M’Eau Joe No.3 Hollywood Whiskey by Kedra Hart for Opus Oils 2013

January 10, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 6 Comments

Hey Hey Happy Huffers,

Last year while in LA for the Perfume Posse ScentSation Bus Tour our last fragrant stop of the day was Opus oils. Kedra Hart was there and boy is she a knockout. We sniffed and laughed, it was fun, we shopped and then we finished the day on the bus. I bought a bottle of Isis and today’s frag…

M’Eau Joe No.3 Hollywood Whiskey by Kedra Hart for Opus Oils 2013

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Limnophila aromatica, whiskey, saffron, cognac, rice flower
Heart: Tobacco, honey, rose, violet, dark chocolate
Base: Amber, vanilla, tobacco, musk, moss, woody notes

The opening is FIERCE!! Do NOT put your nose near wet fragrance unless you want it completely burned out.

Once the initial screech has flown M’Eau Joe is extremely unusual. Sweet and green, a little nasty and very boozy. There is a something that feels awkward and it is hard to decide if I’m smelling gorgeous or disgusting. You know when you haven’t drunk alcohol for a while and then someone gives you a drink, or you buy one, and that first sip is both repellant and mother’s milk. I find it especially with white spirits. By the end of the first glass though it is delicious and you want more, right? So goes M’Eau Joe No.3 Hollywood Whiskey, I think it may be the Limnophila aromatica which is a plant from Asia used widely in Vietnamese, Cambodian and Thai dishes with a green/sweet scent reminiscent of lemon and cumin that gives this incredibly unusual and most interesting hue to the other accords.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

Sweet, honeyed tobacco and booze, the amber is very soft in the dry down on me and it’s mainly about the vanilla, tobacco and booze right to the end, around 5-6 hours tops. I adore M’Eau Joe No.3 Hollywood Whiskey and I wish that I found it more wearable on a daily basis. When I do grab it and spritz I get a splendid, thought provoking, good freaky fragrant ride. Nothing I own smells like it, sadly that is also its downfall. I must be TOTALLY in the mood for a journey, need to have the time and space to follow the story and be wowed by the development, time to really take note. Those times are few and far between lately and M’Eau Joe has been sitting in the frag cupboard for too long. I will make a concerted effort to give it more skin time this week…..

Photo Stolen FotoPedia

Further reading: Perfume Posse and EauMG
Opus Oils has a huge range of ways to buy <<<JUMP
Surrender To Chance start at $6/ml

Are you a whisky or tobacco in fragrance fan? What are your favourites?
Portia x

Lolita Lempicka EdP by Annick Menardo for Lolita Lempicka 1997

January 9, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 21 Comments

Hello Fabulous Fumies,

This is a fragrance I have long loved, every now and then I would spritz it in the department stores and never purchased it but often looked at it for a purchase but would be tempted away by something else, something newer or more towards the top of my list. I haven’t even owned a decant, and nowadays it’s extremely affordable at the discounters. Weird. The bottle is great with its fun pumper and I love the lilac so I bought a bottle for my BFF Kath a while back and today I’m stealing it off her to write a review.

Lolita Lempicka EdP by Annick Menardo for Lolita Lempicka 1997

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Anise, violet, green ivy
Heart: Licorice, almond, orris, iris, cherry, amaryllis, heliotrope
Base: Tonka, vanilla, white musk, vetiver, praline

What everyone else says about Lolita Lempicka EdP is not the way I smell it. It opens sweet sugar and almond, with a fizzy drink like Fanta bubbling over it. It’s fun, frivolous and totally fabulous. I don’t get any ivy or violet at all and cool rooty or even carroty iris seems nowhere to be found., not as I know it anyway. I do get the praline, vanilla and some resins through the heart and base though which offers some sweet depths, some heft that plays counterpoint with the lovely PEZ like fizz of the higher notes. I don’t really get a great change through Lolita Lempicka EdP but it gradually slides into the base without losing anything, just changing scent volumes. I think I need to spend some more time with Lolita Lempicka EdP, I’m sure it has some secrets hidden that only repeated wearings will unravel.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

I am no great fan of Angel but I am a fan of Lolita Lempicka EdP, it is a calmer, prettier and less strident good time, there is still the candy floss vibe but without the headache inducing size. Yes they have both become cliches but I think that Lolita Lempicka EdP is still an extremely viable fragrance choice. I get excellent projection and sillage, scent life is really good at over 5 hours before it has faded to a sweet nothing.

Further reading: Bois de Jasmin and Now Smell This
Fragrance Shop has $22/50ml
My Perfume Samples starts at $2/ml

Have you spent any time in Lolita Lempicka EdP? Great fragrance, I’ve had such fun wearing it the last few days.
Portia xx

Peety by O’Driu GIVEAWAY WINNERS

January 6, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 4 Comments

Hey APJ,

What an amazing response to the Angelo Orazio Pregon Interview and Peety Giveaway! I counted 55 individual entries (plus 4 extras for tweets). 35 APJs voted to personalize (of that number 18 favored “divide and pee” – thank you for that one Sally M). 19 did not want pee in their perfume (of this number two were somewhat unsure) and 1 entry avoided making any decision whatsoever. Clearly, the Pees have it! Thanks to everyone for their participation and for their interesting and thought provoking comments.

Congratulations to the winners and don’t forget to send Portia your addresses so that O’Driù can send you your prizes!

Once again, Happy New Year to All!

Azar xx

Angelo Orazio Pregon Interview: Peety by O’Driu

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Tobacco, jasmine, rose, sandalwood, tonka bean and pink pepper

Peety is available from the O’Driu site €150/49ml

Surrender To Chance starts at $6/.5ml

Peety by O’Driu GIVEAWAY WINNERS

WHAT COULD YOU WIN?

This week we will have FIVE winners:

2 MAIN WINNERS who will each receive:
1 x 49ml Peety™ bottle
P&H Anywhere in the world

3 RUNNER UPS who will each receive:
1 x Peety™ Sample Kits
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 us would you personalise the product or not and why.

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Sunday 5th January 2014 10pm Australian EST

The winners of this smelly draw needed to be chosen in an equally smelly way. Once again I enlisted the aid of the long suffering B-Azar. This time he reached his hand down into a stinky boot that had been loaded with the names of the participants. To make the experience less difficult for him I placed a fragrant orchid, a Zygopetalum hybrid, nearby to modify the scent of the odoriferous boot.

Photo Stolen brooklodge

For the 49 ml bottles of Peety

Patty Pong and Nymphomaniac

For the sample sets

Cookie queen, Lubka K and Carolyn

The winners will have till Wednesday 5th January 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.

Japanese Rose by Korres

January 5, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 7 Comments

Hi There Crew,

A couple of years ago now one of my besties bought me a Korres set with Body Milk and Shower Gel. It was completely serendipitous because I had run low on my shower gel at the time and didn’t have a lick of moisturiser in the house anywhere. What did I do? I used it, used it all up in record time and have always got extra on hand in case, I have also gifted this duo to a bunch of my mates, yes it’s that good….

Japanese Rose by Korres

Absolutely expecting it to be a LUSH style scent, bold, big, in your face and take no prisoners I was pleasantly surprised by the quiet grandeur yet tenacious staying power of the fragrance. Roses, roses and more roses, though I don’t get the Japanese connection. Are their Japanese roses known especially for being a spicy, boozy, citrus smelling variety? Apparently they grow in sand dunes near the seaside and have very interesting bark effects so the plant is beautiful when leafed and bare. It’s fun and refreshing in the shower and the lotion makes a fabulous base for any rose fragrance and I also use it for my ambers, it adds a glow that emphasises rose notes but also creates lovely new variants on perfumes without rose. I also find it an extra good fragrance life extender.

Loads of people work in fragrance free environments, Japanese Rose is good because it leaves you softly and subtly fragrant all by itself. After work you can add a spritz of your favourite frag and it will smell gorgeous over the top. Win Win! Today I’m wearing Guerlain’s Shalimar over the top and it gives a whole new rosy sheen to my favourite grand dame of a perfume.

Photos Stolen Bath & Unwind

Nowadays I grab mine from Bath & Unwind where you can get both Shower Gel and Body Milk for under $40 delivered anywhere in the world. So not only lovely and lavish but a cheap thrill too.
Till tomorrow,
Portia xx

CHANEL: Coco Mademoiselle: Mini Movie + Making of

January 4, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 4 Comments

Heya.

We are cleaning the Perfume Room and giving it a new paint job. Also I am culling my collection, it’s so freaking painful I can’t write, sorry. It’s quite a BIG DEAL so over the next couple of days I am dropping in some Video stuff that I’ve found interesting, educational or took me outside my box. Some of it is ONE TOPIC but some will also be TOTALLY OFF TOPIC!

CHANEL: Coco Mademoiselle: Mini Movie + Making of

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Kiera Knightly, CHANEL, beige catsuit, motorbike and a super dooper budget shot in what looks to me like Paris. YES PLEASE!!

Enjoy!
Portia xx

Coco Mademoiselle: Behind The Scenes – CHANEL

Coco Mademoiselle: The Film – CHANEL

Vulnerability: Brené Brown at TEDxHouston

January 3, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 12 Comments

Hello lovely fragrant people,

We are cleaning the Perfume Room and giving it a new paint job. It’s quite a BIG DEAL so over the next couple of days I am dropping in some Video stuff that I’ve found interesting, educational or took me outside my box. Some of it is ONE TOPIC but some will also be TOTALLY OFF TOPIC!

Photo Stiolen TEDxHouston

Vulnerability: Brené Brown at TEDxHouston

Today I am introducing you to someone who changed the way I think about how I live my life. You may know I have had some low level depression over the years, nothing dramatic, just a buzz of blue flying low for a while that would disappear as it had come. Part of what my problems were was exactly what Brené Brown talks about here. Opening myself up to being vulnerable. Now Brené Brown wasn’t the first person to give me this blueprint for a happier life, though she does put it better and more amusingly than others, but as I was already beginning the road to change when I heard her speak the resonance was incredible. Give this smart, funny, insightful person a few minutes of your time and she may help you change outmoded behaviour patterns that you are using, or maybe just because it’s a very entertaining watch.

From Wikipedia
TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, under the slogan “ideas worth spreading”.
TED was founded in 1984 as a one-off event. The annual conference began in 1990, in Monterey, California. TED’s early emphasis was technology and design, consistent with its origins in the Silicon Valley.

TED Site <<<JUMP for anyone inspired, anywhere in the world, who would like to go and be a part of these amazing talks.

Please enjoy the amazing……..

Brené Brown at TEDxHouston

La Myrrhe GIVEAWAY WINNERS

January 1, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 2 Comments

Heya APJ,

Val the Cookie Queen tells me that the winners of the La Myrrhe giveaway are

Devon H

Carolyn

CONGRATULATIONS!!!! The winners have till Saturday 4th January 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.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 APJ

December 31, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 51 Comments

Bittersweet Hellos Fellow Fumies,

The year is ending. Another chapter closed and no matter how good or bad 2013 was we can never go back there again. We have had a fantastic fun year at APJ with nearly 20 regular contributors and some very exciting extras. Thank you all for coming and reading, commenting, chatting, bringing us into your daily routine or contributing, you have all helped make Australian Perfume Junkies something I am extremely proud of. A team effort.

There will be some changing and rearranging through 2014, a little facelift, more reviews, more life and even more fabulous giveaways and competitions.

I, Portia, am grateful that you are part of this little family. You all make my day, every day, with this magic space we have created….

Photo Stolen Jian Awe Flickr

Please have a Happy and Safe New Years Celebration. Waft into 2014 ready for success, health, wealth and happiness. It may not happen but if you are ready then it will be more fun.

Many of us are less than happy at this time. Take the time in 2014 to help yourself heal. Our warmest and most heartfelt hug to you all. It won’t always be this bad but it may not get better soon, push through and forward. Stick around, if nothing else our rampant ramblings here at APJ may give you a smile now and then.

I have been cleaning out the Perfume Room, there will be a huge cull soon and a Sale list. Here is a snap of most of the collection, there are 4 boxes that didn’t fit on the table. I am bragging but also heartily ashamed of my gluttony. It will slow in 2014……… Maybe…….

So farewell 2013 and WELCOME 2014.

Photo Stolen DeselmsTeam

The incredible story of how leopard Diabolo became Spirit: Doco

December 30, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 13 Comments

Hey APJ,

Photo Stolen WikiMedia

Today we are going way off topic to animal communication and interaction with humans. This is a 13 minute story of Diablo the black panther and his life change to Spirit. There is a certain amount of Woo Woo and other stuff I’m not 100% on board with but the results speak volumes, and that’s enough for me.

Enjoy

The incredible story of how leopard Diabolo became Spirit

Smell Bent Holiday Limited Editions 2013/4

December 30, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 4 Comments

Hey Niche Nerds and Indie Lovers,

Every year Brent Leonesio from Smell Bent and his crew create a madcap/wonderful range of seasonal scent specialties, this year has been no different and I ordered myself a set of the 4ml EdTs this year to see what the buzz would be about. I have reviewed my favourite 3 from the 5 piece set today, they are the most Pop-Out-And-Surprise for me. They are available for purchase till February 2014 but don’t wait, they are awesome…

Smell Bent Holiday Limited Editions 2013/4

Gimme A Break

Smell Bent gives these featured accords:
Silky patchouli, smokey wood, sheer jasmine and sultry musk drenched in sticky honeycomb

My skin amps the musks in Gimme A Break and it smells like a hookers Christmas panties, tenacity is extreme. I spritzed it last night at around 10pm and have had 2 swims since then yet still I can smell dirty patchouli, jasmine and musks. I think it doesn’t smell as intended on me, but maybe it does. Naughty!! It is excellent under other fragrances too to reinvigorate a thinner reformulation, my Mitsouko modern smells positively vintage with it.

Pere Noël Coward

Smell Bent gives these featured accords:
Sweet immortelle, atlas cedar, jasmine, fir balsam and pinon sap

Dry, dusty, woodpile with the teeniest hint of syrup and a nod to the sauna. Pere Noël Coward is intensely woody and I feel like a lumberjack when I wear it. Oddly disconcerting but fun, wearing this is like playing dress ups. Brent has a way of making the most deliciously nuanced and interesting fragrant rides. I am not a person for whom the season normally matters for frag wearing but I am going to save my Pere Noël Coward for Europe in Jan/Feb where I think it will be perfection, right now it’s opening is almost a caricature. I get around the 5-7 hour mark in summer here.

Snobirds

Smell Bent gives these featured accords:
Orange flower, aged amber, candied resins and dark patchouli spiced with cardamom and golden ginger

Snobirds is my favourite of the 2013/4 Holiday set. Gourmand, spicy, amber with cake-ish depths and glace fruit heights. You want to smell delicious, edible and sexy? This is your friend. Bakery with a sensual backbeat, I received my set about 3 weeks ago and Snobirds has seen more wear than the others put together. YUMMY McYUMMY!

Smell Bent has the 5 in a 4ml each Travel Set for only $28,
add their current Frankinsmellie as an extra and it only comes to $33 (that is what I grabbed)

Wishing you a wonderful, joyful, peaceful and profitable 2014, filled with good health, great friends and some of whatever it is that you like.
Portia xx