Portia

Aqua Allegoria Teazzura by Guerlain 2015

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Hey Hey APJ,

Something new from Guerlain! It reads fresh, fun and very Aqua Allegoria. Thierry Wasser has been producing like crazy over at Guerlain, so much new stuff and flankers. I hope it’s all selling for them because I’m enjoying the constant and extremely interesting cross-section of new arrivals. Yes, I know they’re not all the next Shalimar or Mitsouko but how many fragrances released nowadays are? Even if they were we have so much choice that masterpieces fall by the wayside as quickly as dross anyway. The industry is creating its own problem and we are lapping it up…..

Aqua Allegoria Teazzura by Thierry Wasser for Guerlain 2015

Aqua Allegoria Teazzura Guerlain FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, lemon, yuzu, grapefruit
Heart: Green tea, chamomile, jasmine
Base: Musk, calone, vanilla

You can spritz Teazzura at your local department Store for free. It could be the next big thing. How will you know until you try it?

Fingers crossed. I hope to try Teazzura on my holidays. Enjoy the ad.

Portia xx

AQUA ALLEGORIA – TEAZZURRA – GUERLAIN

Boring Stuff that Smells AMAZING!

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 8 Comments

Hey there crew,

Every day, or every couple of days, I do a whole bunch of things. They are my routine. I clean down the kitchen benches, shower, wash clothes, cook, drive, drink tea and coffee and a whole shemozzle of stuff. Problem is, I am a sensualist. What I’m looking for is a ride, a story, moment or a fantasy. An experience. One of the best ways I know how to make the hum drum routine zing is with scent, here are a few of my faves.

Boring Stuff that Smells AMAZING!

Footworks Cracked Heel Cream AVON

AVON Footworks Cracked Heel Cream: My feet are the pits underneath. Years of sport, dance, clubbing, high heels and neglect meant that by the time I was 25 my feet were cracked and bleeding on the underside. Thick soles, cracks and calluses had become agony and I thought it was my lot in life to be continuously grating dry skin from under my feet. Till someone sold me some AVON Footworks. Yes, I had used others but the positive effect was negligible, something in Footworks really works. The smell is smooth and balmy with a hint of chemical flowers and musks. I put it on religiously after every bath and shower and wander around in little cotton socks. The difference is unbelievable.

aromachologie-volumizing-shampoo-33017

L’OCCITANE Aromachologie Volumizing Shampoo for Fine and Normal Hair: So you know, I pay full price $35/500ml for this baby. It’s made with and smells like 5 essential oils; artemisia, petitgrain, sweet orange, rosemary, palmarosa. Yes it leaves my fine, sparse hair shiny and squeaky clean but the smell? The scent is freaking terrific. I lather up and leave it on for about a minute while doing other stuff so I can keep smelling the super green citrus burst, both calming and energising.

Aramis Soap On A Rope

Aramis Soap On A Rope: If you want to remember what old school Aramis smelled like then the Aramis Body Shampoo On A Rope is your friend. The smell is absolutely and utterly divine. That amber leather floral filled to the brim with gorgeous greenery and spices dancing around the center. It also hold a million memories because this was the first grown up bottle of scent my Mum bought for me. It makes a fabulous base for any of your leather or green fragrances, amping the herbs and woods. So beautiful.

White Vinegar
White Vinegar: I really don’t like the smell of most household cleaning products, I want my house to BE clean. Smelling clean is not important, and I also dislike left over cleaning smells that affect the way I smell the fragrance I wear and the ambient fragrances I choose to use. White Vinegar, boiling water and a dash of disinfectant takes away all the nasty smells and leaves everything squeaky clean. It’s better for the environment and doesn’t eat away your bathroom or kitchen. We also use it instead of fabric softener.

anastasia kasumi tea JPG

Kasumi Tea Anastasia: Recently the tin has been made over by Jean Paul Gaultier in very typical JPG nautical stripe & tattoo style. The current tin we have open on the kitchen bench is less modern in design but the orange zest and sweet fruit notes in this black tea are a real winner. It’s one of Kasumi’s oldest and most popular blends, fragrant and delicious. Perfect to lift lifes sometimes monotone days into sparkling rainbow brights.

So what are your Boring Stuff that Smells AMAZING? What do you use to make the daily grind smell better?
Portia xx

Please Help Scent Alexis

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 19 Comments

Hi there APJ,

I think most of you were around, but some of you were children or not even born in 1981. I was in school and we had been brought up to eat at the dinner table every night. It wasn’t over the top but we did always have a tablecloth & napkins, Mum & Dad would have some boozy beverage and there were usually two courses but sometimes three. We would chat about our days, bicker, laugh and sometimes have stand up screaming fights. It was routine and I liked it.

Though colour TV had come to Australia in the mid 1970s it wasn’t our B&W TV died that my parents bought the newfangled colour one, we really didn’t watch a lot of TV anyway. Dad was watching the news and I think Mum watched some daytime soaps. Then came 1981/2 and a change came over our family. One day my Mum came home with something outrageously outlandish. TV tray tables. Why? Because she wanted to watch Dynasty once a week and it clashed with dinner time.So, how to accomodate dinner time and Dynasty? Eat in front of the TV…….

Well, it was such a change. All of a sudden I was confronted by fashion, which had played a very background space in my brain, and shoulder pads and makeup and wigs and OMG! EVERYTHING!

I was a turning point. My favourite of them all was Alexis. So why don’t you watch this hilarious video and at the end I’d love to know what modern fragrance you’d scent Alexis with.

PG02 Coze Parfumerie Generale FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Indian hemp, pepper
Heart: Coffee, pimento, Mexican chocolate, tobacco
Base: Patchouli, sandalwood, ebony wood, Virginian cedar, Bourbon vanilla

I’m thinking Coze by Parfumerie Generale. No, I can’t tell you why but it just feels right.
What do you think?
Portia xx

Shit Alexis Says

Top 10 Vanillas for Spring 2015

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Hi Crew,

As you know I am now writing fortnightly for the crew at My Perfume Samples. Can’t express fully to you how proud I feel to be asked to write for them. Excellent crew with great prices and service. This week there is also a wicked FREE GIFT WITH PURCHASE OFFER.

Top 10 Vanillas for Spring 2015: My Perfume Samples

top10vanillas-copy

Please go check out the 10 vanilla fragrances that I think are a great cross section of taste and texture, from super sweet to quite dry. All of them are interesting and beautiful to me, wearable in spring and many all year round.

Top 10 Vanillas for Spring 2015: My Perfume Samples

While you’re there please leave me a help so I know you’ve dropped by. It makes me happy to see you all around the web.

Portia xx

Tobacco Rose by Liz Moores for Papillon Artisan Perfumes 2014

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Hi there Fumies,

Yes, I’ve read OODLES about the Tobacco Rose experience, and my mate Karen Gilbert had brought me a sample in 2014 while she was in Sydney. Yes I fell deeply and madly in love with it and I REALLY want a bottle. What I did instead was buy a decant from a split, it’s nearly empty and I think I’m going to need a LOT more Tobacco Rose….

Tobacco Rose by Papillon Artisan Perfumes 2014

Tobacco Rose by Liz Moores

Tobacco Rose Papillon Artisan Perfumes FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Bulgarian rose, rose de mai, oakmoss, ambergris, beeswax, Peru balsam

When I read the notes list I got in touch with Karen Gilbert to ask if they were all mad, she told me there was in fact NO tobacco in Tobacco Rose. Of course I didn’t believe her so I wrote to Liz Moores and asked her, she said I could quote her response so here it is in full:

Karen is such a star! You’re absolutely right, there’s no tobacco in tobacco rose. I used hay absolute, oakmoss, labdanum, patchouli and vetiver to give the impression of tobacco. Tobacco absolute is fabulous stuff but I found it stamped all over the rose. Hay is very tobacco-like but much softer and I liked the way it interacted with the Bulgarian rose and rose de Mai. Thank you so much for your kind wishes. It means a lot. xxxx Liz Moores

Can I just say that even if the fragrance smelled like shit from the nether hells I would still try my darndest to like it because that is the best answer ever. I’m severely crushing on Liz Moores for taking the time to write, and write so nicely and concisely and with heart. Fan made forever (Unless she does some freaking ghastly shit, obviously)

Tobacco Rose Liz-Moores PapillonPhoto Stolen Papillon

How does it smell? Like slightly jaded big fast roses that have been cut for the house and now they are overblown and losing their petals, I smell sweet jam and pooh, resins and above all the gloriously disarming fragrance if the Queen of flowers, the rose. So YUMMY! Tobacco Rose smells  like chintz look, do you remember those huge comfy chintz lounges through the 1980s in the cottage look houses. A few of my friends families had them and they always seemed so welcoming.

This is a fragrance with movement, story and flow. The honeyed sweetness with the labdanum smells animal to me and I get a whiff of pipe smoke too. I think the thing that you all get as hay doesn’t smell like that to me, if what I’m thinking is correct. It smells kind of boozy to me. Dunno, but Tobacco rose smells great right to the slightly bitter end.

Tobacco Rose Papillon just joey rose Geoff Penaluna FlickrPhoto Stolen Flickr

Further reading: Olfactoria’s Travels and I Scent You A Day
LuckyScent has $160/50ml
First In Fragrance has €135/50ml

Have you tried the Papillon fragrances yet? Is there a standout for you?
Portia xx

Peruvian Ambrette by Ermenegildo Zegna 2014

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Hi there APJ,

Ermenegildo Zegna (pronounced Er-Men-Jill-Doe) makes great shoes. Comfort out of the ballpark and usually pretty fun to look at too. I have a pair that I really love. When I wear them it feels like, in the words of Mary Horowitz, “Because it makes my toes feel like 10 friends on a camping trip, that’s why” but I have hardly even dipped my toe in the Zegna fragrances.

It does seem that most mainstream brands are releasing a niche inspired highbrow line, inspired by the CHANEL & DIOR prive lines. I have fallen for, and own FB of, quite a few from these including Armani, VC&A, Donna Karan, Cartier etc. Zegna has had fragrance for years and his 1983 Zegna Pour Homme is still cited as a benchmark.

Peruvian Ambrette by Ermenegildo Zegna 2014

Ermenegildo Zegna Essenze Collection

Peruvian Ambrette Ermenegildo Zegna FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Ambrette (musk mallow), orris, cashmere woods, guaiac wood

Spicy iris? Is there such a thing? Ginger? Pepper? Woods and some vegetative, humus rich damp healthy soil. Maybe some melon and some wet cardboard? GOSH! I don’t know. Any or all of these

What I smell is the kind of masculine oriented scent that the suit boys love to wear in cooler months. I can almost smell them arriving fresh for work and smelling very crisp and manly, no nonsense woods for us please. We like to smell good but in a pack of forest/woodsy fragrances that are almost synonymous with upper middle management. This fragrance is like code for earning well, on the stepladder of corporate success.

Am I selling it short? I don’t know. Maybe I was over expecting but for $250 I would like to be wowed.

Peruvian Ambrette Ermenegildo Zegna Zegna Lars Plougmann FlickrPhoto Stolen Flickr

Don’t get me wrong, if you own or buy Peruvian Ambrette by Ermenegildo Zegna you will smell good. You will not be a standout fragrant showpony and maybe the culture you would like to be a part of will feel that you smell like you fit the bill. There is nothing shameful about wearing a uniform and if Ermenegildo Zegna was aiming for the handsome, gym before work, power lunches, expensive customised off the rack designer suit crew then bravo because this is how my nose tells me they smell.

Peruvian Ambrette Ermenegildo-Zegna-suit-tie PixGoodPhoto Stolen PixGood

Dry down is a woodsy leather scent still with a clean musk and the lasting power is excellent for a working day. As an aside, I think the bottles look nice and they fit beautifully with the man in suit’s minimalist apartment.

Peruvian Ambrette by Ermenegildo Zegna is available in Department Stores and Zegna boutiques (US$195:£140:AUS$250/125ml)
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $4.50/ml

Do you ever fall for the mainstream prive lines? Favourites?
Have you tried any of the Zegna’s?
Portia xx

Travel Scent Choices: Singapore + South Korea Spring 2015

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Hey Y’All,

As you may know Jin is changing jobs so to celebrate this sudden rise in fortunes we are bringing our 2015 holiday forward from November to now, we leave on Wednesday. OH YES WE DO!

singapore trip AdvisorPhoto Stolen TripAdvisor

First stop is one of my long time buddies places in Singapore, hey Julie! I have never done a holiday in Singapore before; though my last partner Varun & I spent 36 hours in the airport because he didn’t have a visa while we were on our way to India. You would think we had a bad time, we did not. It was crazy fun, that Changi Airport is enormous.

korea cherry blossom TripAdvisorPhoto Stolen TripAdvisor

Then we go on to South Korea to visit Jin’s family. Cherry blossom time will just be finishing but I think they will still be slightly in flower. It’s Jin’s Dad’s birthday so we are taking them for their first holiday in years, two days on the west coast of South Korea. They think this is a ridiculous extravagance but Jin is hiring a car and we’ll drive 3 hours each way, fully across South Korea, and spend one night at a pension (not even a hotel because that would be too much). They are adamant that this kind of frivolity should be avoided and that we should be putting our money to better use. Fingers crossed they have a good time, Jin has really been working hard on TripAdvisor to get it just right for them.

Travel Scent Choices: Singapore + South Korea Spring 2015

So spring will be WARM in Singapore and mild in South Korea. I need a small range of fragrances to get me by till I can hit the stores and buy Misia by CHANEL. It’s the only fragrance on my To Buy List right now and I know they’ll have it in both Singapore and Seoul. So I’m thinking 5 frags, 2 bottles and three decants. It’s only 12 days.

Travel Scent Choices: Bottles

 

L'Heure Convoiteé II Cartier FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

L’Heure Convoiteé II Cartier: This arctic, powdery, furball of a carnation/iris is so fabulously elegant and lasts all day. I can spritz and go and know I’ll smell freaking killer until I shower. I also love that it has it’s own sturdy leather pouch which means I don’t have to worry about it in my checked luggage.

La Chasse aux Papillons L`Artisan Parfumeur FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

La Chasse aux Papillons L`Artisan Parfumeur: 7.5ml Rollerball (not pictured). Nick from Libertine Parfumerie gave me this one to test because they are brand new in 2015 and I thought what better place to try it than on holiday. Space will be tight, I need something small and easily accessible and the bottle feels surprisingly hefty. I also find that rolling La Chasse aux Papillons makes it last longer on my skin.

Travel Scent Choices: Decants

Chanel Misia Chanel FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Misia CHANEL: Yes, my decant is almost drained already. Makeup and leather together so beautifully, a delightfully powdery and lightly soapy wash of pure elegance. I can’t tell you what a zing this gives me whenever I spritz, it’s not just its own scent but the memories of all the other scents that it reminds me of through its life and you know what? I love it so much that I’m going to wear it on the plane.

Manto di Rugiada i Profumi di Firenze BaseNotesPhoto Stolen BaseNotes

Manto di Rugiada i Profumi di Firenze: I keep forgetting to wear this lovely green, resinous amber. It’s light enough for spring and will smell gorgeous on the cooler evenings. Softly nuanced and beautifully blended I always enjoy my ride. There’s a couple of ml left in my decant, I might as well use them up.

07 Vetiver Dance Tauer Perfumes FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

07 Vetiver Dance Tauer Perfumes: One of my mates Natalie from Another Perfume Blog (now defunct sadly) gave me a manufacturers sample of this one. I like vetiver very much and Vetiver dance has been sitting in my Must Try box for ages. I’m taking it with me so I can spend some time with one of the few Andy Tauer fragrances that I’ve not smelled.

What do you think of my choices? What would you pick if you had to take 5? It’s not forever, only a fortnight, so it’s not a really big decision. it is fun planning and choosing though.

Portia xx

Vintage Cabochard Parfum by Bernard Chant for Gres 1959

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 20 Comments

Hey Vintage Fumies,

Recently I was lucky enough to find a 2/3 full bottle of the vintage Cabochard parfum in its gorgeous black & white pedestal box. It wasn’t cheap but it wasn’t outrageously expensive either and I had long wanted to own a bottle for myself, having sampled earlier in my fragrant life.

Vintage Cabochard Parfum by Bernard Chant for Gres 1959

Cabochard Gres FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Aldehydes, spices, tarragon, fruity notes, sage, lemon, asafoetida
Heart: Orris, jasmine, geranium, rose, ylang ylang
Base: Tobacco, vetiver, oakmoss, coconut, musk, patchouli, amber, sandalwood, leather

Bernard Chant: Cabochard 1959, Aramis 1966, Aromatics Elixir 1971. A trilogy or family of fragrance. His three masterpieces, all similar but riffing different elements. If you want to know what a car looked like then, below is a 1959 Cadillac.

Cabochard Parfum gres 1959-Cadillac WikipediaPhoto Stolen Wikipedia

Now my top notes are slightly rusty, not in a big way but they have changed from the sample I had worn. I will have to use this up in the next year or so and I don’t think that’s any great hardship. The fruity sparkle is herbaceous, aromatic and dense. Imagine being in the storeroom of an Indian bazaar, the spark and buzz of faulty electrics, fruit and veg in waxy cardboard boxes, sizzling spices, bitter herbs, and the scent of dozens of boxes of sandalwood soap. That’s as full on as you can imagine, heavy, hectic, psychedelic scent that manages to be all this and warm & classy too. That is quite a feat to keep something so big from flying out of control.

Cabochard Gres Mary_Tyler_Moore WikipediaPhoto Stolen Wikipedia

The flowers are a bouquet and I can’t pick any of them out, not really pick them out though I get flashes of ideas of flowers. It doesn’t matter anyway because already the base notes are coming through: sandalwood, tobacco, patchouli, leather and oakmoss are the ones I can detect but what I really smell is Cabochard. It’s the base of Cabochard that IS Cabochard to me. A gravel voiced granny with a fabulous high end leather handbag, a cigarette, hair done and nails painted and attitude. She’s lived and loved her life, and is reveling in her twilight years. A little bit creakier but mind as sharp as a tack and still ready for fun, a drink and a laugh.

Cabochard Gres granny YourStyleJourneyPhoto Stolen YourStyleJourney

Further reading: Bois de Jasmin and Perfume Shrine
My bottle from Ebay
FragranceNet has modern EdP $28/100ml before Coupon
Surrender To Chance has Vintage Parfum $6/.25ml

Do you have a vintage you love? Something that has changed in its newest form or is it gone altogether?
Portia xx

Louis Vuitton: Singapore City Guide

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 2 Comments

Hello Intrepid APJ Travelers,

As you may know Jin has accepted a new job and we have bought a new abode. Very exciting times and because we are unsure of when we’ll next be able to travel (probably January 2016 UK & Europe) we have decided to bring our November family visit forward to NOW, leaving Wednesday. We’ll do a few days in Singapore, where neither of us have stayed other than the airport, with one of my longtime girlfriends Julie and then go on to South Korea to celebrate Jin’s father’s birthday. We are taking them away to the West side of South Korea for a couple of days, their first holiday in years.

singapore DesignerPoint PixabayPhoto Stolen Pixabay

So I thought it best to give you a glimpse of Singapore through the eyes of Louis Vuitton.
Do please enjoy,
Portia xx

Louis Vuitton Presents the Singapore City Guide

Montaigne by Richard Fraysse for Caron 2007

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 10 Comments

Hi there Frag Family,

Caron is a fragrance house that is very hit and miss for me. A bunch of my all time favourite fragrances are from them. With Bellodgia I have a horde of the parfum as well as an ample stash of the EdP. Infini, Parfun Sacre, Nocturnes, 119, Nuit de Noel, Tabac Blond and Royal Bain are all in my collection and that’s a LOT from one house. There are a bunch that don’t work though, and they REALLY don’t work, so it’s always nice to find a new one that does. My frag buddy Scott and I were shopping the importer sale the other day and we spied a Caron I’d not yet tried…..

Montaigne by Richard Fraysse for Caron 2007

Montaigne Caron FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Jasmine, coriander, bitter orange, mimosa, tangerine
Heart: Narcissus, black currant
Base: Sandalwood, amber, vanilla

So my batch code tells me my Montaigne is a 2007, so re-released with the reformulation and I think it did not do so well. It’s certainly not one of the Caron’s you read or hear much love for, Victoria at Bois de Jasmin delightfully scathing of the sandalwood accord and the frag in general. Her nose is 100 times better attuned to picking such things and I miss the screech completely. Maybe my bottle has had a lot longer to settle?

Opening spritz has me smelling this fabulous fruity hairspray and makeup scent, there’s something completely over the top and carnival about Mointaigne, it feels irrepressible to me. It’s so perfumey it’s almost a caricature of perfume. honestly the notes bear very little resemblance to what my nose and brain smell. I get a high octane, 100% synthetic, dance all night, laughing, singing along, party girl scent. If ever a scent swang from the chandelier then Montaigne is it.

montaigne-caron disco PixabayPhoto Stolen Pixabay

Part of me is just laughing inside at how much fun someone wearing Montaigne could have.

Basically Montaigne wears pretty linearly for me, hairspray, nailpolish, makeup mixed with fun fruity tingles and a very thin dry down with a little amber/woods but really it is just a soft wash of sweet woods with a shade of fruit. This wash wafts softly around me for a few hours, longevity is quite good.

Further reading: Perfume Posse and EauMG
Beauty Encounter has $45/50ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $4.50/ml

Do you have a Caron favourite? Tell me…. and why?
Portia xx