HO HO HO APJ!
Fingers crossed your Christmas is excellent.
If not, spritz yourself like crazy with your favourite fragrance and screw the world.
Portia xx
Photo Stolen WorldWideWallpapers
Portia
Breathe: Afternoon Of A Faun: Etat Libre d’Orange
Sometimes APJ,
You can merely tread water and breathe, stand still, look around you for a moment and breathe. Three deep breaths, in through your nose and out through your mouth. It’s interesting how this small thing can put a little perspective on the world you inhabit. It gives you time to remember that no matter how bad your predicament, others are much worse off. It also gives you a moment to say thank You for something, anything, the one thing good you may be able to recall.
Tonight I am wearing
Afternoon Of A Faun by Ralf Schwieger for Etat Libre d’Orange 2012
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Bergamot, pepper, cinnamon, incense, immortelle, orris root, myrrh, leather, benzoin, rose, jasmine, oakmoss
I like to spritz like crazy and just sit somewhere quiet and breathe in the green peppery leather that is both warm and cool on my skin and works perfectly in winter and summer, giving almost entirely different rides in disparate temperatures.
Today it’s been a fizzy green citrus floral that burned down to a slightly sweaty leather/woods/incense feel after wearing it to work. Now I’m home and changed I enjoyed the ride so much I am doing it again.
Double spritz on chest and Breathe
Breathe
Breathe
Aaaaaaah. Heaven.
I have been a super bitch this week. It’s the end of a completely fabulous year and I am tired, we are all cramped in this apartment, there is still masses of unpacking undone, Christmas is upon us and to be honest, I am a cranky ole bitch. It’s been a don’t even look at me the wrong way this week because I will gut you with a look and feed your entrails to the dogs with my words. Jin came and had a quiet word to me tonight about it and he is right.
Photo Stolen Pixabay
breathe
verb: breathe; 3rd person present: breathes; past tense: breathed; past participle: breathed; gerund or present participle: breathing
take air into the lungs and then expel it, especially as a regular physiological process.
“she was breathing deeply”
synonyms: inhale and exhale, respire, draw breath, puff, pant, blow, gasp, wheeze
synonyms: inhale and exhale, respire, draw breath, puff, pant, blow, gasp, wheeze
Photo Stolen Flickr
Further reading: Chemist In A Bottle and The Non-Blonde
LuckyScent has $149/100ml
Etat Libre d’Orange has €110/100ml (Delivers to the world)
Surrender To Chance starts at $4.50/ml
What do you do when the world overwhelms you?
I could do with some hints……
Portia xxxx
I have written about Afternoon Of A Faun before and it was 22 December 2013!! How freaky is that?
Candles by Peppermint Grove Australia 2014
Hi Crew,
I happened to wander into one of my favourite Sydney fragrance and beauty stores SWS Spring with Jin and a couple of our mates after dinner, as always when greeted by Moody the proprietor I asked, “What’s New Moody?”
A brand new Aussie candlemaker has emerged in December 2014?? Brand new, need to see and sniff? OK
Candles by Peppermint Grove Australia 2014
The Peppermint Grove Candles come in two sizes $17/60 gram and $40/350 gram with a very pretty bow on the front of ribbed glass reusable vessels, so girly. They are not on the website yet but you can call and order and they will send them out. GREAT idea for last minute Christmas Shopping. So reasonably priced and they come in beautiful boxes and have a metal cover or base.
Peppermint Grove Australia Candle Scents
Black Orchid and Ginger
Burnt Fig & Pear (Interesting and fun)
Freesia & Berries
Gardenia
Lemon, Basil & Mandarin
Lemongrass & Lime (If you like the way spas often smell, you’ll love this. Clean and natural smelling)
Oceania (My personal favourite, you can smell the salty sea breeze)
Patchouli & Bergamot
Vanilla Caramel
Wild Jasmine & Mint (Very nicely done on a vanilla base, I would burn this in my home)
Photo Stolen SWS Spring
Phillip & Graham, our dinner partners that night and long term mates, with Jin
Site:
SWS Spring
Address:
SWS SPRING
48 Dixon St,
Haymarket Chinatown
Sydney NSW 2000
Telephone:
+61 2 9212 7356
Ask for Moody, he’s the sweetest ever,
Portia xx
Dries Van Noten by Bruno Jovanovic for Frederic Malle 2013
Hiya Wafty Wanderers,
Here’s my point of view. It is merely supposition and has no direct basis in fact or information received. If Estee Lauder has bought Frederic Malle then things are going to change. There is a little twinkle in my brain saying Malle would rather sell his company than change the formulas to IFRA comply. Estee Lauder on the other hand will go through and do the best possible reform they can at the best price, get IFRA approval and take it to a whole new mainstream level. I repeat, this is all supposition….
In other news I think Dries van Noten would be a perfect Christmas scent, modern and old fashioned come together beautifully here. It may have pushed Azuree out of the way this year….
Dries Van Noten par Frederic Malle 2013
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Sandalwood, guaiac wood, tonka bean, vanilla, saffron, jasmine, musk, bergamot, lemon, nutmeg, cloves, patchouli, woody notes and peru balsam
Last year when I tried Dries van Noten I was instantly in love, then I did not buy a bottle because other more pressing things took over my head and up till now it had not happened. So while I was in Chicago, filled with the fear of reformulation I decided to plunge on the 50ml bottle.
Here’s what I wrote in my last review, I think it sums up Dries van Noten perfectly:
…Warm marshmallow sweet and slightly spicy vanilla open(ing) that smells so familiar, like someone I love is nearby, even though I’m sure that I’ve not smelled this mix before. Every time I wear Dries Van Noten it has instantly calmed and unruffled me….
Each previous time I have worn Dries Van Noten for the purpose of reviewing it has grabbed my head and asked me to just sit and enjoy its beauty. The whole fragrance feels extremely uncluttered, though it is dense. It goes through a milky, nutmeg stage that reads egg flip to me. An egg flip was dinner sometimes when we were young and made as a great treat for us kids, whole egg, nutmeg, vanilla, ice cream and milk. It was huge and delicious. Nowadays when I (remember) how strict Mum’s budget was I think that maybe she was eeking out her ration by giving us a liquid dinner out of, at that time, extremely cheap materials. I’ll never know now but my sister Jodie and I would feel so great on an egg flip night.
Photo Stolen Wikipedia
Simple, warm, comfortable and yummy. Dries van Noten is the most deliciously wearable oriental fragrance. Simple yet complex and it moves me in unexpected ways. It’s like a cocoon of scent that I can curl up in, feel safe and peaceful and remember simple times. Also 100% wearable outside the front door and nobody will be skunked or outraged. If you are after boundary pushing, freaky, “can’t believe they put this shit in a bottle” then move along, you will hate Dries van Noten. If, on the other hand you are all about smelling fantastic then give it a whirl.
Photo Stolen Flickr
Further reading GrainDeMusc and Patty at PerfumePosse
Frederic Malle starts at $125/3 x 10ml (I think this is IDEAL for splitting)
SurrenderToChance starts at $6/ml
Have you tried dries van Noten? Did it send you or bore you to death?
Portia xx
What were your most reached for fragrances in 2014?
Hey Hey Fumies!!
The other night I was reading Perfume Shrine and they had this question. I found it so interesting what everyone had worn. We talk a LOT about the newest, freakiest, skankiest and get really hardcore on the blogs every year but to see what everyone really wears, in real life, is great.
So I’d like to put it to you APJ.
What were your most reached for fragrances in 2014?
My first answer is what I put up on Perfume Shrine but that was written off the top of my head and I have been thinking hard about the answer. What I will do is put up my previous answer and the more realistic one…
Hey There,
I LOVE these questions. Would you be terribly offended if I asked the same question at APJ?
Here are my most reached for..
Shalimar by Guerlain
Fleur de Male by Gaultier
Coco by CHANEL
Mohur by Neela Vermeire
Liberte by Cacharel
Portia xx
Perfumeshrine said…
Portia,
you’re very welcome to repeat this on Australian Perfume Junkies! Thanks for adding your contribution here. And so please tweet me the link when you’re done so I can RT 🙂
After consideration answer:
Shalimar by Guerlain
Amoureuse by Parfums DelRae
Ombre Mercure by Terry de Gunzburg
Mohur by Neela Vermeire
Liberte by Cacharel
I did wear Fleur de Male and Coco quite a bit but Amoureuse and Ombre Mercure were really easy, elegant and unusual things to wear for work, so I would often grab them through the whole year.
Now it’s your turn. What were your most reached for fragrances in 2014?
Portia xx
"Reincarnation" film by Karl Lagerfeld ft. Pharrell Williams, Cara Delevingne & Géraldine Chaplin
Hey Crazy Cats,
One of my favourite European royalty stories is the Empress Elisabeth (Sisi) of Austria. When I first visited Vienna in the 1990s the story was much less Disney-ised than it is now. She was considered a bit crazy, headstrong, ungrateful and had some wonderfully naughty escapades. Now they gloss over the madness and make her out to be a misunderstood saint. I liked her better before, more real, more human.
Karl Lagerfeld and the CHANEL crew have come together with some pretty top flight names, Pharrell Williams, Cara Delevingne & Géraldine Chaplin. It’s kind of stupid but also very engaging and fun. The clothes are spectacular in themselves, everything else is background anyway. Sadly, the song is not single worthy, but it is oddly cool.
Portia xx
Photo Stolen GooglePlus
“Reincarnation”
Film by Karl Lagerfeld ft. Pharrell Williams, Cara Delevingne & Géraldine Chaplin
Sensual Orchid by Jerome Epinette for LM Parfums 2012
Howdy Crew,
Fragrantica says: LM Parfums is a French niche line of scented candles and fragrances… founded by Laurent Mazzoni. Most of the blogs I have read about this crew have been about their most expensive offering Hard Leather, and I do have a sample of it around here somewhere but the one that I am really interested in has very little written about it so far….
Sensual Orchid by Jerome Epinette for LM Parfums 2012
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Mandarin orange, almond, neroli
Heart: Orchid, jasmine sambac, ylang-ylang, peony, heliotrope
Base: Vanilla, musk, woody notes, cedar, labdanum, benzoin
The first thing that intrigued me about Sensual Orchid was the perfumer, Jerome Epinette has been the nose behind a bunch of blockbuster mainstream niche offerings: four of the Atelier Colognes, Bel d’Afrique and La Tulipe (coincidentally one of my BFF Kath’s fragrances) for Byredo, three of the LuckyScent Decennial quartet and a bunch of others I’m not familiar with. It’s quite a selection.
Photo Stolen WikiCommons
Almond and orange, like a cake, like a FRIAND!! MMMMMMM. Foody and sweet but still holding onto a very sensual bouquet. GAWD!!! I love it. What a wonderful opening that lasts for a good 15+ minutes before finally giving in to the heart. The flowers are sweet and sexy, a bit ripe and lovely banana-skin tones. I am surprised there is no coconut note because I get something very like it, a creaminess and the back of my throat has the same slight ache it gets when I eat dessicated coconut.
The dry down is soft, creamy woods. An oriental amber wash that is very nice. This lasts for hours and has me feeling very sexy and frisky. A real come-hither scent that would be knockout as a date night frag or a movies with intended partner. The elegant clean thrummmm of Sensual Orchid could definitely push someone over the edge from like to lust.
Photo Stolen DeviantART
From Osswald NYC: 20% perfume concentration “Like a feminine model on the catwalk, Sensual Orchid captivates your senses with its incredible aromas. The second essence of perfume will take you to the front of the stage. The carnal pleasures evoked by this sumptuous arrangement of natural sophisticated fragrances. A first subtle scent of citrus fruit and almond leads you into a refined heart of orchid, jasmine sambac, Lysilang, peony and heliotrope then leaves a voluptuous final touch made of vanilla, musk, blonde wood, white cedar wood, labdanum and benzoin.”
Further reading: Scented Hound and CaFleureBon
Jovoy Paris has €195/100ml
Osswald NYC has $225/100ml (Hey Hey Josie & Clement!!)
Have you tested any of the LM Parfums fragrances? Do you like their aesthetic?
Portia xxxx
Cartier – L'Odyssée and Making Of Documentary
Hello Beautiful People,
If ever there was a time where my writing was superfluous, this is it. Please enjoy these 2 Cartier movies. you may have seen one or both before but it’s worth having another look.
Photo Stolen thesnapassembly
Until we see you tomorrow please be good to yourselves and those around you,
Portia xx
(This is a Re-Blog from 24 November 2012)
Cartier – Behind the scenes of L’Odyssée
Cartier – L’Odyssée Mini Movie
Iris Tubereuse by Creed 2014 + Chicago Photo Essay
Hey Hey APJ,
I’m not sure if you followed our adventures as we traveled across the USA in a diagonal from LA to NYC. Stop number 3 was in Chicago, Illinois. We had a few things on the agenda that needed doing. Number ONE was celebrating Anita’s (Musette from Perfume Posse) birthday. Which we did in high style, morning at the Chicago Art Gallery, Lunch in the Walnut Room at the old Marshall Fields (now Macy’s) and dinner at Hard Rock cafe (idea had by a Chicago native). We also had a meetup of the perfumista crew that started at Barney’s went to Neiman Marcus and ended in cocktails and Chicago deep dish pizza. We met some wonderful people, had a complete blast and fell head over heels in love with Chicago.
I also fell madly in love with two fragrances, the first of which is ..
Iris Tubereuse by Creed 2014
Photo Stolen CreedUSA
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Galbanum, orange, violet leaf
Heart: Tuberose, lily-of-the-valley, lily
Base: Musk, orange blossom, vanilla
What I didn’t expect on my travels was to find a new Creed that I want so desperately in my collection.
The opening of Iris Tubereuse is a big fat punch in the nose of galbanum, there is other stuff but my skin boosts the galbanum beautifully. Then the green is peeled back to let the most glorious white florals emerge, or bloom really. Green notes and white flowers. You had me at hello. This is heady and deliriously big for about 20 minutes, reminding me of the 1980s: big hair, big shoulder pads, bold colours, cinched waists and spike heels (and that was the men!!).
After that initial burst of WHOA enormous Iris Tubereuse settles into a warm, lush, tropical evening stroll. A little breathy, slightly sweaty and humid. Very little iris (or violet leaf) to be smelled on my skin, but that could be me missing it completely. The vanilla/musks in dry down are pleasant and totally unchallenging, this is the least interesting part of iris tubereuse yet I can see that being part of its attraction to the mainstream buyers.
The very handsome young man at the David Jones Libertine counter told me it was his best seller for young women buying their own and all men buying gifts. Interesting. I would happily rock this, and I love the bottle.
My sample came from Libertine Parfumerie who have live sites in both David Jones and Myer, Sydney City Stores.
Libertine Parfumerie has AUD$385/100ml with FREE SHIPPING in Australia (Christmas Delivery cut off December 22)
Creed in the US has US$300/100ml
Surrender To Chance have samples starting at $5/.5ml
Portia xxx
Chicago 2014 Photo Essay
Kim, Jin, Kath, Musette & I at some cool live music bar. Great food & service, can’t remember the name damnit! (Shaw’s Blue Crab Lounge)
At the Neiman Marcus Creed counter. I have no idea what happened to my Barneys photos
My new boyfriend. Looks after the Patou fragrances but I can’t remember his name. Let’s just call him Mr Turbo (Richard Gonzalez)
Julie R and I in the cool of the evening.
DRINKS!!!
Deep dish Pizza.
The crew at the end of the day. we’d lost quite a few along the way. These are the stayers.
My favourite American artist, Georgia O’Keefe. Here are my three favourites from the Chicago gallery of her work.
You have no idea how enormous this piece is, you can still feel reverberations of this look above the clouds from a plane in modern works.
Musette’s BIRTHDAY lunch at the Walnut Room. The extra lady told us there would be a very short wait. We got to the line and the other people said over 40 minutes. We went and chewed her out about that and were seated immediately due to ir being a Very Special Birthday. Thank You Macy’s. Food was really yummy too.
Cookie Queen’s GIVEAWAY WINNERS!
Heya Crew,
WOW!! Incredible response.
Thank you so much Val for sharing your amazing stash.
Portia xx
Cookie Queen’s GIVEAWAY WINNERS!
WHAT COULD YOU WIN?
This week we will have 2 Winners who will each get a selection of samples (NO you don’t get to choose)
Samples included are:
Chanel Exclusifs
Phaedon
Amouage
Mona di Orio
Nobile 1942
Parfum d’Empire Ambre Russe
Rania J Ambre Loup
Roger Dove (much as it pains me to give these away)
Nu_bes
Ramon Monegals
P&H Anywhere in the world
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 so I know. Yes, you can start following to enter, in fact it’s encouraged.
You must tell me how you follow APJ
and
Tell us your favourite fragrant find of 2014
Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie http://wp.me/p3PURw-3r6 Cookie Queen Christmas GIVEAWAY #Perfume #Giveaway
HOUSEKEEPING
Entries Close Friday 12 December 2014 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen from Val’s dead armadillo
Photo Stolen markmontanoblogs
THINKING MAGPIE
MHEK
The winners will have till Monday 15th December 2014 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.
Australian Perfume Junkies 