Portia

Zaha Hadid Architects – City of Dreams Hotel Tower Macau

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 8 Comments

Hey Y’All,

This is TOTALLY off topic. Here is a short video on how to make almost every other building built before look dated, retro and bland. From the woman who brought you the Cinese Changsha Meixihu International Culture & Arts Centre, the German BMW Central Building, the Taiwanese Guggenheim Museum and MANY others.

Zaha_hadid WikipediaPhoto Stolen Wikipedia

Zaha_hadid Galaxy SOHO - Iwan Baan FlickrPhoto Stolen Flickr

Zaha Hadid - New National Stadium Japan Competition Proposal 02 Japan Sport Council FlickrPhoto Stolen Flickr

cn_image.size.donna-karan-01-woman-bottlePhoto Stolen ArchitecturalDigest
Any problem with me using this image please get in touch and I’ll remove immediately

Melita points out below that Zaha Hadid also designed the Donna Karan Woman bottle. A lovely piece of art on its own.

Zaha Hadid is the first woman and first Muslim to win the Pritzker Architecture Prize. Wait till you see the gorgeous Hotel she has designed for Macau.

Portia xx

Zaha Hadid Architects - City of Dreams Hotel Tower Macau Casino_Lights WikipediaMacau Photo Stolen Wikipedia

Zaha Hadid Architects – City of Dreams Hotel Tower Macau

Grisens/Oliban by Pierre Guillaume for Phaedon 2011

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 24 Comments

Hi there Scented Fragrance Friends,

So a bit of a mystery, I was given a manufacturers carded sample while in Bloom London and it says very clearly Grisens, but looking on the internet it is called Oliban. Does anyone know the whys and wherefores of this discrepancy? Maybe in my searching today I will find an answer.

Grisens/Oliban by Pierre Guillaume for Phaedon 2011

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Incense, woody notes, sandalwood

So short a note list and SO MUCH going on. The first spritz is a warm, burning incense that quickly morphs to a mentholated, juniper type wood, a bit like the eucalyptus style opening of the Australian Mysore sandalwood and then I get all pine/resinous sauna and lip liner pencil shavings, with the waxy/iris/rose lipstick smell too. All this in the first five minutes and slightly different amounts of each in successive wears, I think Grisens/Oliban may be heat and body chemistry tempered.

Grisens Oliban Phaedon Wesley Eller FlickrPhoto Stolen Flickr

Incense and a slight orange flavour as we move into the heart, loads of every expensive, elegant incense that is not churchy but clean and woodsy. I would love to burn this in my home, I think it would create a beautiful feeling of tranquility and peace. It would definitely take the demons and bad energy with it. The image of a beautifully dressed man with a great smile keeps popping into my head, I think the fragrance is either trying to tell me it would be great on suit men or it would be a wonderful way to lure one to my bedchamber, or anywhere nearby and available. After half an hour projection drops decidedly but still you are quietly fragrant, it is closer though. After some time the incense burns away nearly completely leaving me smelling like a new furniture store in a very ritzy part of town, the hand made high end stuff. Lovely, warm, woodsy and smooth Grisens/Oliban wears like a second, scented, wooden skin till dry down at about 5 hours in around 20C temps, a bit less in heat. The final breath I can smell is cool and fresh woodsy/incense again: like watching a spring sunset from a forested glen near a fresh water lake. Heavenly……

Grisens Oliban Phaedon MAMJODH FlickrPhoto Stolen Flickr

Where would I wear Grisens/Oliban? I think it would be a super scent that is not too big or intrusive for anything, including close office work. You won’t skunk your colleagues, date, friends but you also aren’t making an enormous statement. Very nice to be collected and hugged by a Mum or Dad smelling like this and I think it would make a very interesting gift for someone becoming interested in fragrance, or falling down the rabbit hole as they say. Good scent for events I imagine. It would be an excellent play off against a formal gown, or a party/disco frock.

Further reading: Ca Fleur Bon and Eyeliner On A Cat
Phaedon Paris has €85/100ml and send to the world

Have you tried any of the Phaedon’s? Is Pierre G one of your faves or is there sop much product that you are overwhelmed?
Portia x

Antonia’s Flowers GIVEAWAY WINNERS

/ australianperfumejunkiescom

Hi APJ,

Another great APJ Giveaway. You guys are so wonderful. The winner is below

Now, to protect myself from – what is that thing in the sky that we haven’t seen for months – the SUN?! – I will don the sun hat and take Fender, the dog, for his much deserved walk. We both enjoy sniffing the cherry blossoms and the magnolias.

Many thanks for your comments and the suggestions of favorite scents to wear to the beach!

 

Antonia`s Flowers FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Antonia’s Flowers GIVEAWAY WINNERS

WHAT COULD YOU WIN?

This week we will have ONE Winner who will get:
One complete sample set of Antonia’s Flowers fragrances including 1 ml of each of the following:
Antonia’s Flowers EDT
Antonia’s Flowers EDP
Floret EDT
Floret EDP
Tiempe Passate EDP
Sogni del Mare EDT
Rokka cologne
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

To be eligible for the draw please comment on any Antonia’s Flowers fragrance OR let us know what scent you will be wearing to the beach this summer!

Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie Antonia’s Flowers Sample Set GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p3PURw-2F0 #Perfume #Giveaway

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Thursday 10th April 2014 10pm Australian EST

Today I put all the names into the floppy sun hat and drew the winner myself. I wondered if such a draw would be considered fair. So I stirred up the names again, threw them all on the floor and let Fender choose! Amazing! He picked the same name I did!

Winner cemre-ile-herteldenPhoto Stolen cemre-ile-hertelden

willa

The winners will have till Monday 14th April 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.

Azar xx

 

Bigarade Concentree by Jean-Claude Ellena for Frederic Malle 2002

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 20 Comments

Hey Hey APJ,

Yes, I know I’ve said it before but I love the crossover months, where it is cool and crisp morning and evening but warms through the day. I love the mid seasons, warm enough for a t-shirt but cool enough that you need a jumper tied around your waist in case. These are the seasons in Australia when we usually get the most rain too. There are metal rooves both front and back of my house and I love to hear rain drumming on them, right outside my office I hear it on the back verandah roof and splashing in the pool. HEAVEN!

Bigarade Concentree by Jean-Claude Ellena for Frederic Malle 2002

Bigarade concentree Frederic Malle FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bitter orange
Heart: Rose
Base: Cedar, grass, hay

Bigarade Concentree was one of the first of the Frederic Malle line that I studied in any depth because my BFF Kath has a bottle. we went together with EmmaKate who used to manage a niche & fine fragrance store in Sydney and she spent an hour taking us through the range, we had every scent on a card and all of the cards locked in greaseproof paper and cellophane. We were allowed pick three samples each to take away but Kath had decided there and then that she wanted Bigarade Concentree in her life for good. I have been lucky enough to smell it on her for a few years now and it is irrevocably entwined with her for me. I will try to be objective.

Bigarade concentree Frederic Malle orange tree PixabayPhoto Stolen Pixabay

I tell you what, when I spray Bigarade Concentree on myself I am transported to my childhood. We always had an orange and a lemon tree, I think Mum had planted them when they finished building the house. My two main memories of the orange tree are Mum grousing over the trouble it was and the orange juice we used to drink made of the oranges from the tree. At the start of the season the orange juice would taste like the bitter orange smell of the opening of Bigarade Concentree and Mum would add sugar to sweeten it enough for us to drink. JCE has captured my memory and bottled it, there is even the smell of the taste of the pith from eating the orange quarters down into the white.

Once the main orange note has calmed, though it never leaves completely, something rose-ish moves across my nostril-vision but it’s a hint towards rose note like a rose I’ve ever smelled, maybe a rose in an orange grove? The orange still walks all over the rose. Pounds the life out of it leaving me with a grassy? Still kinda grassy/pithy/animal/zesty citrus, the citrus still front and center, HOW have they done this. Incredible use of a note that usually is gone in two minutes. 5+ hours of citric goodness and still more almost fragrance before it leaves me completely, my ability to smell it anyway.

Bigarade Concentree Frederic Malle Oranges Gunther Hagleitner FlickrPhoto Stolen Flickr

Further reading: Scent For Thought and Scentrist
Frederic Malle has €75/3 x 10ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $6/ml

Have you tried Bigarade Concentree? How was your experience? What did you think of it and why?

Thanks for taking a moment to wander through my fragrant thoughts,
Portia xx

 

Pussy Water + Kittens Photo Essay

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 33 Comments

Hi there APJ,

Who can resist kittens! They are so cute, cuddly and gorgeous. We used to have cats as kids but since greyhounds and fostering them has happened in my life there seems no room, so safe room anyway, to fit them in my life. Oh well cutesy pictures and videos will have to fill the void.

Enjoy
Portia xx

 

Kittens Pussy Water PixabayPhoto Stolen Pixabay

Kitten Pussy water Sleeping Cory Barnes FlickrPhoto Stolen Flickr

Kitten Pussy Water DeviantArtPhoto Stolen DeviantArt

Kitten Pussy Water plizzba FlickrPhoto Stolen Flickr

Kitten Pussy Water sleeping_jessy elvira1990 DeviantArtPhoto Stolen DeviantArt

Kittens Pussy Water Red_Kitten WikMediaPhoto Stolen WikiMedia

HA HA HA HA HA!!!!

NSFW! Put HEADPHONES on. I found this very naughty but quite amusing Perfume Ad while trollng around YouTube, or maybe someone sent it to me? Oh well, can’t remember but I nearly spat my coffee at the screen when I saw this.

Pussy Water – banned cologne commercial {The Kloons}

Narcissus + Tuberose: CB I Hate Perfumes GIVEAWAY WINNERS

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 5 Comments

Hi there junkies,

Thanks for all getting so on board with this giveaway. Clearly we hit a fave frag manufacturer and the prohibitive cost of these lovelies must be another factor. I have enjoyed these immensely and can’t wait to read what our winners think.

Narcissus + Tuberose: CB I Hate Perfumes GIVEAWAY WINNERS

Narcissus CB I Hate Perfume FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

WHAT COULD YOU WIN?

This week we will have 2 winners who will get:
1 x .5ml sample Narcissus Water Perfume by CB I Hate Perfumes
1 x .5ml sample Tuberose Water Perfume by CB I Hate Perfumes
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 me any memory of daffodils or narcissus, their smell, how they look, a fragrance you love with them. Maybe you grew them, grow them or love them as a cut flower, anything narcissus related will get you in.

Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie CB I Hate Perfume Narcissus GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p3PURw-2Eq #Perfume #Giveaway @CBrosius712

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Sunday 6th April 2014 10pm Australian EST
Winners were chosen by random.org

WINNERS markmontanoblogsPhoto Stolen markmontanoblogs

Patty Pong

Sister Mary

The winners will have till Thursday 10th April 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.

Frapin 1270 by Sidonie Lancesseur for Frapin 2010

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 27 Comments

Hi There Crew,

I have only spent real time with one Frapin fragrance before and that was L’Humaniste which I liked very much, interestingly today’s fragrance was also re-created by the same perfumer. The original 1270 was created by Beatrice Cointreau. I don’t know why they had it reformulated, anyone?

Frapin 1270 by Sidonie Lancesseur for Frapin 2010

1270 Frapin FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Dried orange, pineapple, hazelnut, resins, dried plums, cocoa, tonka, coffee
Heart: Lime blossom, linden tree, pepper, spices, dried fruits
Base: Wood, Guaiac wood, white honey, vanilla

I have spritzed 1270 Frapin a few times before. I don’t know why but it has not struck me before as very likeable. I think my tastes may be expanding to include much more fun and frivolous fragrances because while trying to use up my unloved decant I have fallen madly in love.

1270 Frapin pineapple Kyle McDonald FlickrPINEAPPLE, like smoking a pineapple flavoured hookah while eating fairy floss. 1270 is weird and fun and a little bit crazy. I get sugar and pineapple, some other amorphous fruit and some smoky, warm resins. At no point do I get any chocolate, damnit. But still I just LOVE it. So fun. There is a fizziness that doesn’t seem at all aldehydic but like pineapple flavoured Fanta, bubbling around in your mouth with that delicious, sugar filled, fizzy rush that you get on your first swallow from the can. MMMMMMM. Boozy? Kind of. You know those sweet drinks that you can’t taste the alcohol in? The ones that often go down quickly and you drink them like soda pop because all that sugar makes you incredibly thirsty? Then BAM you are drunk. That’s the kind of booze here in 1270.

Lime blossom passes me by but the pepper, spices and dried fruits give a wonderful night in a Delhi bar in a bazaar vibe during the heart while still pumping out the fizzy pineapple right through the heart of 1270. Gradually the whole fragrance warms through as the honey, killing off the pineapple completely, takes centre stage standing right out front of the woods and vanilla but you can tell they are just waiting their turn to complete the story as we head to dry down. Warm soapy vanilla and woods, like VERY expensive mini bath soaps from the 1980s, are a beautiful end to a ride that has been so diverse, interesting, fun, frivolous at times and in the end a big gentle hug. How did I miss all this before?

1270 Frapin Sunset_Yekaterinburg WikiMediaPhoto Stolen WikiMedia

Interestingly 1270 is not on the Frapin parfums site any more. Are they discontinuing it? Does anyone know? All the online stores have it…..

Wearing? Almost everywhere. After the first 30 minutes you won’t be skunking anyone unless you are an outrageous oversprayer. In frag phobic workplaces it may be a bit much but otherwise I see 1270 as an excellent and fun choice. It is pricey but now that I get it I feel that I might even contemplate a purchase, let’s see if I finish my 5ml decant first, only 1ml of it has gone yet.

Further reading: Olfactoria’s Travels and Another Perfume Blog
Libertine Parfumerie has $199/100ml (with FREE postage in Australia)
First In Fragrance has €105/100ml and samples
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $4/ml

Have you spent any time with 1270? Any of the Frapin frags? Have you ever had one of their cognacs?
Portia xx

Pineapple Photo Stolen Flickr

ELIE SAAB Haute Couture S/S 2014

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 6 Comments

Heya APJ,

You want to see how G L A M O U R should be done? Need a refresher course in absolutely over the top elegance that harks back to the days of Hollywood’s finest hours? This runway show may not push any boundaries but I bet it’s selling like crazy. This is fashion for the wealthy and I bet they lapped it up. So lavishly gorgeous and crazy that it could almost have been a Christian Dior or Oscar de la Renta show from the 1990s. Perfect.

Elie Saab SS 2014 TelegraphPhoto Stolen Telegraph (any problem with me using this shot, tell me and I’ll remove immediately)

Enjoy
Portia x

ELIE SAAB Haute Couture Spring Summer 2014 Fashion Show

Supreme Bouquet by Yves Saint Laurent 2013

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 14 Comments

Hey there Fellow Fumie Family.

Today we are chatting about one of Yves Saint Laurent’s newest lineup, the Oriental Collection. These are a new last year, extremely spendy, designer try at regaining some of their lost consumer ground through their own, and enforced, ruthless reformulations and cheapening of many of their products. Here is the big ticket item to lure us back. There are now four in the Oriental Collection with the addition of Splendid Wood this year.

Supreme Bouquet by Yves Saint Laurent 2013

Supreme Bouquet Yves Saint Laurent FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Fruity notes
Heart: Ylang ylang, tuberose, jasmine
Base: Patchouli, amber, musk

Supreme Bouquet, seems like they have made the bar pretty high, Supreme? Really Supreme? I was already pre disposed to not like it just from the name, which seems both overblown and lame. Who is in charge of this stuff at YSL Fragrance, it just makes me squirm with embarrassment that out of the WHOLE English language (and the thousands of others available) that Supreme Bouquet is the BEST name they could come up with. Let’s wear it and see if it lives down to it’s moniker.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAPhoto Stolen WikiMedia

Peaches from a can, mango and pineapple? Like a fruit cocktail with added sugar syrup, actually, like the syrup that canned fruit comes in. YUMMY! I am taken directly back to my childhood in the first spritz, sadly this crazy fun, 100% unnatural scent only blasts for about 3-5 minutes before it is lost in a very honey-like sweetness that still manages to be dry, as the white flowers come strolling in with a sinuous, sensuous, insouciant abandon and wrap their lovely coils around the fruit till all you can smell are sweet, buttery, green, fatty white flowers. So beautiful there is almost a fairytale quality, Supreme Bouquet is ethereal but solid and wafting gently around me like a nimbus. It is like you have sat yourself in an arbour of exotic dream flowers that bear only a passing resemblance to anything of this world, more like the flowers I would expect Queen Amidala to cultivate. Sometimes I worry that I have TERRIBLE taste in fragrance, I think these are nearly completely aroma chemicals but still they smell fabulous to me. I love it.

Trichome, Arabidopsis leaf hairPhoto Stolen Wikipedia

The amber highlights and warms the flowers as they start to fade, they don’t really leave but they do become less assertive, relax their hold and give some space to everything else, sadly the uber clean patchouli and musks smell a trifle generic and that lets the whole composition down a bit, after the fireworks of the opening and heart it would have been nice if the patchouli had given us a raspy, earthy depth. It doesn’t.

Supreme Bouquet Yves Saint Laurent Fairy Queen maf04 FlickrPhoto Stolen Flickr

Further reading: Katie Puckrik Smells and Kafkaesque
Available in department stores (not in Australia yet) UK YSL site £195
I bought my sample from Surrender To Chance from $5/.5ml

OK, so is this the SUPREME Bouquet? Naah, but it is lovely, wearable and sexy, super perfume-y and a look back at fragrances of the past till its slightly boring, but very nice, dry down. Would I pay £195 for a bottle? Probably not. On 50% discount? I’d be definitely thinking about it. Actually, for US$100 I would have been online and purchased a bottle already. It is very nice, great gift for someone but extremely overpriced to me.

Have you tried any from the new Oriental line at Yves Saint Laurent yet?
Portia x