WOW! Super excellent response this week, you guys must all really want to pee in your perfume!! You will have to wait till January for me to grab some and have a go. I hope you enjoyed the fun of this one and of course we have another giveaway running right now, go check the L’Occitane Full Bottle L’Occitane La Collection de Grasse 2013 GIVEAWAY
Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Tobacco, jasmine, rose, sandalwood, tonka bean and pink pepper
WHAT COULD YOU WIN?
This week there will be 2 winners who will each receice
2 x .8 ml vintage carded sample of KL EDT
1 x 2ml decant of vintage Opium EDT
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.
To be eligible for the draw just mention how you follow APJ and if you make any attempt to solve this problem or comment on your favorite oriental fragrance or voice you opinion about perfume marketing you will be included in the draw.
HOUSEKEEPING
Entries Closed Thursday 14th November 2013 10pm Australian EDST
Once again the names were pulled from a hat by B-Azar.
Photo Stolen berryreview
Jaybee, FeralJasmine
CONGRATULATIONS!!! The winners will have till Tuesdayday 19th November 2013 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.
You may remember recently we did a L’Occitane Divine Cream Review and Challenge, you can watch the progression in L’Occitane Divine Cream Challenge Week 1 and L’Occitane Divine Cream Challenge Week 2 where we challenged you all to grab a sample and see how it left your skin in 2 weeks. At the time L’Occitane also sent me a set of four of their La Collection de Grasse fragrances to try and if I wanted to APJ could review them. Well, I WANT TO! These fragrances are beautiful, wearable, spritz and go winners. Let’s meet them:
Pictured above is the L’Occitane 7.5ml La Collection de Grasse Miniatures Christmas pack, an excellent choice and currently only $35 on the L’Occitane Australia Site
Jasmine & Bergamote by Karine Dubreuil 2013
Fragrantica gives these featuired accords: Top: Bergamot, pettigrain, mandarin Heart: Egyptian Jasmine, jasmine Base: Sandalwood, cedar
This opens with sheer, watery citrus and the jasmine already floating below, like fresh water from the tap and cut sappy flower stems. Pretty, fresh, light and wearable Jasmine & Bergamote was grabbed by my assistant Katie and getting it back, nearly one third used already, was quite a chore. Jasmine & Bergamote is way too simple for my tastes but Katie can’t stop raving about how much she loves it. It smells wonderful on her and I can see why she likes it, the clean brightness that washes over everything is like a spring sunlit early evening warm but turning cool. Katie has bagsed the bottle, could I give a better recommendation?
Magnolia & Mure by Karine Dubreuil 2013
Fragrantica gives these featured accords: Top: Bergamot, blackberry Heart: Magnolia, rose Base: Patchouli
Here we have a very interesting blackberry opening that is full on and in your face, a tart reminder of Enchanted Forest but a gentler, less intimidating version that is extremely modern and sheer but with a great sillage a scent bubble. Noticeable without being intrusive Magnolia & Mure is a true perfume of the teen years of the 21st century and if you want to smell in tune with the times I think it an excellent choice, a fruit-chouli that I enjoy!! Very hard to believe. The heart and dry down are surprisingly still filled with the sizzle of blackberry till the uber clean patchouli quietly fades to nothing. I can imagine Magnolia & Mure being a good gateway fragrance too for the young ready to step away from celebuscents and into the world of fine fragrance.
The Vert & Bigarade by Karine Dubreuil 2013
Fragrantica gives these featured accords: Top: Bitter orange, green tea Heart: Mate, thyme Base: Musk, cedar, hay
The citrus and tea opening is tart, fresh, sparkling and very Eau de Cologne-ish. So delightful and very wearable, I can imagine this becoming a simple, no nonsense go-to fragrance for anyone who wants to smell fresh, vibrant and relaxed. The green continues into the heart and only warms through slightly in the dry down into a soft, clean, woodsy musk. The Vert & Bigarade is not a hugely groundbreaking fragrance but it is a good bet for someone taking their first steps outside the regular department store fare that wants to smell good and not have to worry. Excellent work choice and I think a LOT of gym bags will be sporting The Vert & Bigarade after the gift giving season.
Vanille & Narcisse by Karine Dubreuil 2013
Fragrantica gives these featured accords: Top: Black current, bergamot Heart: Gardenia, narcissus Base: Tonka bean, vanilla
This is the fragrance that sent me looking for the L’Occitane people in the first place. I can’t believe it’s not 10 x the price in a very chi chi niche perfume line. This has all the interest and elegance of a much more expensive fragrance with a very soft black current and citrus open that is sweet but not that modern hyper-sweet, diabetic with one spritz and the black current showing none of its urinous tendencies. I think the open is tamed by the flowers in the heart and cake sweet rather than lolly sweet vanilla base, Vanille & Narcisse could easily be a Guerlain Aqua Allegoria, CHANEL Exclusive or a DIOR Couturier, it could even be a Patricia de Nicolai.
L’Occitane La Collection de Grasse GIVEAWAY
WHAT CAN YOU WIN?
This week there will be 2 winners who will receive one used for review purposes only bottle of L’Occitane La Collection de Grasse (NO you don’t get to chose)
1 winner will receive:
Magnolia & Mure EdT 75ml
P&H Anywhere in the world
1 winner will receive:
The Vert & Bigarade EdT 75ml
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.
To be eligible for the draw just mention how you follow the APJs and tell us any L’Occitane product that you’ve used or like the sound of
Entries Close Sunday 17th November 2013 10pm Australian EDST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org
The winners will have till Thursday 21st November 2013 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.
Interview with Karine Dubreuil, Perfumer for L’Occitane En Provence.
Teo Cabanel sent me a link to this fun mini movie showing part of the Teo Cabanel experience. It’s fun and the girl is definitely an aspirational choice, I’d give my left nut to look so pretty.
Barkhane by Jean-Francois Latty for Teo Cabanel 2013
I’m so happy you all got involved in this fabulous giveaway. I know you are all going to adore these frags from A Wing & A Prayer, do rock over and check the Etsy site out if you get a moment and don’t forget the super great 3 x 7.5ml sample spritz deal, it’s hard to believe such good value.
Photo of the New A Wing & A Prayer bottles
A Wing & A Prayer has an ETSY Store<<<JUMP. The 1oz is selling for $75.00 and the 2oz is selling for $150.00, both are in the etched bottle. I love the $10 3 x 7.5ml Sample Set, it’s a great way to try 3 of the fragrances at a time.
HOLLY, wOUD & VINE GIVEAWAY WINNERS
WHAT COULD YOU WIN?
This week there will be 3 winners
1 winner will receive:
1 x 7.5ml A Wing & A Prayer mini of either Kismet or HOLLY, wOUD & VINE, you get to chose!
P&H Anywhere in the world
2 winners will receive:
1 x 1ml decant from my own test mini
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.
To be eligible for the draw just mention how you follow the APJs and tell us any green perfume that you like
Extra Chances?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie HOLLY, wOUD & VINE: A Wing & A Prayer GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p3PURw-29a #Perfume @janetheperfumer
HOUSEKEEPING
Entries Closed Sunday 10th November 2013 10pm Australian EDSTt.
Winners will be chosen by random.org
Photo Stolen shannonmayer
#1 7.5ml Kismet or HOLLY, wOUD & VINE, you choose
Lyubov
#2 1ml HOLLY, wOUD & VINE decant
BreathesGelatin (from Twitter), Hotlanta Linda
The winners will have till Thursday 14th November 2013 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.
While I was in LA during May 2013 for the ScentSation bus tour my buddy Tom Pease, who was the most wonderful guide and friend you can imagine, took me up into Roxana’s 1950s ranch style home in Woodland Hills, tucked away in the Santa Monica mountains outside LA, that she shares with her artist husband Greg Spalenka. It’s a fabulous community that grew up around the idea that near the madness of LA there could be a corner for artisans, like a hippy commune but that is way too simplistic. It was near the beach and away from the excruciatingly high LA prices so a gentler, more romantic and artistic lifestyle was born. There are still pockets of the lifestyle remaining but in reality the area has become an outside suburb of LA.
Roxana and Greg are throwbacks to a simpler time and their home is a very comfortable and inviting place full of both their art where Tom and I were introduced to Matte which is a green tea drink, art, fragrance, bees and joy in living. Can I also tell you that this portrait, while looking a bit like Roxana, does not do her beauty any justice, it has captured the outline but completely bypassed the gorgeous elegance and friendliness that is Roxana.
Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Amber Accord, Jasmine, Rose, Spice and Mandarin
One of the things I have to tell you straight away is that if you have only ever worn department store or designer perfume then Roxana Illuminated Perfumes are going to be a complete revelation. No mass production fragrance can ever match the nuanced, natural depths and heights of a handmade, independent fragrance creation. Though both are beautiful and both have their pros & cons there is something of the magical re-engagement with the earth and our place within it that happens when I put on a Roxana Illuminated Perfume. It’s like being hardwired to the energy around me, showing me that I’m part of the infinite bigger picture.
How does Aurora wear on me? The opening is warm, sweet, balsamic and spicy, the pictures in my head are honeyed outback Australia, floral, scrubby, red earth, sap from trees, leaves, humus, animals fur, the moment between day and dusk, the warmth of the happy memory of love, the bittersweet of absolute freedom, the joy of achievement, the eternal story and intertwining of a life well lived. All these emotion pictures have fleeted across my inner eye as I sit at my desk sniffing and typing.
The initial blast has burned down and I am left with the beginnings of a sensual, sweet floriental. The flowers are overlaid with an earthy melange that reminds me of freshly turned, healthy humus and walking through pine needles on the way to the beach, there is a salty breeze blowing through that and then all of a sudden at about the 1.5-2hour mark Aurora becomes a soft silky alluring fragrance that stays around as a sweet murmur for another hour or so, sometimes when I wear Aurora it is still smellable next morning as a wash of peaty resins. Quite a good scent life for a natural, which are notoriously short lived especially on my scent hungry skin.
Mona di Orio has long been in my adore list, her strikingly stark and beautiful face, fragrances that can make me tear up because they are so beautiful and tragic death all mark her house with a patina of magic. Just recently my friend Birgit from Olfactoria’s Travels was having a bit of a clear-out and I snaffled this much coveted and super elegant bottle from her.
Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Neroli, angelica, rose, heliotrope, tonka bean, musks
With the sad fact that I am repeating myself firmly in mind: These bottle are FREAKING gorgeous. They feel good in your hand and spritz a good amount of fragrance, the whole feeling is luxe and elegant, feels reminiscent of Hollywood glamour but looks bang up to date. Anyone who tells you packaging and presentation mean nothing has never held a Mona di Orio bottle, they exalt the experience.
One of the things I love about Musc is that some of the musks are completely beyond my ability to smell so there are times when I get musk and times when it is a soft floral. So powdery and ethereal one minute and then sheer but hefty and slightly worn the next. This is a friendly, fluffy and sweet biker. Maybe a prim but tough girl/woman, or maybe cuddly and playful but with teeth and claws that come out when needed (See below picture)
Musc is all these things, and none of course, when I wear it I feel powerful, plush and pampered. Comfortable and wearable at any time, like a big wooly cashmere rug that is both warmth and solace.
The nearest feeling I can give you is when the crew go out for Chinese at our favourite restaurant, the time when we are sitting at the bar having a drink, enjoying the atmosphere and catching up while we wait for the stragglers to arrive. There is happiness and smiles, kisses and hugs, laughter and anticipation of a great meal. We know the food and service will be excellent and that someone (usually Jin lately) will tell a story that has us laughing till our sides hurt. My friends are all wonderful, generous, warm and fun business people who are clever and successful in their diverse fields, I am proud to be part of our gang and each one is very special to me. Sometimes in their work worlds they have to be tough to get the job done and none of us get a lot of down time. Musc is the warmth and linking of like minds having a good time, and the friendly, hopeful buzz of anticipation.
Musc has great longevity too, I’ll think it’s gone at about 5 hours but later I will get a sensual but clean-ish waft. If I wear Musc at night and put a couple of extra spritzes on then next morning it is beautiful and a little me-funky added in makes it sexy too.
Are you an MdO fan? are there any in the line that you have, or wish to have? Have you held one of the bottles? please, this is meant to be a conversation and I love to read your thoughts<
Till tomorrow,
Portia xx
My friend Jane Cate from A Wing & A Prayer perfumes has sent me her two latest fragrances. They came in a glittering and sparkly blue post pack and when I opened the post pack up I could smell the most incredible, beguiling and glorious green scent. There was a perfume inside the pack so eager for me to smell it the second I opened the bag that some of it had got loose and was wafting its crackling crispness at me.
The scent was created for A Wing & A Prayer’s 5th anniversary of the perfume shop on Etsy. The launch date was Nov. 5th! That’s right folks, you read it here FIRST!
The crisp crackle of tomato leaves softened by citrus and flowers opens HOLLY, wOUD & VINE, it’s fun and green and ever so slightly waxy. There is even something of the dusting powder that my Mum used to put on the tomato plants. I am taken back to the earliest gardening days with my Mum and I in the garden, it’s absolutely uncanny how real it all seems, she is showing me how to prick the suckers out of the elbows of the tomato plants because too many branches means less tomatoes. I’m trying to tell her that it doesn’t make sense because more branches will mean more tomatoes but I am overuled and we get a bumper harvest that year, tomatoes in everything.
The tomato leaf stays quite well into the heart of HOLLY, wOUD & VINE but slowly the jasmine and galbanum take centre stage, it’s still fresh and crisp but now we get a sweeter green with a hint of skank. The green stays beautiful and fresh through the whole life of HOLLY, wOUD & VINE until the very last gasps at just under 3 hours where the oud dirties it up and makes HOLLY, wOUD & VINE a very naughty fragrance indeed. FABULOUS!!
Photo of the New A Wing & A Prayer bottles
The new bottles were created especially for A Wing & A Prayer by Michael Smith , who is the designer & owner of http://www.daydreemdesigns.etsy.com/ and they come in 2oz and 1oz etched bottles with the A Wing & A Prayer logo on both sides. The fragrance also still comes in the “regular” bottle with the label. Holly, wOUD & Vine is the first fragrance to be offered in the new bottle and slowly all stock will be in them, very exciting developments.
Photo of the New A Wing & A Prayer bottles
A Wing & A Prayer has an ETSY Store<<<JUMP. The 1oz is selling for $75.00 and the 2oz is selling for $150.00, both are in the etched bottle. I love the $10 3 x 7.5ml Sample Set, it’s a great way to try 3 of the fragrances at a time.
Photo stolen Kesha&Co
HOLLY, wOUD & VINE GIVEAWAY
WHAT CAN YOU WIN?
This week there will be 3 winners
1 winner will receive:
1 x 7.5ml A Wing & A Prayer mini of either Kismet or HOLLY, wOUD & VINE, you get to chose!
P&H Anywhere in the world
2 winners will receive:
1 x 1ml decant from my own test mini
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.
To be eligible for the draw just mention how you follow the APJs and tell us any green perfume that you like
Extra Chances?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie HOLLY, wOUD & VINE: A Wing & A Prayer GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p3PURw-29a #Perfume @janetheperfumer
HOUSEKEEPING
Entries Close Sunday 10th November 2013 10pm Australian EDST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org
The winners will have till Thursday 14th November 2013 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.
I knew when Michael gave me the vial of Puredistance Black that this was going to be a ripper competition and that a lot of you would jump on board. Thanks crew, we love your enthusiasm and are so glad that we are able to make some frag dreams come true for you.
If you’d like to purchase Black Puredistance has samples for sale already LuckyScent has pre-order for December shipment
WHAT COULD YOU WIN?
This week’s winner will receive
1 x 2ml Manufacturers Spray Sample of Black by Puredistance
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.
To be eligible for the draw just mention how you follow the APJs and tell us any perfume that is black or noir that you like
Extra Chances?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie PUREDISTANCE Black GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p3PURw-2ah #Perfume #Giveaway @puredistance
Entries Closed Thursday 7th November 2013 10pm Australian EDST.
Winner was chosen by random.org
Photo Stolen ganjer
MARY P
CONGRATULATIONS!!! You have till Sunday 10th November 2013 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.
One Seed is having a terrific deal at the moment. When I saw it I knew you would want to be the first to know. Offer is only available till December 1 2013.
GO FOR IT,
Portia xx
Buy your perfume travel set before December 1st, and you can choose a gift for your friend for free! (valued at up to $20)
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Photo Stolen berryreview
Photo Stolen 
Australian Perfume Junkies 