Heya APJers,
Recently I showed you the still for the new Angel 2014 campaign but below you will find the Making Of Film. It’s really good and Georgia May Jagger is spectacular as the new face of Angel. It seems a gap in your teeth is the new black. Well I have mine already. YAY! Beware of Angels! Film by Julien Zénier.
Hi Hi APJ Crew,
There is no reason why but today’s fragrance slipped through the cracks and I never smelled it before. Luckily I was in David Jones (Australia’s loveliest Department Store chain) and my mate Gary at the Libertine counter was wondering what I hadn’t smelled from the Robert Piguet range. Normally I grab and sniff them immediately since Joe Garces, the Piguet CEO (I think he’s still there), came down to Australia and talked us through the range. He was so intensely in love with his product and fiercely proud of it that it made me really appreciate Robert Piguet in a new light. Now I try to give every one of their frags at least a sniff.
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot
Heart: Lily, rose, orris
Base: Patchouli, amber, castoreum
WHOOSH! So Alameda opens with a bright, fizzy, sugared orange. It reminds me a bit of the Liberte by Cacharel opening but a little less in your face. There is a warmth to Alameda that is quite vanilla/animal and it’s there right after the burn off of the fireworks. I love this fragrance. My nose gets a lovely refined orris and the whole scent becomes creamy and earthy for a while. Imagine if the softest, finest cashmere scarf feeling was a fragrance: This smell is what I imagine it would be. Both ultra luxe and elegant, warm, inviting yet not bold, not a statement fragrance. Alameda is the smell of coming home to love, now a honeyed sweetness that is mildly naughty, lived in, and perhaps some breathy lily has joined the fun.
From here we get a very clean patchouli and the base notes swirl around together for a while. Alameda stays like this for a while, it’s sexy and wearable. I could imagine it being worn by guys and girls and being a hit for both sexes. There’s a beadhead-ish-ness about Alameda that I find particularly inviting, a whisper of sweat and sleep in the little curls of hair at the back of a head in the morning.
Photo Stolen DeviantArt
No mention of musks in the notes but I think there are. My nose may be playing tricks but there is a very nice clean musk vibe that sits well beside what I imagine is the castoreum. The amber is absolutely non confrontational, smooth, warm and creamy. To be perfectly honest I think the short note list has a load of glaring omissions but as you know my nose tends to get a bit wonky. My head is telling me that some of this creaminess could be coming from a sandalwood and something else a little lactonic, also a lovely almond meal smell. Then all that’s left is a beautiful amber that fades to skin.
So here’s a weird moment. Alameda is not on the Robert Piguet site. I have also trawled the web looking in most of the usual places, retail and discounters, and could only come up with two points of sale. OK I have information from Nick at Libertine. “I think Alamedia is exclusive to the UK but after smelling it I begged for our market to have it. I love it. It’s been such a big seller so far.”
Photo Stolen Flickr
Further reading: Parfumistan and Katie Chutzpah
Libertine Parfumerie has $239/100ml including Australian P&H
Selfridges & Co has £135/100ml
I used the last of my generous sample tonight to write this piece. I can definitely see a bottle of Alameda in my very near future. Thanks to Gary at the Libertine counter in David Jones Market St Sydney for my sample.
Have you tried Alameda? If so what did you think? If not, which of the Robert Piguet line do you like?
Portia xx
Hello Gang,
You may or may not know but Michael Edwards, the man who writes the annual frag bible: Fragrances Of The World, recently opened the doors of his home and gave an enormous amount of fragrances away. A lifetimes collecting that he has been trying to give to a museum or collection but sadly no one could take it without it costing him a fortune. I was one of the lucky ones invited in so over the next few months I will be able to write about some fairly obscure or discontinued things. Today I get to write about a flanker to one of my favourite fragrances. There is quite a lot of it strewn around this house in different guises and thanks to Michael I can chat about another…
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Chamomile, aldehydes, orange blossom, bergamot, coriander, palisander, green notes
Heart: Lily-of-the-valley, jasmine, rose, ylang-ylang, tuberose, orris root, carnation
Base: Sandalwood, oakmoss, vetiver, musk, coconut, patchouli
Sweet, green, herbal and metallic all at once is how Aromatics Elixir Sheer Velvet Philtre Sensuel opens on my skin. The gel form is very cool, as in cool and aloof, less boisterous but no less nuanced and lovely. Philtre Sensuelt feels less enormous than the 1971 release Aromatics Elixir fragrance but you will be fragrant. Grandly, deliriously and exceedingly fragrant. I have been dabbing a drop on each hand back and I can smell it for hours, going through its story.There is a little bit of the crazy, hot glamour of Leilani Dowding in Aromatics Elixer usually and this version is no different, a prowling siren both elegant and vampish. A coltish beauty that smells untamed, unfettered, free and liberated.
Photo Stolen Wikipedia
We are offered an enormous top, heart and base story in the notes and though Aromatics Elixir Sheer Velvet Philtre Sensuel does change, the change is not as profound as you would expect reading the list. Even in the farthest reaches of dry down at 9 hours, where it is just the merest hint of itself upon my skin, I can still recognise the fragrances opening fireworks though seriously depleted in heft. Also, the blending and sheer weight of ingredients tends to confuse my clunky nose so I don’t get a note list but a complete fragrance. What I smell most of the wear is Aromatics Elixir Sheer Velvet Philtre Sensuel as a complete unit, a smell all its own but at times I do get a whiff that I can recognise and pinpoint. Sparkling, metallic, cold spoon in mouth aldehydes, spicy carnation, herbs as a group more than singularly, woods etc do come and go in intensity.
Longevity is good, I can still smell fragrance quite close but noticeable; even after 6-7 hours of sleep. The sillage is less powerful and projection less formidable than the Aromatics Elixir perfume but don’t let that fool you into thinking it’s a retiring wallpaper scent. No, this is a fragrance with personality that hints of world travel and exotic adventure.
I would like to thank Michael Edwards for generously giving me his Clinique: Aromatics Elixir Sheer Velvet Philtre Sensuel. Don’t forget Michael Edwards Masterclass: Sydney & Melbourne<<JUMP. If you are in Sydney or Melbourne in late July or August 2014 DO NOT MISS THIS. These opportunities do not come along very often….
This week we will have 4 winners who will each get:
1 x 1.5ml decanted vial Aromatics Elixir Sheer Velvet Philtre Sensuel
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 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 me your own Aromatics Elixir story, or why you would like to try this one.
Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie Aromatics Elixir Sheer Velvet #GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p3PURw-2ZB #Perfume @Clinique_Oz @Clinique_US
Entries Close Sunday 27th July 2014 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org
The winners will have till Thursday 31st July 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.
Hi All,
Raf Simons is doing some wonderful stuff at DIOR. I love his finishes and treatments. He has reinvented the crinoline, interesting sleeves like seed pods for balsam, mini skirts with cool shape-seams and scalloped edges. Coats, gowns, palazzo pants and wide belts. I love the looks and the colours. Here is a 4 minute video of the shows highlights.
Enjoy,
Portia xx
Photo Stolen TelegraphUK (problem using this image, please tell us)
Hiya All,
Perfect summer fragrance time for you all in the Northern Hemisphere, and boy do I have a pretty one for you today. So as you may know I was at Michael Edwards fragrance clear out and while looking around I noticed a few very pretty softly rounded bottles with gold ridged caps. Not knowing what the bottle signified I passed them by. Then, one of the bottles label jumped out at me. Odalisque, er, odalisque….. OMG! Patricia de Nicoloai! So immediately I went scurrying back, looking for more but another perfumista must have noted who they were by before me so Olalisque and today’s fragrance were the only two original vintage PdN that I grabbed.
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Tunisian neroli, rosemary, orange blossom, benzoin
My worry initially was that Patricia de Nicolai fragrances are famous for short in bottle lifespans so I was affeared that the Cologne Sologne top notes, at least, would be gone. How good lucky I am, the rush of very pretty cologne-esque citrus and blooms that bursts out of the first spritz is lovely. A bright, simple cologne that is smile inducing and has summer all wrapped up in its fragrant folds. I think it would be an excellent summer spritz but here on a Sydney sunny winter day, temperature around 16C, Cologne Sologne is a vivid reminder that spring is coming quickly. Only 5 weeks till the first days of spring. How does time go so quickly?
Photo Stolen Flickr
The orange goes all pithy and has a very soft indolic breathiness after the initial fireworks calm down. I just went out to the rosemary bush at the side of the house and the heart of Cologne Sologne isn’t really like it at all, but I can understand there is a nod to it. By the time I feel like there is any real herbal-ness the benzoin has moved in and created a lovely resinous overlay squashing everything else into bit parts. The warmth is very alluring and with the last gasp of citrus and blossom they play merrily together for a short while smelling like a cashmere shawl feels on a cool summer evening, just enough to warm you through and soft, soft, soft. So the resin is rejoined by the citrus later, or maybe my nose had become used to it. I went away from the computer and pottered around the house doing stuff for about an hour and what’s left is the merest memory of fragrance both citrus and resin that has a decided vanilla-ness to it, pretty much gone really but hovering just above my skin.
Photo Stolen Fotopedia
LuckyScent has 100ml/$40 and samples
It has been lovely wearing a cologne in the cool of a Sydney winter and I can just imagine how lovely Cologne Sologne would be in searing or steaming heat. Though it’s a simple, pretty composition I like its uncomplicated and fresh fragrance. It has a scent story that is both appealing and wearable for both sexes. Nice.
Portia xx
Heya APJ,
This L’Occitane giveaway seemed to inspire a whole bunch of you. I’m so glad. I hope this finds every one of you happy & well. I know some of you will not be either so fingers crossed for better days ahead.
Portia xx
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Lemon, tangerine
Heart: Cypress, pine, rosemary
Base: White amber, cedar, musk
This week we will have 4 winners who will each get:
1 x 5ml decant of Mer & Mistral by L’Occitane (from my sample bottle)
1 x 5ml decant of Neroli & Orchidee by L’Occitane (from my sample bottle)
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 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 me your favourite fresh fragrance, or why you would like to try this one.
As always there was an extra chance for TWEETING
Entries Closed Sunday 20th July 2014 10pm Australian EST
Winners were chosen by random.org
Photo Stolen berryreview
The winners will have till Thursday 24th July 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.
Heya Happy Huffers,
Today we look at a fragrance often given the boot or a meh from reviewers. I think it suffered from Amouage’s name as a bombastic, sillage and projection monster house. A crew you could rely on to blow the back of your head off and keep people around you confused, if not concussed. I too love their deep, rich and powerful fragrances but here is something different….
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, lime
Heart: Rose, angelica, orange blossom, galbanum, nutmeg, ginger, saffron
Base: Pine tree, sandalwood, incense, vanilla, musk
Straight out of the nozzle I get a citrus blast with that waxy feeling that saffron gives me (like imagine feeling the skin of a ripe healthy orange or the stem of a hyacinth, both of these feelings remind me of the smell I get from saffron) and before long I get a greenness that is probably angelica and some zing which I will attribute to the ginger, it all adds up to something only mildly rose-ish. Then something happens and the whole fragrance seems to shimmer and shift into galbanum mode. A soft, fuzzy, rounded galbanum that is nowhere near as cool as in CHANEL No.19, here on my skin is a warm and spicy galbanum with a very pretty rose holding it up. This is lovely. Lyric Man is the most casually wearable Amouage I have yet had on my skin.
Photo Stolen WikiMedia
As we get further in to the fragrance wear it warms considerably and I can’t work out why, it could be orange blossom, vanilla and sandalwood but Lyric Man is blended beautifully and I think the whole lot just sing alongside each other in a lovely harmonious whole. The heart is where I feel Lyric Man really shines in a completely unpretentious way. I can imagine it becoming a very easy wear, go to fragrance for a guy or woman. Daniel Visentin has made a fragrance as smooth as a piece of green glass, long rubbed by the seashore and transparent yet still quite dense. The notes so ethereal yet intertwined beautifully and very late in the development the musks come through giving the feeling of having been worn, lived in, healthy yet used body smell. All this overlaid with a subtle spicy rose, a woodsy greenness.
Photo Stolen Flickr
Yes, I can understand that expectations were not met with Lyric Man but if you put all that aside and wear it just for itself it is a lovely fragrance. A soft, muted, wearable fragrance that I think you could wear even to the office, unless you have a frag-phobic workplace. For dates and dinner, killer, and quite an unexpected scent. I think it could be the hook that catches your partners attention and though there are plenty of unisex roses out there now none are like Lyric Man.
Further reading: What Men Should Smell Like and The Non Blonde
Libertine carries the Amouage line for Australia and has 100ml/$364 Delivered within Australia
Beauty Encounter has 100ml/$220 deep discount currently
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $4/.5ml
I would like to thank Michael Edwards for generously giving me his Lyric Man. Don’t forget Michael Edwards Masterclass: Sydney & Melbourne<<JUMP. If you are in Sydney or Melbourne DO NOT MISS THIS. These opportunities do not come along very often….
Lyric Man,who knew that Amouage could nail comfortable and casual so well? Have you tried it? Do you have a favourite Amouage?
Portia xx
HEYA APJ Family & Friends,
One cool morning in Paris out with Michael in early 2014 we stumbled across 31 Rue Cambon, CHANEL Headquarters and once home of Gabrielle Chanel. Inside I tried for the very first time Les Exclusifs de Chanel No 22, thinking it would be a soft and retiring scent like much of the rest of the Les Exclusifs de Chanel range I opened my shirt and 3 big blasts, one then on each wrist ( I really wanted to live this fragrance for the hour it would last on me) and……….. BOOM! Wowzas, damn near blew the back of my head off, I was incandescent with No 22 and Michael could still smell me across the room at dinner that night.
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Lily-of-the-valley, neroli, aldehydes
Heart: Oriental jasmine, rose, Comoro island ylang-ylang
Base: Haiti vetiver, Bourbon vanilla
Turned off? NO WAY!! It made me want CHANEL No. 22 like crazy. What a fragrance. So recently I was trotting through David Jones (the oldest department store trading under the same name in the same location in the world) with my girl friend Ainslie Walker and we came across the new CHANEL counter with all the lovely exclusives and parfums. YAY!!! The girl serving was so lovely, could not have been more helpful and wanted nothing more than to have us understand the range. Woo Hoo! An SA who knows their job. Delighted is an understatement.
Michael & I @ 31 Rue Cambon CHANEL (Photo donated by Michael)
I must say that I was definitely not in the market for product on this particular day. Had I been more financially flush this SA would definitely have had a sale. What I did get though was CHANEL No. 22 Extrait on my arm and on a porcelain. So that was about 2 weeks ago. Tonight I opened the porcelain expecting to get a base only reminder of CHANEL No. 22. WOW! My whole office is filled to the brim with this wonderful, green aldehydic like a glass filling with a fizzy, metallic, soda pop of a fragrance that is both bold and restrained. A cool character on a huge scale, that doesn’t make sense but that’s how it feels in this room right now. I am engulfed, happily, enthusiastically overcome by scent.
Photo Stolen SeedOfHappiness
When I wear CHANEL No. 22 the aldehydes are the complete and utter star of the show, flowers are mown down, fruit is pulped and what I end up smelling is a metal/citrus/vanilla/vetiver creature. It’s a bit like putting snow in your mouth with a stainless steel spoon in a rose house with them all blooming. CHANEL No. 22 is one of the few vetiver fragrances where I get the soil/dirt/wood of the vetiver without salt hints, maybe the very dry vanilla cuts it?
Longevity? FOREVER! Sillage? You could ride the waves of it on water skis. Projection? It will blow the back of the heads from people in the next suburb, a little moderation with CHANEL No. 22 is probably a good idea. Of course I spritz with abandon some days and the world be damned.
Photo Stolen Flickr
Further reading: Bois de Jasmin and Perfume Posse
You can try or buy CHANEL No. 22 at any of the stand alone CHANEL stores or a very few department stores.
Surrender To Chance has CHANEL No. 22 samples starting at $4/ml and Extrait at $8/ml
Are you a CHANEL No. 22 fan? Is it a bit overwhelming for you? Which in the line do you particularly like?
Have a great and fragrant day. Waft on my loves, waft on.
Portia xx
Hey Hey Crew,
Want to read what’s NEW NEW NEW!! L’Occitane will be releasing a brand new fragrance in the Collection de Grasse series in Australia during August 2014 and we have a special preview pack here at APJ! Woo Hoo! And today we will have FOUR winners!
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Lemon, tangerine
Heart: Cypress, pine, rosemary
Base: White amber, cedar, musk
From the USA L’Occitane site: A fresh breeze passes through the town of Grasse, which lies between the mountains and the sea. The mistral wind from the mountains, filled with the scents of the foliage in its path, blends with air from the Mediterranean, laden with sea spray. Inspired by this Provençal breeze, La Collection de Grasse introduces Mer & Mistral, an aquatic fragrance with soft ripples of aromatic notes. Zesty top notes of lemon and mandarin give way to a generous heart of cypress, pine and rosemary, so emblematic of the Mediterranean coast.
On my skin Mer & Mistral opens VERY fresh, good old fashioned, mens locker room in the 1990s: citrus and salty sea breeze. You know I am against fragrant gender boundaries but my scent memory is so strong with this style of fragrance because it takes me right back to my days in the gym, hanging their with mates or partner, hitting the showers and then in the locker room the guy getting dressed right next to me spritzing 4 or 5 times. It smells as much like a Mediterranean seaside resort town as it can without adding the bad smells, this is pure and fresh and even the herbal greenery is washed out in the sunshine of summer. I can imagine Mer & Mistral becoming a very easy wear go-to for anyone who needs to cool and refresh, or who wants to smell that way. It’s like a salty lemonade in India, I know it sounds weird but it is crazy delicious and here I am wearing it as a fragrance. What it does smell like to me is a subtle version of the current fragrance that I spritz through the bathrooms and laundry every Wednesday after I’ve finished cleaning, GANT Liquid.
The opening is big and fresh then Mer & Mistral calms to a lovely clean green woodsy fragrance and this part of its life last really well. Anyone who loves to smell like they recently bathed and are totally calm and cool will enjoy wearing L’Occitane’s latest. Where it ends is a slow overtake by the musks and a minimal warming through with the amber, otherwise Mer & Mistral stays very poised. I like the part about 2-3 hours in when everything gets a lovely powdery feeling, so cuddly soft. After about 5-6 hours depending I lose almost everything but my skin still smells as if it’s fresh from the pool/bath/shower and fit.
Mer & Mistral has a very CdG synthetic effect but on a softer, less combative level and I don’t feel courageous wearing it. Just healthy, happy and clean. I like it.
Whatever you do today, be nice to yourself. A little forgiving and very loving. You are worth it.
Portia xx
Photo Stolen hemodernhome
This week we will have 4 winners who will each get:
1 x 5ml decant of Mer & Mistral by L’Occitane (from my sample bottle)
1 x 5ml decant of Neroli & Orchidee by L’Occitane (from my sample bottle)
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 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 me your favourite fresh fragrance, or why you would like to try this one.
Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie Mer & Mistral, Neroli & Orchidee #GIVEAWAY @LOCCITANE @LOCCITANE_au http://wp.me/p3PURw-2VX #Perfume
Entries Close Sunday 20th July 2014 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org
The winners will have till Thursday 24th July 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.
Hey Fashion Fiends,
What could be better than seeing a new Jimmy Choo campaign? Well, it could be that Kit Harrington has taken the job, it seems Nicole Kidman has stepped aside, so nice to have a sexy guy in her place.
Down the bottom is a very lovely Mini Movie of Kit Harrington in his Jimmy Choos.
Enjoy,
Portia xx
Actor Kit Harrington (27) from Game of Thrones is replacing Nicole Kidman as the new campaign face for Jimmy Choo, shot by Peter Lindbergh on location in a Los Angeles home designed by the architect John Lautner.
“Kit has an innate confidence and projects a playfully rebellious nature,” said Sandra Choi, Jimmy Choo’s creative director. “He has an overtly masculine style that feels effortlessly cool, and a great sense of humor, and beneath that intensity he is a true gentleman.” (source)
Australian Perfume Junkies 