Tauer Perfumes Sample Pack

June 1, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 44 Comments

Post by Portia

Hey APJ,

As you may have read my mate Liam Sardea, who writes for APJ sometimes and has his own blog Olfactics, is now working for Men’s Biz here in Oz curating their fragrance range. One of the big wins he has had is that they now are the Australian retailers of Tauer Perfumes. To celebrate they have sent me a Tauer Sample Pack to give away today.

This week I am dedicating APJ to a GIVEAWAY WEEK! Yes, every day for six out of seven days there will be a 24 hour GIVEAWAY. That’s right, you’ll have 24 hours to get your comment in and then it will be drawn. Enter every day if you like but only one comment per day. Got it?

Tauer Perfumes Sample Pack

I’m giving you the Tauer Perfumes blurb for each fragrance in this Sample Pack.

03 Lonestar Memories: The scent of a lonesome rider, wearing old jeans and leather jacket, after a long day on the horse in the dry woods, preparing his coffee on the open, smoky fire.

05 Incense Extreme: A perfume built around a natural CO2 extract of Boswellia serrata, aka incense; it captures the roughness of the climate of the semi desert where Boswellia trees thrives. It is translucent like the first whiff of incense smoke from Boswellia resin on red gleaming coal. Yet, it is crisp like a night in the desert.

06 Incense Rose: Incense rosé is a mysterious fragrance, like an thick flying oriental carpet with floating rose petals, built around smoking frankincense, with rose and citrus notes, and dark balsamic resins.

09 Orange Star: Discover a rich citrus fragrance with a clean orange flower in its heart, and a soft elegant base that seems to last forever.

Phi Une Rose De Kandahar: Phi is a luxurious scent, inspired by a natural extract of roses produced in Afghanistan’s rose region, Nangarhar. This rose oil is extremely rare and of highest quality. Inspired by these roses, growing in a dry and rough land, Phi is a rare gem, complementing contrasting lines, rich in natural raw materials that add depth and authenticity.

Please go have a look at the Men’s Biz site for your Australian niche fragrance needs.

Tauer Perfumes Sample Pack GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 winner who will receive:
1 x Tauer Perfumes Manufacturers Sample Pack (1.5ml of each fragrance above)
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DO YOU WIN?

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

Tell us a your favourite Tauer Perfume

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close TOMORROW Thursday 2nd June 2016 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org
The winners will have till Wednesday 8th June 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.

Belle de Jour GIVEAWAY WINNER

June 1, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom

Post by Portia

Belle de Jour GIVEAWAY WINNER

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Coriander, pink pepper, orange blossom
Heart: Labdanum, Egyptian jasmine, allspice
Base: Atlas cedar, musk, seaweed

LuckyScent has $150/50ml and Samples

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 winner who will receive:
1 x Belle de Jour Sample (my review sample remnants)
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Tuesday 31st May 2016 10pm Australian EST
Winner was chosen by random.org

Katherine Mittas

The winner will have till Wednesday 8th June 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.

Equinox Bloom by Olivier Cresp for Penhaligon`s 2016

May 31, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 34 Comments

Post by Portia

Hiya Fragrant Fumies,

You know those days that are so jam packed you couldn’t fit one more thing in without exploding? Well I had one of those recently. It was all planned a ready to go and then an invitation came to the Breakfast launch of Penhaligon’s latest release Equinox Bloom. Sadly it was not possible to get there but the crew at Libertine Parfumerie and Elysee Collective (who are the very boutique Public Relations agency in charge of a range of luxurious offerings in Australia) sent me a pack with samples so I could check out the latest fragrant stuff. Inside were a couple of carded manufacturers samples that I can give to you guys. WOO HOO! Giveaway closes TOMORROW NIGHT!

Equinox Bloom by Penhaligon`s 2016

Equinox Bloom by Olivier Cresp

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Chantilly, hydrangea, neroli, violet leaves
Heart: Frangipani, orange blossom absolute, jasmine sambac
Base: Brown Sugar, Siamese benzoin, ambroxan

Equinox Bloom does open with a creamy feel, then green and sappy but for some reason it’s a dry green, a warm green. The white flowers are soft and subtle, clean and silky. There’s no humanity here but a beautiful vegetatively fleshy fragrance that is quite distinctive, not ringing any scent memories for me, pure and pretty. A lush and lovely spring scent that will take you all the way to midsummer.

Later Equinox Bloom warms through and though it never gets candy sweet it does get less veg and more bakery. Gourmand but not as you know it.

I’m finding the sillage moderate and projection good, not big but so unusual that it constantly captures my attention with its swings between flora and cake. Throughout the life of Equinox Bloom it never really settles on either and even in the deepest dry down still has a wisp of fresh cut foliage. A smooth, lovely and very wearable fragrance that I think will be a winner with both sexes.

This is what I wrote in a Facebook post: Wearing Equinox Bloom by Penhaligon’s? It’s charming but weird. Managing to be sappy cut hydrangea stalks, a white flower bouquet and cookies simultaneously. A whiff of a florists fridge and carbo comfort. It all seems so airy and effortless.

Further reading: I Scent You A Day and Colognoisseur
Libertine Parfumerie has $279/100m

Photo Stolen hemodernhome

Equinox Bloom GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 2 winners who will receive:
1 x Equinox Bloom by Penhaligon’s Manufacturers Sample
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DO YOU WIN?

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Tell us a perfume that makes you think of spring.

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close TOMORROW Wednesday 1st June 2016 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org
The winners will have till Wednesday 8th June 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.

Belle de Jour by Antoine Lie for Eris Parfums 2016

May 30, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 26 Comments

Post by Portia

Hello Vintage Frag Freaks,

Barbara Herman is amazing. She has a blog Yesterday’s Perfume that we all read religiously when we need to check our vintage frags out. Wrote a book Scent and Subversion: Decoding a Century of Provocative Perfume, which quite a few of my frag buddies got for Christmas 2014. Now she has started a perfume house, a crowdfunded one no less, which starts its story with three fragrances. Thanks Barbara for sending me samples, so good.

GIVEAWAY WEEK

Writing a blog about fragrance means we get sent LOADS of things. It’s one of the perks. On the flip side is that there just doesn’t seem to be enough days in the month to get this stuff onto the blog and out to you all. This week I am dedicating APJ to a GIVEAWAY WEEK! Yes, every day for six out of seven days there will be a 24 hour GIVEAWAY. That’s right, you’ll have 24 hours to get your comment in and then it will be drawn. Enter every day if you like but only one comment per day. Got it?

Belle de Jour by Eris Parfums 2016

Belle de Jour by Antoine Lie

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Coriander, pink pepper, orange blossom
Heart: Labdanum, Egyptian jasmine, allspice
Base: Atlas cedar, musk, seaweed

Why did I choose Belle de Jour to write about? I think many people have the impression that an animalic perfume needs to be huge, a ball breaking, axe wielding Amazon of a fragrance. Belle de Jour is proof that they need be no such thing. If anything it plays quite the demure wallflower, pretty but you’d hardly notice the raunch it unless you get in really close and suddenly Belle de Jour becomes nuit d’amour.

A lightly sizzling fruit compote opening that has green undertones keeping it grounded. A fresh, blue sky and joyfully summertime fragrance that does clean, sweet and green in a thoroughly modern vintage reincarnation. Dry green wood comes through, like pruning camellia branches or old cold tea leaves, and Belle de Jour is cool. Both the cool of temperature and cool kids. I can imagine it being perfect for both sexes but does skew towards modern feminine, extremely wearable.

The raunch in Belle de Jour is cleverly contained within a jasmine, seaweed, musk pyramid. It smells like sea air meets humanity and floats below soft and pretty fragrance. An interesting dichotomy and only super noticeable in testing conditions. Outside it’s hardly even a hint.

Further reading: Now Smell This and IndiePerfumes
LuckyScent has $150/50ml and Samples

Belle de Jour GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 winner who will receive:
1 x Belle de Jour Sample (my review sample remnants)
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DO YOU WIN?

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Tell us your favourite animal scent

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close TOMORROW Tuesday 31st May 2016 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org
The winners will have till Wednesday 8th June 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.

Replacing Discontinued Beauty #2

May 29, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 5 Comments

Post by AF Beauty

Replacing the discontinued – Body Shop Nutriganics Softening Cleansing Gel – Part 2
Hello loves.

My search for my long lost Body Shop cleansing gel has been long but I hope, fruitful. As well as targeting products texturally similar to the gel, I tried a couple of liquid oil cleansers, hopeful that despite the texture difference at the start, the overall cleansing would still be good.

Replacing Discontinued Beauty #2

Mango Seed, Body Shop + Clinique

The first is a Korean product in a range called Mango Seed product called Oil to Foam. This is a nicely light oil and I anticipated it work by doing the oily thing to clean off the make up and then turn foamy with water. Unfortunately, the oil texture is not long lasting enough for me to properly remove heavier make up. Almost immediately as being dispensed it turns to a foamy soapy texture and then cleans like a regular foam. Positively, it smells lovely, very light and citrusy. I would use this as a second cleanser – I know, extravagant! But sometimes I feel like the first cleanse didn’t capture everything, this would be a good round two.

The second is from Clinique from their Take The Day Off range. I have heard nothing but good things about their Take The Day Off Cleansing Balm – but I had been at Clinique getting the contour stick (that I wrote about a few weeks back) and the SA had used the Take The Day Off Cleansing Oil to clean my face and it felt good, so I thought I’d give the oil a go at home.

So the big negative of this product for me is the smell – of lack of it. As all Clinique products, it is entirely unperfumed. This could be great for anyone sensitive to fragrance – but I’m guessing that’s not this crowd. Unscented in this case means that the product smells of what’s it’s made of – so it smells a bit chemically. Not overpowering but noticeable. But really, that is my only criticism. I really didn’t want to like this product as much as I do but the texture is beautiful – very light and smooth. It dissolves makeup in an instant, turns milky on water and washes away to leave clean skin, lovely. I admit, this one is my favourite and is my default for when I need an easy simple clean.

So, having tested four products as replacements for my Body Shop gel, I think the Clinque has been my favourite in texture, the Korean Mango Seed, my favourite in smell and probably all but the Mango Seed have done excellent work at removing make up. All that said, you could probably try Baby Oil to dissolve makeup, but for me, the milkiness on contact with water ensures I’m not left feeling oily on my skin and potentially clogging pores – and that’s important.

What other products like this have you tried? What oil based cleansers would you recommend?
Ciao ciao, AF x

Muguet Porcelain by Hermès GIVEAWAY WINNER

May 29, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 1 Comment

Post by Portia

Woo Hoo APJ!

Thanks for joining in.

Let’s see who our lucky winner is.
Portia xx

Muguet Porcelain by Hermès GIVEAWAY WINNER

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Lily of the valley, green notes

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

The winner will receive:
1 x 4ml Muguet Porcelain by Hermès
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Saturday 28th May 2016 10pm Australian EST
Winner chosen by random.org

Koyel

The winners will have till Wednesday 1st June 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.

Perfumer H – Lyn Harris: TinaG In Europe Photo Essay

May 28, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 5 Comments

Post by TinaG

Hi APJ!

I was treated to a fabulous day out in London during my travels, hosted by Tara from A Bottled Rose. Tara has written up our adventures in more detail on her blog. One of the exciting discoveries of the day was a visit to the Perfumer H lab & shop in Crawford Street, London.

Perfumer H – Lyn Harris

‘Making Air Visible’

Perfumer H was started by Liz Harris (of Miller Harris) roughly 8 months ago. The shop contains an extensive lab out the back which is both Lyn Harris’s workshop, and a ingredient display. We were greeted by Caroline who kindly ran us through the concepts of the fragrance company.

Perfumer H releases new fragrances seasonally – their first being Winter 2015 and the current range for Summer 2016. Past seasonal fragrances are ‘archived’ but not discontinued, which means they continue to be accessible. Two of the Winter 2015 releases were rolled-over to Summer 2016 – Leather and Cologne, which join Atlas, Musk and Rain Cloud for this season’s suite of five. I wish that I wrote down the archived Winter fragrances – I do know one was Velvet. There were three that had been shelved.

There are a selection of five home fragrances which are available as candles – Orange Blossom, Dandelion, Leaf, Ivy and Smoke. The perfume bottles and candle holders are each hand-made, heavy and lush. You can choose to purchase the fragrances in 100ml functional screw-cap bottles, which I did for ease of travelling.

Perfumer H has a range of ‘laboratory editions’ which are a fun way to purchase some of Liz Harris’s creative work. Names like Ink, Vetiver, Rose & Smoke line the shelves. Each fragrance in the whole range is also given a unique identifier, and if you wish, you can purchase that perfume outright – including choosing it’s name, having it registered in Grasse, and it is then taken out of general circulation – so it is yours and yours alone. You can buy single bottles without claiming rights though – just careful if you fall in love, it may just disappear one day!

I tried four fragrances on skin – Velvet, Musk, Atlas and Leather as I was keen to pick up a bottle, but wow…. What a difficult decision! I would have been happy to walk away with any of them, but I decided on Musk.

Musk – no. g116 3995
Notes: Bergamot (Italy), Mandarin, Petitgrain (Paraguay), Iris absolute (China), Heliotrope, Cedarwood (Virginia), Benjoin (Siam), Vanilla absolute, White Musk.

On opening I get a floral Iris and fluffy musk along with a subtle plant-stem note in the background. After an hour this changes to an iris/cedar combination. It is sexy, gentle and very wearable. Sticky vanilla notes waft in and out. I find the citruses after 8 hours in a sheer veneer of smoke & juice that makes me wish I sprayed more skin. Interestingly the iris has a great staying power and it remains throughout (+12 hours). It is a gorgeous fragrance and I’m extremely glad I picked it up. I’m half tempted to go back & get the Leather as well, time & funds permitting.

Perfumer H is a great concept which has been actualised with wonderful fragrances and beautiful glass bottles. They do ship to Australia but you will be paying a premium for hazardous goods ~£70.

What do you think, APJ? Sound like a fun venture to you?

Tina G xx

Rendezvous by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz for DSH Perfumes 2016

May 27, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 22 Comments

Post by Portia

Hi there Frag-O-Philes,

Recently I ordered a new bottle of Giverny In Bloom from DSH Perfumes, with its glorious green self came a sample of her newest fragrance. Realeased in January 2016 and already making waves let’s have a look at Rendezvous. We will be going through the initial experience together today but I will come back in a few days to give some updates if my wearings have shown different or interesting nuance.

Rendezvous by DSH Perfumes 2016

Rendezvous by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Aldehydes, white pepper
Heart: jasmine, orange blossom, gardenia
Base: Oakmoss, castoreum, hyrax, ambergris, labdanum, ambrette (musk mallow), musk, civet

GROWWWWL! Sweet, feral, fecal, dirty, sexy, bakery, alleyway, sunshine on sand, urinous, warm, comfortable, furry, fuzzy, fiery, dry, sizzling, smoky. OMG! All these words running through my head. Rendezvous is extreme. A whiff of coffee, black, intense and Turkish, motor oil gritty, earthy, creation, burnt sticky date pudding, plastics. I am engulfed in a fabulous monster. Part of me is asking “Is this just a circus trick?” other parts are screaming joyfully because this is exactly why indie perfumers are so important, recoiling, mesmerised, disbelieving and floating through someone else’s vision for scent.

Flickr

At about the ten to 15 minute mark the enormity has flagged to merely outrageous. The flowers have arrived but they are growing in the compost heap, a healthy vegetative one with cow, horse and chook poo, well turned and aerated heap that is all the wonderful fragrances of renewal through disintegration. The sweet scent of an Indian street urinal from half a block away, mixed with the dusty road, the mass of humanity and beasts all going about their daily grind: living, loving, praying, feasting and festering.

Past the heart and I’m left, for hours, with a burning, smoky something that is also sweet like a cake batter, lightly salted and gorgeously creamy. It was hard to force myself to write really because I wanted to lose myself in the magnificent folds of Rendezvous. Bravo Dawn for bringing us this freakish, poopy masterpiece. I am enjoying it immensely.

Pixabay

From DSH Perfumes site: A super sexy, “retro nouveau” animalic perfume with the kick of aldehydes and pepper in the top, narcotic, indolic florals in the heart, and a super rich, slightly salty, animalic drydown. Let’s just say that there’s more going on here than a meeting of the minds.

Further reading: Scented Hound and Perfume Polytechnic
DSH Perfumes has a great range of Rendezvous products starting at $6

What is your favourite Independent Perfume House? Have you tried Dawn’s work?
Portia xx

Rainmaker edp by Shelley Waddington for En Voyage Perfumes 2016

May 26, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 21 Comments

Post by Robert Herrmann

Hey APJ

A woody-amber chypre for men and women?

When I hear news of a new perfume release by award winning perfumer Shelley Waddington, it is VERY good news indeed! You might even call me a bit of a fanboy for her creations, there are just so many wonderful scents in her range!

Prompted by her recent relocation from California to the Pacific Northwest, Shelley has wasted no time in producing a glorious creation that honors this beautiful region, combining notes that are timeless reminders of the misty Northwest with cutting edge essences that reflect the ever-changing and on-point contemporary lifestyle found here.

Rainmaker edp by En Voyage Perfumes 2016

Rainmaker edp by Shelley Waddington

En Voyage Perfumes

Top: Rose Leaf, Silver Pine Tips, Wild Citrus
Heart: Incense, Patchouli, Iris, Rhododendron
Base: Mossy Rain Forest notes of Cedar, Fir, Redwood Leaf, Petrichor, Ash, Oakmoss and Amber

Shelley’s perfumes are an extraordinary example of olfactory storytelling that take you on a scent journey, conjuring up memories and images, and Rainmaker is no exception!

Rainmaker is a gorgeous incense/wood/floral and green scent. For all you incense and chypre lovers, this is right up your ally! Now I must say that I struggle with incense-heavy notes, but Rainmaker is one of the few I would happily add to my collection!

For me this is a camping trip to the Northwest rain forest in the Autumn. Rain is dripping from the low-hanging evergreen boughs. Night is falling along with the temperature, cold and crystal clear. The glittering stars are so close through the tree tops, you feel like you could touch them.

Flickr

Lighting your campfire, the smell of burning wood drifts towards the sky, and someone starts telling stories of the First People. You feel the weight of myth and history all around you. It is no wonder that these woods are sacred to the North Coast Native tribes. The mystery is palpable.

Rainmaker edp is currently available exclusively from En Voyage Perfumes Starting June 11th 2016
Rainmaker will also be available at Tigerlily Perfumery in San Francisco, CA

Muguet Porcelain by Jean Claude Ellena for Hermès 2016

May 25, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 53 Comments

Post by Sandra

The 1st of May has a long history of being a celebration for spring and more recently it has become known as May Day – an International Labour Day. Living here in Europe it gives us a day off and we can celebrate outside with family and friends.

France has a beautiful tradition of gifting a loved one with muguet – lily of the valley – on 1 May. This dates all the way back to 1 May 1561 when King Charles IX of France received a bouquet of lily of the valley as a gift. According to Wikipedia, King Charles IX enjoyed the gift so much that he „decided to offer a lily of the valley each year to the ladies of the court. At the beginning of the 20th century, it became custom to give a sprig of lily of the valley, a symbol of springtime, on May 1. The government permits individuals and workers’ organisations to sell them tax-free.“ The tradition lives on today with people receiving a bunch of lily of the valley flowers or if one is lucky enough a bottle of perfume centered around the flower.

Just in time for the 1 May celebrations, Hermès has launched the 13th fragrance in the exclusive Hermessence collection – Muguet Porcelain – signed by in house perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena. Several of his creations are all time favourites of mine and I could not wait to get my greedy fingers on a sample of the Muguet Porcelaine. Looking at the bottle and seeing the stunning green leather around the cap hints at what we are about to experience.

Muguet Porcelain by Hermès 2016

Muguet Porcelain by Jean Claude Ellena

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Lily of the valley, green notes

Muguet Porcelaine opens up with a beautiful air of lily of the valley. It is green, fresh and bright early in the morning with dew still clinging to the flowers with a smidge of jasmine thrown in for interest. It is a cool perfume at the start, temperature cool, which I can only assume will be great in the heat of summer. But as it warms on my skin magic begins to unfurl and it is as if the sun has peeked through the canopy of trees to warm up the blanket of flowers covering the forest floor. The memory of sniffing a bouquet of lily of the valley lingers and slowly fades. It is a delicate and elegant perfume just like the flowers themselves– quite gauzy and dewy in feel.

This is my experience with the new Muguet Porcelaine and I have begun to question my nose and my sanity after smelling it with two lovely perfume loving friends who strongly stated “ooh melon and ooh how indolic“! Seriously, I get no melon whatsoever and certainly no dirty, decaying, poo smell at all. Is it my nose or is it my understanding of dirty or sensual? Who knows. I chalk it up to everyone will interpret perfume differently.

Hermès

About the perfume’s longevity, my skin devours certain perfumes and unfortunately Muguet Porcelaine falls into the category of „oops – gone in a flash“ perfume. I have to spray generously and on clothing as well.

So, in honour of the tradition of giving lily of the valley on 1 May, I would like to offer one 4 ml sample of Hermessence Muguet Porcelaine to one lucky winner. Please let me know if you are fond of indoles and/or fresh perfumes and if you have ever interpreted a perfume quite differently from a friend.

sassisamblo

Muguet Porcelain by Hermès GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

The winner will receive:
1 x 4ml Muguet Porcelain by Hermès
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DO YOU WIN?

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Tell us if you are fond of fresh perfumes or have you interpreted a perfume differently from a friend

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Saturday 28th May 2016 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org
The winners will have till Wednesday 1st June 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.