RandomRec GIVEAWAY WINNERS!

December 11, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 2 Comments

Post by Portia

Hey Y’All,

Another great giveaway thanks to Azar!! Superstar.

Don’t forget the….

We are offering a special APJ ONLY 20% discount valid through December 31, 2015. To receive the discount and a free packet of randomly chosen perfume samples with your order enter the code – APJ20 – at checkout.

Please hop over to the RandomRec.com site

Happy Holidays!

RandomRec GIVEAWAY WINNERS!

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

USA: 1 x Lolita Lempicka Elle L’aime 1.4 oz EdP
Elsewhere: Lolita Lempicka Elle L’aime 6.7 oz body milk
P&H Worldwide

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Thursday 10th December 2015 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org

Photo Stolen markmontanoblogs

RuthF for Elsewhere

FeralJasmine for the USA

CONGRATULATIONS!! The winners will have till Monday 14th December 2015 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.

Resurrecting RandomRec

December 7, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 28 Comments

Post by Azar

Season’s Greetings APJ!

Last year, about this time, a dear friend and I decided that we needed to clean up our lives. Our stuff was running us out of our homes and taking over every bit of storage space we could find.

Resurrecting RandomRec

We decided to put selected items, new and gently used, up for sale on a website we called RandomRec, signifying random acts of re-circulation and redistribution. To make a short story even shorter, we didn’t get far with RandomRec because all we did was stash a small fraction of our stuff in virtual storage and then promptly forgot about it, the same thing we were doing with it in real time and space! Running a garage sale online takes hours of effort and neither of us seemed to have any of that to spare in 2015. As the treasures continued to languish in our closets and drawers we resolved, for 2016, to resurrect RandomRec, rotate and add new inventory, offer sales and specials and try to create some sort of visibility for the site.

That being said we’ve decided to do a give-away to help jump-start the new, improved RandomRec and here it is: There will be two prizes, one for US residents and one for those living anywhere else on the planet. The name drawn in the US category will receive one brand new, in the box, Lolita Lempicka Elle L’aime 1.4 oz EdP. See the review here on APJ Elle l’Aime review. The winner in the “anywhere else” category will receive one brand new, in the box, Lolita Lempicka Elle L’aime 6.7 oz body milk.

Happy Holidays!

Azar xx

Photo Stolen AllSteele

RandomRec GIVEAWAY!

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

USA: 1 x Lolita Lempicka Elle L’aime 1.4 oz EdP
Elsewhere: Lolita Lempicka Elle L’aime 6.7 oz body milk
P&H Worldwide

HOW DO YOU WIN?

Yes, you can start following to enter, in fact it’s encouraged. 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 (portia underscore turbo @ yahoo dot com dot au) so I know.

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

USA or Elsewhere

and

Please hop over to the RandomRec.com site, check the perfume category, name one fragrance and tell us why you think you might love or hate it.

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Thursday 10th December 2015 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org
The winner will have till Monday 14th December 2015 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.

Moistfull Super Collagen Cream by Etude House

November 23, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 21 Comments

Post by Azar

Hello APJ,

I know that we already have our very own beauty editor here at APJ – AF Beauty – who does a fantastic job of keeping us updated on skin care and make-up. Nevertheless I just had to comment on a few skin care samples that Portia sent my way a few months ago.

Korean skin care is all the rage lately. Ever since Soo Ae, the famous Korean actress, started her own line several years ago I have wanted to give Korean beauty products a try. Unfortunately what I could find locally was limited and quite expensive. Within the last year (or has it been longer?) the products from the Korean skin care company Etude House have been made available to US buyers through the Etude House website and on Amazon. Portia’s samples of Etude House products, picked up on a recent visit to Korea, have turned me into a Korean skincare junkie.

After seeing some recent photos of myself I knew that something had to change! Short of surgery there isn’t too much a woman of my age can do about sagging skin, but I really think that the first of Portia’s samples I tried actually helped to give my skin a smoothing lift.

Moistfull Super Collagen Cream by Etude House

Etude House Moistfull Super Collagen Cream, containing 63% hydrolyzed collagen from seaweed, is a light weight cream with a gel-like consistency that glides onto the skin leaving a moist finish, brightening the complexion, smoothing the look of lines and wrinkles and giving the appearance of a slight lift to drooping skin and to that dreaded dewlap. The effect was immediately noticeable after a single application. I quickly used up the two samples from Portia and ordered this product and several other Etude House items on Amazon. The Super Collagen cream continues to impress. There is also a non-super version of this cream. The formula is a little different. I definitely prefer the Super version. I also find that the Etude House Moistful Super Collagen Eye Concentrate relieves under-eye puffiness and the Pearl Aura Brightening Essence revives dull looking skin.

I don’t imagine I will totally abandon my old favorites by Orlane and Paula’s Choice. They seem to work to minimize enlarged pores and reduce wrinkles. However, the Etude House products are at least as effective for a slightly lower price than Paula’s Choice and are considerably less expensive than anything by Orlane that isn’t past the pull date.

I won’t include any more “before and after” photos here today as I am not equipped to do selfies. You will just have to take my word for it – I think that these products might actually work!

Have you tried the Korean skin care lines? Do you have a favorite brand that you use regularly? Despite my love of these products I often find myself wondering if using any kind of skincare is just a big waste of time and money. What do you think?

Azar xx

Aramis Calligraphy Series

November 9, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 61 Comments

Post by Azar

Hello APJ,

The art of calligraphy is the stylized rendition of a word or text. Just so, the Aramis Calligraphy fragrances are stylized versions of classic middle-eastern perfumes.

About two months ago the three beautiful EdPs in the Aramis Calligraphy Series landed in the discount bins of several on-line retailers. As far as I can tell these brand new, in the box bargains are authentic. Has the line been discontinued? Did the initial targeting of the middle-eastern market prove to be a mistake? Whatever the case may be, it is now possible to purchase 100 ml for less than a third to slightly over half of the original prices.

Let me tell you a little about the series. To start, the bottles are adorned with the stunning calligraphy of Lebanese graphic artist Tarek Atrissi. His artwork represents the name of the jus in each bottle – “Calligraphy”, “Rose” and “Saffron”.

Aramis Calligraphy Series

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Aramis Calligraphy by Trudi Loren – 2012
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Cardamom, lemon, cinnamon
Heart: Myrrh, saffron, rose
Base: Patchouli, amber, musk, agarwood

This first fragrance impresses me with a spare, astringent opening that quickly morphs to a woody, rosy lemon scent. As Calligraphy dries I cannot detect any of the rich, dense barnyard or medicinal aspects that characterize many oud oils. I don’t get a lot of amber either. The base notes are quite woody but extremely light, just a breath, really. From beginning to end (no more than 8 hours) this is an understated and shy scent, perfect for the man (or woman) who doesn’t want to come on too strong but who would like to be remembered as aloof, elegant and refined.

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Aramis Calligraphy Rose by Trudi Loren – 2013
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Oregano, saffron, honeysuckle
Heart: Turkish rose, myrrh, styrax, lavender
Base: Labdanum, musk, ambergris, olibanum.

Calligraphy Rose opens with a fresh, green, resinous rose that quickly warms to caramel, perhaps the result of the combination of styrax and the other resinoids with the ambergris and saffron. Eventually a powdery, masculine herbal effect makes it clear that this fragrance, despite being suffused with rosy incense from top to bottom, was designed to be unisex. Calligraphy Rose lasts forever on clothing and about 12 hours on my skin. It is much bolder than the first Calligraphy but manages to maintain the elegant and refined vibe of the original.

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Aramis Calligraphy Saffron by Clement Gavarry – 2014
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, marigold
Heart: Saffron, Turkish rose absolute, lavender
Base: Tonka absolute, styrax, vetiver

About a year ago Portia referred to this fragrance as “an extremely sensual glamour puss”! Calligraphy Saffron is SO glamorous that it won the Fragrance Foundation’s Perfume Extraordinaire Award for 2015. Saffron opens with bright marigold and saffron. A little sharp, a little earthy perhaps, but not for long. In no time this beauty starts pumping out more saffron, styrax, rose and tonka , becoming richer and warmer as the hours go by – eight to twelve on my skin and much longer on clothing. Like the other two fragrances in the series the sillage is relatively discrete – for a “glamour puss”!

Today’s Giveaway: One winner will receive a set of three 2ml decants representing the Aramis Calligraphy Series. To be eligible for the draw, please tell us how you follow APJ and let us know why you think fragrances similar to the Calligraphy scents end up in the discount bins.

Azar xx

Photo Stolen AllSteele

Aramis Calligraphy Series GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 winner who will receive:
1 x 2ml decant of the 3 Aramis Calligraphy Series fragrances
Calligraphy
Calligraphy Rose
Calligraphy Saffron
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 (portia underscore turbo @ yahoo dot com dot au) 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 how you think fragrances like the Calligraphy scents end up in the discount bins

Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie Aramis Calligraphy Series #GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p3PURw-4rx @EsteeLauder #Perfume @Giveaway

Entries Close Thursday 12th November 2015 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winner will be chosen by random.org
The winner will have till Sunday 15th November 2015 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.

Curve Kicks by Liz Claiborne 2006

October 26, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 22 Comments

Post by Azar

Hi APJ Pals,

Perfume junkies know that fragrance has a profound and powerful effect on emotions and memories. A perfume can literally make us happy, chemically force us into a state of bliss, put a spring in our step, a smile on our face and infuse our entire being with energetic optimism. Today I’m going to talk about a fragrance that does all of the above for me, my favorite cheap thrill in a perfume bottle – Curve Kicks for Women by Liz Claiborne.

Curve Kicks by Liz Claiborne 2006

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Melon, mandarin orange, cassia, pear
Heart: Peony, passionfruit, freesia, lily-of-the-valley
Base: Sandalwood, vanilla, peach, vetiver, cedar

Kicks for Women is one of the 18 or so scents in the Liz Claiborne Curve Collection. That being said, parsing the notes in Kicks is really a meaningless exercise for me. Here is my experience of the fragrance.

Of all the cheapies in my collection Curve Kicks is my favorite. It has to be the least expensive fragrance I own and easily worth its weight in denatured alcohol. The price alone makes me smile, as does the bottle and the shiny metal can it comes in.

Photo Stolen Pixabay

Kicks opens with a totally synthetic fruit cocktail featuring warm peach and orange fruit cooling rapidly to pear, melon and wet spring florals. It would be easy to dismiss this stuff as your average teenybopper body spray – but wait! At about thirty minutes Kicks jump starts my olfactory memories and returns me to mid 20th century Central Florida and the smell of the citrus processing plants. If you have ever experienced that overpowering fragrance (some call it a stench) you will, for good or ill, never be able to forget it.

Photo Stolen Pexels

After about an hour or so in the processing plant, Kicks begins a long, lovely eight-hour dry down toward a final, quiet, almost elegant combination of powdery sandalwood, vanilla, cedar and a breath of peach all wrapped in a subtle wisp of processed citrus steam. The conspicuous absence of even the slightest reference to patchouli sets Curve Kicks apart from its contemporary fruit-chouli sisters. To summarize: Curve Kicks for Woman is fruity, chemical sunshine mixed with powdery, sweet woods, diluted in perfumer’s alcohol and packaged in metal, glass and glitter.

FragranceNet has $17/100ml before Coupon

Today’s draw: I will be giving away two Curve Kicks for Women 5.4 ml minis, shipping and handling everywhere. To be eligible for the draw please let us know how you follow APJ and tell us a little about a fragrance that really MAKES you happy – a perfume that FORCES you into a state of happiness!

Photo Stolen manoneileen

Curve Kicks GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

Today’s giveaway: There are two prizes, one each.
Curve Kicks for Women 5.4 ml minis
P&H Worldwide

HOW DO YOU WIN?

To be eligible please tell us how you follow APJ

AND

Tell us a little about a fragrance that really MAKES you happy – a perfume that FORCES you into a state of happiness!

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Thursday 29th October 2015 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winner will be chosen by random.org
The winner will have till Sunday 1st November 2015 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.

The Mini Museum & Esscentual Alchemy – Unguent, Unguentarium & U Tour

October 12, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 18 Comments

Post by Azar

Hello APJ,

Several years ago both Brad and I collected all kinds of antiques. We were such crazy collectors that at one point our home began to take on the aspect of a museum. When we moved from that very old house (by American standards an antique in it’s own right) into a larger, more “modern” 1960s home, we gave away or sold many of our old “treasures”. In our new house we resolved to maintain a clean, spare look and try not to become burdened by our stuff. Well, as you probably have guessed, that resolution didn’t last. These days we don’t feel quite so driven to possess used things but we still like the look and feel of something old. I believe that I can sense another person’s way of life or spirit in a vintage piece, not unlike the experience of using someone else’s pen or pencil. For example, when I play a friend’s musical instrument I find it has taken on certain aspects of the musicality of the person who regularly uses it. This phenomenon may be the result of an actual physical change in the instrument’s materials brought on by years of exposure to the player’s individual style.

The Mini Museum & Esscentual Alchemy

Unguent, Unguentarium & U Tour

That being said, toward the end of the summer we were eagerly awaiting the arrival of an unguentarium and two other ancient miniature glass pieces from the Mini Museum’s Unguent, Unguentarium and U Tour. It was a weird experience when we finally opened the boxes. The unguentarium, a very small (just over 4cm high) mouth blown glass bottle, encrusted with sediment, was from the early Roman period, circa the 1st century A.D. It was carefully packaged in sand to give the impression of an archeological dig. An unguentarium (from the Latin unguentarius, a perfumer or dealer in unguents) is a small vessel designed to hold liquid, solid or semi-solid perfumes, cosmetics, perfumed oils, etc. These little bottles can still be found in ancient Greek and Roman sites, especially in tombs.

My favorite of the three artifacts was a longer (7.30 cm), narrower and seemingly more delicate bottle, also of mouth blown glass dating from roughly the same period. This lovely little piece was called a lachrymatory – a vessel for tears or a tear catcher – also used to hold perfumes, fragrant oils and unguents. It is believed that the ancients used these bottles to gather their tears, burying them with their deceased loved ones.

The third artifact was a tiny blown glass mold form probably created around 50. A.D. in Phoenicia (modern Lebanon).

In addition to the three ancient minis there were two modern perfume samples, created by perfumer Amanda Feeley of Essential Alchemy specifically for this Mini Museum traveling unguentraium project. Here is a brief description of these fragrances from the museum’s fact sheets:

” ‘Helena’ is the chosen name for both the ancient vessel…and the commissioned re-creation of [an] ancient Roman unguent by perfumer, Amanda Feeley. In her meditation with the vial, Amanda ‘felt an image of a woman in a garden on a warm, spring day’…The end result was her ‘Helena’ – the reconstructed, oil-based fragrance of 30% parfum concentration and ‘Helena MMXIV’ – the brighter, alcohol-based eau de parfum…”

For more information about these beautiful fragrances check Amanda Feeley’s website. I understand there will be another Unguentarium Tour next year. If you are interested in the project contact Allen at the Miniature Perfume Shoppe/Mini Museum

Azar xx

Todd Oldham by Parlux 1995

September 28, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 26 Comments

Post by Azar

Hello APJ,

This week I am revisiting my favorite family in the Parlux clan, the boozy, amber-y, fruity scents originating with Anne Klein II ( 1985 by Yves Tauguy), continuing to Todd Oldham (1995 by Jeffrey Dame et. al.) and finishing with Todd’s “daughters” (so to speak), Queen Latifah (2009) and Jessica Simpson Fancy Nights (2010), both by perfumer Steve DeMercado. This particular Parlux – Five Star Fragrance family template never seems to die. It is re-born and reformulated, renamed, repackaged and sent out into the world every decade or so to recapture our imaginations and put yet another small dent in our pocket books. Obviously I don’t have the space to write about the whole family today so I will limit myself to the second generation – Todd Oldham.

Todd Oldham by Parlux 1995

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, mandarin orange, peach
Heart: Jasmine, cinnamon, rose, fruity notes
Base: Musk, sandalwood, patchouli, amber, benzoin

Let me tell you a little about Todd Oldham:
In case you missed the 1990s (or were still dusting cobwebs off the moon at the time) Todd Oldham, designer of super fun and funky fashions, launched his first clothing line in 1989 and was hugely successful in ready to wear throughout the 90s. These days he continues to surprise and delight us with his interior designs and creative crafts for children and adults. This week I have been busy insulating the greenhouse with bubble wrap and found Todd Oldham’s video on creating t-shirt designs with this same bubbly material to be timely and appealing.

Todd Oldham the fragrance was put together in 1994/95 by the designer himself with the help of Jeffrey Dame, then VP of Sales and Marketing at Parlux.

Here are my perceived notes: Peach and Bananas! Over-ripe, dark, sweet bananas combined with squishy peach, at bit of orange and something oudy and woody. The opening is luscious and thick, a scent reminiscent of orchards at harvest time, redolent of rich, heavy, fruits verging on ferment and decay. This boozy fruit cocktail cools to banana cream pie perfumed with patchouli and spiced with cinnamon. As Todd Oldham dries down he morphs into one of my favorite synthetic flavors – banana Popsicle. This effect is much lighter than the initial peachy/banana/woody blast but still a far cry from my granddaughter’s fruitchouli! The sticky Popsicle lingers for several hours before it melts and warms again into a balsamic and amber-y confection with hints of rose and sandalwood.

Todd Oldham, although not as insistent as “daughter” Queen Latifah, is still a powerhouse fragrance. One spritz extends well beyond my personal space for at least an hour before settling down for the long haul, 8 hours or more on skin and forever on clothing.

Now back to the bubble wrap! Azar xx

Photo Stolen manoneileen

Todd Oldham GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

Today’s giveaway: There are two prizes.

One US resident winner will receive one extremely cute, 6.5 ml, boxed, vintage Todd Oldham EdP mini.

One NON US winner will receive one 2ml decant spray of Todd Oldham EdP and one 1ml decant of vintage Anne Klein II EdP.

HOW DO YOU WIN?

To be eligible please tell us how you follow APJ and if you are inside or outside the US.

Also give us your take on any of the fragrances mentioned in today’s post or a fave from the 1990s.

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Thursday 1st October 2015 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winner will be chosen by random.org
The winner will have till Sunday 4th October 2015 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.

The Artist Series by Dame Perfumery Scottsdale

August 24, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 43 Comments

Post by Azar

Hi APJ!

A few months ago I reviewed Dame Perfumery Scottsdale’s Matte, Heliotrope and Patchouli. Today’s post is a brief overview of the perfumes in Jeffrey Dame’s Artist Series.
Currently Dame Perfumery offers three lines: A group of eight EdTs for woman, three colognes for men and the unisex Artist Series, a group of three EdPs inspired by the visual art of Jeffrey Dame’s father, Dave Dame.

The Artist Series by Dame Perfumery Scottsdale

The first in the Artist Series,

Black Flower Mexican Vanilla – 2014
Here are the perfumer’s notes: Mexican vanilla absolute, lemon, grapefruit, caramel, nutmeg, gardenia, jasmine, sandalwood, patchouli, vetiver, musk and tonka bean.

Black Flower Mexican Vanilla grabs my attention with a concentrated, intense, smoky vanilla spiced with nutmeg and cinnamon. Additions of lemon and grapefruit keep it from sinking into sweet, heavy darkness. Even with the citrus and the listed caramel this EdP is definitely NOT your teenage daughter’s vanilla! As Black Flower Mexican Vanilla dries there is a momentary hint of a burnt cream and gardenia that quickly moves on to sandalwood, vetiver and a lingering edgy floral vanilla. A long-lived and bold fragrance with a powerful but never overwhelming sillage, suitable for both men and woman.

Desert Rose – 2015
Listed notes: Turkish rose otto, Damask rose, peach, Sicilian lemon, Egyptian jasmine, geranium, carnation, heliotrope, sandalwood, amber, musk and vanilla.

The first time I tried Desert Rose, on a very cold winter’s day, all I experienced was rose water and amber. Spritzing in summer proved to be much more rewarding. Desert Rose blooms in the heat with traces of dry pavement, rock and sand. The perfume progresses from a scorched, dusty rose to a buttery, peachy vanilla sparkling with citrus and spice, finishing with a suggestion of booze, amber and musk. Desert Rose is more intimate than Black Flower and lasts about six hours on my skin.

Dark Horse – 2015
Perfumer’s notes: Bergamot, lemon, cinnamon, jasmine, carnation, rose, cloves, guaiac wood oil, vetiver, vanilla and musk.

Dark Horse opens with an arresting and pithy lemon, tweaked with cloves and cinnamon. In a moment the fragrance transforms to jasmine and carnation supported by golden vanilla. At about five minutes carnation totally takes over and stays in place for at least an hour before the phenolic, oudy, vegetal sweetness of guaiac wood is revealed. At this point the perfume reminds me of my favorite woody fragrances by M. Micallef, projecting well and easily lasting ten hours on skin and longer on clothing. Toward the end of its long run Dark Horse wafts smoky vetiver, traces of musk and more carnation. This latest offering in the Dame Perfumery Artist Series is a truly beautiful and unique perfume for an unbelievably low price.

Every fragrance offered by Dame Perfumery Scottsdale is testament to Jeffrey Dame’s knowledge, creativity and years of experience and to the amazing skill of his perfumer/collaborator. The use of lemon in the Artist Series fragrances is masterful. The perfumer manages to totally avoid the smell of home cleaning products and the ubiquitous lemon bar, using lemon more as fragrance modifier than as a discrete fragrance note.

Dame Perfumery has 7ml Trial Size, perfect size to see how you love them.

Azar xx

Photo Stolen Kesha&Co

Dame Perfumery Artist Series Set GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 winner who will receive:
1 ml sample set of the 3 Dame Perfumery Artist Series
P&H Worldwide

HOW DO YOU WIN?

Open to anyone in the world who follow 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 (portia underscore turbo @ yahoo dot com dot au) 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 your favorite Jeffrey Dame fragrance or your most cherished vanilla perfume

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Thursday 27th August 2015 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org
The winners will have till Monday 31st August 2015 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.

Djinn by Marcus McCoy for House of Orpheus 2014

August 10, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 14 Comments

Post by Azar

Greetings APJ!

In mid July I received a fabulous surprise in my post box. Maggie Mahboubian, founder of FRAGments Artisan Perfume Collective, sent me a package filled with samples from the May 30th, 2015 FRAGments event in Los Angeles. An amazing selection of indie perfumes filled the little box, enough to keep me writing reviews for at least another year! I had no idea which one to try first. Searching for a new leather fragrance I found…Djinn by Marcus McCoy for the House of Orpheus.

Marcus McCoy is a Pacific Northwest independent perfumer whose background in psychology, ethno-botany, South American plant based shamanism and alchemy has inspired him to create a line of “talismanic” fragrances carefully crafted from wild sourced botanical materials. Marcus also runs a small distillery, Cascadia Terroir, an apothecary, Cascadia Botanical Apothecary and works with Catamara Rosarium formulating perfumes for Rosarium Blends.

Djinn by Marcus McCoy for House of Orpheus 2014

Photo Stolen House of Orpheus

House of Orpheus gives these featured accords in one line:
Haitian vetiver, cade, oud, oakmoss and alchemical oil of mercury.
As usual I have a few of my own “obvious but not present” notes to add to the list. In addition to the cade/oud leather accord I experience the presence of vanilla and/or tonka bean, jasmine and styrax.

Djinn opens with a heavy, vegetal Haitian vetiver that quickly assumes the guise of leather. This is not saddle or tack leather. It is not “biker”, shoe or new coat leather but rather a dark, smoky vanillic glove leather, recalling the specialty accessory shops the have all but disappeared from the North American retail landscape. When I smell Djinn I am transported to the boutique where I purchased my very first pair of fine Italian leather dress gloves. I have not worn beautiful gloves like these for many years but this perfume not only recalls the smells of these rich materials but also the exquisitely sensuous feeling of soft leather forming around hands and fingers.

Photo Stolen House of Orpheus

I can’t speak to the last perfume note listed – “alchemical oil of mercury”. From what I understand after reading through Marcus’ websites and related links “oil of mercury” is a non-toxic spirit or essence of the “soul” of Mercury (the planet as well as the metal) somehow extracted or created in an alchemical distillation process. If you understand this or can describe it better please let me know.
Whatever it is, “oil of mercury” seems to add a creative, mercurial lift to the dark, vegetal leather.

Regarding sillage and longevity: At first this fragrance is quite bold but retreats quickly, fading to smoky jasmine and oakmoss before disappearing completely after four hours.

Djinn is available on the House of Orpheus website as well as on Etsy where a sale is now in progress

I have a few questions for my fellow APJers: Do you have a magical perfume, a fragrant djinn that you can count on to put a spell on everything and everyone around you? Have you tried perfumes from the House of Orpheus? Do you own (and wear) dress leather gloves in shoulder, elbow or wrist lengths?

Azar xx

Sex Panther Cologne by Romane 2008

July 27, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 28 Comments

Post by Azar

Warning! This is NOT a review.

Hello APJers,

I just have to say it: There are way too many perfumes out there! The old ones never die and news ones seem to be born every six hours or so. The world is overpopulated with fragrance creations and, like the human population, the creation of perfumes seems to be out of control and perhaps even threatening the world as we know it. (Only part of my tongue is in my cheek.)

Can we be too productive? Yes I think we can and we are, in the real world and in perfume land. Many of us, myself included, in an effort to keep up with current trends, have amassed hundreds (if not thousands) of samples and huge collections of perfume. The passion for perfume is a most interesting habit in that the perfumista not only collects a thing but collects an experience as well. While collecting is fun and not inherently bad there is a tipping point where people begin to lose interest. To prevent market saturation perhaps IFRA should intervene and limit every perfumer or company to the production of one new fragrance – and one new ad campaign – per year? The resulting unused creative energy might be redirected toward solving the planet’s truly serious problems.

I, for one, have become so jaded and overloaded that it takes something very different to sell me a fragrance. Exclusivity does not have the appeal of, well, a rat’s ass and I have come to be inured to the images of gorgeous lithe bodies, the suggestions of power, fields of flowers, bouquets of roses, images of the sea that populate today’s video and prints ads. However…a couple of weeks ago, while working on my last post, I came across something that so piqued my interest that I almost fell victim to a new kind of clever advertising. I discovered the world of officially licensed movie and TV fragrances, in particular Sex Panther by Romane.

Sex Panther Cologne by Romane 2008

Sex Panther Cologne: The Un-Review

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Juniper
Middle: Lavender, musk
Base, Cedar, sandalwood

Sex Panther is a scent created as a pendant to a scene in the 2004 comedy Anchorman. The scene in the movie does a fabulous job of mocking the advertising and pretense associated with fragrance.

The video ads for the perfume take up where the movie left off and use comedy and novelty to sell what seems to be a rather ordinary fresh, woodsy fragrance.

After enjoying the Sex Panther fun I found that the television series Star Trek had also officially licensed several fragrances, namely Tiberius, Red Shirt, Sulu and Pon Farr. This was a whole new smelly universe that I had never imagined existed, but despite the promise of Pon Farr, I decided not to boldly go there and, in the future, try to avoid splitting infinitives whenever possible.

Now dear APJ pals, here are a few things that this inquiring mind would like to know: Do you think there are too many perfumes out there? Is there such a thing as the danger of over production? Have you experienced Sex Panther or any officially licensed fragrance related to a movie or TV series?

“Live long and prosper.” and remember that “60 % of the time it works every time!”

Azar xx

You’re welcome. Portia XXX