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Post by Portia
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Hello Sydney Perfumistas,
Few events in the fragrant calendar are talked about with such reverence as the Libertine Parfumerie POP-UP Sale. The most incredible bargains abound and it’s all done in the gorgeous but tiny Surry Hills store. Get yourself down for some serious BARGAIN HUNTING!
See you there,
Portia xx
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Post by Anne-Marie
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Hi everyone,
I ignored Issey Mikaye’s A Scent when it came out. I was happily immersed in niche and vintage sampling then, trying all I could of the latest darling releases: Andy Tauer sample sets, Parfum d’Empire, Parfums de Nicolai … Lutens … the latest Chanel Les Exlcusifs … I practically camped outside the letter box waiting for L’Artisan Traversee du Bosphore to be delivered (it didn’t work for me sadly), and a gift of a bottle of vintage Miss Dior was a thrill beyond words.
A Scent never stood a chance. I tried department store testers but tended to agree with reviewers who generally seemed underwhelmed.
Well, recently I picked up a small bottle for $10 from a shop selling off a bunch of testers. Why not, at that price? Get it while you can…
Fragrantica gives thee featured accords:
Amalfi lemon, lemon verbena, jasmine, hyacinth, Virginia cedar, galbanum
A Scent opens with a tang of citrus followed quickly by a realistic evocation of hyacinth, very bracing, but not as bitter as actual hyacinths can smell. After that the fragrance relaxes and I smell mixed clean green florals over a gentle base of musk (not listed as a note). Longevity is good and sillage moderate. I wore it on warm day during a long car journey and found it a refreshing but gentle presence over several hours, with nothing to offend my fellow travellers.
PDI
The hyacinth is what pleases me about A Scent. I recognise it distinctly but it is not as heavy as the other hyacinth perfume I know well, Guerlain Chamade. A Scent is frequently compared to other great classics, Chanel Cristalle and No 19, and not favourably. ‘Nice, but not as good as … ‘.
But many people would find A Scent easier to wear, I think. It is green all the way through but without sharpness or bitterness, and anyone worried about dirty moss or wet stones need have no concerns here. It reminds me a bit of Estee Lauder Pure White Linen but without the herbal shampoo accord that makes PWL a bit banal for me.
Miyake reportedly does not like fragrance and this one is said to be inspired by the smell of Japanese mountains. It smells clean and cool, damp but not watery, and conforms with Miyake’s minimalist aesthetic.
A Scent is not a masterpiece, but if it sounds like your thing, grab it while you can. Yes – it’s discontinued, but widely available at the online discounters. There’s a pink flanker, A Scent by Issey Miyake Eau de Parfum Florale. That one is still on the market but I have not tried it. Do comment if you have.
Further reading: Perfume Posse and Perfume Shrine
FragranceNet has AUD$23/47ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $3/ml
Green fragrances can be tricky to wear. Do you have a favourite?
Until next time, keep spritzing everyone!
Anne-Marie
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Post by TinaG
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Hi APJ!
Christmas is a week and a bit away yet, but somehow feels like it’s tomorrow. To help us get into the holiday season I thought I’d take a look at some traditional Christmassy scents. Hard to choose just one sometimes! But let’s take a look.
Let’s take a look at what fragrances the three kings may have worn to match their scents.
Gold: Larmes Du Désert – Atelier des Ors
The beautiful sun-rayed bottles with flakes of real gold make wonderful perfumed snow-globes. Pick it up & give it a shake, preferably while standing in sunlight. What do they smell like? I can’t remember, I was too mesmerised by the sparkles.
Frankincense: Oliban – Keiko Mecheri
Frankincense is sometimes referred to as olibanum/oliban , and the perfume of that name by Keiko Mecheri has a fabulous, photo-realistic frankincense note which smelt like it had been grabbed straight from the burning censer. I’m gonna be bold and put it out there as a must-sniff for this incense note. Portia has done a lovely Oliban review
Myrrh: Parfum d’Empire – Wazamba
Wazamba opens resinous and sticky, almost a honeyed amber with an interesting apple note. This settles to a straight-up dry myrrh throughout the dry down. Myrrh is an interesting resin to burn, it has a cool greyness about it. Wazamba manages to capture this incense wonderfully.
Christmas in the southern hemisphere is VERY different to that up north so some thought needs to go into what to wear on the big day.
Winter: Guerlain – Aqua Allegoria, Winter Delice
Winter Delice is a walk through a European mountain forest, fir and pine. It it well balanced and eminently wearable. It is unfortunately discontinued but bottles do pop up from time to time.
Summer: CB I Hate Perfume – At The Beach 1966
This is a day at the beach, suntan lotion, salt spray and warmth. I’ve only sniffed this from a friend’s sample but it left such a strong impression of summer’s past – a great frag to try for a flashback.
What fragrances are you grabbing as we head directly into the holiday season?
Till next time!
Tina G xx
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Post by Val the Cookie Queen
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VISITING VERO KERN.
ANOTHER FLYING TRIP TO ZÜRICH.
A FEW PHOTOS AND KIKI EDP GIVEAWAY
Seasonal Greeting APJ Readers, Lurkers and Investigators!
My ever willing husband booked a hotel, shut the shop and whisked me off to Zürich to visit Vero. We did The Salzburg Cookie Run together and kept on driving. Made it in well under six hours.
The orange Moroccan ceiling light is in the hallway of her apartment.
I just might have come back from Zürich with a few drops of the new Vero Profumo, one that has been delayed for a number of technical reasons. I know what I will be wearing on Christmas Day. Have you got your seasonal fragrance planned?
Peace, Love and Yuletide Bussis
May next year bring far less woody accords.
CQ
This week we will have 1 winner who will receive:
1 x Kiki EdP decant from CQs bottle
P&H Anywhere in the world
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.
You must tell me how you follow APJ
and
Please tell us where you would wear your Kiki by Vero Profumo
Entries Close Thursday 15th December 2016 10pm Australian EdsT and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org
The winners will have till Wednesday 21st December 2016 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
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Post by Portia
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Hey gang,
It seems the frag companies are sending about 200 pieces of news a day at the moment. I’ve sifted through and found you some stuff that I thought VERY exciting.
A new release, sone excellent Travel Sets and a DISCOUNT CODE!! If this list doesn’t get your Gifting or selfishly wanting juices flowing then I don’t know what will.
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Osmanthus, woody notes, spices, floral notes, herbal notes, leather, oakmoss
I can’t see it yet on the NVC site but I bet they are working double time to make that happen. So exciting. Neela tells me sometime this week! WOO HOO!
Any order totaling $15 or more will receive a 20% discount in either the flagship store or the original boutique.
Enter the code DECEMBERSALE at checkout. The code is good now through December 25.
Parfums de Nicolaï only €29
The NICOLAÏ Discovery Kit with :
– 1,5ml of Patchouli Intense
– 1,5ml of Ambre Cashmere Intense
– 1,5ml of Musc Intense
– 1,5ml of New-York Intense
– 1,5ml of Fig-Tea
– 1,5ml of L’eau miXte
Travel Spray case with 2 x 8ml Sprays. Gorgeous for resproitzing the ephemeral Eau d’Hadrien
Annick Goutal Gift Coffret €50
Gift Coffret contains Shampoo 50ml, Conditioner 50ml, Body Lotion 50ml, Shower Gel 50ml, Soap 50g in the Eau d’Hadrien scent. VERY nice, I quite like one of these for myself TBH.
The crew at Heeley has put together a little coffer of some of their most popular Eau de Parfums – 5 x 15ml Natural Sprays
Sel Marin . Hippie Rose . Cardinal . St Clement’s . Menthe Fraiche
I can’t think of a better way to get to know this brand which flies under the radar a but. You all know how much I love Travel Size Sprays. Heaven.
See anything that takes your fancy for you or gifting?
Portia xx
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Post by Portia
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Hi there Art Fraggers,
Way back in February of this year 2016 I was at the Tranoi Paris with the Le Galion boys, Neela Vermeire, Pierre Guillaume and Ulrich Lang. I know right. It’s like a name dropping extravaganza. Ulrich was trying to introduce me to a new brand called Map Of The Heart that I had walked past, looked at, squirmed with revulsion and wandered on. They have the fragrance in bottles shaped like hearts. No not the cutesy hearts of childhood and Hello Kitty. NOPE. These are replicas of anatomical hearts created by master bottle maker Pierre Dinand, and frankly BLEAUGH. They remind me of the cow and sheep hearts Mum used to get to feed the dogs and cats of our childhood, gawd I thought they were SO disgusting. Seriously…….. GAK.
So the other day Ainslie Walker invites me to the grand Opening of a new Aussie fragrance company called Map Of The Heart. Sadly I’m busy so we cruise on down the day after Opening Night (yesterday) to the new Liverpool St Darlinghurst pop-up shop. I hadn’t really thought about the brand we were seeing much because I like to be surprised and we walk in and…….
yes, you guessed it. The bloody ghastly HEART BOTTLES! Ha Ha Ha Ha.
The bottle is unbelievable comfortable once it’s in your hand. It feels right and is so easy to spritz.
Myself, Ainslie & SA Jodie sniffing the range
The room is so stark white that the light seems diffuse & milky and in the centre is this beat up vintage Jaguar with boxes spilling out.
The red heart in the centre is their best seller worldwide. It’s a fruity fizz fragrance, a fruit-chouli. Very accessible for the modern fragrance shopper.
Sarah Blair is very articulate about her company and the heart designed bottle. She is passionate about creating an interesting and slightly challenging brand and though a lot of what she says is very cerebral and art/visual/international jet-set speak she has really thought about what she wants to say with the Map Of The Heart brand above and beyond becoming a successful business venture. I find her engaging and we were really sad that there was a time budget because Sarah Blair needs closer investigation.
Ainslie always knows the way to talk to business people and perfumers so I found out lots of interesting stuff that I would never even have known to ask. Bravo Ainslie.
Sarah also took my loathing of the bottle completely in her stride. Once she started to explain her motives it all made some sense to me. Still I’d rather eat my foot than have that bottle in my home. I did ask if there is going to be a Travel Set with regular bottles in the future and they are currently talking about making that happen.
What was my favourite of the brand? Gold Heart.
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Pepper, cardamom
Heart: Milk, saffron
Base: Woody notes
If you’ve ever tried Costume National’s 21 then you already have an idea of how Gold Heart smells. It’s a bit simpler, less confronting and all together an easier wear than 21. I found it so effortlessly wearable in 35C heat yesterday and found its staying power very good too. The milky saffron last to nearly the end when a nondescript woody dry down hums along merrily and very quietly.
Further reading: Megan In St Maxime and Colognoisseur
Map Of The Heart has $250/90ml
Have you seen, or heard of, this brand? What do you think of the hearts?
Portia xx
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Post by Portia
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Hey Crew,
Do you ever get together with frag buddies? I have met so many wonderful & varied people in the fragrant world, a few of them turning into lasting and close friends. I’ve also had some of my long term besties come out as frag nerds too. So irregularly there are get togethers with one or more buddies. Yesterday was special because someone I’d only ever interacted with online is in Sydney and she had bought a bottle of perfume from me. What else could I do but ask her around for Morning Tea and a sniff? So Latai came and we had a lovely time, well I had a lovely time and I think she did too.
We decided early on that as Latai had not spent much time in the Guerlain fragrance vault that we should focus our noses there for the day. So I thought it might be interesting to take her on a Semi Ages of Guerlain tour.
We started with a few of the most well known vintage extraits, Vold de Nuit, Mitsouko & Shalimar. With this set I also got Latai to smell modern Samsara extrait that Jin & I bought recently in Japan.
From there I jumped to a couple of my most loved masculine Guerlains: Vetiver and Cologne du 68. Interestingly Vetiver turned out to be one of Latai’s favourites of the day and we really enjoyed its light oily grassy scent.
We also tried Vega but it was absolutely not to her taste and she scrubbed it off.
Then the last two from the Guerlain range we smelled were vintage Chamade extrait and for something totally up to date Promenade des Anglaise, which turned out to be her absolute favourite of the day.
Halfway through I made some scones that we ate with fresh whipped cream, home made apple and raspberry jam (thanks to my mate Linda, YUMMY) and lemon curd. This washed down with some very lovely tea that Latai brought to share.
It was a really nice, zero fuss, fun day: full of silliness, laughter and fragrance.
What brand would you choose to sniff for a day with perfumistas?
Portia xx
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Post by Portia
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Hey Crew,
DSH Perfumes Newsletter came through. It’s chock full of exciting pieces of interest and I’ve edited it to my favourite pieces. There are even more great gifting ideas than these on the site and you can join up for newsletters when you make a purchase. It’s important to keep the Independent perfumers alive because that’s where the magic is happening.
I want to make very clear that I adore Dawn but we have no affiliation other than my profound respect for her & her work. This is not a paid ad, I just want to share the exciting news and the fabulous DISCOUNT CODE.
DSH Perfumes & The Essense Studio annual THANK YOU SALE.
20% off from now through January 9 2017 with code: thanks2016
Announcing the launch of a brand new DSH Perfumes site that has been completely overhauled to make it simpler to see everything they do and offer, as well as navigate. Amazing features like a “First Time Shoppers Guide” to get you started, a new customized sampler set, the “Find your Essense” discovery set, where you give details about your preferences and DSH Crew select the best fits for you, and last but not least, a “voile” version of most fragrance designs to send products abroad with international ordering*. Woo Hoo!
HOLIDAY GIFT with purchase till December 30 2016
With every purchase of $100 or more receive a complimentary 10ml spray of DSH most popular fragrance, Special Formula X.
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Dawn & Mary from DSH Perfumes waving Happy Holidays!!
At the darkest times we need solace; comfort and warmth are paramount. The Dark Moon signals a new beginning…
For this Holiday fragrance, we chose an unusual balance of gourmand and chypre elements
The softest, most delicate vanilla skin scent with a hint of spice and chantilly cream… for when you just want a light and creamy veil of scent.
A meditative incense design filled with resinous notes and a deep, smoky background. Perfectly unisex.
As the title states, the Axis Mundi is the cosmic center of the world; the link between Heaven and Earth.
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a new twist on a romantic classic where spicy carnation and rose meet in an ambery, wood fragrance.
A famous rose was plucked then cultivated from Chateau de Malmaison; residence of famous lovers, Napoleon and Josephine Bonaparte. A famous fragrance style of the early 19th Century, Malmaison is the spicy floriental style based on carnation, rose, spices, woods, and musk. .
(pronounced : On ee Ka) is ancient, mythic, and esoteric. It’s an aromatic that scholars merely speculate as to what it is. Some say a mollusc, others say benzoin, and yet others say labdanum. For our Onycha fragrance, we’ve used them all…and then some. A holy aromatic from antiquity used in the sacred incense of Solomon’s Temple.
What came from this inspiration is something smoky, rich, divine, and with a fascinating lilt that gives a clue to it’s oceanic origins.
A woody, creamy, rich, GOLDEN, incense oriental fragrance with subtle oceanic brine and animalic nuances in background.
Go check out the DHS Perfumes new website, it’s gorgeous and sleek.
I hope there’s something here for you. My favourite Christmas scent is Ma Folie de Noel (My Christmas Folly; Holiday no.6) by DSH Perfumes which is still available to buy. What’s yours?
Portia xx
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Post by Portia
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OOOPS! Sorry APJ, forgot to draw this prize.
Thanks to the amazing Oli at Oliver & Co, go check them out. Great fragrances.
Portia xx
Oliver & Co gives these featured accords:
Ambrosian, amyl salycilate, basil, coriander, dry amber, fig leaves, galbanum, grass, green pepper, green tangerine, guaiac wood, hedione, orris concrete, pharaoh, shiso
This week we will have 3 winners who will receive:
3 x 2ml Oliver & Co carded manufacturers spray samples
(You will each get a different set)
P&H Anywhere in the world
Entries Closed Tuesday 6th December 2016 10pm Australian EdsT
Winners were chosen by random.org
The winners will have till Wednesday 14th December 2016 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
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Post by Sandra
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Hiya APJ! I hope ya’ll are doing well and enjoying the holiday season.
Anyone who knows me knows that I am a kid once a year when the holidays come around and that I love every moment. This year is a weird year as we are moving to the The Netherlands on 21 December and into the house on 23 December. Santa will definitely have to show up but how much decorating will get done depends largely on how many of the decorations I can find. My priority this year is to mark a box which will contain my son’s presents so that he at least can enjoy some of the magic.
The holidays are an onslaught to my senses in Vienna and this year is no different. The streets are finally all decked out (they prepare for weeks) and lit, brightly lighting our way. It sure makes the darkness of winter seem more friendly and inviting. The Christmas markets are full of bright coloured ornaments, toys and knick knacks which bring grins to many children and panicked faces of their parents trying desperately to ensure that nothing breaks (picture my son reaching for one snowglobe in a stand with over 100 snowglobes). However pale I may be from fear of breaks, I still love seeing his face light up and his eyes twinkle with joy. There are stands selling hot mulled wine all over the city too. The kids can have warm spiced juice and enjoy the delicacies of roasted chestnuts and cookies. Magic is in the air but also the despair of so many who live on the streets. And with this despair I also see strangers performing random acts of kindness on an almost daily basis.
My son and his friend Maxi who were great sales assistants at the Christmas market today.
The holidays are a feast for my senses but especialy for my sense of smell. The caramelized almonds, roasted chestnuts, hot mulled wine, ornaments made with cloves, anise, cinnamon and dried fruits, incense in the cathedral and even the smell of pine needles all around are pure sensory overload. How do I find a perfume that wraps up all of these into a perfume that is even wearable? I have not found a perfume that suits the holidays yet, but I tend to reach for gourmands and vanilla or almond notes. So I tend to veer off on a tangent and think of what perfume would I like to receive for Christmas and I then go and have a sniff.
Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Powdery notes, violet, iris, orris root, Turkish rose, Grasse rose, Laos benzoin, tonka bean
Well, needless to say I have found two that I would love to see under the tree – so let me dream please. How about Chanel Misia EdP and Chanel Beige EdP please – and if Santa is being more than generous I would love Chanel Boy too.
I did not read about the Chanel EdP releases because I wanted to form my own opinion and to be perfectly honest with you – I like several of them more in the EdP strength. Beige and Misia smelled pretty similar to the EdT but lasted quite a bit longer. 31 rue Cambon I am torn about – something is different but it does somehow resemble the EdT and yet it lasts. I wore both versions of Coromandel on the same day and even though the EdT has more incense I liked the EdP quite a bit.
What are your scents for the holidays – be it culinary, perfumed or floral? Do you have any perfumes on your wishlist?
Wishing you all a joyful, peaceful and safe holiday season.
Sandra xoxo
Australian Perfume Junkies 