what I put up on Perfume Shrine but that was written off the top of my head and I have been thinking hard about the answer. What I will do is put up my previous answer and the more realistic one…

Hey There,
I LOVE these questions. Would you be terribly offended if I asked the same question at APJ?
Here are my most reached for..
Shalimar by Guerlain
Fleur de Male by Gaultier
Coco by CHANEL
Mohur by Neela Vermeire
Liberte by Cacharel
Portia xx

Perfumeshrine said…
Portia,
you’re very welcome to repeat this on Australian Perfume Junkies! Thanks for adding your contribution here. And so please tweet me the link when you’re done so I can RT 🙂

mohur

After consideration answer:
Shalimar by Guerlain
Amoureuse by Parfums DelRae
Ombre Mercure by Terry de Gunzburg
Mohur by Neela Vermeire
Liberte by Cacharel

I did wear Fleur de Male and Coco quite a bit but Amoureuse and Ombre Mercure were really easy, elegant and unusual things to wear for work, so I would often grab them through the whole year.

Liberte by Cacharel Fragrantica

Now it’s your turn. What were your most reached for fragrances in 2014?

Portia xx

 

"Reincarnation" film by Karl Lagerfeld ft. Pharrell Williams, Cara Delevingne & Géraldine Chaplin

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 2 Comments

Hey Crazy Cats,

One of my favourite European royalty stories is the Empress Elisabeth (Sisi) of Austria. When I first visited Vienna in the 1990s the story was much less Disney-ised than it is now. She was considered a bit crazy, headstrong, ungrateful and had some wonderfully naughty escapades. Now they gloss over the madness and make her out to be a misunderstood saint. I liked her better before, more real, more human.

Karl Lagerfeld and the CHANEL crew have come together with some pretty top flight names, Pharrell Williams, Cara Delevingne & Géraldine Chaplin. It’s kind of stupid but also very engaging and fun. The clothes are spectacular in themselves, everything else is background anyway. Sadly, the song is not single worthy, but it is oddly cool.

Portia xx

Reincarnation-Creation5Photo Stolen GooglePlus

“Reincarnation”

Film by Karl Lagerfeld ft. Pharrell Williams, Cara Delevingne & Géraldine Chaplin