Resina by Oliver Valverde for Oliver + Co. 2012

April 18, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 46 Comments

Hey Hey Crew,

Before I went overseas this year I received a lovely pack, with excellent presentation, from Oliver & Co. and it is a four pack of their 10ml samples in what was called a Discovery Set. I bought them for €25 but can now find no samples on the site anywhere. Grrrrrr. Some things I love about the Oliver & Co. brand are their very clever FREE SHIPPING TO THE WORLD and their reasonable prices, €95 the highest for the Illustrated Series. That’s less than buying 100ml of Shalimar EdP by Guerlain in a Department Store.

Resina by Oliver Valverde for Oliver + Co. 2012

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Tolu balsam, elemi, myrrh, labdanum, opoponax, jasmine sambac, incense, benzoin, coffee, christmas tree or flame tree, mace, rooibos tea, tonka bean, star anise

Sweet, spicy and furry warmth is what jumps off my skin immediately with a herbal tea, accompaniment but more than anything I get lovely and interesting mixtures of resins, a full on version of the ones you stand in before and during ballet classes to give you traction. This is how Penhaligon’s Iris Prima should have opened and ended. It’s not often I feel I can smell the leaves and bark of the trees that the resins are procured from but here in Resina there is a definite waft of green that cuts through the sweetness, though sweetness is not meant in a cake or biscuit way but in a sweet wax way.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

Then the chocolate, very realistic chocolate, adds its song. The chocolate is a fun twist that never takes over and is only noticeable after the first while if you look for it. It’s not one of the notes though so I could be dreaming. My skin also throws a very slightly breathy jasmine and a little bit of curried star anise, but maybe it’s my using star anise in curies that provides the link. The copy says hypnotic, dense and carnal: I can see and smell all those images. It is densely packed with pieces that play togetrher in beautiful harmony, there is a certain fleshiness or humanity and a furry feel and i think it could become extremely hypnotic if someone you were already falling in love with wore Resina. It would imprint on your memory and is enough unlike any other scents in its style that you would be a stand alone scent memory.

Fragrant? Yes but not a seriously heavy scent for all its density. Wearable, sexy and interesting. I get good longevity too at around 5-6 hours before I’m left with a soft amorphous wash of nearly nothing.

LuckyScent has $145/50ml

Portia xx

Photo Stolen Kesha&Co

Resina GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 2 winners who will each get:
1 x 2ml decant of Resina by Oliver + Co.
1 x 2ml decant of Mousse II by Oliver + Co.
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

Please tell me a memory that involves resins, incense or a fragrance that includes either that you happen to love.

Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie ~~Resina~~ by Oliver & CO. GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p3PURw-2Ex #Perfume #Giveaway ~~#Oliver&Co~~

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Sunday 20th 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 24th 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.

CHANEL Prive Watch Coromandel Video

April 18, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 14 Comments

Hello APJ Crew,

I know! This is way out of us plebeian income earners. Sometimes it’s nice to know not that you could have something but that there is a space in our world for such precious and beautiful artisanal work. Especially lovely when it comes from such a behemoth as CHANEL

Luxury-Insider says: “Mademoiselle Privé” watch, Coromandel dial in Grand Feu enamel. 18k white gold case, 594 snow-set dimonds (2.4 carats). Black alligator strap. Self-winding mechanical movement, 42-hour power reserve

Please enjoy the creation of wearable fashion art.

Portia xx

Photo Stolen Luxury-Insider

MADEMOISELLE PRIVÉ Watch Collection: Coromandel – CHANEL

Blue Day: To Do List For Today

April 15, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 25 Comments

Hi APJ Family,

As we all know not everyday will be a FAB U LOUS one. Some days are full of seven thousand types of shit and heartache. Even if the day has been great doesn’t necessarily equate to happiness either. We are human, this is normal. We are not always dissectible emotionally. There are days when all we can do is count our blessings, be nice to ourselves and others and make it safely to the end of the day.

Some of my mates have a Facebook site dedicated to dealing with less that wonderful emotional rides. Here are some of the latest crop of pieces that resonated for me.

I hope they work as a hug to you all today.
Portia xx

Here’s the new DIOR Homme Cologne ad. I like it.

A Day In Paris with Denyse Beaulieu: Photo Essay

April 13, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 36 Comments

Heya Crew,

One of the most amazing things that has happened from finding the online fragrance blogging community, starting APJ and joining the Facebook fragrance groups has been the incredible people all over the world who I have been lucky enough to meet.

A Day In Paris with Denyse Beaulieu: Photo essay

Blogger, Author, Fragrance Muse & General Great Girl

Printemps rooftop restaurant

Michael and I went first to the Printemps rooftop on our way to lunch. It’s a great way to get your bearings and see where everything else is around Paris. Sadly they were renovating the terrace and we could not go out. Still it was good for Michael to see. So where do you go when Printemps verandah is closed? Laduree of course.

Laduree (Michael doing his serial killer look)

Palais Royal Gardens

Then we met the very fun and elegant Denyse for lunch. If you haven’t read The Perfume Lover (available now in paperback $14 delivered at Book Depository) then you MUST!! It is the story of a romance which became a fragrance by Bertrand Duchaufour, Seville a l’Aube for L’Artisan Parfumeur. Denyse has written a book both personal and informative that was so fun and enjoyable that I’ve now reread it a couple more times.

Last year in Paris with Jin he had sussed out the best Korean restaurant in the city, a tiny little hole in the wall restaurant with seating for about 25 people and the full BarBQ set up called Seoul Opera (6 Rue Danielle Casanova). If you are in Paris walking on the Ave de l’Opera from the Hotel d’Louvre to the Opera turn left at the Kusmi Tea and it’s about 5 shops in. Unless you knew you would walk straight past it. Denyse had heard of it but never been so I was glad to take her to a Korean that Jin had found completely authentic, and delicious. I don’t know why we didn’t take any photos of lunch, it was super fun. Lovely to catch up with Denyse and hear her stories of life in fragrant Paris, love and writing. NOBODY can drop fragrant names like Denyse and she has a wicked fund of fabulous stories that had us sniggering like dirty little schoolboys. It would be SCANDALOUS if she ever wrote her stories down, like Jackie Collins for fragrance. Food was awesome and very reasonable, Jin had sent us a menu of 5 dishes and we left nothing.

Jovoy

We then wandered up to Jovoy and Paris was putting on its kindest Winter face ever, remember that this was early February and we were expecting snow and freezing temps but to be honest it was merely cool and a jumper and scarf were all I needed during the days to be OK. The walk was beautiful and Denyse pointed out points of Interest for us. Michael was super thrilled as it was his first visit to Paris and he walked through in a completely fabulously overwhelmed daze.

Place Vendome CdG

The crew at Jovoy are so friendly and could not have been more helpful or interested in making sure we smelled and understood EVERYTHING. My nose gave out after a couple of hours but Michael and Denyse were indefatigable. They both are very interested in the nuts and bolts of fragrance and they were very happy parsing and comparing. To be truthful I was COMPLETELY over sniffing at this point and couldn’t wait to get out of there. I went and stood out the front for about half an hour to calm the pounding in my head.

We were introduced to a lovely set of Parisian bloggers in Jovoy and Denyse was able to give us a preview of the newest L’Artisan offerings which smelled rather like 100% artificial candies to me. Not my favourite of their offerings in the new milieu.

Then Denuye took us to the IUNX shop in the Hotel Costes on Rue Saint Honoré where I happily grabbed Splash Forte, a favourite warm weather frag for me, Olivia Giacobetti has done a lovely job with the line and Michael picked that she was the perfumer straight away. Very cool call. While we were there a couple came in and bough 5 x 150ml bottles of fragrance, didn’t even bat an eyelid. I was completely thunderstruck.

Costes/IUNX

Then we had a lazy beverage in one of the suit bars near the Costes Hotel. It was a great place to finish our adventure before wandering Denyse to the Opera Metro. Isn’t she beautiful?

Opera Metro

It was pretty late and Michael & I had not done our Galleries Lafayette fragrance shopping yet. We both grabbed a bottle of DIOR’s Mitzah (I got the last 150ml bottle) and I also grabbed Guerlain’s Mon Precieux Nectar which I had wanted before last years visit to Paris but didn’t buy it then. FINALLY got it. We were so late and in such a rush that we only managed to capture these two pics. It was all extremely fun though. By then end of this we were absolutely exhausted.

Galleries Lafayette

There you have it. A near perfect day in Paris with one of the fragrance world’s superstars. I hope you’ve enjoyed the ride. All photos were kindly donated by Michael and that’s why he is in so few of them, I know, he is rather lovely eye candy isn’t he?
Portia xx

Zaha Hadid Architects – City of Dreams Hotel Tower Macau

April 13, 2014 / 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.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

Photo Stolen Flickr

Photo 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

Macau Photo Stolen Wikipedia

Zaha Hadid Architects – City of Dreams Hotel Tower Macau

Grisens/Oliban by Pierre Guillaume for Phaedon 2011

April 12, 2014 / 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.

Photo 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……

Photo 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

April 12, 2014 / 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!

Photo 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?

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!

Photo 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

April 11, 2014 / 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

Photo 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.

Photo 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.

Photo 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

Catherine Tate & David Tenant do Comic Relief 2007

April 11, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 10 Comments

So APJ,

What happens when The Doctor meets Lauren Cooper, OMFG, this is still absolute GOLD! I laugh more now than I did when I first saw it.

Enjoy! Enjoy! Enjoy!
Portia xx

Photo Stolen YouTube

Comic Relief – Catherine Tate & David Tennant

Pussy Water + Kittens Photo Essay

April 9, 2014 / 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

Photo Stolen Pixabay

Photo Stolen Flickr

Photo Stolen DeviantArt

Photo Stolen Flickr

Photo Stolen DeviantArt

Photo 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}

Australian Perfume Junkies

Olfactory Opinions from Oz

Portia

Resina by Oliver Valverde for Oliver + Co. 2012

Resina by Oliver Valverde for Oliver + Co. 2012

Resina GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

HOW DO YOU WIN?

HOUSEKEEPING

CHANEL Prive Watch Coromandel Video

MADEMOISELLE PRIVÉ Watch Collection: Coromandel – CHANEL

Blue Day: To Do List For Today

A Day In Paris with Denyse Beaulieu: Photo Essay

A Day In Paris with Denyse Beaulieu: Photo essay

Blogger, Author, Fragrance Muse & General Great Girl

Zaha Hadid Architects – City of Dreams Hotel Tower Macau

Zaha Hadid Architects – City of Dreams Hotel Tower Macau

Grisens/Oliban by Pierre Guillaume for Phaedon 2011

Grisens/Oliban by Pierre Guillaume for Phaedon 2011

Antonia’s Flowers GIVEAWAY WINNERS

Antonia’s Flowers GIVEAWAY WINNERS

WHAT COULD YOU WIN?

HOW DID YOU WIN?

HOUSEKEEPING

willa

Bigarade Concentree by Jean-Claude Ellena for Frederic Malle 2002

Bigarade Concentree by Jean-Claude Ellena for Frederic Malle 2002

Catherine Tate & David Tenant do Comic Relief 2007

Comic Relief – Catherine Tate & David Tennant

Pussy Water + Kittens Photo Essay

Pussy Water – banned cologne commercial {The Kloons}