Everything’s Coming Up Russian Roses

January 13, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 19 Comments

Post by Poodle

Hey APJ,

I was recently sent a lovely box of samples from the 1st Festival of Indie Perfumery in Russia. The non-commercial event is creative exchange between Russian Perfumers and bloggers and reviewers who love perfume. It’s a way of sharing Russian Indie perfumery with the world and was organized by Anna Zworykina. Anna has been making perfume for more than 15 years and has published a book in Russian about natural perfumery. The theme of the event was “Rose and Water” and all the perfumes were created during a six week time period with that theme in mind. There were 18 perfumers who participated and the perfumes covered every aspect of the theme. Some were all natural, others natural and synthetic. It was interesting to sniff so many interpretations of roses and water. The perfumers really managed to show the versatility of roses.

So I picked out my favourite five to highlight for you.

Everything’s Coming Up Russian Roses

Festival of Indie Perfumery in Russia 2015

Pool by Anastasia Denisenkova.
Pool is a bright juicy rose perfume with Rose de Mai, Rose Otto, and Rosa Damascena. It’s highlighted with melon and ozonic notes and grounded with amber, musk, and oakmoss. Melon can be a difficult note for a lot of people but it really does help to give a watery feel to the perfume. Imagine rose petals floating on crystal blue water and you’ve got Pool.

Ophelia by Art of Perfume
This one is an herbal interpretation of roses and water. They could have called it noir if they wanted. It smells like the blackness of water in the moonlight. Walking along the bank there’s the crush of wormwood, lavender, and daisies underfoot, the brush of rose blossoms against you as you pass by. Resins and fir balsam add more darkness and earthiness. I love how this one reminded me of absinthe because of the wormwood.

Pixabay

Winter Rose by Anna Zworykina
The snow might be fluffy but this rose is not powdery at all. The rose’s scent is tempered by the snow. I can smell an almost citrusy sweetness. Although its called Winter Rose it’s not cold or metallic but warm and ambery. Starts cool and frosty but warms to a bouquet seen through Russian amber.

Rose Garden After the Rain byAnna Vtyurina
Think of the rosiest rose you’ve ever smelled. This is a big rose perfume. It opens with a bold citrus and rose. It’s juicy and watery, crisp and green. On me there’s a little tough of mintiness but it’s barely there so I could be mistaken. Remember when those bouquets of roses from the florists actually smelled like roses? This is that smell. The bouquet, the fern green filler, the water in the vase. Early summer bottled.

WikiMedia

Marilyn’s Kiss by Galina Anni
This perfume isn’t as rosy as some of the others but was really fun to smell. There’s just enough mint to give it a watery feel along with some citrus. At the heart of it the rose blends with ylang-ylang and fruits. It’s sweet but not like a fruit punch. It’s creamier than that. It’s vanilla pudding with rose petals and buttery ylang-ylang. I didn’t expect to like this but the mint and ylang really make it work.

I’m so happy I got the opportunity to sample all the perfumes from this event. It was interesting to see how each perfumer approached the theme. I hope this will be the first of many such festivals.

Hugs
Poodle

RIP Gucci Marie Turbo 200? – 13.1.2016

January 13, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 39 Comments

Post by Portia

Hi APJ,

Gucci is gone. She looked me straight in the eyes when the vet gave her the injection and then she laid her head down and died. It was peaceful and dignified. I am sad but curiously happy for her too.

Thank you all for your messages of support, your love and for sharing your stories of your beautiful pets.

Perfume people are the best. I floated on the wings of your love and Gucci left this world in as perfect a way as could be arranged.

What fragrance did I wear? For the night before I drenched myself in Gucci Envy Me and then for the day I wore Gucci Eau de Parfum, tonight I will wear Gucci No 3, tomorrow I will wear Gucci Envy Men.

RIP Gucci Marie Turbo

Here are some shots of our last days together.

Final family photo, it was a sad moment but thank goodness for Kath & Jin. No one could ask for better people in their lives.

Gucci’s last morning, she is telling me it can’t be time to wake up yet.

Jin says his final goodbye before going to work.

Once Jin has left Gucci & I scurry onto the main bed. He He he. Don’t tell Jin.

Here is Gucci’s last photo. I walked her the two short blocks to the vet so I wouldn’t have to drive afterwards. We took 20 minutes to get there because Gucci needed to stop and rest and also to give her one last sniff of this world. It looks like she is smiling but in reality she cannot breathe and is desperately trying to get some air.

The vet was so sweet. Every time she sees Gucci she asks what we did to keep her in such good condition, even though she can’t breathe and she has lost a lot of weight she still has silky soft fur, is alert and looks old but healthy.

Gucci had the needle, looked me straight in my eyes and was desperately trying to communicate something (I’m so stupid I couldn’t tell if it was Thank you or Why?) and with the vet repeating “Good Girl” and me repeating “Thank You” and “Good Luck Gucci” she went on to the next big adventure.

Farewell my beautiful skinny blonde bitch, there is now a Gucci shaped hole in my world.

Thank you all for your messages. Be well.
Portia xx

Scent Eating Skin: Fact or Fiction

January 12, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 57 Comments

Post by Val the Cookie Queen

New Year´s Salutations APJ.

I saw the New Year in wearing Bandit EdP and Extrait together. An old fragrance but new to me. I received a large decant of the EdP as a gift and went straight out and bought the Extrait. Sometimes you just know. I have made two perfume related resolutions for the new year. Not to walk around with my nose glued to my wrist, as it totally distorts my impressions, being the first. The scent sticks in my nose cavity and that is useless. Second, I am not going to investigate note lists before trying anything new, which will mean walking round the Esxence in Milan with a blindfold on I expect. Just looking at a list stops me from trying so much. Not that I expect to like any more than I usually do, but you never know!

Scent Eating Skin: Fact or Fiction

Each time I come across the phrase “on my scent eating skin” I roll my eyes loudly. I have done absolutely no research on this subject matter, presuming it to be a myth; but a more serious interest wast triggered by a panic phone call from a dear perfumista (S) friend about a month ago. She had ordered and received a bottle of perfume that she had loved on me. Not exactly a blind by as she had spent the best part of a day continually sniffing my hand. As we perfume geeks do.

“Val, I generously sprayed this perfume on and in less than ten minutes it is GONE.” Dead. Deceased. Departed. Finished. Spent. Exhausted. It is no more. Bringing to mind Monty Python´s Dead Parrot Sketch. I quietly rolled my eyes, a little unsure at this point. “Perhaps there has been mistake at the production end?” she asked me. I doubted it but stranger things have happened.

Wikipedia

Weird. I hopped on a train to Vienna to smell this thing for myself. It is always better to have a witness in a serious situation so we called in the help of another perfumista (M). The three of us sat comfortably around a table, ordered breakfast and cracked out the bottle in question. With intently serious faces, for this was a scientific analysis, S and I heftily spritzed. M remained on the sideline as an impartial judge.

Before breakfast arrived the perfume (an EdP by the way) on S had disintegrated. Disappeared. Time elapsed was probably around ten minutes. I got about 12 hours out of it. WTF? M was equally stunned. S told us that this was not the only fragrance that disappeared on her. I must admit over the years I have been gobsmacked at the amount of fragrance that S sprays not to even mention the fact that she FINISHES bottles, something I have never done. I should add here that I also generously dabbed S in a favorite extrait of mine (guess) and within 45 minutes it was also history. Perturbed.

Pixabay

I don´t think I own a perfume that gives me less than 12 hours of pleasure minimum. It has truly got me wondering. Are skins really that different? Is that why S smells a million dollars in Amouage and I do not?

There is a happy ending to the story. I received the aforemetioned ordered bottle for Christmas. 🙂

Dear readers of APJ, perhaps you could be kind enough to take time for a quick comment? Do you have an opinion on the scent eating skin theory. Do some skins just outright reject fragrances? Are S and I at opposite ends of the spectrum, both being extreme? It is no wonder that I am scared spitless of spraying something unknown onto my skin if I have to live with it for the next fortnight.

Flickr

Wishing you all strength for 2016.
Keep on truckin’.

Bussis
CQ

Bat by Ellen Covey for Zoologist Perfumes 2015

January 11, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 24 Comments

Post by Azar

Hello APJ,

There has been a lot of buzz about bats on perfume blogs of late directly related to the new Bat fragrance created by Ellen Covey for Victor Wong of Zoologist Perfumes, Toronto. Ellen has an uncanny ability to recreate the ambient fragrance of places where she has lived, worked and visited. On her Olympic Orchids website, there is an entire category devoted to “Scents of Place”. The Bat fragrance, to my nose, is definitely about a place (a cave) and does not, thankfully, smell like its namesake. On the perfume bottle, the portrait of the bat created by Victor Wong’s colleague Daisy Chan, appears to be some kind of leaf nosed fruit bat (Dermanura sp.), While a few bats are reported to have pleasant odors most do not, at least as far as we humans are concerned.

Over the years, as part of her university work on bat hearing and echolocation, Ellen has visited bat habitats throughout the Americas. If any perfumer on the planet is qualified to create a fragrance for a bat cave it is Dr. Ellen Covey!

Bat by Zoologist Perfumes 2015

Bat by Ellen Covey

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Banana, fruity notes, soil tincture
Heart: Fig, tropical fruits, myrrh, resins, green notes
Base: Musk, leather, vetiver, sandalwood, tonka bean

My first impression of Bat recalls the smell of parched earth moistened by rain, the fragrance of roots, vetiver, lime and a breath of banana (a la Todd Oldham). There is something about this combination of fruit, dirt, wet stone and vetiver that evokes not only the damp darkness of a cave but the magical lore surrounding the creature itself. As the fragrance dries the smell of petrichor changes as Bat takes on the scent of raw beets, decomposing leaves, friable humus, peat moss, musk, figs and myrrh. This description sounds a bit heavy but, like the smell of peat moss, it is vegetal and light. To me the heart of Bat is a scent for gardeners and people who love the smell of cool, rich earth and green growing things. As time passes the fragrance becomes progressively lighter and cooler with a kind of effervescent quality that suggests the airborne grace of bats in flight. At about 40 minutes sandalwood and tonka bean lift Bat into a woody, vanilla realm that, combined with earth elements, musk and banana, create a comfortingly sweet, fuzzy effect lasting for hours.

Flickr

With the exception of the initial impression of petrichor, Bat is really quite shy. Sillage is, at the most, moderate and the fragrance remains relatively intimate for hours.

Have you tried Bat or any of the Zoologist perfumes? Tell us what you think. Also stay tuned for more about Bat. In March I will be doing a Mega-Draw for all the fragrances I’ve reviewed in January and February 2016.

Zoologist Perfumes has $125/60ml

Azar xx

New Year, New You? Beauty Resolutions

January 10, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 9 Comments

Post by AF Beauty

Hi APJ,

So we’ve had Christmas and New Year – if you’re reading this on the right day, you might still be swearing to never drink again, you might be cancelling your credit cards because you’ve lost them in a cab and you might be looking in the mirror at your face and wondering where the last year went!

But rather than look back, this week I’m going to challenge you to start anew and set some beauty resolutions! Here are my three:
I’ve had a few busy weeks through November and December and I’ve fallen into the bad habit of…. *hides with shame*…. going to bed without washing off my make up! GASP!!!

This is up there with the most heinous beauty crimes of all time. Of course, few things could be worse for your skin. You’ve had makeup on all day – or you might’ve exposed your face to the elements, including pollution, sun and a dozen other nasties. If you fail to wash it off, well, this way madness lies. You skin’s pores get clogged, your skin dries out and you wake up looking like you’ve partied all night, not worked all day!

New Year, New You? Beauty Resolutions

Flickr

So my first resolution will be to wash my face every night. My first choice will be nanna-cleansing and next choice will be Simple’s Micellar water wipes.

WikiMedia

Second, and this applies specifically to those of us who either like the sun, or find ourselves in the sun through location (*waves from Sydney*) The sun is an interesting beast, we can’t live without sunlight, but equally overexposure can lead to leathery dry skin. Type leathery skin into google and switch to images for the full horror.

My point is that sunshine is not good for the aging of your skin. Yes it’s good for Vitamin D, but you can get this through very little sun exposure but also, depending on the time of year and your location, maybe not at all. This article explains it simply.

So you have a few ways to avoid over exposure to sun. The first is the simplest, avoid it! Stay out of the sun during the hottest hours, you could use an umbrella shade or wear a hat. Your second option is to wear sunscreen. There is a LOT of debate about sunscreen and which is the most effective. For the purposes of skin protection, I’d be going for a zinc oxide base – the downside is it’s not very attractive, but then, neither are age spots.

Pixabay

The last resolution is face masks! I’ve written about masks before – a few different sorts, yet as much as I’ve written about them, I use them inconsistently and probably don’t get all the benefits. There is, I think a balance here of not going over the top with masks, I won’t be wearing a different mask each day of the week! This year I am planning to evaluate my skin monthly and choose a monthly mask that I’ll wear once or twice a week, depending on what challenges I face.

What are your top three beauty resolutions? Did you make resolutions last year? Which did you keep?

Lunch + Sniff: Great Afternoon Fun

January 9, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 10 Comments

Post by Portia

One of the things that we really like to do here in Sydney is organise to meet up with mates and share some happy sniffing times. Over lunch, a cuppa or even an alcoholic beverage should the atmosphere be conducive we sniff and chatter, gossip and parse. No one else ever quite gets the excitement of a vintage find or an extravagant splurge. It’s really nice to be able to use the vocabulary of scent with people who speak it.

Lunch + Sniff: Great Afternoon Fun

Something else super fun about having a lunch + Sniff is that you get to try things previously off your radar, out of your price range or so far out of your personal comfort zone and all at no cost other than a spot of lunch. There’s also the fun of meeting someone else who adores that thing your other friends would prefer you not wear, a scent twin, a J.F. Schwarzlose Berlin, Knize, DIOR, Humiecki & Graef or vintage Rochas Femme aficionado. The thrill of hanging out with someone else who even knows what you mean when you say these things is undeniable. Lately I have been quite lucky and over the holiday period have had two chances to Sniff + Lunch.

Both days were spent in the Art Gallery of NSW Members Lounge. I love it there, food is cheap, comfortable seating and they let us spray (Except one day when we fumigated the place with vintage Ungaro Diva) to our hearts content. Currently the walls are hung with about 12 Lloyd Rees paintings that would usually be kept in the vaults, they change the Members Lounge exhibition regularly and it’s always interesting pieces unseen in the main gallery areas.

Scott, Sonya and I are catching up pre-Christmas and smelling vintage CHANEL, Nina Ricci, Guy Laroche and a few others. Sonya & I are so busy it’s rare that we get a chance to chat properly and it was terrific fun. We all discussed fragrance and our addiction to both the scents and the shopping for them, kids, jobs, family, home and the upcoming Christmas festivities. Besides the catch up stuff it was also really good to listen to Scott & Sonya chat fragrance, their noses and ability to parse are well above mine and it’s always instructional to listen to them when they strike fragrant gold.

Here Tim and I smelling the newest Dawn Spencer Hurwitz fragrances, vintage DIOR & CHANEL and some of the early Oliver & Co fragrances. Tim is an avid enthusiast and his fragrance sniffing history is more the menswear reals so I like to bring him some unusual, interesting and vintage stuff. We spend most of the time laughing. It was really fun getting our first sniff of the new DSH lines together, his assistance invaluable in helping me understand the different levels of fragrance held within their gorgeous folds. Yes, there will be a couple of reviews in the near future.

Do you ever get to spend Sniff + Lunch time? It’s so worth it and you learn a LOT more in company.
Can’t find any perfumistas in your area? Try the facebook fragrance boards, here are three of my favourites: Australian Fragrance Network, Facebook Fragrance Friends or Peace, Love & Perfume. You could also start a Meet-Up group in your area, you’ll be surprised how many people nearby are into fragrance.

Who has too many friends? Nobody. Imagine spending some time once a month, or every couple of months, with people who get you…… Be the change you want to see in the new year. Make 2016 the year you connect with some fumies in real life.
Portia xx

Gucci: 200?-2016

January 8, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 88 Comments

Post by Portia

WARNING: TRAGIC UN FRAG RELATED SOPPINESS AHEAD

Hey APJ,

Since 2005 I have had 2 best friends. Kath that you know and one you probably don’t know so much about.

Let me give you some history to help you understand. Both my parents died quite early, both age 64 years 10 months, 11 years apart and we were late life children for them. Once they were gone my sister became a Jehovah’s Witness and a gay, drag queen brother does not fit into that life in any way. I do have cousins but most live at far corners of the country and others have become unavailable for a variety of reasons.

When Mum died two families stepped up to heal the wounds and especially my BFF Kath. It’s amazing how love can heal the breach caused by heartache. During this time I was also conducting an on again off again 10 year relationship with a subcontinental Indian man, 2+ years with him here in Sydney and 8 more with him in India.

At the time NSW greyhound rehomers had a problem with putting greyhounds in apartments, I still don’t understand why because they are the perfect apartment dogs. Having done my research though and knowing that it was perfectly feasible I looked further afield. There were 3 that I had my eye on but at the start of January a woman in Perth who I had been in contact with about another dog asked if I would take a young fawn bitch who was due to be killed the next day. She had fallen in love with this beautiful, placid, ex Grand Champion and did not want to see her killed. The die was cast.

On the same day that my mother died, a few years later, another skinny blonde bitch came into my life. Gucci, the retired racing greyhound (racing name Diamond Starlight). She could have been the doggy reincarnation of my mother, smart, beautiful, willfull, naughty, funny and full of boundless energy, affection and unconditional love. Gucci was also the perfect size to curl up with on the couch. She arrived in a crate off an airplane, the moment I locked eyes with her I was lost. She was, and is, the most elegant of her line. Regal, arrogant, self assured and the ultimate Egyptian and Art Deco accessory that any drag queen could hope to be owned by.

I’m not saying it was easy. It was NOT. There was a battle of wills of titanic proportions. She would show her displeasure at my non attendance by destroying things. One morning I came into the lounge to find she had disemboweled a 25 year old King Furniture leather couch that had been my mothers pride & joy, not to mention the most comfortable crash site ever. Coming home from work one morning to find that she had shredded one of my most gorgeous gowns and had pulled off every diamante before tearing it apart. Stairs were a nightmare because she’d never seen them and getting her to sit took nearly two months (every foster dog we’ve had since learns stairs & sit in a week because she shows them how). I had to put empty tin cans tied together on the kitchen bench so when she jumped up the noise of them falling would scare the shit out of her, to the point where she now needs to be invited to walk on tiles. There were times we both despaired.

98% of the time though she was perfect. The very best things a companion can be. Everything you’ve heard, read or lived about dogs that is wonderful, it was describing Gucci.

Now though she is old. Can’t walk as well, trouble seeing, breathing is becoming impossible when she is excited, has gone off her food. You can’t tell by looking but she is ready to go, this life has become a burden for her.

Next Wednesday, at 10am, 11 years to the day since this incredible, magical, wonderful love of my life, the bright eyed, eager, loving and charming girl that has shown me so much about love, acceptance, sharing and fun has to be put down. I cannot tel you what an ocean of pain this gives me. Writing this farewell has taken nearly a box of tissues and I am ugly crying like Toni Collette in Muriel’s Wedding. Snot, dribble, can’t even breathe crying, crying like a lost and wounded child. The call to the vet took nearly 10 minutes because I could not get the words out.

This is what I wrote after making that call. Yes, so over the top and ridiculously dramatic but fuck it, I am dramatic. It’s in the blood.

I am laid waste, desolate and barren but for pain, searing agony of terror

alone

Breathing is impossible

How will I even

Ever

Wretched. I am undone

How can

Heart is breaking. Mind is numb.

FOG

Thank you for the unrelenting love and fun and craziness and running and cuddles and

thank you, my love

everything’s easier with you on my side and when you had my back I ruled the world

thank you

Thank you forever.

Portia

Impromptu by Roxana Villa for Roxana Illuminated Perfume 2012

January 7, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 19 Comments

Post by Portia

Hi there,

Natural perfume is a term often reviled by perfumistas. It’s an interesting conundrum because people say they are looking for something different and unusual, a fragrance to blow away the cobwebs of humdrum yet when offered something completely outside their sphere of reference it seems that they only want something different that’s pretty much the same. Is it the human condition in a nutshell? Roxana makes fragrances that are completely and utterly different, they are attached to no familiar trope, speak of the earth and plants that they are produced from and have a connection to the powers of the plants themselves. When I wear a fragrance by Roxana it’s as if I’m an active participant of the world’s natural green spaces.

Impromptu by Roxana Illuminated Perfume 2012

Impromptu by Roxana Villa

Photo Stolen Roxana Illuminated Perfume

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Woody notes, herbal notes, camphor, geranium, leather, tarragon, basil, clary sage, mimosa

Impromptu, even dabbed, opens larger than life. That it is so real, earthy and alive is so totally unexpected after wearing designer and niche mainly. You have to let your nose recalibrate a bit. Deep earthy green, like a sexy swamp lady, I smell moss, river water and weed, herbs, torn fig leaves, mown lawn and compost, and some spices. You’ll not find anything this wild, untamed and confronting at your local fragrance counter. Impromptu is the good stuff.

Impromptu opens angular, green and spiky. Challenging and unashamed it wraps tender green shoots around your heart and sets root in your soul. Spicy woods and still a herbal tint fill the fragrance heart and much of the ferocity has left. Imagine hiding in the wood shed next to the kitchen and someone is cooking curry, there is also a smoky fire somewhere nearby maybe it’s a wood stove.

Photo Stolen Roxana Illuminated Perfume

A couple of hours later and still my skin is thrumming with a woodsy green but now the spiciness is cut through with leather, old shoe leather, some well loved and oiled boots. Further in my skin throws a beautiful amber that takes Impromptu into a warmer, friendlier environment. Not sweet but resinous and shiny, woods that have been waxed shiny in a room lit by the warmth of a fire.

Further reading: EauMG and Australian Perfume Junkies
Roxana Illuminated Perfume has $12/1grm EdP

Do you know Rovane Illuminated Perfume? Have you ever tried naturals?
Portia xx

Vanilla Weddings in the South Pacific

January 6, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 5 Comments

Post by Suzanne R Banks

Hi APJ,

A vanilla wedding in the South Pacific? How about hundreds of them every year? Forge on to discover how organic vanilla is grown on the tropical island of Lifou in New Caledonia, with my gorgeous pics!

Vanilla Weddings in the South Pacific

The vanilleraie on Lifou

On my recent trip to New Caledonia I found a small organic vanilla plantation in the Botanic Garden on the island of Lifou. Watch the story unfold ….

In a nutshell:

Mexican vanilla was introduced by the missionaries in the 1800’s
The plantation is growing each year as more vines are planted – cuttings are taken from the original vines
It takes about 7 years from planting to produce beans
The plant flowers in October to November
The flowers are not scented

This is the beautiful vanilla flower

As the plants are an introduced species the local insects and birds do not pollinate the flower – this has to be done by hand
The male organ in the flower is gently touched to the female organ – this is the pollinating process
Pollinating must be done in the morning as the flowers close in the afternoon
Once the flower has dried and died, the vanilla beans grow

The young vanilla bean

When the time is right the beans are picked and plunged into boiling water for 3 minutes
The beans are dried in both sun and shade for 3 months then placed into aging boxes to develop – just like wine
Lifou currently sends all its harvest to Noumea but is aspiring to export worldwide when the crops are more bountiful

My wonderful guide

It was so hot and the tour continued onto other beautiful sights, like a tribal hut and he Cliffs of Jokin. I wish I had asked a few more questions but the tour party pressed on. And I can’t believe I forgot my guide’s name. The heat got into my brain!

The Cliffs of Jokin

The picture does not do the water justice – it was a stunning turquoise blue. We also spotted a shark swimming around.

(Ed: All photos donated by Suzanne R Banks)

Remember to treat yourself first, then everyone will benefit.

********************************************************************************

Like our Facebook page to stay tuned for more info on the inaugural

Australasian Artisan Botanical Perfume Expo in Sydney, 24th April 2016

********************************************************************************

Check out my YouTube Channel too, thanks
Suzanne R Banks Blog
Suzanne R Banks Aromatherapy
Suzanne R Banks FaceBook

Please check out my new book REVELATION! – Reveal Your Destiny with Essential Oils

Amazon USA Amazon AU Amazon UK

Silver Musk by Alessandro Gualtieri for Nasomatto 2007

January 5, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 8 Comments

Post by Ainslie Walker

Hello APJ-ers!

I hope you all had a great festive season and were surrounded by/heard from those you love. Also, that you found time to remember those who did not make it to this New Year. A reminder to ensure those you hold dear always know that you do. It’s too easy to be caught up in the “busy” and never stop to touch base.

I took a day to switch off and read a book that wasn’t about scents or perfume. This only seems to happen once a year and if I’m 100% honest, it did actually make mention of Dior’s Eau Sauvage! Last year it was Vivienne Westwood’s autobiography and this year it was Patti Smith’s Just Kids.

Book Deporitory

The book describes Patti and her soul mate Robert Mapplethorpe’s artistic lives and their evolving relationship from the late 60’s through to the late 80’s, predominantly in New York. Tenants of the infamous Chelsea Hotel – the heart of boundless bohemian ingenuity. Names of individuals who went on to become well known artists, poets, models, drag queens, playwrights, muses and musicians are bountiful throughout the pages. What a moment in history! The book runs in chronological order and references pertinent deaths and historical highlights of these epochal years. It’s easy to imagine being there as it is such a personal account. Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, William Burroughs, Lou Reed/The Velvet Underground, Candy Darling, Edie Sedgwick, Allen Ginsberg, Vali Myers all get a mention, just to name a few.

Not mentioned above is of course Andy Warhol. His friends, work and The Factory scene weave in and out of the storyline and this led me to think about what fragrance I would scent him with.

Silver Musk by Nasomatto 2007

Silver Musk by Alessandro Gualtieri

Fragrantica

Parfumo gives these featured accords:
Top: Citric notes
Heart: Powdery notes
Base: Musk

I chose Nasomatto’s Silver Musk. Its clean, quirky and fuzzy, futuristic scent seems to fit Andy’s avant-garde style and pioneering ideas of the time. The scent creates an ambience of what people thought things would be like in the 2000’s when looking towards them from the 70’s/80’s. Remember the cartoon, The Jetson’s? Lifestyles like that. There is an ethereal and earthy beauty to this fragrance, which is only described on fragrantica as “musky.” To me there is white and grey ash, oak-mossy ozone, aluminium filings, lavender herb soap on clean skin, light tobacco and something coniferous like spruce, fir or pine. The drydown sweetens and smokes. Humming. Spacey. Aquatic. Elfin. Elegant. Volcanic. Mercurial. Otherworldly. Musky enough to have me imagining Warhol’s pale skin sweating gently under his polyester skivvy.

Flickr

I really love this one and gifted it to my dad last Christmas. Anyone who enjoys the eccentric molecule series and pheromones concept should try this clean musk…think Andy with his scruffy hair – the silver mop, wrapped in some sort of neat yet particular flared suit combo. Silver musk is like a polaroid, a snapshot of just one moment in the journey Afternoon of a Faun by Etat Libre d’Orange takes us on…. if the faun was trotting along somewhere silvery, mercurial and out in space.

Further reading: Nathan Branch and Scent For Thought
Libertine Parfumerie has $230/30ml with FREE Australian Delivery
LuckyScent has US$185/30ml + Samples

Tell me a celebrity or book character and a fragrance you’d love to douse them with!

Australian Perfume Junkies

Olfactory Opinions from Oz

Author: australianperfumejunkiescom

Everything’s Coming Up Russian Roses

Everything’s Coming Up Russian Roses

Festival of Indie Perfumery in Russia 2015

RIP Gucci Marie Turbo 200? – 13.1.2016

RIP Gucci Marie Turbo

Bat by Ellen Covey for Zoologist Perfumes 2015

Bat by Zoologist Perfumes 2015

Bat by Ellen Covey

New Year, New You? Beauty Resolutions

New Year, New You? Beauty Resolutions

Lunch + Sniff: Great Afternoon Fun

Lunch + Sniff: Great Afternoon Fun

Gucci: 200?-2016

Impromptu by Roxana Villa for Roxana Illuminated Perfume 2012

Impromptu by Roxana Illuminated Perfume 2012

Impromptu by Roxana Villa

Vanilla Weddings in the South Pacific

Vanilla Weddings in the South Pacific

Silver Musk by Alessandro Gualtieri for Nasomatto 2007

Silver Musk by Nasomatto 2007

Silver Musk by Alessandro Gualtieri