Eternity (Woman) by Sophia Grojsman for Calvin Klein 1988

December 5, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 19 Comments

Hi there Perfume Junkies,

Recently we showed the return of Christy Turlington (Burns) who was the original Calvin Klein Eternity model in 1988 return with husband Ed Burns as the faces of a new steamy 2014 Eternity campaign. I was so impressed with them bringing Christy back that I went and bought a brand new 30ml bottle to show my support.

Eternity (Woman) by Sophia Grojsman for Calvin Klein 1988

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Citrus, green notes, sage, freesia, mandarin
Heart: Jasmine, narcissus, rose, violet, lily-of-the-valley, lily, carnation
Base: Heliotrope, sandalwood, musk, amber, patchouli

To be honest I was expecting it to be terrible, absolutely disgusting and completely unwearable. Having bought it (for almost no money at a chemist) I was then surprised that I unwrapped it immediately to have a sniff.

Fresh citrus blasts its way out of the bottle, a joyful reminder of a hot summers day dream of fresh citrus fruit salad lightly sugared. When the flowers come through they are a 100% faux bouquet, very synthetic, but not bad for all that. Eternity is a simple seeming, light but noticeable, clean fragrance that already has hints of the amber/sandalwood in the base. There is a lightly peppered feeling, cracked black rather than wet bell, through the heart too that is very appealing. I can remember smelling Eternity on people in the 90’s, it captured the fragrant zeitgeist (funny that that word is also used in the Perfume Shrine post) of its time perfectly and I think we are seeing a return to this style of fragrance. They are not scent similar but I think the Serge Lutens, Laine de Verre, is a modern take on Eternity and its cohorts, that 100% synthetic feeling.

Photo Stolen Calvin Klein

Luca Turin blasts Eternity thus, yet still gives it 3 stars: I have always though Eternity a copy of something not worth copying, Jardins de Bagattelle. Smelling them together now I can see why JdB, while arguably better, was a flop and Eternity a success. They art both unpleasantly screechy and soapy but at least Eternity does not pretend to be demure. LT

The rose is not rose-ish for me but I do get a spicy fruit/berry accord that could very well be a nod to rose? Yes, there is a very soapy vibe going on through late heart and dry down but it feels nice, wearable and I can see it still being extremely popular with the mainstream wearing public.

If you are only into niche and indie fragrances, want your scent to be filled with naturals or totally freaky then you will need to look elsewhere. Here we have a scent that will keep you smelling freshly showered and laundered all day, a slightly chemical wash that may not have people stopping and asking you what you’re wearing in the street but they may think that you are clean, neat and healthy and it will make a great weekend or work scent where you don’t want to stand out but would like to be fragrant. On these front Calvin Klein’s Eternity delivers in spades.

Further reading: Perfume Shrine
FragranceNet has $25/30ml (before coupon)
My Perfume Samples have $2/ml up to $7/5ml

Did you ever get on the Eternity scent bus? Was there ever a Calvin Klein fragrance that you did wear?

Portia xx

DIOR Homme Genesis mini movie

December 5, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom

WOW!

From DIOR: “A black and white voyage of hypnotic beauty.
A new genre of film presents the Dior Homme composition in a way that no other fragrance has ever been seen. Poetic and in-depth, modern and sophisticated, it allows itself the luxury of stopping time.”

Photo Stolen DIOR

Here is Australian Perfume Junkies look at the original DIOR Homme

DIOR Homme 2011 by Francois Demachy for DIOR

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Lavender, sage, bergamot
Heart: Iris, amber, cacao
Base: Vetiver, patchouli, leather

Beauty Encounter currently has $51/50ml
My Perfume Samples starts at $2.50/ml

Dior Homme Genesis – The art of fragrance creation

Rose Praline by François Robert for Les Parfums de Rosine 2008

November 30, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 2 Comments

Howdy Crew,

Remember I told you that Michael Edwards (Fragrances Of The World book) had done a wonderful gifting of many of his fragrances, here is another from that generous haul. I saw three Parfums de Rosine bottles and they called to me. The first two I have been incredibly lucky with but Rose Praline skirts the unwearable for me.

Rose Praline by François Robert for Les Parfums de Rosine 2008

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Cardamom, bergamot, rose oil
Heart: Geranium, dark chocolate, rose, tea
Base: Amber, musk, sandalwood, cacao

François Robert, the perfumer, has had an interesting fragrance creation history including five of the Bex London frags, a bunch of the Rosines, Mary Greenwell Plum and Lanvin’s Vetiver.

Photo Stolen Pixabay

OOOH! Green, sweet and warm is how Rose Praline opens, a wet and sticky sweetness cut through by green. They are at an awkward standoff, both seeming to push against the other making the opening a very interesting and surprising start to a fragrance. They have used a note that vintage Dana Ambush used, I don’t know what it is but I find it mildly nauseating, not enough to scrub but up close it is queasy making for me. At elbow length from my nose it’s lovely, a gorgeous waft of dark, rich, spicy rose, up close though it smells like the water left after leaves & flowers have been left to rot in the vase. GACK! Ha Ha Ha! How hilarious, I really can’t stand it up close, it makes me so uneasy.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

Later through the lifespan of Rose Praline a lovely dry tea-ish hint comes through. Like tea pre hot water, a dusty, dessicated feeling in the scent that next to this voluptuous, full to overblown rose is a tonic and calming raft. Like a drum softly beating time to the rest of the orchestra and keeping the crew stable.

It’s next morning and the one thing left on my skin is the weird/funky/sour note from Ambush. I woke up lying on that arm and Rose Praline is still quite intense. Maybe this bottle is on the turn or maybe the stresses of selling, moving and organising and the bad eating habits attendant have skewed my chemistry. Maybe because I haven’t been gluing wrist to nose in writing mode but merely enjoying the fragrance at a distance on previous wears. Maybe I’ve found a fragrance that is less than perfect for me, it happens.

Photo Stolen WikiCommons

Parfums des Rosine has €78/50ml
First In Fragrance has €78/50ml
Aedes de Venustas has $145/100ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $5/ml

Have you tried Rose praline? Any of the Rosines?
Portia xx

Making of Idylle Mini Movie – Guerlain

November 30, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom

Aha! How are you Scented Scallywags?

I never saw this Idylle mini movie, I wonder if it ever came to Australia?

Here we discover the backstage mini movie story for Idylle by Guerlain directed by Jaco Van Dormael and then I’ve added the finished commercial too.

Idylle by Thierry Wasser for Guerlain 2009

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Freesia, tincture of rose, litchi, raspberry
Heart: Jasmine, peony, lilac, lily, lily of the valley
Base: Patchouli, musk

Photo Stolen Perfume Posse

Enjoy

Portia xx

Making of Idylle Mini Movie – Guerlain

Guerlain Idylle commercial

Prelude to Love by Calice Becker for by Kilian 2008

November 29, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 11 Comments

Hi hi hi Sniffas,

While in London earlier in the year my mate Tara (of Olfactoria’s Travels) gave me a set of the by Killian samples. It’s beautifully presented in a little velvet pouch of 2ml vials. On my return from traveling I searched high and low and couldn’t find the damn thing, then I forgot about it in the way you do. While cleaning up stuff in anticipation of our move I discovered the baggie in a small cardboard box that had been packed and put to the side with a bunch of other stuff from the trip. I would swear I looked in the box thousands of times……

Prelude to Love by Calice Becker for by Kilian 2008

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, Seville orange, Amalfi lemon, bitter orange
Heart: Ginger, neroli, rose, cardamom, orange blossom, freesia, pink pepper, lavender
Base: Iris, Cypriol oil, musk, Russian leather

Basenotes gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, orange, lemon
Heart: Ginger, neroli, orange blossom
Base: Florence iris

The glorious, pithy citrus tinged with green is juicy and ripe. It is the warmest cool fragrance, with a very interesting oily/petrol taint that I find peculiar and inviting. Like pashing/snogging a recently showered and cologned mechanic. There is something extremely lived in about Prelude To Love that makes it more than a cologne, it’s a cologne involved in a sexual tryst, even to the lightly breathy orange blossom and neroli in the heart.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

As an aside: I was standing next to a gardenia hedge early this evening and the absolutely gorgeous/disgusting fragrance emanating from the flowers was completely engulfing, I was transported into a world of scent, shut my eyes for a moment and just breathed in the luscious, lascivious, overwhelming fragrance.

Prelude To Love is nothing like that but it does have elements of that sweetly erotic, human in close contact but cleanly washed idea. Freshly washed flesh but in a hairy nook or crevasse that always maintains the humanity.

Photo Stolen Pinterest

Then, not long after I am swept away by an extremely pretty floral, it’s a bouquet, thick, rich and heavy. That’s what’s so weird about Prelude To Love, though it feels a bit cologne-ish, the heft and nuance seem too deep and mercurial for it to be put in such a simple category. This cologne has cajones. A honeyed, animalic sweetness runs under the whole life of the fragrance that has me smiling as I get huffs, very, very nice to wear. I can see why Prelude To Love is still so popular.

Prelude To Love is fabulous, you can tell it is the best. You want similar results but for a fraction of the price? 4711, even the newest formulation, is a very good bright citrus cologne. You will have to reapply more frequently but isn’t that half the fun?

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

Further reading: Bois de Jasmin and Olfactoria’s Travels
LuckyScent has $155/4 x .25oz Travel Spray Set
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $4/.5ml

Do you love the by Killian range? Is there a favourite amongst them for you? I love sweet Redemption and Back to Black, Prelude To Love is wonderful, I’m pretty sure though that there are 6 other citrus frags in my wardrobe that I’d reach for first.
Portia x

Voile d'Ambre by Olivier Pescheux for Yves Rocher 2005

November 28, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 17 Comments

Hey there frag crew,

A couple of years ago Jin and I traveled to Europe together, we had never traveled together before, not even for a weekend, yet we decided to put together a wonderful 6 week extravaganza of a holiday. We saw about 10 countries, saw family, met new and old friends, saw sights, laughed, ate, shopped, discovered and generally had the most wonderful time. There were only a couple of minor melt downs on the whole trip and those due to exhaustion rather than lack of common interest. Anyway, the first fragrance I bought while in Europe on that wonderful holiday in a little Yves Rocher shop in Prague was Voile d’Ambre….

Voile d’Ambre by Olivier Pescheux for Yves Rocher 2005

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Mandarin leaf, cardamom, mandarin orange, myrtle
Heart: Opoponax, incense, myrrh
Base: Patchouli, Australian sandalwood, Madagascar vanilla

Memories!!! Every time I spritz Voile d’Ambre I get a warm hot rush of happiness that is less to do with the sweet herbal amber that jumps off my skin than it does the wonderful memories of our first trip together. I can see us rugged up in our winter woolies in cities filled with mainly the residents because who is silly enough to travel midwinter through the heart of Europe? We got to see everything we wanted with zero wait time and the staff of everywhere were happy to see some foreigners and have a chat. I have done Europe in all the seasons now and I’ll always try to go in winter, it’s 100% more fun.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

Voile d’Ambre gives me a boozy, incense laden amber that is smooth and clean, a warm amber that is in no way challenging. This is comfort fragrance, warming, easy and cuddly. Though I wore it all through that winter in Europe I can also easily apply it in 30C Sydney heat and be comfortable, Voile d’Ambre is spare enough and has enough air through it that I’m not overwhelmed or constricted. I think it may be to do with the Australian sandalwood, which I find a little more astringent and green than the others, slightly eucalyptus feeling and that added to a clean but earthy patchouli rounds the whole fragrance out.

I make it read like the notes are discernible, they are not unless I have a notes list ion front of me, what I smell is a beautiful amber that changes slightly from greener in the beginning to non foody vanilla at dry down. It’s not a big and varied story but a soft and floaty ride through comfort to comfort, and filled with joyful memories. I am smiling right now as I write to you all.

If you’ll excuse me I think I need to give Jin and big hug. While I’m gone, what is your favourite amber fragrance, as a main note or a side one?
Portia xx

Overwhelmed? Me Too Sometimes…..

November 28, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 24 Comments

Hey there APJ,

I am writing to you from the weekend of my move, knowing I have to travel on Thursday. It’s Sunday afternoon and I can’t find my drag stockings or shoes and I have to work tonight. Life feels too big and I am engulfed. So I stopped in the middle of a melt down and thought I’d come share my distress with you.

Photo Stolen WikiCommons

By now (when you are reading this) I will have flown away to the USA and will be having the time of my life. I do know that this feeling is for right now and that there will be less dramatic moments in the near future. I even know that the club will not mind particularly that I go to work in Man Drag, and that the crew there will be so fine with it. Still, the feeling that I’ve let myself and the team down is inescapable.

So, I thought I’d go looking through my pictures to level me out.

Here’s a series that have been particularly useful today. Especially number 2 which reminds me that I choose to live at 10,000 m/h and that every great upheaval brings renewal and growth. I can sleep when I’m dead but life is too short.

What did I spray today to keep me fragrant while FREAKING OUT? LouLou by Cacharel earlier in the day and Voile d’Ambre by Yves Rocher, smells like a MILLION dollars.

Thanks for reading my silly, self obsessed rant. Fingers crossed you all are happy and well and that life is smiling gently over your lives, friends and families.

Hugging you in cyber.

Portia xx

"Kaleidoscopic India" au 68 – Guerlain mini movie

November 23, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 2 Comments

Hey Hey APJ,

I wish I could have been in Paris to see this exhibition. Guerlain and India, two of my most treasured passions.

Did any of you get to see the exhibition? I’d love to read your impressions.

Portia xx

Photo Stolen Guerlain Twitter

“Kaleidoscopic India” au 68 – GUERLAIN

Vernissage de l’exposition proposée au 68, Champs-Elysées dans le cadre du parcours privé de la FIAC, du 17 octobre au 14 novembre 2014. (Second video is in untranslated French, it’s pretty though I can’t understand it)

“Kaleidoscopic India” au 68 – GUERLAIN

Honey & Almond by Wavertree & London

November 23, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 2 Comments

Hi there APJ Crew,

I have found myself a brand new Australian company doing gorgeously packaged and outrageously fabulous smelling soaps. Who doesn’t love a scented soap as a pick me up at bath time? Maybe, like me, you have cakes of soap in your drawers so that when you open them they are softly scented, your clothes too have a lovely soft teint of fragrance that is not as strong as fabric softener (which I don’t use but have a 1 part disinfectant and 3 parts white vinegar mixture that softens scentlessly) and really just adds the tiniest bit of character.

Honey & Almond by Wavertree & London

Photo Stolen AustralianSoap

Size: 7oz, wrapped with embossed paper
French-milled (triple-milled) bar that is long lasting, non-drying and has a creamy lather
100% plant oils – sustainable palm oil, palm kernel oil, organic shea butter and vegetable glycerin. PH Balanced
Made in Australia
Bar is mild and PH balanced which is ideal for sensitive skin and those with skin conditions

Where did we grab ours? In Sydney’s Chinatown at SWS Spring. If you are in the area it is definitely worth a look. It’s one of the best stocked stores of niche personal and ambient fragrances. Also a great selection of make up and accessories too. Two floors of scented wandering frag-gasm. The two guys who own the shop are beautiful too, I just love them to bits. If you buy 3 things they give you a 20% discount at the moment too. WOW!

SWS Spring Site<<<JUMP

Address:
SWS SPRING
48 Dixon St,
Haymarket Chinatown
Sydney NSW 2000

Telephone:
+61 2 9212 7356

Amazon has $6.95/7oz
Australian Soap has $6.95/7o

The soap is worth a try.

Portia xx

Kelly Calèche by Jean-Claude Ellena for Hermès 2007

November 22, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 15 Comments

Hey Perfume Junkies,

Do you remember when Kelly Calèche was released in 2007? It was a huge kerfuffle, and it seems both a million years ago and yesterday. There was a while that it was the fragrance de jour in the clubs and I think about one in five young women of a certain cadre were sporting it day and night and smelling so young, hip and fresh, even (dare I say it?) GROOVY! I think that many Sydney girls will have fond memories of fun times in Kelly Calèche,

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Grapefruit, narcissus, lily of the valley
Heart: Mimosa, rose, tuberose
Base: Leather, iris

The opening of Kelly Calèche is a dry, green, astringent burst that shocks you awake and into the here and now. This fun high octane fizz only lasts a few moments but it is an excellent mind refresher. Then the whole fragrance changes into a surprising leather that smells on my skin like the leather, glue, colours and stitchery inside the back of brand new high heels, never worn, straight from box and tissue paper. The flowers and fruits big moment are all over for me so quickly, around 15 minutes, and then play a light backing track to this almost patent leather smell. (From Hermès, Hermès, Hermès in 2012)

Photo Stolen DeviantART

So fun, light and yet very present, that oh so soft suede-ish iris dry down is my favourite part, though other reviewers find it not so good. A whisper of fragrance that huffs out at you every so often to remind you that you’re fragrant. It’s just for you and your nearest and dearest friends. It’s no wonder that Kelly Calèche was such a hit at the time, I wonder if those pretty young things still wander round in a soft fog of sweet iris leather or if they’ve moved on?

I grabbed my 15ml mini bottle from Birgit of Olfactoria’s Travels wardrobe clean-out back in 2012. To be honest it doesn’t see a LOT of wear but I have made decent inroads into it, there is some good air in the bottle. I like to wear it when I need a pick me up, have to be somewhere that a loud or hefty frag would be inappropriate or to remember the lovely girls who wore Kelly Calèche when it was released.

Further reading: Bois de Jasmin and Now Smell This
Beauty Encounter has $52/50ml EdT
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $3/ml

Are you a fan? Has Kelly Calèche ever been your go to or does its quiet, refined leather waft leave you bored and stone cold?
Portia xx