SAMPLE PACK ROAK GIVEAWAY WINNERS

August 3, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 3 Comments

Heya APJ,

Thanks for getting involved in this weeks giveaway. Someone is going to have a lot of fun sniffing over the next few weeks.

Portia xx

SAMPLE PACK ROAK GIVEAWAY WINNERS

WHAT COULD YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 winner who will receive:
1 x SAMPLE PACK RAOK
P&H Anywhere in the world

Craft by Andrea Maack
Olympic Amber by Olympic Orchids
Midsummer Day’s Dream by Olympic Orchids
Secretions Magnifiques by Etat Libre de Orange
Vintage Vogade Parfum by Charrier
Amouage Opus VI
Amouage Opus V
Nepal Aoud by Montale
Indian Coconut Nectar by Pacifica
Six Scents Series Two 3 Henrik Vibskov: Solar Donkey Power
Unknown/Unnamed Fragrance
Souffle des Indies by Comptor Sud Pacific
Cologne for Alice by Evocative Perfumes Manufacturers Sample
CHANEL Jersey Manufacturers Sample
Elixer by Penhaligon’s
Amber Nuit by Atelier Cologne
Knize Ten Gold Edition
Cold Water Canyon by Surrender To Chance

HOW DID 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 which one from the pack you would most like to sample

Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie SAMPLE PACK RAOK GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p3PURw-486 #Perfume #Giveaway

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Sunday 2nd August 2015 10pm Australian EST
Winner will be chosen by random.org

Photo stolen sistersavealot

SaffyIsHere via Twitter

CONGRATULATIONS! The winner will have till Thursday 6th 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.

Elektra by Ellen Covey for Olympic Orchids 2010

August 2, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 16 Comments

Hey hey APJ,

I hope life is treating you all well. You may know we have moved house and that we have been in the middle of a renovation for months. The kitchen man offered us a very nice benchtop in Caesar Stone that he had on the cheap because the colour is being discontinued. Well, he sent off the measurements, they ordered the stone and then found they needed another piece but there was NONE LEFT! Drama ensued and it’s already at the 5 week mark but fortunately the call came through and we are hoping with all out hearts that there will be benchtop in the very near future. Why am I telling you this? Well the move has brought to light some lovely forgotten treasures and I am loving finding them and spritzing.

Today’s offering got a bit lost in the excitement of my love for Olympic Amber, Ballets Rouges and Golden Cattleya but I have grabbed it out and spritzed with gay abandon.

Elektra by Ellen Covey for Olympic Orchids 2010

Photo Stolen Olympic Orchids

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Black currant, ripe fig, green fig leaves, amber

You may remember this fragrance as A Midsummer Day’s Dream, that’s how it was originally marketed but it didn’t fit on the new packaging so Ellen changed it. The juice in the bottle is exactly the same.

Sweet green but bitter-sweet green. Elektra is a high octane green fragrance that is so fabulously unusual and of itself that it’s hard to find a broad descriptive reference that can really apply. Forget every other fig or berry fragrance you have ever smelled because Elektra is nothing like any of them. Somehow Ellen Covey manages to create scents that are so far beyond my expectations and into the deep realms of fragrant art pieces. Yes, there are fig and black current but they are reimagined here as stark green and spiky sweets, like I am smelling what a crystaline Swarovski fig and black currant would smell like if you could go through the looking glass and smell the unsmellable.

Photo Stolen GeographUK

Elektra does not smell earthly or earthy, it bypasses all your 21st century fruity expectations and lands in this otherworldly, weird and super saturated cyber garden. Could this be what Elphaba smells like? Can it be that Ellen Covey has discovered the scent of a green witch?

Photo Stolen Flickr

One of the marvellous things about being an Independent Perfumer is that you get to experiment and build your dreams. It’s very easy to build my own fragrant dreams on Ellen Coveys beautiful fragrant gems because they are so magical, every drop a dreamers elixir.

Olympic Orchids has samples from only $3 and $65/30ml
Surrender To Chance has samples under the old name $4/ml

Are you an Ellen Covey convert yet? Which Olympic Orchids have you tried?
Portia xx

Chanel | Haute Couture Fall Winter 2015/2016 Full Show

August 2, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 6 Comments

Heya Fragrant Fashionistas,

I’ve watched the DIOR and Versace FW 15/16 shows and they left me cool to say the least. Here at CHANEL Karl Lagerfeld has brought us a redefined vision of the CHANEL suit and some really interesting fabrics and shapes. The shoes are freaking KILLER and I also love the severe uber Desange bobs that seem to be laughing at the 90s. For every frock I love there are 10 I merely like and three I loathe. Interesting that the last two frocks resemble some shapes and treatments of DIOR’s Belgian designer Raf Simons work over the last few seasons.

Photo Stolen CHANEL news

This is the whole show and pay attention at the start, there are some very interesting people at the gambling tables. If you get bored FF to the last 5 minutes, that’s where my favourite stuff happens and I really love the final wedding outfit.

Enjoy,
Portia xx

Chanel | Haute Couture F/W 2015/16 Full Show

A Few to Sniff at Gino's

August 1, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 6 Comments

Hi there Fragrant Fellowship,

You know those really great days? So today was a REALLY great day (I’m writing now and you’re reading a couple of days away). I was able to have a pretty good sleep in after working last night, then I lazed around the house for an hour before trotting off to a mini sniff at my mate Gino’s house with a very fun crew of people including MsKerri, KerriC & SimonC, SonyaY & JedY, Scott and our beautiful host Gino who had gone to outrageous lengths on the food and refreshments and had the house spotless.

A Few to Sniff at Gino’s

The crew arrived willy-nilly and there was some coming & going but EVERYONE brought some gems from their fragrant hoard for us to share & sniff. There were pasties, cheeses and dips, biscuits and a slew of other yummy munchies. Gino did percolated coffee, my favourite. I still have my Mum’s Cornflower Corningware percolator and love to get it on the hob. Gino’s was perfection.

There was some major sniffing and sharing going on. Lonestar Memories and L`Air du Desert Marocain by Tauer Perfumes, Gentlewoman by JHaG, Dubai Next To Me by Ramon Monegal, Bull’s Blood and Violet Disguise by Imaginary Authors. There were many different incarnations of Tabu, Magie Noir, Bal a Versailles and some rare vintage finds like Fille d’Eve by Nina Ricci and Gino has a mini collection hat would make you weep. We also got to try Antonia and M by Puredistance, some Frederic Malles and a slew of stuff that I’ve completely forgotten. It was a hoot and a half and I can’t wait to hang with them all again.

One of my favourite moments of the day was Jed & my “Who can scream the loudest competition”. I may have just edged Jed out and taken the prize but it was a very close race. So much fun. He kept creeing up on me and saying, “I’m going to get you.” Before he could even finish the sentence I would grab him and scream it at him. Then I was acting scared of him and when he got close I would scream full throttle in his face and he would nearly shit himself. The above picture is us both trying to be the loudest but Jed is laughing too hard to really make a bid for the trophy. To be honest I don’t think he’d ever met an adult who is such a baffoon and he loved it.

Then Jin & I went for dinner to a very clean but cheap & cheerful Vietnamese restaurant. I ordered some stuff and Jin tried to remind me what I liked there but I really thought I was on top of the whole game and ordered something that came out and was DISGUSTING!! BLAH! So I ended up eating Spring Rolls and Fried Rice, it was yummy. There he is below, really tired after a LONG days work and just happy to be eating and hanging out.

After that we went to BUNNINGs. It’s our version of a giant hardware store and they have everything. Jin bought some shelves and then he put them up in our new garage. I helped a little bit but then Jin was like, “You go do your blog and I’ll finish here” so I have and I did, and he did. Then he came into my office and kissed me goodnight before he went off to the land of nod. I can hear him snoring from here.

Most of the mentioned fragrances are available as samples on Surrender To Chance or My Perfume Samples.

I walked the dog and now I too am ready for bed. Goodnight all.
Portia xx

Super Sample RAOK

July 31, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 45 Comments

Hey Hey Crew,

Yes, I’m cleaning out the sample drawers and YOU get to be the winner if you’re lucky. Here are a bunch of samples that I’ve tested but now live in the swap/gift pile. Some of the reasons for being there? Maybe I bought a FB, it had an issue that renders it unwearable, I liked it but have something similar, somehow I have double, I hated it, I LOVED it and completely forgot about it, I’ve moved on. So many reasons, so MANY samples. They are all used a bit but they have heaps for testing and trying. I know you’re going to love at least one thing in this pack, but hopefully a few will tickle your fancy. Whether or not they do I hope they bring someone the joy of testing new stuff that I get.

Most of these samples have been purchased from Perfume Niche, LuckyScent, Posh Peasant, My Perfume Samples and Surrender To Chance since 2010, but some are gifts or manufacturers samples. Mosat are over half full and a couple are double ups I have so full.

SAMPLE PACK ROAK GIVEAWAY

Craft by Andrea Maack
Olympic Amber by Olympic Orchids
Midsummer Day’s Dream by Olympic Orchids
Secretions Magnifiques by Etat Libre de Orange
Vintage Vogade Parfum by Charrier
Amouage Opus VI
Amouage Opus V
Nepal Aoud by Montale
Indian Coconut Nectar by Pacifica
Six Scents Series Two 3 Henrik Vibskov: Solar Donkey Power
Unknown/Unnamed Fragrance
Souffle des Indies by Comptor Sud Pacific
Cologne for Alice by Evocative Perfumes Manufacturers Sample
CHANEL Jersey Manufacturers Sample
Elixer by Penhaligon’s
Amber Nuit by Atelier Cologne
Knize Ten Gold Edition
Cold Water Canyon by Surrender To Chance

Please help me with my clear out and leave a comment.
Portia xx

Photo Stolen TheTruthAboutMummy

SAMPLE PACK ROAK GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 winner who will receive:
1 x SAMPLE PACK RAOK
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DO YOU WIN?

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Please tell us which one from the pack you would most like to sample

Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie SAMPLE PACK RAOK GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p3PURw-486 #Perfume #Giveaway

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Sunday 2nd August 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 Thursday 6th 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.

Saving the Walking Sausage: Lord Howe Island Stick Insect

July 31, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 6 Comments

Hey Hey APJ,

Recently Azar sent me this. It’s filled with so many things I love.

When we were kids we went for a holiday to Lord Howe Island with the family. It has long lived in my memory as my favourite family holiday and one on which I caught a stripy tuna which in my memory was bigger than I was at the time at around seven or eight years old. On this holiday we went of a fabulous journey by boat to see Balls Pyramid and it was breathtaking.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

The island was the perfect place to take children. We were given bikes and told to come home at sunset each day. It was also the first time we had ever been into a Kids Club, where the parents drop off the kids in the morning and you are doing nature walks, riding bikes to beaches where you can hand feed the fish, painting pictures of your adventures and learning so much about the wonderful place we were in. We had the most wonderful young woman for Kids Club, she was soft, dark haired and smelled so good, she smiled a lot and was lavish in her hugs. I was so smitten that when we left I cried and cried. Mum and Dad spent most of their holiday time swimming and reading, eating and chatting with the very few other guests. Back then we stayed at Pine Trees, the only hotel on the island, and I think there were only about 20 rooms. In my memory it was a wonderful, sunlit, blissful adventure. It was also the place that I first discovered Gerald Durrell, the author, and his books have been a constant source of wonder, laughter and delight ever since.

Anyway, here is an incredible story of a creature brought back from the jaws of extinction. FABULOUS!
Portia xx

Fragrant Things That Arrived This Week

July 30, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 15 Comments

Hey there Fragrance Lovers,

Is there anything as day-to-day exciting as getting a parcel in the mail? I have to go down to the Post Office to get mine because now that I live in an apartment I find it much safer to have everything redirected to a Post Office Box. So the whole thing is a weekly adventure and I’m never quite sure if there will be only letters or some packages. Let’s face it, anything not a bill is a cause for celebration.

Fragrant Things That Arrived This Week

So I did get a box this week and it was chock full of exciting fragrance. I had asked Franco at Lucky Scent to find me a bottle of my long-coveted and recently discontinued in any online store I could think of bottle of 24.9.11 by Hilde Soliani. He’s such a sweetie that he tracked it down for me so what else could I do but order a couple of extras as a special Thank You, and also to make the shipping seem less incredible.

24-09-11 by Hilde Soliani 2012

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Calamus (milky, green, cinnamon like grass root), amber, frankincense, myrrh

24-09-11 is part of the Hilde Soliani The Invisibles range, meant to compliment your own fragrance and enhance your confirm your presence. What a stunning way to think of perfume. In reality though 24-09-11 is way too fragrant to be melded with your skin and enhance it, you will be decidedly and lavishly fragrant when wearing this. the opening is sweet and spicy, a non edible radiant caramel incense. Warm and lush and ever so slightly discordant, as if it’s about to topple over into disgusting over sweetened caramel slice at any moment but the green calamus and the incense win out and keep it delightful, wearable and distinguished.

Eau Absolue by Mona de Orio 2013

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica Gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, clementine, petitgrain
Heart: Geranium, java vetiver oil, bay leaf, pink pepper
Base: Cedar, musk, labdanum

BZZZZZZZ! The citrus opening is loads of fun but kept from being a zingy space cadet by whispers of the resins to come even in the first minute. While I sit here in a balmy Sydney summer evening I am enjoying the very unexpected opening. I have read a few reviews before writing tonight, which is not something I usually do, so my expectations were for something quite different, something more mainstream and fizzy. I couldn’t have been more wrong. This is, as I should always expect with a Mona di Orio fragrance, something quite densely layered with everything in the notes list all at once and what will happen is certain accords will get precedence on occasion.

Tokyo Bloom by The Different Company 2012

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Dandelion, galbanum, basil, blackberry (cassis)
Heart: Cyclamen, star jasmine
Base: Guaiac wood, musks, amber

This is interesting, it opens as sharply as hairspray and is a wonderful awkward blend of green, milky, musky, spicy and fizzy tones that I’ve never met together before yet still manages to smell GREAT! I was expecting an aqueous nothing and am beyond pleasantly surprised. You must at least take some time to try this marvelous, well priced, fragrance. A lovely modern interpretation of the Eau de Cologne style.

As you can see these beauties have been on the list for a while. Boy is it nice to have them in the stable now. Today I wafted Eau Absolue and really loved it. Like a scented princess.

What has arrived for you lately?
Portia xx

LIVE

July 29, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 37 Comments

Hi there APJ,

Trésor is busy living, she sends full apologies but right now she needs to be elsewhere. Here is some stuff that I’ve found recently that might give you a pause for thought. A lot of the things I find are aimed primarily at women but guys these are for you too.

Life is rarely what we were told in future fairy tales by our parents and teachers. Life is tough, full of extremes and drama, there is always something or someone who wants to run you off the rails of your dream life. They are rarely the evil incarnate that you expect them to be but just other people in your life trying to get their own shit on track. It’s very easy to get caught up, lose focus and become worn down with the drudgery of day to day living. It’s so easy to forget yourself, your goals and your well being. Sometimes we all need to take a moment to really ask ourselves if we are OK, what do we need, how can we best reassess and how can we better live this too short a period we are given on earth.

I also believe that I have to feel the pain and learn from it. Life is evolution and growth. Stagnation, especially mental, is decay.

If you are suffering depression please seek help. It’s an illness like any other and needs treatment. If you had a broken arm, rash or a continuing cough you would see a doctor for treatment. Depression needs treatment too. For yourself and those around you please treat it with the same speed and diligence you would a child in your cares chicken pox.

Mostly though, please live your life as if it’s worth something. It is. YOU are.

11752590_10154008604426029_8706194041508389836_n

Cyber hugging you all while wearing Les Voyages Olfactifs 01 Paris-Moscow by Guerlain.
Portia xxx

Emeraude EdC GIVEAWAY WINNER

July 27, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom

Hey there APJ,

Interesting that we had a normal amount of views but very few comments for this competition. It makes me wonder if you love the frag and own it already?

Let’s find out who our winner is,
Portia xx

Emeraude EdC GIVEAWAY WINNER

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Orange, bergamot, lemon
Heart: Jasmine, ylang-ylang, rose, Brazilian rosewood
Base: Amber, sandalwood, patchouli, opoponax, benzoin, vanilla

WHAT COULD YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 winner who will receive:
1 x Emeraude EdC vintage decant (about 2ml)
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DID YOU WIN?

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Please tell us what you love about Coty or any vintage fragrance

Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie Vintage Emeraude EdC: Coty GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p3PURw-46C #Perfume #Giveaway @COTYUKPR

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Sunday 26th July 2015 10pm Australian EST
Winner will be chosen by random.org

Photo Stolen nodepositforum

Marion Low (via Twitter)

The winner will have till Thursday 30th July 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.

Le Male by Francis Kurkdjian for Jean Paul Gaultier 1995

July 25, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 12 Comments

Post by Portia

Hi there Fumies.

I have been wearing this gem since it was launched. At the time I was living in England and a couple of my mates were models for JPG at the time. They were pierced and tattooed like crazy with shaven heads and killer bodies. It was this use of street kids in his parades that added an extra dimension of reality to everything he created. I was mainly an owner of his Gaultier Junior stuff, basically the diffusion line but I was ever so proud to be a billboard for this crazy designer that seemed to have grabbed the zeitgeist. I had some lovely navy blue leggings with a fabulous sewn patch and a maroon and white crop top. Of his pret-a-porter line I had only a cow print skivvy made of the softest and warmest mohair, I loved it so much and wore it till a couple of years ago I passed it onto a girlfriend who wears it infinitely more fabulously than I do.

Le Male by Jean Paul Gaultier 1995

Le Male by Francis Kurkdjian

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Mint, lavender, cardamom, artemesia, bergamot
Heart: Cinnamon, cumin/caraway (depending where you read), orange blossom
Base: Vanilla, tonka bean, sandalwood, amber, cedarwood

My experience of Le Male is not like any other fragrance in my cupboards. I refuse to parse the notes and enjoy the experience from beginning to end. The bright, sparkling opening through the sweet heart and the warm resinous dry down. It is a scent of its own and nothing on earth comes close. Francis Kurkdjian’s first blockbuster and he continues to make flanker after flanker, still I am drawn to the original.

Photo Stolen Flickr

These are scents that tell the story of my life. There were years where I would follow handsome men around clubs smelling their hefty Le Male sillage. One of these men even became my partner for a year or so and every time he spritzed I would be madly, truly and deeply in love with his aroma. It was the wildest sex of my life too, completely and utterly uninhibited. This is the scent I would wear for drag work on and off for years and always felt it was an interesting dichotomy how beautifully the scent fits being in drag and its name.

Nowadays Le Male gets less wear than it did. My scent wardrobe is so full of choice yet I do come back maybe ten times a year and wear it for two days straight. I am at the end of this current two days and Le Male will now go back into the cupboard till next time.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

Further reading: Now Smell This and EauMG
Parfum1 has $48/75ml
My Perfume Samples has $2/ml to $7/5ml

What is your Le Male story?
Portia xx

Australian Perfume Junkies

Olfactory Opinions from Oz

Portia

SAMPLE PACK ROAK GIVEAWAY WINNERS

SAMPLE PACK ROAK GIVEAWAY WINNERS

WHAT COULD YOU WIN?

HOW DID YOU WIN?

HOUSEKEEPING

SaffyIsHere via Twitter

Elektra by Ellen Covey for Olympic Orchids 2010

Elektra by Ellen Covey for Olympic Orchids 2010

Chanel | Haute Couture Fall Winter 2015/2016 Full Show

Chanel | Haute Couture F/W 2015/16 Full Show

A Few to Sniff at Gino's

A Few to Sniff at Gino’s

Super Sample RAOK

SAMPLE PACK ROAK GIVEAWAY

SAMPLE PACK ROAK GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

HOW DO YOU WIN?

HOUSEKEEPING

Saving the Walking Sausage: Lord Howe Island Stick Insect

Fragrant Things That Arrived This Week

Fragrant Things That Arrived This Week

24-09-11 by Hilde Soliani 2012

Eau Absolue by Mona de Orio 2013

Tokyo Bloom by The Different Company 2012

LIVE

Emeraude EdC GIVEAWAY WINNER

Emeraude EdC GIVEAWAY WINNER

WHAT COULD YOU WIN?

HOW DID YOU WIN?

HOUSEKEEPING

Marion Low (via Twitter)

Le Male by Francis Kurkdjian for Jean Paul Gaultier 1995

Le Male by Jean Paul Gaultier 1995

Le Male by Francis Kurkdjian