Hey Hey Fashion Mavens,
I have been rifling one of my fave Fashion Go-To-Blogs art8amby. Here is the latest from Hermès. As always, YUMMO!!
Diana Moldovan and Yumi Lambert are replacing Iselin Steiro as the new forest nymphs, sorry we mean campaign models, for Hermès. (source)
Hi to you Lovers of Fine Fragrance,
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)
Photo Stolen Hermès
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).
Photo Stolen Wikipedia
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.
Photo Stolen Wikimedia
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.
Further reading: Olfactoria’s Travels and The Perfume Magazine
You can buy 24 Faubourg online at Hermès Hermès World Site Page<<<JUMP
Surrender To Chance starts at $3/ml
Is 24 Fauberg in your collection? When do you wear it? What magical fantasies does it give you?
Portia xx
I know this is late but I love it. Hermès shoes! YES PLEASE!!!
Hello Fellow Fumies,
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.
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
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.
Photo Stolen Wikipedia
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.
Photo Stolen Playingwithbrushes’ Flickr
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.
Further reading: Perfume Smellin’ Things and The Non-Blonde
Neroli Budapest has €96/50ml
Surrender To Chance starts at $4/ml
Have you tried Fou d’Absinthe? What were your thoughts?
We hope you have a great 24 hours till we see you tomorrow,
Portia xx
Hi There Fume Friends,
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.
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Lavender, mandarin orange, clary sage, petitgrain, lemon
Heart: Carnation, sandalwood, orris root, jasmine, vetiver, cedar, bergamot
Base: Amber, musk, oakmoss, myrrh
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.
Photo Stolen WikiMedia
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….
Photo Stolen WikiMedia
Further reading: Perfume Shrine
FragranceX has $23/50ml
The Perfumed Court has the VINTAGE from $6/.5ml
Do you have olfactory memories of Grandparents? Are they as blurry as mine?
Portia x
Heya Lovelies,
This year I have not really made any resolutions as such, and it has taken me the better part of a month to formulate any kind of focus for change anyway. I came across a piece online last week that resonated and I sent it to a few of my buddies. None of the things I read were new to me, nor are they earth shatteringly lightbulb moments. These are the things that you forget in the daily grind of life. It’s also interesting how things evolve.
My BFF Kath was so taken with the subject headings of this piece that she grabbed a photo she had taken of me in China at the Summer Palace a few years ago and overlaid the titles. Yes that’s me on the point looking back at Kath and smiling, it was an incredible holiday, Kath’s first adult overseas experience and my first glimpse of China. I have been so blessed in a multitude of ways but my friends are number one. I think these few action sentencess give a great and thought provoking way to start 2014.
Resolutions? None really
Things I would like to improve? I’d like to live leaner without so much clutter around me, also to streamline the businesses so they are less tiresome, put aside definite time to spend with Jin as he seems to be the one I skimp most time from and he deserves better, remember to breathe slowly, walk purposefully and stand straight. I hope I can spend the year feeling as relaxed, happy, hopeful and centered as I look in this photo.
As always, everyone here at APJ wishes you a life chock full of the good things and the least possible of the other stuff.
Portia xx
Hello lovely APJ Peeps,
Currently I am sitting in the Hotel Royal off Stephanplatz (The Plaza of the St. Stephen’s Cathedral) in the heart of shopping town Vienna, Austria. My traveling buddy and APJ contributor, Michael, is on his first ever trip to Europe and we are both super excited, he to see and me to re-see and bump into a bunch of frag buddies. The journey here has been so amazingly extraordinary I thought I’d share a photo essay of it.
Due to a mate of ours being able to procure us the most ridiculously cheap airfares ever we traveled most of the way to Vienna in First Class. Until now I never dreamed such a thing could happen. I am usually an economy passenger except for a time when a partner of mine worked for British Airways and I was sometimes upgraded to business because they’d oversold the plane. I though THAT was luxurious……
Here are a few pics of the journey so far. We have had a great day with Birgit & Sandra from Olfactoria’s Travels but were so busy enjoying their company that there are no photos. There will be photos of some of the other stuff soon. Sadly I left my phone on a train, all will be fine though and life will be cool.
Portia xx
Hello Fans of Floral Extravaganza,
Even some of you who hate the BWF, that is the Big White Floral, may take to todays L’Artisan Parfumeur offering. Who knows? Don’t knock it till you try it at least 20 times say I. One of the prettiest L’Artisan bottles with its additional art nouveau inspired bottle paintings on the iconic heptagon bottle that could easily be your one and only.
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Clove, pink pepper, mandarin, black pepper, cardamom, citrus
Heart: green mango, tuberose, orange blossom, ylang-ylang, rose,
Base: Broom, musks, vanilla, sandalwood, palisander, benzoin, styrax, angelica
So fragrantica.com have different pictures to their notes text so as we all think most of the notes lists are bullshit anyway I’ll just tell you what I smell on me, and I have been in the pool today so you might get s slightly skewed reading.
Well, the Nuit de Tubéreuse rush at first is completely pepper/citrus and there is a sweetness that feels fruity and modern, it has a juniper waft and I am reminded slightly of gin. Pretty, potent and fun are the words that jump into my head. To be completely honest the opening could be an expensive and well thought out celebuscent/designer offering. I digress…
Photo Stolen Jason Bache Flickr
The heart of Nuit de Tubéreuse is what makes me love this fragrance so much, the bouquet with a sharp sizzle of unripe fruit and I think this is where we see the herbal cardamom more than the opening and the angelica is a lovely counterpoint through quite a bit of Nuit de Tubéreuse, the whole is so different to anything else I own. The green sappy tuberose and the un-sensual warmth of clean orange blossom and ylang-ylang combine with the rest to create something audacious but wearable. This is not a sexy siren of a scent, there is no come hither and get funky, the flowers are very strictly controlled, cleaned and virginal. A new interpretation of an old theme, which is what L’Artisaan is so loved for, but done in a way that is accessible to everyone. Some perfumistas find Nuit de Tubéreuse tiresome and boring because it doesn’t push the limits of tuberose but I don’t think that is a necessity, there is definitely room for a softer, more languorous tuberose that doesn’t feel like a confrontation or that you need to get it to have your perfumista stripes.
Photo Stolen Carolyn Jewel Flickr
Above all I think Nuit de Tubéreuse feels clean, fresh and pampered. It is hefty for a L’Artisan and gives good projection and sillage but the lasting power is similar, at 3-5 hours depending, to most others they make. A showstopper? Yes. A devil may care naughty wink with attitude? Not so much.
During my clean out I have found more than one bottle of Nuit de Tubéreuse, I am a NAUGHTY frag addict.
Further reading: Kafkaesque and Now Smell This
Libertine Parfumerie have $188/100ml (Australia)
Parfum1 have$120/50ml
Surrender To Chance start at $5/ml
Have you tried this tricky tuberose? Do you want to?
Loads of good wishes till tomorrow, see you then,
Portia xx
Pervious L’Artisan Parfumeur APJ reviews
Amour Nocturne/Deleria/Skin on Skin
Cote d’Amour
L’Eau d’Ambre
L’Eau du Navigateur
Passage d’Enfer
Piment Brulant
Premier Figuier Extreme
Safran Troublant
Seville a l’Aube
Tea for Two
Vanille Absolument
Voleur de Roses
Hey there Sydney Crew,
My mate Julie from Aromatic essentials has organised a super evening with food, fragrance and a special guest speaker who will address the “Art of Feminine Presence”. Only $20 if you get in early and I think it will be oodles of fun. You get to learn a little bit about designing a natural perfume filled with good intention and love. There is the talk and you get to hang with a bunch of fun people who love scent. Cool!
Hello my lovelies,
One of my favourite Niche/Indie houses Mona do Orio was busy in 2013 bringing out two fragrances. This was the first offering and I wanted to give a bit of space between the lovely reviews for launch and a look at it after some time, giving the dust a moment to settle. I have here a 10ml decant about 1/4 used. Whenever I reach for it I think that I will want to wear it every day but then, of course, pick up something else tomorrow. When I wear it often the thought “Dessert Island Top Ten” passes through my brain. Would it be? Hopefully I’ll never have to choose.
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica Gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, clementine, petitgrain
Heart: Geranium, java vetiver oil, bay leaf, pink pepper
Base: Cedar, musk, labdanum
BZZZZZZZ! The citrus opening is loads of fun but kept from being a zingy space cadet by whispers of the resins to come even in the first minute. While I sit here in a balmy Sydney summer evening I am enjoying the very unexpected opening. I have read a few reviews before writing tonight, which is not something I usually do, so my expectations were for something quite different, something more mainstream and fizzy. I couldn’t have been more wrong. This is, as I should always expect with a Mona di Orio fragrance, something quite densely layered with everything in the notes list all at once and what will happen is certain accords will get precedence on occasion.
Photo Stolen Chris Isherwood Flickr
I get zero geranium or pink pepper but the citrus, bay, musk and labdanum seem to be the stars in Eau Absolue for my skin and nose. Eau Absolue is warm, cuddly and inviting without giving any sexual vibes and almost no fleshy animal. It’s so friendly and smells like my Mum and the kitchen would smell during winter, like food seasonings, smoke, wool wash, clean skin and unconditional love. There is something waxy and lip balm-ish too. I am madly in love with the memories Eau Absolue is conjuring. What an enjoyable ride, when I normally spritz Eau Absolue I just enjoy the fragrance and don’t really stop to question the whys and wherefors, sitting here and having the time and space to let my mind wander and really enjoy this beautiful, flawless creation by Mona di Orio is a joyful experience and I think I’ve been smiling for two hours. This is the good stuff and if I wasn’t going on a perfume voyage in a moment I’d be looking up LuckyScent or Peony Melbourne and ordering.
Though Eau Absolue is not a big projector it does have good silllage and I get around 5-6 hours of fragrant wear before it dries down to a soft fuzzy powdery wash. Wearable? Anywhere. Everywhere. Dress up or down. Dawn or dusk or romantic interlude.
Further reading: The Non-Blonde and Chemist In A Bottle
LuckyScent has $230/100ml
Surrender To Chance samples start at $7/ml
I think this could be my everyday wear frag. Eau Absolute is comfortable like so many of the Mona di Orios and so fabulously unusual too. Is there one of these for you that you still don’t have a Full Bottle of? Why?
My answer is that I will never get through 100ml of it. 100ml is a LOT of fragrance for a perfumista but if I see someone selling their 50mls left, reasonably priced, on a list I will jump all over it.
I hope your day is happy and bright,
Portia x
Hi Hi Hi,
I know, I know, I know! I’m late to the party, this has finished its scheduled sale. Yes, I know. Here’s the thing though, I have been so inundated by fragrance that this and another 2013 release Cuir 28 have been lying idle in their pack awaiting moderation. I remember this being slated for its incredible cost $440/100ml and that it didn’t last at all well, nor was its development interesting enough to warrant such outrageous pricing. OK, so I will try it and see how it goes…
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Lime, bergamot, jasmine, petitgrain, cloves, vetiver, tonka bean, musk
Soapy, that’s what I smell. It’s like a soap we had here in Australia when I was growing up called Palmolive Gold. The tagline “Don’t wait to be told, you need Palmolive Gold” was a schoolyard maxim that would be sung to anyone showing the least sign of body odour.
Here the fresh lemony/citrus smell is tempered by jasmine, actually after the first 10 minutes jasmine become the main focus on my skin. A very clean, pretty jasmine with still a zesty citrus wash over it. I think musk is around too, though I can’t smell it exactly it feels like its there just out of my olfactory reach. All the other accords are not in evidence at the one hour mark to me, but my nose is notoriously wonky.
This morning I awoke to a very soft scent that was still humming around, a musky vanilla citrus. It was easily discernible while lying on my hand in the moments of half asleep and half awake but when I got up and walked to the kitchen to make a cuppa I lost most of it and was left with something not quite fragrant.
Photo Stolen DeviantArt
I am sorry to agree with the majority in this instance, for the kind of dollars Le Labo were asking I want much more, I want it to sing and tap dance across the air from skin to nostril, I want fireworks and magic tricks. Don’t get me wrong, if you are filthy rich then this will be a perfectly good fragrance for you and I hope you enjoy it and your lovely life of luxury. On the other hand, if you are like me, that $440 could be spent on two or even four much more worthy bottles. For my money that’s a bottle of Ashoka by Neela Vermeire Creations and a export bottle of Serge Lutens Tubereuse Criminelle.
Further reading: The Perfume Shrine and Now Smell This
Surrender To Chance samples start at $6/.5ml
Did you try Limette 37? Was it worth the hype for you? Did you wish for a spare $440?
Portia xx
