Louis Vuitton: “Up On High Heels” Mini movie

August 1, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 6 Comments

Hello Hot Steppers,

I don’t know about you but shoes are something I adore. I have a 10 pair of male and 10 pair of female shoes rule because my collection was excessive and I had to downsize it, do you see a theme running through my life? Anyway, now it’s one in and one out, unless I have a breakage or disaster. So this fun mini movie with shoes, design, art and dance was right up my alley.

So I hope this entertains you while we wait and wait and wait for the Louis Vuitton fragrance…………. STILL WAITING…………

Photo Stolen StyleFrizz

LV Spiel: Louis Vuitton invites you to dance and take a leap in time, moving from more recent collections of shoes to past designs that have marked the House’s fashion history. See the story at http://vuitton.lv/Kn9Xiz

Enjoy,
Portia xxx

Louis Vuitton presents Up High On Heels

Powder Flowers by Montale

July 31, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 14 Comments

Hey there FUMIES,

A few months ago I grabbed a bunch of the Montale fragrance samples, I tried a few of them but didn’t get to the rest, here’s one that I should have tried immediately. There are a few of the Montales that don’t seem to have come from the house, Sandflowers is one and this is another….

Powder Flowers by Montale

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Rose, jasmine, osmanthus, cedar, tonka bean

Clear, sheer and fresh are three words I would never have linked in my mind to Montale who usually go for heavy hitters. Powder Flowers is so far from my knowledge of the brand that I had to check I hadn’t mislabeled the spritzer. Even Sandflowers is more Montale-isah than this. Lovely, pretty and dainty are not words I had previously used either but all of these adjectives are absolutely accurate when talking about my skins reaction to Powder Flowers. If you have a celebuscent crazed teen or a fruitchouli addicted friend then this could be the first step in their rehabilitation. While giving the sheer, barely there feel of many of the current offerings there is a story, a level of interest and change, and it is fragrant. The sillage is excellent, changing the air as you walk past and making it interesting, drawing your nose after it, it sits close though and after leaving my office to make coffee and returning there is no appreciable remains of it.

Powder Tower, Prague Photo Stolen WikiCommons

Like many of the Montale fragrances though the parts are so reduced from naturals that they are barely recognisable, there is something in jasmine that reads salty to my nose and I’m wondering if it was in the sunscreen that I grew up with here in Australia and that the memory of the beach is forever locked in stasis with it, I also notice it in other scents featuring this super clean jasmine. Rose passes me by completely in Powder Flowers and though I have often liked osmanthus fragrances it doesn’t seem present because I get no fruity/lactonic emphasis, the cedar and tonka are there all through but it takes a while to notice them.

Photo Stolen Tanaka Juuyoh Flickr

It’s called Powder Flowers, it is not a typical powder but an abstract, “If I was the Queen of all powders this is how I’d smell.” I don’t think the notes list tells us much here, could we be missing musk, iris, heliotrope and others? Having now drained my second sample of Powder Flowers I am thinking a large decant to see if I go through it as quickly. The only reason I haven’t bought a bottle already is that I can’t believe that I am so in love with a fragrance so definitively UN-me.

Photo Stolen DuboseLawFirm

Further reading: Scent For Thought and I could find anything else specific
Parfums Raffy have $105/50ml
Neroli Budapest has €56/50ml
Surrender To Chance starts at $4/ml

You may wonder why the Prague Powder Tower pic is above, well, Jin and I were in Prague earlier in the year and we kept walking around and through this gate so when I saw it while looking for Powder Pix I instantly wanted to share this reminiscence.

Have you tried this far from usual Montale?
See you tomorrow,
Portia xx

Coco by CHANEL: LIVE Video Sniff

July 30, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 48 Comments

Hello Avid YouTube Watchers and APJ Crew,

It’s been a long while since we had LIVE Video Sniffs. These were filmed ages ago but I have not got them up yet, MEA CULPA 100%. So far this year has been a fabulously hectic whirlwind of adventures, travel and new work. So finally it feels like we have time to do some catch up.

This LIVE Video Sniff is a solo one. I am all alone with a rather special fragrance. It’s filled with my usual screw ups and a bit of silliness, please take it in the fun vein it is intended. My potty mouth doesn’t get too out of control, well, maybe a bit… NSFW unless you have headphones

As always special thanks to my BFF Kath for shooting and editing and TSO Jin for making it ready to watch on YouTube.

See you tomorrow,
Portia xx

Coco by CHANEL: LIVE Video Sniff

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Coriander, pomegranate blossom, mandarin orange, peach, jasmine and Bulgarian rose
Heart: Mimose, cloves, orange blossom, clover and rose
Base: Labdanum, amber, sandalwood, tonka bean, opoponax, civet and vanilla

Thank you, as always, for watching and being a part of the madness that is a LIVE Video Sniff.

Further reading: Coco (Modern) Australian Perfume Junkies and Bois de Jasmin

CHANEL…Iconic CHANEL…Sampler – Posh Peasant has the 5 x 2.5ml Spray $44

CHANEL Gateway Sampler – Surrender To Chance has 4 x 3ml Spray $28

Photo Stolen Jerine Lay Flickr

Iris Nazarena by Ralf Schwieger for Aedes de Venustas 2013

July 29, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 21 Comments

Hello Niche Nerds,

Last week I met up with Clayton Ilolahia from What Men Should Smell Like, he happened to have recently been to NYC and spent some time at Aedes de Venustas. There he was given samples of their newest baby: a sleek greyhound of a fragrance that feels like 3000 years of selective breeding have culminated with

Iris Nazarena by Aedes de Venustas 2013

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Iris, anise, musk mallow, juniper berries
Heart: Leather, cloves, rose, oudh
Base: Vetiver, amber, woods, incense

Straight out of the gate I get a sweet iris/leather mix that is very much like brand new shoes. After initial burn off my skin smells wet and earthy prettiness that feels so elegant and refined, green and sappy like the smell after cutting hydrangeas for the house. Iris Nazarena is all crustless finger sandwiches, cream silk blouses, yellow gold + pearl jewellery and Cape Cod in blue and white. In fact it reminds me of how I imagine the women to smell in the upper crusts of John Irving books. Glamorous, pretty, fresh and just a little spicy,

Post Stolen TempletonRye

Parsing Iris Nazarena is easy because even I can smell most of the given notes, or nods to them, but even more enjoyable is spaying myself quite lavishly and just breathing in the beauty of a fragrance that seems particularly well constructed and seamless. One of the things that I particularly like is that the opening greenness stays well into the heart, riding over the leather, oudh and amber effortlessly, though I imagine to make something smell this pure and easy must have taken an enormous amount of persistence. There are some faint crossovers here between Bottega Veneta and Chanel 19 but Iris Nazarena feels newer and easier. Like the other two are trying a bit hard, Iris Nazarena is so comfortable in itself that it doesn’t have to try.

My advice is to give yourself an extra spritz of Iris Nazarena, it’s light and sheer enough not to skunk but the extra spritz gives a fuller and deeper story, and sillage. Longevity is good, though it softens off dramatically after 2 hours to a very sexy whisper, and scent bubble quite close but noticeable.

I can see why people are raving about Iris Nazarena, it is a grand beauty but without the pomp and ceremony.

Photo Stolen Aedes de Venustas

Further reading: Grain de Musc and Perfume Shrine
Aedes de Venustas has $245/100ml
Surrender To Chance starts at $7/ml

Did you try the Aedes de Venustas eponymous fragrance or have you smelled Iris Nazarena yet?

Till tomorrow be nice to yourself and those in your orbit,
Portia x

Enchanted Forest GIVEAWAY WINNERS

July 29, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 3 Comments

Enchanted Forest by The Vagabond Prince GIVEAWAY WINNERS

Thank you all so much for entering. It was lovely to have you all join in and i hope you all enjoyed the thrill of anticipation.

WHAT COULD YOU WIN?

There are 2 prizes this week. Each winner will receive:

1.5ml Enchanted Forest Manufacturers Carded Sample
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DID YOU WIN?

All you needed to do is be a follower, tell us how you follow and leave a hello in the comments! EASY PEASY!!

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Sunday 28th July 2013 11pm Australian EST.
Winners chosen by putting names on same sized papers, folded similarly, put on a tray and Jin picked a winner.

MaggieCat, DGambas

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

The winners will have till Wednesday 31st July 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.

Thanks again team
Portia xx

Photos Stolen TheTruthAboutMummy and berryreview

Enchanted Forest by Bertrand Duchafour for The Vagabond Prince 2012

July 26, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 61 Comments

Hey Niche Nerds,

I know, I know. It’s taken me ages to write this review. There was so much chatter about it when it first came out that I wanted to let the dust settle. I was also deeply ambivalent about the fragrance and still am but having spent some time with it now, and having two people’s opinions that I respect highly with me as I’ve smelt it was interesting too, so welcome to

Enchanted Forest by The Vagabond Prince 2012

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Pink pepper, aldehydes, sweet orange, blackcurrant (flower, fruit & leaf), hawthorn, rum, wine, rosemary, davana
Heart: Blackcurrant buds absolute, CO2 blackcurrant, Russian coriander seed, honeysuckle, rose, carnation, vetiver
Base: Opoponax resinoid, Siam benzoin, amber, oakmoss, fir balsam absolute, Patchouli, castoreum absolute, cedar, vanilla, musk

The first time I smelled Enchanted Forest was with Denyse of Grain De Musc and The Perfume Lover (available softback soon) at Jovoy in Paris early in 2013 and I found it interesting and a nit naughty, with a slight kitty litter accent that made me smile. Of everything we smelled that glorious sunny winter day it was Enchanted Forest that I kept the strip of and went back to over the next couple of weeks till it lost all memory of itself.

Photo Stolen MorgueFile

Months went by, as quickly as they do, and other fragrant launches and tests mounted and I forgot about Enchanted Forest until we started doing a Sample Round Robin here in Australia, along came a generous sample of Enchanted Forest that I swapped out for 3 or 4 things that I had here in the swap box. I put Enchanted Forest in the MUST TRY AGAIN pile and forgot completely because I went to Scentsation in LA and then India (bragging is a disgusting habit and I am fully ashamed). So yesterday I was having lunch with Catherine du Peloux Menagé, the producer of Sydney Perfume Lovers (a meet-up group), who is an avid fragrance lover and has started a business helping people choose a scent through education and interest rather than showing them gleaming ad copy bullshit: she is clever, fun and lovely and I wanted to take some fragrances for us to try over lunch, as we do. I pulled out the Enchanted Forest to get Catherine’s take on it.

Photo Stolen MorgueFile

So what did I smell? Sweet fruity opening that reminds me of very ripe melon or guava, it’s bright, fizzy and in your face taking the modern fruity fragrance by the neck and giving it a shake till its teeth rattle. All the green herbaceous notes slotted in here stop Enchanted Forest from being a so so SO sweet train wreck. Though it opens both sweeter and neon brighter than I would choose, once the initial screaming opening sequence calms it is surprisingly wearable. I get no real cat but can understand the sweetness could be a public urinal far enough away that you can smell only the sweet but not the disgusting, make sense?

Honeysuckle often skews nasty on me but here it plays along well with the others, I get a little Ribena syrup through the middle section, a sweet blackcurrant children’s cordial that was responsible in Australia for more dental bills than all the other sweet stuff put together. I don’t get coriander, rose, carnation or vetiver, I do get booze through the middle and down into the base and the vanilla comes in giving a pudding vibe. Resins come through but I miss so many of the things that they write as notes: woods? No not really. Patchouli? I don’t know. I think my nose is too poorly tuned to catch a lot of what’s happening.

Enchanted Forest is intriguing and I have been wanting to spend some alone time with it. This is a statement fragrance, fun and ebullient. It is a modern fruit take on Giorgio Beverly Hills (though only by comparison, not scent) and I can imagine it on big haired, shoulder padded women with high heels, nipped in waists and peplums (anyone been looking at fashion lately?). They are ready to make an entrance and unafraid of fragphobes and the boorish who feel that less is more. It’s exciting, naughty and possibly the next step in frag evolution if we could just get it on the kids who’ve been wearing celeb fruitchouli (as they get bored) then it may be the perfect gateway scent.

Further reading: Kafkaesque, The Fragrant Man and The Muse In Wooden Shoes
LuckyScent has $180/100ml and samples

What did you think? Have you tried it? Would you like to? well, here’s your chance….

Photo Stolen kbaird

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

There are 2 prizes this week. Each winner will receive:

1.5ml Enchanted Forest Manufacturers Carded Sample
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. Yes, you can start following to enter, in fact it’s encouraged.

All you need to do is be a follower, tell us how you follow and leave a hello in the comments! EASY PEASY!!

Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie Enchanted Forest PERFUME SAMPLES GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p2fQBU-1Ld #Perfume #Giveaway

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Sunday 28th July 2013 11pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by putting names on same sized papers, folded similarly, put on a tray and Jin will pick a winner.
The winners will have till Wednesday 31st July 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.

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE,

Portia xx

L’Invitation Au Voyage – The Louis Vuitton Advertising Campaign Film

July 26, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 5 Comments

Hello Fragrance Freaks,

I know you only want to know about scent but this is beautiful. Marc Jacobs is doing sensational things at Louis Vuitton. If only they would get their damn perfume on the shelves. GRRRR!

BTW Does anyone know if this is Kiera Knightly? It sure does look like her to this blind old tranny.

Photo Stolen ChicsFilles

Do please enjoy.
Portia xxx

L’Invitation Au Voyage – The Louis Vuitton Advertising Campaign Film

SO NUDE GIVEAWAY WINNERS!

July 22, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 5 Comments

Heya Crew,

thanks for all getting so excited about our fab Costume National So Nude GIVEAWAY! We had a great response and LibertinePerfumerie were trampled in the stampede, they are thrilled and I know Nick hope you’ll come back and have a look at the site at your leisure. Thanks LibertinePerfumerie for your continued support and generosity.

SO NUDE GIVEAWAY WINNERS!

Do go and take a moment to read about this very pretty and wearable fragrance Portia review: SO NUDE by Costume National<<<JUMP

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

WHAT COULD YOU WIN?

There are 3 prizes this week in our So Nude by Costume National GIVEAWAY. Each winner will receive:

2 x So Nude 1.5ml Manufacturers carded samples (one for you and one for a friend)
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DID YOU WIN?

Open to everyone worldwide who follows AustralianPerfumeJunkies via eMail, WordPress, Bloglovin or RSS. You had to leave how you follow in the comments to be eligible.

You had to go to Libertine Perfumes and find me a perfume and its manufacturer. NO DOUBLE UPS!!

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Sunday 21st July 2013 10pm Australian EST.
Winners were chosen by putting names on same sized papers, folded similarly, put on a tray and Jin (was sound asleep so Portia) picked a winner.

Photon Stolen propercourse

FATIMA, ANNAMARIA, JANET HOOVER

Winners have till Thursday 25th July 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.

Special THANKS to LibertinePerfumerie for the So Nude Samples. Please visit their site because they are so generous and helpful. If you wonder why they are more expensive than the discounters or OS retailers it’s because they are the only licensed company selling their fragrances in Australia; where you know you are buying new, fresh and genuine product. The cost of importing, and buying the right to import, alcohol based fragrances (and having the right to send alcohol based fragrances throughout Australia, which are illegal to send in the Australia Post system) is expensive and they must cover their costs to bring you these luxury goods.

Amoureuse by Michel Roudniska for Parfums Delrae 2002

July 21, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 18 Comments

Hey Hey Crew,

Recently we had a fragrant get together at my house and the lovely Madeleine brought some frags that were not getting any skin time for various reasons, growing taste, changing chemistry, poor choice whatever. It was fun to go through her box of rejects and in it I found a few things I really love or needed a back up bottle of, and Madeleine’s “mark it up and move it on” box is full of the stuff that perfumistas dreams are made of. Here is the second of my purchases.

Amoureuse by Parfums Delrae 2002

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Tangerine, cardamom
Heart: Tuberose, jasmine, lily
Base: Oakmoss, honey, sandalwood

First I need to tell you that the bottle looks way more desirable in real life, the photo does not do it justice in any way. Also, the juice in my Amoureuse is peachy, not green, like a tea made out of a tea bag used twice already or a scotch and water, and I think that also adds to the aged, luxe vibe of the fragrance itself.

Photo Stolen WikiCommons

Tangerine and cardamom say the notes and I get a lovely sweetness that could be tangerine but it seems a little amorphous, not specific enough to be so named. There is the sweetly herbal swish of cardamom but there’s a dirty, sweaty, animal underneath that feels very cumin-esque. Amoureuse walks a very fine line between gorgeous and disgusting in its first 30 minutes, not falling to either side definitively until the white flowers have almost taken over and then it becomes this fabulous and slightly raunchy attention grabber to people around. Between 45 minutes and two hours people really take notice of Amoureuse and compliments run thick & fast, well maybe that’s an exaggeration but there are spontaneous, heartfelt compliments.

Photo Stolen MorgueFile

The white flowers are deep, narcotic and sensual. They are green, lactic, breathy, ripe, sappy, languorous, fecal and sweet, sometimes a combination of these together. The ride is great fun, and lovely. Still in the background there is a dark hint of animal that becomes less and less obvious as the honey and sandalwood working together (beautifully with no urinous facets from the honey) sweeten and soften the fragrance. Maybe I am immune to the oakmoss used here because it doesn’t register at all.

In Amoureuse Michel Roudniska, son of legendary Edmond, has made a wonderful fragrance. I was looking at his father’s works and there are some definite nods to Vintage Femme by Rochas here in Amoureuse, maybe I’m just being fanciful but it did slip through my mind a couple of times through the fragrant journey.

Further reading: Bois de Jasmin and Katie Puckrik Smells
Beauty Habit has $135/50ml
Surrender To Chance starts at $3/.5ml

Have you spent any time with Parfums Delrae? Do you think you could wear this naughty vixen?
See you tomorrow,
Portia xx

Arabie by Christopher Sheldrake for Serge Lutens 2000

July 20, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 16 Comments

Post by Portia

Hey There Fellow FUMIES,

We recently had a fragrant get togetrher at my place and Madeleine brought some unloved bottles and I bought this…

Arabie by Serge Lutens 2000

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Cedar, sandalwood, mandarin, dried fig, date, nutmeg, cumin, caraway, clove, bay-leaf, Tonka, Siamese benzoin, myrrh, labdanum

My first whiff of Arabie is all cooking spices and humanity: cooking, slightly blackened toast, baking too with loads of vanilla, spice and citrus/fruit. I get a heavy tea backnote but I could be mistaking resins/incense for smoky tea. My question is how has anyone found Arabie hard to wear? Potent? Yes, but not scorchingly so like Angel or Giorgio Beverly Hills. Warm, dusty, foody, like eating sweets at a Dhaba in rural India sitting on plastic Coca Cola chairs with only a piece of cloth as roof between you and the desert sun, or in the freezing winter cold of a Korean fishing village where you duck out of the stormy winds to get a Korean version of a donut, searingly hot with sizzling spicy sugar and juices inside, straight from the hot oil, that is guaranteed to warm you up.

Arabie is sweet and dessicated, it could be a million miles from anyone or right by their side cuddled safe and warm under a blanket in front of a fire. Each wear is slightly different for me and I think much of the difference is what I bring in my demeanor, happiness, what I am mindful of. No wonder Arabie is still talked and written about as one of the Serge Lutens must try, must have fragrances.

Photo Stolen Flickr (NehaSingh7)

Arabie, maybe the name has swayed my thinking, feels like wearing adventure. It is busy and interesting, beautiful and welcoming, lavish and sparse, all of these things at different times. Unfortunately it doesn’t have an enormous longevity on my skin as a fragrant event but turns soft and skin warmed by sun scent-ish after only a couple of hours. Then it is a wash of resinous warmth both sensual and exotic but alas only for those very close.

Photo Stolen EnvironmentalGraffiti

Further reading: Perfume Smellin’ Things and My Perfume Diaries
FragranceNet has $106/50ml
Posh Peasant starts at $6/ml

Did you try Arabie yet? What was your experience? If not, what have you tried that correlates?
Thanks so much for wandering through my fragrant musings today,
See you tomorrow,
Portia xx