Ira Glass on the Creative Process

Here is something that resonated so strongly with me. Really leapt into my head and heart in an AHA moment so real and physical that it was like being struck by lightning. SHIT! Of course that’s how the creative process works, as if it could be any other way. It’s the percolation of success and failure that can only happen over time, with repeating the processes so regularly that they become you. Creation, in my case, needs craft and art so when someone speaks to me of the way that I need to continue, to create and create and create to reach the creation that I will be happy with is to see my life put into a two minute video, condensed to a microcosm and it makes it look like I have unwittingly stumbled across my secret plan. So secret even I was blissfully unaware that I had one.

Ira_Glass_CMU_2006Photo Stolen Wikipedia

Sorry to bore you with my ramble, watch the video. It probably won’t blow your mind like it did mine but it’s a worthwhile skerrick of information to have anyway.

Portia xx

Ira Glass on the Creative Process

Here and Now: Tamara Dean: Special Event Announcement

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Post by Portia & Ainslie Walker

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Here and Now: Tamara Dean: Special Event Announcement

An Immersive Experience
Viewing: February 5-7 by registration HERE<<JUMP
Address released 24 hours prior

Opening Night February 4 2015 6-8pm Fully Booked

Tamara Dean, Email Invitation to Here and Now, 4th Feb

Award winning artist and photographer Tamara Dean’s Here and Now Exhibition opens on 4th Feb and is already booked out for the opening night.
There are still places on Thursday and Saturday bu you must register quick.
APJs Ainslie Walker has scented the exhibition, collaborating with Tamara Dean for this fully immersive exhibition and says the experience “involves getting lost, at one with your primordial senses heightened”

here and now juice

Artist bio: Tamara Dean is an Australian artist whose practice explores the relationship between humans and the natural world. In 2013 she was selected for the ArtOmi International Artists Residency, New York. Works produced during this residency won first prize in the 2013 New York Photo Awards – Fine Art series category. Dean’s works have been widely exhibited both nationally and internationally.

Her work has featured in the Hamptons Art Fair, NYC, 2014, Melbourne Art Fair, 2014, Fotofever Brussels Art Fair, 2012 and Pingyao Photography Festival, China, 2012 as well as at leading Australian galleries including Inheritance 2009 and Hijacked 2 – New Australian & German Photography 2010, both at the Australian Centre for Photography; Sydney Now – New Australian Photojournalism, Museum of Sydney 2007; Terra Australis Incognita at Monash Gallery of Art.
Dean is currently Artist-in-Residence at UNSW and is represented by Olsen Irwin Gallery, Sydney and JHB Gallery, New York.

Here-and-Now 2015 copyright Tamara Dean

The Sydney Perfume lovers Meet up group, run by Catherine du Peloux Menagé are gathering their forces and attending the exhibition on Thursday evening 5.2.14. They will be privy to a special talk by Ainslie and Tamara and a keepsake of the evening to take home.

Catherine from the Sydney Perfume Lovers Meetup says:
“The artist Tamara Dean has collaborated with one of our members, the talented Ainslie Walker, to create an innovative art installation ‘Here and now’. Our senses will be heightened (including the sense our group is all about, naturally) as we take in the artwork and each one of us will have a different perspective. To say more would be to detract from the evening so you’ll just have to come along to be part of it.
We’ll experience the installation one person at a time, then Tamara and Ainslie will talk to us about the inspiration and ideas behind the installation, as well as the process of creation, over a drink . ‘Here and now’ will take place in the Kensington area of Sydney. The exact location has not yet been disclosed (not even to me!) and I will let you know the address by email nearer the time.
You will take away a special gift which will remind of your experience of the evening by stimulating your limbic system in a unique way. Intrigued? See you there. “

samplers

If you prefer to come at a different time or with your friends register with the details below:

REGISTER: Here and Now 2015

Rosa sur Reuse by Liz Zorn for SOIVOHLE 2012

Heya Perfume Junkies,

SOIVOHLE (pronounced See-Voh) is an acronym for Sending Out Inspired Vibrations Of Healthy Loving Energy. What an amazing place to start for a fragrance house! Liz Zorn, the nose and also a famous American artist brings a joyful, light filled exuberance to fragrance and being an independent has less regulation than the big boys. Translated, that means when Liz says there is oakmoss in her creation you are getting the good stuff. Many of her fragrances have an old school feel simply because she can use ingredients not seen in fragrance this decade in the retail chains.

Liz is selling off the Mixed Media section of the fragrance business and is going to concentrate on the naturals. I wrote recently about her Alpha Musc and how I was ordering back ups of my two special favourites Rosa sur Reuse and Jasmine Summer. Really I do not want to live without them so I now have an EXTRA backup of Rosa sur Reuse, and the prices are so cheap!!

Rosa sur Reuse by Liz Zorn for SOIVOHLE 2012

Rosa Sur Reuse SoivohlePhoto Stolen SOIVOHLE

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Tuberose, red rose, red berries, parma violet, jasmine, lily, lilac, orchid, oakmoss, vanilla, woody notes, musk

So I write about Rosa sur Reuse fairly regularly on the facebook fragrance boards (Aussie Fragrance Network (Aus) or Facebook Fragrance Friends (USA) are good ones) but haven’t reviewed it on APJ. I don’t know why but I thought I had done a review here…..

We have planted some lovely spicy and jammy smelling small floribunda yellow roses on mum’s grave that seem to need zero care to put forth enormous stems of flowers throughout the season. The brilliant flowers in front are everlasting silk ones that my Aunty changes every season but you can see the sprays growing up the back filled with rosebuds. We were the first at the cemetery to ask if we could plant a garden in mum’s grave in 2001 and since then it has become a bit of a thing. The newer graves all look so bright and lovely and though we would visit Mum regularly anyway it does give us an extra reason and a thing to do while we are there. I must look like a complete MADster doing the gardening, watering, burning incense and Hell Bank Notes and quietly chatting to my Mum the whole time.

Mum's Grave January 2015

Strawberry sweetness like a strawberry cola over a beautiful big jammy rose

The sweetness that opens is the most luscious stylisation of roses ever. Though it’s so much more than a rose smell, that kind of makes Rosa sur Reuse even more photo-realistic. You know when you are smelling roses in the garden? Even roses on the same bush at different times in their bloom or throughout the day will have quite distinctly different fragrances. So in my mind it says, “Maybe there is a moment when a real life rose smells EXACTLY like this.” Intoxicating and beautiful there is no mistaking that you’re wearing a perfume, even one spritz of this EdT is a dense scent, of course when I’m home I give it 2 on the chest and one on each wrist and then I am a WALL OF ROSES! Maybe this is what it smelled like in Sleeping Beauty’s enclosure?

The sleeping beauty (1921) oil on canvas 91.4 x 111.8 cmPhoto Stolen WikiCommons

After the initial fireworks burn off, around the one hour mark, I get a green-ness that speaks to me of fresh cut rose vegetation and maybe even the woody green scent of stem too. It bolsters the fruity rose and gives a new dimension to Rosa sur Reuse. As we head towards dry down, the woods and vanilla move in to replace the fruit with a soft focus warmth but my skin never lets me lose sight of the fact that this is first and foremost a rose soliflore. I get 5-7 hours of wear depending on the day and Rosa sur Reuse stays heavily fragrant until during its last hour it fades to nothing.

SOIVOHLE still has loads of the Clearance Sale items left and you can get 11ml of Rosa sur Reuse for $12.50! While you’re there check out Liz’s other magnificent stuff aty drop dead gorgeous prices.

Portia xx

 

Australian Jasmine Awards to be DISCONTINUED

NEWS to hand this week. A very sad day for Australian Fragrance Journalism. We are so glad that our very own Ainslie Walker is a Jasmine Award Winner and hoped that some others in the crew could claim like status. Maybe we should start our own Awards APJ, what do you think?
Portia xx

Australian Jasmine Awards to be DISCONTINUED

PRESS RELEASE

January 2015

JASMINE AWARDS TO BE DISCONTINUED

After 10 years of recognising Excellence in Journalism about Fragrance, a decision has been made to discontinue the Australian Jasmine Awards.

Over the past decade, the Jasmine Awards have recognised very creative and distinctive fragrance features and articles from some of the Industry’s most respected journalists. While highly supported in years gone by, changes in the media landscape obligate a new direction
and a refreshed approach to fragrance communication strategies.

Ainslie Walker Jasmine Award 2014#4 cover

Ainslie Walker Jasmine Award 2014#1

The Australian Fragrance industry would like to thank all the former entrants and generous sponsors for their support and contribution to the success of the Jasmine Awards over many years. The industry will continue to work very actively and directly with the Beauty Media and Supporters from print, online and social media, as it always has, to promote the wonderful world of fragrance
and its unique properties for consumers.

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Passport à Paris by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz for DSH Perfumes 2013

Hi there APJ Crew,

I have been slack, yes a slackard am I, but FINALLY I am getting to a beautiful set that Dawn Spencer Hurwitz sent to me through one of our fabulous APJ writers Willa Zheng. We had coffee and a sniff yesterday afternoon and she reminded me that I had to write up the DSH stuff immediately. So when I first sniffed the package here is the one that took my breath away immediately and I LOVE Paris, match made in heaven

Passport à Paris by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz for DSH Perfumes 2013

Passport à Paris DSH Perfumes FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Lemon, bergamot, lavender, palisander rosewood, mandarin orange, jasmine, Bulgarian rose, orris root, clover, Australian sandalwood, amber, vanilla, coumarin, ambergris, Indian patchouli, civet

From DSH Perfumes site: My fragrant ode to two perfume greats of Paris, circa 1885: Jicky and Fougere Royale. Inspired by Claude Monet’s “The Beach at Trouville”, this universal perfume could be worn by both men and women on their holiday as well as about town. Passport a` Paris utilizes aroma molecules vanillin and coumarin. considered quite modern at the time.

Sur les planches de Trouville oil on canvas 50 x 70 cmPhoto Stolen WikiCommons

Lovely, deep, burnished woods and resins lift off with a citrus side order. It must be Paris in spring or summer because while Passport à Paris is all of these beautiful things there is a dark and funky undertone. Through reading the notes I find that lavender is the component that I could smell but not identify, though now I know what it is I am smacking my head. Of course it is, a lightly sugared and vanilla’d lavender that is both charmingly warm and very slightly minty cool, a happy juxtaposition that keeps me on the edge of my nose wondering which way it will fall.

One of the lovely things Jin & I did in Paris in 2013 was have a hot chocolate banana waffle under the big Ferris Wheel, there is something here of that happy memory. The beauty, majesty, cool air and hot waffle: both cake and crispy caramelisation, the squished banana and drizzled chocolate. Jin was in heaven and when I had a little bit I could understand how happy he was in that instant, it was such a pure and unsullied moment that I had to capture it. One of those “God, I love him” snippets of time.

Jin Waffle ParisJin eating hot choc-banana waffle Paris Feb ’13

So while I can make out the correlation between Jicky and Fougere Royal what I smell when I’m wearing  Passport à Paris is my own special shared moment.

For those fiercely anti-natural you may find Passport à Paris, though full of courmarin and vanillin, to feel a little like the heft and deeper lay of a natural. This could never be confused with a mass market fragrance offering and I think Dawn never wanted it to. This is a beautiful, tonal, mesmerising fragrance that feels like it is still in touch with the earth and the power of natural perfumery. I love the soft, furry, powdery dry down too. What a beautiful ending, around 5-6 hours till I can smell no more…..

DSH Perffumes have EdP (which I reviewed) and Parfum strengths starting at only $5

Are you a Dawn Spencer Hurwitz fan? Do you have a favourite? Maybe you’ve tried Passport à Paris, what were your impressions?
Portia xxxx

5ml Fabulous Fragrance Fridays at Surrender To Chance

So APJ,

It’s Friday!! What does that mean?

Surrender To Chance Logo

5ml Fabulous Fragrance Fridays at Surrender To Chance<< JUMP

From $2.99 – $32.99 for 5ml. All heavily discounted and on sale today.

Some examples?

At $32.99 for 5ml

  • By Kilian Light my Fire – In the Addictive State of Mind
  • By Kilian Smoke for the Soul – In the Addictive State of Mind

 

At $18.99 for 5ml
  • Arquiste The Architect’s Club
  • Serge Lutens Fille en Aiguilles
  • Slumberhouse Vikt EDP
  • Tauer Perfumes L’air du Desert Marocain

At $12.99 for 5ml

  • Frapin Passion Boisee
  • Le Labo Jasmin 17
  • Montale Orient Extreme

At $5.99 for 5ml

  • i Profumi di Firenze Manto di Rugiada
  • La Prairie Life Threads – Gold
  • Maison Berdoues 1902 Eau de Cologne Premium Collection Cardamom
  • Molinard Vanille Patchouli

At $2.99 for 5ml

  • Bvlgari Blv Notte Pour Femme
  • Ciel Perfume FR2 – Red Pomegranate
  • Comptoir Sud Pacifique L’Homme
  • Costume National Scent

 5ml Fabulous Fragrance Fridays at Surrender To Chance<< JUMP

So go visit my friends at Surrender To Chance and grab yourself some serious BARGAINS!!!
Portia xx

CHANEL Spring-Summer 2015 Haute Couture Show – Short Edit

HI HI

As you know I love fashion and adore Karl Lagerfeld at CHANEL. This is not one of his best seasons but there are some interesting things to note. Midriffs, jewel brights and soft pastels, long skirts still around, flat heels, big outlandish hats.

chanel-spring-summer-2015-haute-couture-look-23

To be honest the set outperformed the frocks.

Enjoy this short look at SS 2015 CHANEL

Portia xx

CHANEL Spring-Summer 2015 Haute Couture Show – Short Edit

Khôl de Bahreïn by Stéphane Humbert Lucas 777 2013

Hey Heyy Niche Nerds,

So you may be familiar with the brand names Nez a Nez or So Oud? Here is the man who created some of those fragrances. The scentbloggosphere has been quite slow to catch onto this house but my mate Sandra from Olfactoria’s Travels put me onto them earlier in the year and I went straight to Ruth at FFF (Facebook Fragrance Friends) and grabbed some of her splits. This was quite a while ago and I’m only now fully getting to the bag she sent, time has been a very scarce commodity around here lately…….

Khôl de Bahreïn by Stéphane Humbert Lucas 777 2013

Khôl de Bahreïn Stéphane Humbert Lucas 777 FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Violet, sweet notes, resins
Heart: Iris, sandalwood, ambergris
Base: Peru balsam, musk

Khol has long been used through Asia, Africa and the Middle East on children to strengthen their eyes and ward off the evil eye, it was also thought to help kill bacteria from flies and other insects. The lead in khol has been noted as high as 84% and the authorities are trying to regulate it better to make it safer. Khol can be seen around the eyes of many adult women through all the regions and is particularly spectacular when worn with headgear that leaves only the eyes uncovered, framing glorious eyes with black really makes them pop and gives added nuance to every movement of them.

Khôl de Bahreïn Stéphane Humbert Lucas 777 Nefertiti WikipediaPhoto Stolen Wikipedia

 MMMMMMMM the opening after I spritz reveals a warm, sweet and engulfing mix of resins, I am surprised that there is no vanilla listed because I get a very bakery themed gush. You know when a fragrance makes you feel safe, loved and hugged from the outset? Here it is. This is the most comfortable comfort scent. Khôl de Bahreïn is what teddy bears should smell like, and fresh washed duvets. Resins, cream, wood that all meld together to smell the way a perfectly polished piece of amber that has warmed in the sun or on your skin feels against your face.

Khôl de Bahreïn Stéphane Humbert Lucas 777 Teddy Bear Armando Maynez FlickrPhoto Stolen Flickr

Dense but surprisingly light, and simple but not boring Khôl de Bahreïn reminds me in mood of two of my favourite amber fragrances, Ambre Ceruleen by Huitieme Art and Dries van Noten by Malle. Here we have a scent that hits and triggers every one of my safe, loved and happy buttons. So vanilla it’s almost a hot chocolate, that kind of warming right through feeling and experience. There is a very slight animalic and furry note that creeps in through the heart: it has my eyes rolling in the back of my head as I compulsively sniff myself. Khôl de Bahreïn, where have you been all my life?

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAPhoto Stolen Wikipedia

Thank Sandra for this particular lemming, though I think we must have talked of it because I can’t see a review. Now that I’ve tested it Sandra, even in the high heat of Sydney’s summer Khôl de Bahreïn wears a winner for me. Damnit! I thought I’d finished my amber search and had enough……..

Further reading: Ca Fleure Bon
LuckyScent has $220/50ml and samples
First In Fragrance has €148/50ml and samples

Have you heard of this brand? Is it on your radar? Will you be trying Khôl de Bahreïn?

Portia xx

BUSY…………….

Heya Fabulous APJ Family,

Shit is real around here, real BUSY. I am spraying new stuff a bit. Today I wore a new Australian house

Cult Of Scent

Magnolia ’13 by Cult of Scent
WOW!! Creamy, furry, citrus with a pithy undertone and a lovely sillage that lasts well into the second hour, even into the fourth hour I can softly smell a musk/vanilla/white flower/citrus wash. I am going to use my very small amount up this weekend, FABULOUS!

Kokorico Jean Paul Gaultier FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Kokorico by Jean Paul Gaultier
Also a divinely delicious scent Kokorico is smooth, woody and sweet. I was surprised that vanilla was not in the notes. Why was this not a huge hit, I only have a decant but I freaking LOVE it. I smell really good. MMMM

..this-moment-is-your-life

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Live-your-life-quote

living-without-fear

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Now, please do yourself a favour. Just for an hour. Log off, get up and walk around, make a coffee and sit in a room you rarely sit in, go to the corner store, go pat your dog, go pull up some weeds. Spritz yourself with fragrance and get going. You will feel better about almost everything if you do.

See you back here later.

Portia xx

log-off-and-go-live-life

Eau Suave by Parfum d`Empire 2005 + Kate Bush

Hi there Music Lovers and Fumies,

Recently I posted a piece of music and told you how I love to put on the classical music and saif (spray a LOT) myself in a particularly big fragrance, close my eyes and just let myself float away on the music and fragrance together. Sometimes when the world gets too much, when I am bombarded by questions or negativity, when the next step seems unreachable or when I am completely overwhelmed by my to do list. Look at it this way: I could continue freaking out for 5 minutes or I can concentrate myself elsewhere, completely give myself to something else, and let my subconscious do its job. Quite often I find myself at the end of the piece of music 100% calmer, able to focus, aware of the next bite sized step or in touch with my gut feelings.

Eau Suave Parfum d`Empire Josephine WikipediaPhoto Stolen Wikipedia

Last time it was Debussy: Rêverie but today I went looking for a childhood memory song. One that used to make me feel happy and sad, I used to play it repeatedly on my 3in1 and sing along in my thin childish tenor until one of the family would bang on the door and ask me to turn it down and stop that catterwauling.

Today it brings back happy memories and a smile as I completely let myself be taken away by the amazing voice of Kate Bush. What did I spritz today to listen to it?

Eau Suave by Marc-Antoine Corticchiato for Parfum d`Empire 2005

Eau Suave Parfum d`Empire FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Coriander, saffron, rose
Heart: Peach, raspberry, red berries, pepper, tea rose
Base: Vanilla, musk, oakmoss, patchouli

Spicy, sweet rose. I think the top notes of my bottle have been compromised slightly because the zingy coriander opening that I loved so well is muted nowadays. The rose is still lovely and sweet, not quite jammy but a fruity sweet and that wonderful hint of cracked pepper that some of the apricot rose flowers have when you grow them in the garden. A perfect soft focus fragrance to lose yourself in while listenbing to Kate Bush and beyond into the afternoon where it becomes a lovely soft rose and vanilla wash.

My review is for the vintage, I have not smelled the new in their very austere new bottles.

Further reading: Bois de Jasmin and Now Smell This
LuckyScent have $145/100ml
Posh Peasant has samples starting at $4/ml

Whjat music or fragrance makes you float away?
Enjoy,
Portia xx

Kate Bush – The Man with the Child in His Eyes – Official Music Video