So have taken you on our flight to Vienna through it’s stops and starts, shown you Michael eating a schnitzel bigger than his head and now we are up to the meeting up with mates section We sampled fragrances, ate, drank, laughed and Michael shopped up a whole new wardrobe because he’s 6 foot 4 inches and whippet thin so Austria is the first place he’s been where they cut for his shape.
Birgit, Sandra (both of Olfactoria’s Travels), Michael and Sandra’s sweet and hilarious son Sean made our stay so fun and we saw Vienna the city to live in as well as the tourist city. I was so happy to have dinner with Birgit’s gorgeous husband again, he is sharp, handsome and funny and I am completely smitten.
You may wonder why there’s a dirty great ginger cat but Sandra took us to a Cat Cafe, where people who can’t have pets of their own can spend some time with a bunch of glorious cats. This was my favourite and reminded me a little of Undina from Undina’s Looking Glass cat Rusty, except this one would NOT pose.
Again we stayed in the Hotel Royal on the Stefansplatz, a very comfortable and affordable option in the heart of Vienna that serves an excellent breakfast. These are my three criteria for accommodation: Comfortable, Affordable, Excellent breakfast. Also add to that: Near the station.
Here are a few pics, enjoy a glimpse of Vienna, Austria with us.
Portia xxx
Well I’m back home and have nothing scheduled for tonight. AAAARRGGGHHH!!! I have found the ad campaign for the new Mercedes Benz Perfume though on art8amby.
Do I think the fragrance will be as good as the ads? My fingers are crossed.
Mercedes Benz Perfume by Michel Almairac for Mercedes Benz 2013
Going through my stuff in the cleanup I came across dozens of samples and manufacturers carded stuff that never got a sniff. I don’t know hot this one got overlooked, it’s on a huge card with beautiful pictures and this from Patricia de Nicolaï: Patchouli oil is an essential oil of great importance in my perfumer’s palette. Among all woody notes, it is the most sensuous. Here I wanted to work with patchouli in a very unusual way, with an accord rose-geranium, on a deep amber vanilla and incense body.
Patchouli Intense by Patricia de Nicolai for Parfums de Nicolaï 2009
Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Patchouli, oakmoss, bergamot and musk
Oooh sizzling citrus rush at the open and then quickly it calms to a green, woodsy, earthy scent. No Essential Oil style patchouli from the oil burner here folks. This is forest floor in the just warming, still brisk weather. Sunlight dappled meanderings with no destination till tea time. Pretty and unisex, I can imagine Patchouli Intense could become very addictive if smelled on a new partner or someone you have recently met. It must be the combination of oakmoss and patchouli that gives such a parkland woods feeling. Though there are no flowers named I get some distinctly floral leanings mixed in too, like a marigold (tagettes) flower about half an hour after you crush/crumble it up. I keep thinking the word “verdant” and cannot for the life of me put it into a sentence that reads remotely real. Damnit! I think the word lovely and it does indeed conjure in my mind images of the merry growth spurt that is spring. Now that I’ve thought spring I also get a feeling from Patchouli Intense that is a lot like holding baby budgerigars when you are hand rearing them, they get a particular powdery, earthy, clean, alive smell as their feathers start to fuzz up. Though Patchouli Intense doesn’t smell like that, the feeling, the essence of the experience feels remarkably similar.
Booze? I get a boozy, casual wisp of something alcoholic, maybe dark rum? It coruscates out through the earthy middle ground. I also get almond milk and something a little sweet. As Patchouli Intense dries down it dries out and gets a very lived in feel, a musky, dusky, dusty cooling like the inside of a forgotten attic filled with the scent of the death of books, leather, wood and fabrics. Then it starts to fade and somewhere between 5-6 hours I can no longer smell it at all.
I have found in my three wears that an extra spritz at the 3 hour mark will more than double the fragrant life of Patchouli Intense, I can spritz before dinner, eat, hang, sleep. Then when I wake up in the morning I can smell it all over again, beautiful and sensuous the patchouli and musk have made sexy smell babies. MMMMMMMM
Patricia de Nicolai has worked a wonder in this beautifully nuanced, soft but rugged, comfortable scent. It nods vigorously to mens cologne from a bygone era but is smoother, more sophisticated and easier to wear. This is the kind of scent I would have bought my Dad if he was still alive and Mum would have stolen more than half the bottle because it’s so good.
The more I wear Patchouli Intense the less masculine it reads to me, this is a totally unisex beauty, if you like a soft friendly patchouli then this could be the one.
Portia x
Best line ever, “How do you make a baby happy? Say Gucci, Gucci, Gucci” Blake Lively is a great fit for what Gucci is trying to achieve with their Gucci Premier campaign.
So much hate for this lovely scent. I have managed to find a couple of other lovers in further reading but the majority don’t like it. Apparently people think it loud, really? I just don’t get loud…..
Champs Elysees by Jean Paul Guerlain 1996
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords: Top: Blackcurrant, almond, anise, melon, peach, violet Heart: Lilac, lily of the valley, hibiscus, almond flower, rose, mimosa, peony Base: Almond tree, cedar, benzoin, vanilla, sandalwood
I have a story, it’s a little bit embarrassing because I’m worried you are all going to kick me to the perfumista curb. I have Champs-Élysées in EdT, EdP and Parfum strengths and also have the body wash. I love it so much and you can get it at the discounters for NOTHING!! Like, seriously, they almost pay you to take their excess stock off their hands. I bet there are a dedicated few who love and wear Champs-Élysées almost exclusively and they are going to be GUTTED when it dies the death of the unloved scent, discontinuation. My belief is that 10 years after this is axed it will be worth a fortune. That core of lovers will be bereft and RICH.
Today I’m wearing a 2011 Champs-Élysées EdP, it’s the 75ml and while I adore the bottle design, to me it harks back to the art deco era but there is a stupid, ugly whilt plastic shoulder and neck that gives the air of a budget $3 “Smells Like” scent from the dollar shop.
Straight out of the gate I get a watery melon backed up by the soft waxy plastic feel of mimosa, that recedes into the background quite quickly as a sweet milky green-ness flows through. Champs-Élysées is so GIRLY! Soft , fresh, innocent and totally animalic or humanity free. The cleanest of all my Guerlains I can understand why hardcore perfumistas eschew its sheer, even prim and airy charms, there is only floating, no heft or pushiness, just a breeze blowing through that happens to be beautifully scented. The almonds milk stays softly insistent through Champs-Élysées life and is the closest thing to a grounding force that it has. This is what 60% of the celebuscents are trying to be and I can imagine it being a perfect first grown up fragrance for a teen or tween.
Fortunately Guerlain, while keeping Champs-Élysées light and youthful, has done it with such a deft hand that it is ageless, the lilacs and peonies through the heart blend beautifully with the return of mimosa and if you are 16 or 600 years old I think you will be pleased, if this is what you are after. Normally my skin sweetens scents but here I get the almonds all the way through and the woods and vanilla play only supporting roles as an amorphous chorus.
Surprisingly, for something so ethereal and wispy, Champs-Élysées has good longevity and 5-6 hours go by before I lose the scent completely. The sillage is quite mild as is the projection, I think you could wear Champs-Élysées to work as long as the space is not confined or your workplace completely fragrance averse. Really, I don’t get the loud thing, not loud on me at all.
Are you a Champs Elysees lover or a hater? Please leave your feelings and a short why in the comments. No judgements made on any answers, either way, as long as you keep it respectful.
Portia xx
The below photo is me standing outside Guerlain 68 Champs-Élysées, Jin and I decided to leave it to the last night we were in Paris February 2013. That afternoon it closed for renovation!! I KNOW!! This photo was the last thing done just before I broke down crying like a little bitch. Poor Jin, he had his hands full. It still makes me sad, thank goodness I have been back to Paris, in fact all going to plan I have just left it for London. From the Sydney Summer of my writing I have everything crossed that this time I will have been able to cross the threshold.
Le Temps d’Une Fête (Time for a Party) is a fragrance I discovered through The Muse In Wooden Shoes, who adores it and writes so lovingly of it that I really felt I would like to know it but it was always shunted out of the Shopping Basket at the end of an online shopping extravaganza in favour of something more pressing. Then came the news that it would be either discontinued, or made limited distribution, and I realised it may be now or never.
Fragrantica gives these featured accords: Top: Galbanum, opoponax Heart: Narcissus, jasmine Base: Oakmoss, sandalwood, patchouli, woody notes
Phwoar!! Just recently I was lucky enough to grab an old bottle of Le Temps d’Une Fête and the difference in opening sequence is astounding. Here I find immediate and awesome ZWOOOSH of narcissus, like you’ve crushed a flower in your hand with back ups by the resins creating a feeling of leaf pulp too, maybe even a bit of bulb. I also get a fruity, fun and waxy vibe floating through. More intense and deeper than my current edition, which I like very much BTW but they are like two similar sisters. If you were to meet them solo they would look alike but to see them together there are a bunch of differences. Patricia de Nicolai has made this very spare note list work super hard and Le Temps d’Une Fête is a full bodied sensual diva of a fragrance, in both old and new forms but now I completely understand where The Muse In Wooden Shoes is devastated at the changes.
Someone on Fragrantica describes Le Temps d’Une Fête as having “pollen like skankiness” and I think that sums the earlier hour or so but as it starts to head into its late heart/early dry down that skankiness becomes the clearest ringing bell of narcissus, so lovely and so innocent smelling. Like a young person on the verge of discovery, restrained, pretty, sweet even but underneath beats a heart just learning its power.
The base reads warm, soft and buttery for me. It may be the summer heat that gives it that feeling. What I do get through the whole life of Le Temps d’Une Fête is a shine, luminescence, radiance, a feeling that something wonderful could happen while wearing it. Time for a Party? Yes indeed!
I get around 4-5 hours from Le Temps d’Une Fête, though the last hour is not really fragrance but a hint that I smelled quite good earlier. First two hours had good projection and sillage before in moved to a quieter register and began the fade. Where would I wear Le Temps d’Une Fête? Date night, as a pick me up, reading, shopping, cleaning. Anything that could be enhanced by smelling beyond incredible is a good time for a sneaky spritz.
My mate Birgit (Olfactoria’s Travels) sometimes has amazing clearances from her Frag Wardrobe and last year I snaffled this little beauty from her. I think she grabbed the Limited edition bottle and knew two was more than she’d ever use. COOL! I have often nearly bought 24 Faubourg but there seemed to be something more pressing at each near buy and it was deferred, now it’s mine (Cue evil laugh and gratuitous hand wringing Mwa HA haaaaa HAAAAAAAaaaa)
Fragrantica gives these featured accords: Top: Orange, peach, bergamot, yalan ylang, hyacinth Heart: Black elder, iris, jasmine, gardenia, orange blossom Base: Sandalwood, amber, patchouli, vanilla
What I get in the opening is ylang, peach and sweat, like a beautifully perfumed person has gone a little bit long without a shower and they’ve added more fragrance instead of a bath. Maybe 24 Faubourg even smells like the smell of perfume on a scarf the next morning, beautiful, elegant, memorable and a little tired. It is so good, without being totally in your face, that tiny hint of bed head, that après un rapport sexuel (probably a terrible translation by google).
The berries/citrus doesn’t really appear on me till well into the heart and seems woven through the white floral accord so beautifully that it’s hard to separate anything. Currently I am sitting in 31C (88F) inside the house! The fan is doing a lovely job and 24 Faubourg is sublime. I sit in a fragrant cloud of what feels like big money, old money. There’s a dry rustle of patchouli and amber towards the end that I feel is missing some of its buttery goodness from a cool temp wearing.
In this heat I’m lucky to get two hours of fragrant wear before 24 Faubourg becomes a sheer patina of woodsy vanilla that will then stay around another two to three hours and slowly fade away to nothing.
By the time you read this I will be in frozen Europe, Paris by now and I have lunch at Guerlain, 68 Champs Elysees booked with Neela, a catch up with Denyse Beaulieu, off to do a private English class at the Osmotheque and stomp around Versailles and hopefully two full mornings in the Louvre. YAY! Sometimes I can’t believe my good fortune.
Recently there was a sale here in Sydney on the L’Artisan range, I grabbed a few for a great price. Fou d’Absinthe was a one spritz buy for me, the green on the box had already sealed its coming home to live status and I love the L’Artisan aesthetic, ease of wearability and quite like the short lifespan of most of their fragrances because it means I can wear more then one fragrance in a day and top up if my choice is to continue with the L’Artisan.
Fragrantica gives these featured accords: Top: Black currant, angelica, wormwood Heart: Ginger, patchouli, pepper, nutmeg, star anise, cloves Base: Balsam fir, incense, pine tree needles
Can I be perfectly honest, I’ve never tasted or smelled Absinthe. Never followed the green fairy and never wanted to.
On my skin the sweet green woodsy, non urinous opening is so enjoyable. By the name I was expecting a searing alcoholic rush to open like Penhaligon’s Juniper Sling or Lubin’s Gin Fizz, Olivia Giacobetti has created Fou d’Absinthe in a much more stately vein, a calmer, cooler and more elegant ride. Though you can tell the herbs and spices are there it’s all about the opening woods, black current is backing player for me but it rounds out the initial rush by sweetening but not in a modern department store sweet way but a subtle crisp sparkle over the top.
When the herbs and spices take center stage they are never free of woody undertones and I read them as a Bouquet Garni rather than their individual players. Some times I think, oh there’s pepper or that feels anise-ish but really the feeling is a blending, a composition of these accords to create a seamless whole.
Later the composition skews pine/patchouli and this is my favourite part of the ride, it’s green and crackly, slightly earthy but also dusty and here is where I get a little of the booze I expected in the opening. Not in your face but a subtle growl of alcohol like you’ve just had a shot of something and that grrrrrr you make in the back of your throat at the dry, sharp whoosh that remains.
One of the things I like about Fou d’Absinthe is my own ability to dream that I am a part of the Moulin Rouge crew in Paris at a time when magic was happening. Fou d’Absinthe takes me into the brilliant lives of the Parisian underworld towards the end of the 1800s which Baz Luhrmann so fabulously captured on film.
My personal life expectancy for Fou d’Absinthe is around 4 hours when the soft woodsy incense trails off into nothing. An absolutely unisex offering perfect for most occasions, sillage is soft and projection slow but insistent. Sit down for about a minute with your friends and they will start to notice how lovely you smell. Fou d’Absinthe is not a huge compliment getter but every now and then someone will say you smell good when you give them a hello peck or hug.
Recently I was looking at vetivers and up came a sample of a modern version of a fragrance that I had blurred memories of smelling as a kid on Jim, my Grandma’s second husband. We may even have bought it for him for a birthday or Christmas. Really blurred memory. Anyway My Perfume Samples was having a sale on it, sold out now, and I wanted to see if the modern one bore any resemblance to my poor memories.
Righto! So I spritzed about 1ml on my chest and hand. I am now sitting in a lavender fugue with lovely citrus sparkles. It doesn’t smell terribly expensive but it does smell nice and clean. It stays citric through the heart with a little earthy vetiver but by this time it is quiet and unremarkable unless you are sniffing very close. Just a very muted fragrance that is nicer than nothing, really it is quite sweet and not aggressive or in your face. I miss most of the bouquet, there’s some nondescript woods and maybe a nod to oakmoss or it may still be some vetiver, there is a vegetal green that doesn’t smell like a stand out note but is there.
If you respritz over your initial ones at the 2 hour mark it’s extraordinary how much fuller and more lavish the whole fragrance becomes. Now I get a definite vetiver and the woods are differentiated though I still couldn’t tell if they were cedar or sandalwood but they are woodsier.
Vetiver Carven smells nothing like what I remember Jim wearing, this is a soft scent, a hint, and would be an excellent choice for someone on a budget who may be working in very close quarters, needs something barely there for after the gym or wants to keep a fragrance in their bag that can give them a quick pick me up. Unless the people around you really know their stuff this is not decidedly different from many WAY more expensive options that could cost up to 20 times more. I won’t name names but you know some of the ones I’m talking about….
Australian Perfume Junkies 