Heya APJ Family,
No matter what you think about Justin Bieber, he has charisma and having been to his concert in Sydney a couple of years ago I think he also has some talent. The show was fun and he danced his pretty little ass off. I like him even more now he’s doing all the stuff a regular wealthy teenager/young adult does, and doing it large.
I hope you like this little bit of B&W advertising. I think it’s cool.
Portia xx
Photo Stolen Calvin Klein
Thanks Gang for joining in. I’m excited to be sending out the remnants of my sample. I hope you love Nature. I’ll add a couple of extras in too.
Portia xx
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Parfumo gives these featured accords in one line:
Freesia, Jasmine, Lily-of-the-valley, Mandarin, Peppermint leaf, Rose, Daphne, Cedar
This week we will have 1 winner who will receive:
1 x Nature by Yves Rocher (left from my own gift from Ainslie)
P&H Anywhere in the world
Open to everyone worldwide who follows AustralianPerfumeJunkies via eMail, WordPress, Bloglovin or RSS. Please leave how you follow in the comments to be eligible. I must be able to check that you follow so if you have an email address on your gravatar that’s different to your follow address then please email me (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 a favorite green fragrance, in nature or perfumery
Entries Closed Sunday 28th May 2015 10pm Australian EST
Winner chosen by random.org
Photo Stolen FallOutFactory
The winner will have till Thuesday 2nd June 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.
Hi there APJ,
When I first fell in love with the Andrea Maack range I remember there being a lot of chatter about it being derivative and boring. There were some bloggers and some of my mates who seemed very upset about this brand. I’m sorry but I never felt them to be either boring OR derivative. First to admit I’ve not smelled everything ever produced, also first to admit my memory is shot but few houses hit me as hard in the heavenly eye roll and full body purring shiver as Andrea Maack’s do. There are two FB in my collection Silk and……..
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives this list of featured accords:
Orange blossom, angel skin, sweet vanilla, white musk, soothing softness
To my nose Sharp has a remarkably complex fragrance story. The orange blossom is not at all as expected, like they have added some herbaceous spiciness, and the vanilla is an inedible warmth that is fuzzed up by the musk. At once bright and cozy like the smell of brand new polar fleece with dirty, morning bed-hair. Sharp is feral and cuddly, pithy, furry, smooth and enfolding.
Sharp has a sweet indolic weirdness that is at once repulsive and alluring up close but merely pretty and inviting from further away. The name Sharp seems to be a complete misnomer here and I wonder if that is intentional? Sometimes when I wear Sharp my feeling is as if I’ve been up in an attic rummaging and my hair is thick with dust and old air,. Other times the feeling given is that I’m cuddled up in front of a fire near a recently beeswaxed table and the fires heat is warming the scent through the room and I feel warm, safe & loved. There’s even something of dog paws.
Photo Stolen FragranticaI get a nearly linear lifespan that weaves rather than evolves but as it dries down Sharp by Andrea Maack is sweet vanilla dribbled over musk, the feral has disappeared and it’s all about clean (but not too clean, there’s still an element of humanity).
Who would I spritz with Sharp? That’s hard to say, I think some of my friends who like fragrance very much but aren’t perfumistas would love this as a go-to daily scent regime. Certainly the art connection, lack of ready availability, simple, stylish bottle and the reasonable price bracket would make it a good choice for them. Considering they would pay around these prices for a bottle of designer/department store fragrance Andrea Maack’s scents are a much better and more interesting buy.
Photo Stolen Geograph
Further reading Persolaise and ConfessionsOfAPerfumeNerd
First In Fragrance has €85/50ml
LuckyScent has $135/50ml
Have you tried the Andrea Maack fragrances? Do you think it makes sense to add olfactory experience to visual arts?
Portia xx
OMG!
If you loved the previous DIOR Secret Garden movies then be aware that they are day compared to this vision of night. Rihanna is the model and both she and the soundtrack are beautiful and ethereal and menacing. She is like the perfectly dressed and presented evil queen wandering through her deserted palace in the black of night.
Photo Stolen YouTube
Unbelievably gorgeous….
Enjoy,
Portia xx
Hiya Vintage Vixens!
My mate and fellow APJ contributor Ainslie Walker gave me this decant a while ago and I have only now grabbed it out and spritzed it on my skin. Sadly it’s been discontinued and I can see a few pieces on eBay but everywhere else seems sold out. How lucky I feel to have been given a chance to wear this green beauty, you may get the chance too……
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Parfumo gives these featured accords in one line:
Freesia, Jasmine, Lily-of-the-valley, Mandarin, Peppermint leaf, Rose, Daphne, Cedar
Stark green, galbanum and a very regal peppermint bouquet. Though I can smell flowers they are a crystalline spiky arrangement, beautiful and angular. Sadly this opening is brief and suddenly the whole fragrance changes to a warm, spicy green wood. WOW! That was totally unexpected. Suddenly Nature is an elegant and cozy fragrance with whispers of jasmine wending their way through the galbanum and a lovely sweet spicy rose makes her appearance.
Photo Stolen DeviantArt
To my nose there are some slightly feral undertones here like a just past clean armpit, not yet stinky but warmed through a bit of heat and exertion. Wrapped up with the rest of the notes it gives interesting dimension and depth.
I have to give this sample away, if I wear it even one more time my life will end up in a chronic search for this fabulous fragrance. Nature is beautiful, unusual and really interesting. Yves Rocher often surprises me.
Portia xx
This week we will have 1 winner who will receive:
1 x Nature by Yves Rocher (left from my own gift from Ainslie)
P&H Anywhere in the world
Open to everyone worldwide who follows AustralianPerfumeJunkies via eMail, WordPress, Bloglovin or RSS. Please leave how you follow in the comments to be eligible. I must be able to check that you follow so if you have an email address on your gravatar that’s different to your follow address then please email me (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 a favorite green fragrance, in nature or perfumery
Entries Close Sunday 28th May 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 Thuesday 2nd June 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.
Another great giveaway thanks to the incredible Azar, and Ellen Covey of Olympic Orchids. Thanks to you girls for being amazing. Consistently amazing.
Portia xx
Photo Stolen Olympic Orchids
This week we will have 2 winners who will receive:
1 x 2 ml decant of the new Mardi Gras
1 x 1 ml decant from my bottle of Version #1
1 x mystery sample of a dark and musky perfume oil
P&H Anywhere in the world
Open to everyone worldwide who follows AustralianPerfumeJunkies via eMail, WordPress, Bloglovin or RSS. Please leave how you follow in the comments to be eligible. I must be able to check that you follow so if you have an email address on your gravatar that’s different to your follow address then please email me (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 if you have tried Olympic Orchids new Mardi Gras fragrance or about your favorite “parfum de puta”!
Entries Closed Thursday 28th May 2015 10pm Australian EST
Winners were chosen by random.org
Photo Stolen brooklodge
The winners will have till Sunday 31st May 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.
Hey Frag Family,
My mate Natalie from the now sadly defunct Not Another Perfume Blog gave me a bunch of samples and decants when she quit blogging. It has been really interesting slowly going through her bag because some of the things lurking inside are brand new to me, others are fragrances I’ve tried earlier in my obsession and while I liked them well enough when I first tried them I may have been too green or have had a much more limited understanding of scent. It is really fabulous to come across a scent that became lost in the multitudes again and have a second chance with it.
Today I am going to look at exactly one such……
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Cinnamon, bay, bergamot, lemon, Clementine orange
Heart: Bulgarian rose, rose absolue, Bourbon geranium Base: Labdanum, oakmoss, patchouli, vetiver, vanilla
Sizzling spices and citrus burst out of the nozzle immediately and my office is filled with the scent of sun, fun, joy and playfulness. An explosion, a riot, a zinging zesty carnival of scent. The citruses are marvellously shown off with the addition of spice and I feel a real hot chilli effect too. It’s like you’ve thrown the spices in the pan to cook together before you add your meat to a sweet curry. Yesterday I complained of A La Rose not living on my skin, well here is a fragrance that not only lives but makes a cacophony! Une Rose Chypree is F U N and fabulous.
Photo Stolen Pixabay
One of the things I usually love about Andy Tauer’s work is the slow progression of stages, I get to really live and smell each transformation and enjoy the pieces of his puzzle. Maybe I’m lucky because his work really seems to like my skin chemistry. In the heart of Une Rose Chypree I get this amazing caramel/toffee/rose melange, it is delicious, unusual and crunchy. Warm and cozy yet totally good for hot weather. Today is a very pleasant 21C (70F) and Une Rose Chypree is a perfect scent to take me through the day and into evening.
Dry down comes hours later and lasts into the next morning with Andy’s famous Tuer-ade lingering and getting sweeter and softer as it progresses. In the morning a whisper of sweet Une Rose Chypree resins lays over my skin making my early morning funk smell pleasant and still edible. MMMMMMM
Photo Stolen WikiCommons
One thing I will say is that if you have a zero fragrance policy at your work then this humdinger is probably not going to fit the bill, no matter how lightly you spray Une Rose Chypree is a big scent and an attention grabber for the first 3-4 hours. More often than not I will be complimented on my fragrance when wearing Une Rose Chypree, she is a showstopper.
Photo Stolen Tauer Perfumes
Further reading: Perfume Shrine and Perfume Shrine
IndieScents has $140/50ml
Tauer Perfumes has samples starting at $5.40
Have you ever revisited a fragrance that you liked to find that it was true love? Which one, or ones?
Portia xx
Hey there APJ,
This is a well loved sentence from the more dude-ish of the fragrant communiry and a few of us were chatting about it the other week which inspired me to write a post both serious and completely tongue-in-cheek. I am so proud to be writing for My Perfume Samples and I think they have a wonderful business model and are a super great crew to work for.
Please drop over and have a little laugh at my Panty Dropper post. It comes with a 15% Discount Code across the entire store too. My Perfume Samples<<JUMP
Photo Stolen My Perfume Samples
I hope you’re all having a lovely Sunday and that we catch you over there.
See you
Portia xx
Cooee APJers,
I ordered this decant a while ago and then must have put it in the samples box I just rediscovered. HOORAY that I found it. Does this ever happen to you? Decants lost among the most enormous number of other samples/decants? One day I will take the time to really organise my shit, till then surprise finds will be a part of my life…..
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, orange, lemon
Heart: Turkish red rose, Damask rose, violets
Base: Cedar
Maison Francis Kurkdjian gives these featured accords in one line:
Damascena Rose from Bulgaria – Bergamot from Calabria – Orange from California – Violet – Magnolia blossom – Cedar wood – Musk – Centifolia Rose from Grasse
Before we talk fragrance can I just put it out there that I think Francis Kurkdjian looks like a very nice man. There is something engaging about him, every time I see a photo or video my mind thinks that he would be a lovely friend to have. Do any of you think the same?
So on to A La Rose. I like the sweet citrus, slightly pithy opening. There are no white flowers mentioned but I get a distinct hint, maybe the magnolia? Magnolia kind of fits, especially with the citrus; and musk, white musk, lashings in the opening or is it some resin that’s making my mouth go quietly fuzzy. A La Rose wears more as a wash than a fragrance on me. Subtle, airy, loads of space between the notes. Free and clean, it’s like Francis Kurkdjian has captured a spring breeze in a rose garden, or standing among the roses at the end of the row of a citrus orchard.
Photo P.D.I.
When we get to the roses they are sheer, luxe and sadly for me a bit boring. To be fair though I can see this being exactly how many people would want to smell. It’s a lovely soft focus rose with a lightly citrus fizz and a small crackle of green behind it all. It does smell expensive and gives a very rich feel but if this was the kind of scent I was hoping to wear I would probably choose the MUCH cheaper, louder and less nuanced brashness of 1977s Tea Rose by Perfumer`s Workshop.
A La Rose hums along nicely for a while and very slightly woodies up before fading from my skin completely. Really I think that my skin has not married well with this particular scent and I urge you to try it yourself, you wear will hopefully be completely different. What a shame.
Photo Stolen Pixabay
Further reading: Now Smell This and Candy Perfume Boy
LuckyScent has $245/70ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $5.25/.5ml
Have you tried A La Rose? What are your impressions?
Portia xx
Hi there Niche Nerds,
Here we have a crew from Hamburg who really want to give perfumers free reign. They make small batches of juice and use simple packaging, everything is about the fragrance. That’s a pretty cool way to work, “Quality NOT Quantity” but it does make me wonder how they make any money? To be honest I’ve not tried very much of the line before but when I did try them was in major sniff mode on holidays so my memories are hazy at best.
What you’ll get today is a stream of consciousness first impression, pretty sure I’ve never sniffed pc01 before and I haven’t looked up the notes yet, come on, it’ll be fun……
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
BaseNotes gives these featured accords:
Top: Tangerine, neroli, davana, mango leaves
Heart: Peony, iris, mango
Base: Kashmir wood, vetiver, musk
So on opening I get a lovely aquatic fruity melange that is reminiscent of one of the Hermès Jardin range, a fruit salad with a lovely nearly ripe mango and some other fruits that is sheer and mildly salted. I think even in the opening I can smell the vetiver where the brackish water feature of its dry greenness is the focus they’ve chosen. There is something slightly wild and unfettered about pc01 even though I get no growl, it’s just a feeling.
MMMMMMMMMM yes, I smell summer, boating on a bay, everything I smell here is tinged with water and wind. A warm day but you’re sitting in the shade, maybe you’re drinking fruity cocktails. Maybe you’ve had lunch, some drinks and a fruits salad to finish. This then is the scent in your mouth and nose just before you dive into the bay to work off those calories.
Photo Stolen Flickr
The heart is slightly sweet peony that is still quite sheer and lightly fruity, a fresh (as in fresh flowers not super jock blue frags) fragrance that is cool and collected. I don’t get much wood at all but loads of white musk and a little dry vetiver in the base. Simple and it smells nice. An extremely expensive feeling department store fragrance that you could easily gift.
SURPRISE!!! I thought this was going to be way too challenging, arty farty, unwearable, head up their ass perfume that I would have to be totally objective about. Um, NO! It’s lovely, wearable and not challenging at all. Actually it’s so pretty I could imagine it becoming a go to, spritz & go fragrance.
Photo Stolen DeviantArt
Further reading: From Pyrgos and Now Smell This
First In Fragrance has €150/100ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $4/ml
Have you tried any of these biehl parfumkunstwerke fragrances?
Portia xx
