Narcissus: CB I Hate Perfumes Rare Flowers Series

April 4, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 54 Comments

Hi there FUMIES!

I have been lucky enough to try this amazing, no amazing is too banal & used a word for the experience, sadly my vocabulary doesn’t stretch to how joyful and wonderful my experience has been trying today’s fragrance. I feel like one of the luckiest people just to have spent time with this magnificent creation that has bloomed so spectacularly on my skin in ways completely unexpected. I am moved.

Narcissus: CB I Hate Perfumes Rare Flowers Series 2013

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

OK the note here is Narcissus, pure and practically unadulterated. Here are the words I wrote on my first wearing to refer back to while writing this review: Bitter, dark, tobacco-esque, green, earthy, herbal, poisonous, hay, urine, wind, fresh, sunshine, picnic, happiness, love. This is NOTHING like I expected. Narcissus is a complete revelation and not all of it lovely. I find myself twisting and turning with the notes as if caught in a flurry during a storm, or buffeted by the sea when you misjudge a wave. Narcissus smells like a concentration on the leaves and stem of the plant, not the flower, or at least very little of the flower.

Photo Stolen GeographUK

From CB I Hate Perfume: Narcissus Absolute is one of the rarest and most fabulously expensive floral absolutes still available in the world today. It is also to my mind one of the most stunningly beautiful and therefore very much a personal favorite. Although obtained from the flower of a quite common plant, the scent of Narcissus absolute smells not in the least like a pot of paperwhites. To me, the scent of the actual blooming flower is overpowering, piercing and usually quite nauseating. I really can’t stay long in a room where paperwhites are blooming. The perfume of Narcissus absolute on the other hand is magical. Have you ever walked though a field in spring when thousands of narcissus were blooming? It’s like that – a delicate spicy breath of spring.
Please note that the water perfume is translucent, and may have some sedimentation. If this happens gentle rock the bottle back and forth to reincorporate. This will not detract from the fragrance in any way.

Further reading: and Perfume Posse
CB I Hate Perfume has $500/100ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $7/.5ml

Narcissus: CB I Hate Perfumes GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN 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 DO 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 Close Sunday 6th April 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 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.

Grandma Tells The Truth: A Story

April 4, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 21 Comments

Hello Lovely APJ Crew,

Here I have a story that will warm the cockles of your heart. I wish all Grandmas were so outrageously outspoken, especially with today’s politicians. Wouldn’t that be something.

Portia xx

Grandma Tells The Truth: A Story

Photo Stolen FotoPedia

Lawyers should never ask a Georgia grandma a question if they aren’t prepared for the answer.

In a trial, a Southern small-town prosecuting attorney called his first witness, a grandmotherly, elderly woman to the stand. He approached her and asked, ‘Mrs. Jones, do you know me?’ She responded, ‘Why, yes, I do know you, Mr. Williams. I’ve known you since you were a boy, and frankly, you’ve been a big disappointment to me. You lie, you cheat on your wife, and you manipulate people and talk about them behind their backs. You think you’re a big shot when you haven’t the brains to realize you’ll never amount to anything more than a two-bit paper pusher. Yes, I know you.’

The lawyer was stunned. Not knowing what else to do, he pointed across the room and asked, ‘Mrs. Jones, do you know the defense attorney?’

She again replied, ‘Why yes, I do. I’ve known Mr. Bradley since he was a
youngster, too. He’s lazy, bigoted, and he has a drinking problem. He can’t build a normal relationship with anyone, and his law practice is one of the worst in the entire state. Not to mention he cheated on his wife with three different women. One of them was your wife. Yes, I know him.’

The defense attorney nearly died.

The judge asked both counselors to approach the bench and, in a very quiet voice, said,

‘If either of you idiots asks her if she knows me, I’ll send you both to the electric chair.

Penhaligon's Iris Prima GIVEAWAY WINNERS

March 31, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 6 Comments

Woo Hoo APJ!

Another sensational Libertine Parfumerie and Australian Perfume Junkies GIVEAWAY! Thanks for being part of our fab, fun and fragrant family. We are super glad to have you all along.

Let’s see who our lucky winners are…

Portia x

Penhaligon’s Iris Prima GIVEAWAY WINNERS

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, pink pepper
Heart: Iris, jasmine
Base: Leather, sandalwood, vetiver, amber, vanilla, benzoin

WHAT COULD YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 Major Winner who will get:
1 x Penhaligon`s Iris Prima 100ml bottle
(minus the Secondary Winners Prizes, the lid is wonky but spritzer perfect.)
P&H Anywhere in the world

3 x Secondary Winners who will each receive:
1 x 10ml decant of Penhaligon`s Iris Prima
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DID YOU WIN?

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Go to Libertine Perfumes<<<JUMP and find me one of their BATH PRODUCTS and the COMPANY…………….. NO DOUBLE UPS!!

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Sunday 30th March 2014 10pm Australian EST
Winners were chosen by random.org

Photo Stolen shannonmayer

Wheelspinner (Bottle Winner)

Hotlanta Linda

Victoria

Becky (Rebecca via Twitter)

The winners will have till Thursday 3rd 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.

Special THANKS to LibertineParfumerie for these amazing giveaways. Please visit their site because they are so generous and helpful. If you wonder why they are sometimes more expensive than the discounters or OS retailers it’s because they are the only licensed company selling their fragrances in Australia; where you know you are buying new, fresh and genuine product. The cost of importing, and buying the right to import, alcohol based fragrances (and having the right to send alcohol based fragrances throughout Australia, which are illegal to send in the Australia Post air system) is expensive and they must cover their costs to bring you these luxury goods.

Oliban by Keiko Mecheri 2004

March 30, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 16 Comments

Hello Niche Nerds,

Keiko Mecheri houses her fragrances in fabulous bottles. I love the whole enjoyment of holding them in my hand and spritzing, it adds luster to a house that for some reason I feel close to. In my collection I have the fabulous old Loukhoum bottle

Photo Stolen LuckyScent

and Jour d’Ete, which was my first salty coconut and jasmine fragrance, one of my all time favourite mixtures. Keiko Mecheri is one of the houses like Guerlain and Patricia de Nicolai that I have often felt as if they are made with me in mind, even though not all the fragrances work on or for me. I just like the houses aesthetic.

Oliban by Keiko Mecheri 2004

Photo Stolen Libertine Parfumerie

Fragrsntica gives these featured accords in one line:
Virginia cedar, incense, olibanum, (blonde) tobacco, (Damascene) rose, palisander rosewood, tonka bean, ambergris

Sweet, jammy rose and woods surrounded by lovely incense. It all smells like a VERY expensive hotel foyer. Loads of woods and beeswax shine, I get a hint of leather too and the tobacco/honey accord is beautiful. Oliban opens so well and with such a heady religious air that I swoon every time.

While wearing and writing this article I chatted to a mate on Facebook at Australian Fragrance Network and during her ride she noticed tea, specifically the spicy Indian cooked black tea with milk and spices called chai. Now through the incense and woods, the honey and leather I get a distinct memory/feeling of chai. It’s like sitting up in Mcleodganj in the Indian Himalayas where the Dalai Lama is in exile. Sitting and watching the prayer flags fluttering outside while in a wooden tea house. The whole mountain top smells of incense and most of the tea shop/restaurants used to smell of wood, cigarettes and beeswax. Progress has smartened them up though and they are much more Westerner friendly nowadays than they were. Still some of the accommodation on the top of the hill has the old wooden beeswax smell, it’s fabulous. Taeko, my friend didn’t get the frankincense till a couple of hours in on her skin but I get it from the very first spritz, it’s warm scratchy resinous scent fueling the whole fragrance for me. Interesting how different people get dissimilar rides, even in the same temp zone.

Photo Stolen Flickr

From I Smell Therefore I Am (sometimes someone else gets it so right, in this case Abigail): It’s a fabulously well crafted incense fragrance with gorgeous whiffs of blond tobacco, woods, rose and honey. The initial burst of incense and cedar are refreshingly spiritual (don’t most incense frags seem rather churchy to you?). Oliban, especially at the start, seems soothing, calming, centering and cleansing. When I feel harried, rattled or just tired, Oliban serves as a meditative pick me up.

Photo Stolen Flickr

If you are after an incense bomb then please look elsewhere. Oliban is incense, with a lovely softening rose accord and a warm honey/tobacco accord that also stop the incense and woods from being too hefty and unfeminine, anyone can and should wear Oliban. It will never be so loud as to override your own skins fragrance but will work harmoniously with it and create a patina of scent that could be worn anywhere and will be particularly good for very up close and intimate encounters. Soft enough for work, different enough to set you apart from the crowd. I think it is a tad too soft for it to be a fb in my collection; too tasteful, sophisticated and too suavely elegant to really fit with my bigness. I could buy this for almost any of my friends though and know that they would be incredibly happy with my choice for them, and that it could be a signature for quite a few of them too.

Further reading: Katie Puckrik Smells and I Smell Therefore I Am
Libertine Parfumerie has $195/75ml including Australian postage
First In Fragrance has €145/75ml and €5/4ml Samples

Oliban is worth a try.

Portia xx

Christian Dior Lady Dior Handbags Spring 2014 Ad Campaign

March 30, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 5 Comments

Heya Fumie Fashionistas,

LOVE a handbag. Love DIOR. Love Marion Cotillard. Imagine a world where they all come together in one glorious print ad scenario? Here is Marion Cotillard, shot by Jean-Baptiste Mondino for Lady Dior. The bags are nice enough but the fashion and model, FAB U LOUS!!

Don’t forget to enter our Libertine Parfumerie and Penhaligon’s Iris Prima GIVEAWAY

Christian Dior Lady Dior Handbags Spring 2014 Ad Campaign

(source via art8amby)

Christian Dior Lady Dior Handbags Spring 2014 [Making-Of]

Carnal Flower By Dominique Ropion for Frederic Malle 2005

March 29, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 26 Comments

Hello Fellow Fumies,

The story goes that this fragrance was created around the idea of Frederic Malle’s aunt, Candice Bergen, star of the movie Carnal Knowledge with Jack Nicholson, Ann Margaret and Art Garfunkel. I’ve not seen the movie but I love this little tit bit of information garnered from Fragrantica. It makes my enjoyment even sweeter as Candice was one of my great TV glamour girl loves from Murphy Brown and who could ever forget her in her 2000 star turn as Kathy Morningside in Miss Congeniality, awesome. Many of you will have loved her too as Shirley Schmidt in Boston Legal but i digress.

Don’t forget to enter our Libertine Parfumerie and Penhaligon’s Iris Prima GIVEAWAY

Carnal Flower By Dominique Ropion for Frederic Malle 2005

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line (but writes them tiered):
Top: Bergamot, melon, eucalyptus
Heart: Ylang-ylang, jasmine, tuberose, Salicylates (natural, toxic product of herbal origin, a sort of a herbal pheromone which is used by plants as a warning)
Base: Tuberose absolute, orange blossom absolute, coconut, musk

I love how Carnal Flower opens with a huge plastic white flower surrounded by sharp citrus and greenery. I know the notes say melon and eucalyptus but I don’t get them definitively in the open. I get a sweet and sappy greenness like when you cut hydrangeas and lovely white flowers that move to fatty pretty quickly, they are potent and exciting but not as outrageous as the hype leads you to believe and they become quite dry through their life. Not dried or dessicated but the oily wetness, the sappy green loses its potency and becomes a high white floral with a green tiara on sending out occasional flashes and sparkles.

Photo Stolen Flickr

Just so you have placement, I am writing this on Wednesday which is my cleaning day. I do the house from top to bottom once a week. It’s a big job that can take 5 hours but usually I get it done in 3-4 hours. Today I decided to see how Carnal Flower copes in warm weather while active. At midday it’s 26 degees Celcius and I started cleaning at 9.30am. At just over halfway point so I’m taking a sneaky break to write to you.

Well I’ve dusted, vacuumed and cleaned the bathrooms. All that’s left to do is empty the kitchen benches and give them their full scrub. Still there are delightful wafts of coconut-y white flower and now I smell like summer. My sweat and Carnal Flower have come together to create something that smells like a beautiful deadly night flower that calls insects and small animals to their graves, it may even work on the men. I find sneaky reminders at this point of one of my favourite summer scents Bronze Goddess, though they have different stories at the Carnal Flower 3 hour mark they have a crossover.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

At the 5 hour mark I have lost all but the merest traces of something musky floral but to all intents and purposes gone. I have to be honest here and tell you I think Carnal Flower not at all carnal and really it is a very pretty white floral with other stuff but not fearsome or challenging at all. Bigger than most modern perfumery but not outrageous, give the opening a moment to calm down and I find it extremely wearable. Maybe not a confined spaces or work fragrance but definitely doable for dinner.

Further reading:
Mecca Cosmetica in Australia have AUD$259/50mlFrederic Malle has €160/50ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $9/ml

Carnal Flower. Have you braved the name? Did you feel it was worthy of such a fearsome title?

Till tomorrow, treat yourself with respect, you deserve it and try to forgive yourself your minor flaws.
Portia xx

Iris Prima by Alberto Morillas for Penhaligon`s 2013

March 28, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 48 Comments

Hiya Fellow Fumies,

My mate Nick from Libertine Parfumerie sometimes sends APJ product for giveaways. A package from Nick is ALWAYS a sweet surprise and he is a lovely guy who wants to have a great range of fragrance for Aussies to choose from. Please, even if you don’t enter today’s competition, go and have a look at the amazing fragrant beauties that Libertine Parfumerie has for sale, you will be astounded. Lately Nick’s buying power has become so good that some (not all) of his products are the same numerical value as you would buy them for in the USA, that means with the current Aussie dollar that they are in fact 10-15% cheaper!!! AMAZING!

Iris Prima by Alberto Morillas for Penhaligon`s 2013

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, pink pepper
Heart: Iris, jasmine
Base: Leather, sandalwood, vetiver, amber, vanilla, benzoin

Iris Prima has certainly cut the blogging world in half. There are some who know Penhaligon’s aesthetic quite well and got a lovely fresh and pretty iris-ish fragrance with light sillage and wearing close to the skin unless you spritz yourself wet. Many people because of the name Iris Prima and the story of the ballet had extraordinarily high expectations that Penhaligon’s would completely change its soft focus, easy wear self for something cutting edge and boundary pushing. Naah. This is the softest, least intrusive scent I have smelled from the line. I wonder if it’s aimed at children of wealthy families who want to be ballerinas?

The bergamot and pink pepper are exactly as you would expect them to be and very much how they are in 1.000 other fragrances released over the last 5-10 years, the very first spritz has a whiff of leather but that burns off quickly to reappear later. It’s a fun, fresh, zingy opening that is completely unoffensive and will not scare anyone away. Very general public wearing and nice. The iris is cool and ever so slightly carroty on my skin and I hardly notice the jasmine at all, either my skin eats it, I am anosmic or it plays a far away back up role. After that Iris Prima becomes a very soft wash of fragrance that doesn’t really have notes so much as it is a quiet and reserved, I want to say leather but it’s so muted that I can’t even call it a name warmed by a splash of vanilla.

I get about 3 hours of fragrance until I cannot smell anything at all other than me. I can see Iris Prima being a big hit for non perfumistas who want to smell something as they get ready in the morning but who work in fragrance free or very close working conditions. Iris Prima is soft enough to be a very pretty fabric softener remnant that you are wafting, no one will be skunked by you EVER.

I like my fragrance bigger but many of you might really love Iris Prima.

Funny follow up: I was wearing quite a bit of Iris Prima to write about it today. Tonight THREE separate people complimented me on my fragrance at work, one of them was the barmaid who I never would have thought to be a fragrance noticer. Genuinely and totally entranced by Iris Prima. Interesting that others notice Iris Prima and think it’s drop dead gorgeous.

Portia xx

Further reading: Another Perfume Blog and Olfactoria’s Travels
Libertine Parfumerie has $254/100ml delivered in Australia
First In Fragrance has €170/100ml and €5/4ml samples

Iris Prima GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 Major Winner who will get:
1 x Penhaligon`s Iris Prima 100ml bottle
(minus the Secondary Winners Prizes, the lid is wonky but spritzer perfect.)
P&H Anywhere in the world

3 x Secondary Winners who will each receive:
1 x 10ml decant of Penhaligon`s Iris Prima
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DO YOU WIN?

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Go to Libertine Perfumes<<<JUMP and find me one of their BATH PRODUCTS and the COMPANY…………….. NO DOUBLE UPS!!

Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie @PenhaligonsLtd Iris Prima GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p3PURw-2Ck #Perfume #Giveaway @LibertineParfum

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Sunday 30th March 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 3rd 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.

Unnumbered Sparks by Janet Echelman March 2014

March 28, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 8 Comments

Hiya APJ,

This is an amazing, enormous, interactive art piece in the middle of an Canadian city, Vancouver. The sheer scale of what the artists have achieved is mind blowing and that anyone with a smart phone can get involved makes it triply special. This is future art. I feel blessed to live in a world where something like this is not only possible but happening. Done as a installment for TED 30th Anniversary in conjunction with Studio Echelman and Google Chrome.

Photo Stolen Hashslush (if this is your image and you are upset, comment, I’ll take it down immediately)

From the Janet Echelman site: Studio Echelman installed its largest, most interactive sculpture installation to date at the TED Conference’s 30th anniversary, March 2014. The monumental aerial sculpture spanned 745 feet between the 24-story Fairmont Waterfront and the Vancouver Convention Center, challenging the artist to work on her most ambitious scale yet – over twice the size of her largest previous sculpture.

The sculpture was presented with an original, interactive work created in collaboration with artist Aaron Koblin, Creative Director of the Data Arts Team in Google’s Creative Lab. At night the sculpture came to life as visitors were able to choreograph the lighting in real time using physical gestures on their mobile devices. Vivid beams of light were projected across a massive scale as the result of small movements on spectators’ phones.

The Making of Unnumbered Sparks

The Technology Behind Unnumbered Sparks

New Ad: Coco Mademoiselle by CHANEL with Kiera Knightly "She's Not There"

March 26, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 5 Comments

Hiya APJ,

Kiera Knightly seems the perfect choice for advertising, gorgeous and quirky looking she is both elegant and seems to have a pretty good handle on fun. I loved her since Bend It Like Beckham and wish she was in more stuff that I see. well THANK GOODNESS for CHANEL who have created some wonderful ads for her to star in.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEIRA KNIGHTLY!!

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

Coco Mademoiselle by CHANEL with Kiera Knightly “She’s Not There”

The Evolution of Keira Knightley

CelebBuzz.com

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

Dior Haute Couture Spring-Summer 2014. 4 min Snapshot.

March 25, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 19 Comments

Hiya All,

Fragrance is what takes up most of my brainspace but I also love fashion. Though I will never be rail thin, super rich or ever invited to be one of the Haute Couture clients (yes invited, it’s an invitation only experience) still I love the flamboyance and often unwearability of the runway shows and then later the trickle down effect where two or three seasons later I notice a particular thing that I thought ridiculous or totally innovative or terribly unfinished walking the streets and being sold on high streets everywhere.

Photo Stolen WikiMedia

Here is a four minute snapshot of Dior Haute Couture Spring-Summer 2014. What did I notice? I loved the cut out fabric reminiscent of the cheap nylon curtains that we used to have in our garage as children. The sheer glitter knee high socks, asymetrical but unmatching fabrics, the single cut drape from a miniskirt front to floor length back, the gathered backs of the jackets which meant they float out as you stride. SO MUCH! I think Raf Simons is doing a great job.

Photo Stolen Style.com

Please enjoy a moment out of your day to see into the future.

Portia xxx