Portia

Robert Piguet Masterclass with Joe Garces

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 33 Comments

Hi there Perfumistas,

Today I have the most incredible exciting offer from Libertine Parfumerie (who are always so supportive and generous with APJ), David Jones and Robert Piguet. I hope you are all as excited as I am.

Fracas Robert Piguet Ad vk.comPhoto Stolen vk.com

What is happening? The CEO of Robert Piguet fragrances, Joe Garces, is in Sydney, Australia in June to celebrate the 65 years of Fracas by hosting four one hour Masterclasses that will take us through some of the Piguet fragrance line notes, creation and intent with a Q&A section afterwards. The seats are limited to only 14 per class and Libertine Parfumerie has offered the 2.30pm class on Wednesday June 26 to AustralianPerfumeJunkies! Already from the APJ Contributors we have Madeleine, Margeaux, Michael and Portia coming, from Aussie Fragrance Network Sonya Yu, Jack Seven and Scott Steward and one other person. That leaves SIX places for our lucky readership!!

What: FREE Fragrance Masterclass hosted by Joe Garces
When: 2.30pm Wednesday June 26 2013
Where: Meet 2pm David Jones Sydney City Store cnr Elizabeth & Market St Sydney

Should you purchase any Robert Piguet Fragrance Product on the day there will be a VERY special gift to take home.

If you are taking time off work then you should be back there by 4pm or if you take the afternoon off I thought we could sniff through the halls of David Jones, have a spot of afternoon tea and then trot down to Christian Dior’s flagship store and smell the Couturier range.

Would you like to come and talk perfume with people who are TOTALLY interested and won’t think your habit absurd or you mental? Maybe you can’t wait to pick the brains of someone who makes the perfume world run? It could be that you have never yet smelled Fracas, or any of the other wonderful Robert Piguet line and you’d like to remedy that. Personally, I hope we get a run through of one of the newer fragrances, Bois Noir, which I love and am already considering a purchase of.

RP_Masterclass_Email

Please add your interest in the comments below. Don’t worry if there are already six names, we may be able to siphon you into the other three classes if there are any spaces. Also, it would be terrible if we held a space for you and you did a no show, genuine interested parties only please.

I AM SO FRICKEN EXCITED ABOUT THIS!!!

Portia x

N°5 CULTURE CHANEL – Interview with Christopher Sheldrake, CHANEL Perfumer

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 5 Comments

Hi All,

After some missing of planes and arriving 12 hours late and a whole bunch of stuff I must apologise that this is very little and late. Still it is interesting to see Christopher Sheldrake talk about CHANEL No 5 Exhibition. He is quietly handsome and engaging. I hope you like it.

Portia xx

CHANEL SeedOfHappinessStolen from SeedOfHappiness

N°5 CULTURE CHANEL – Interview with Christopher Sheldrake, CHANEL Perfumer

Chergui by Christopher Sheldrake for Serge Lutens 2001

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 26 Comments

Hello Stink Monkeys!!

This fragrance I’ve had a decant sitting in my cupboard for a while. I often see it for a good price and read reviews but it has never reached my skin until recently. To be truthful I was a little Ho Hum about it and wasn’t sure that it would be my thing. Honey, hay, dust, sweet tobacco and balmy amber, hang on, that sounds exactly what a fragrance should be made up of…

Chergui by Serge Lutens 2001

Chergui FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Tobacco leaf, honey, iris, sandalwood, amber, musk, incense, rose and hay

I love the entrance to Chergui, the super honeyed tobacco and amber rise up softly and gracefully on my skin. It is sweet and dusty at the same time, like an old forgotten second hand bookstore in the desert at dusk. The smell of wood and paper and earth and that chill as the daylight leaves. I only get the merest hint of hay, though there is something like it hiding behind the honey/tobacco sweetness which is amplified on my skin. Has anyone else had the honey/tobacco take over during the first hour or so?

Chergui Serge Lutens Leakeys Secondhand Bookstore TripAdvisorPhoto Stolen TripAdvisor

Once the sweetness burns off for me the whole fragrance becomes more dessicated and interesting, like dried out greenery snapped or crumbled in your hands with a very cool smoky incense, before you light it, and here I get a little spicy rose and a whisper of something that smells like orchid.

For some reason I had it in my head that Chergui was a difficult fragrance but I find it pretty and wearable. Not too strong, not too outrageous in the cool of Sydney late Autumn and definitely wearable by both sexes. On my skin this is reminiscent of some of the best vintage women’s fragrances and some of the 1990s excellent mens, all of which have been discontinued or reformulated out of even a whisper of themselves.

I wish I had taken my decant of Chergui to LA with me because I think it will bloom even more beautifully in the warmth. As it is I’m getting moderate life of about 4-5 hours and moderate sillage. This is only my second wear though, I can’t wait to wear Chergui to work and see if people love it.

Dust Storm DailyTelegraphPhoto Stolen DailyTelegraph

Further reading Olfactoria’sTravels and Kafkaesque
FragranceNet has $97/50ml and with the oft available 15% discount that’s around $83!!
SurrenderToChance starts at $4/.5ml

How did Chergui live on your skin? Was there a note that really stood out and was surprising? Did you have a similar experience to most others?
Please join the conversation, I love it when people tell us how a fragrance affected them,
Portia xx

Jitterbug by Kedra Hart for Opus Oils 2008

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Heya,

As you know last month we were on the Scentsation Bus Tour of Los Angeles. It was a fabulous day and I can’t wait for next years installment. Our very last stop of the day was at Opus oils where Kedra Hart and her posse were there creating mayhem and glamoursphere. The shop is incredible, and perfectly showcases the magic that Kedra creates. Jitterbug is a sample I was given with my purchases on the Scentsation bus. I will come back with more stories about the bottles I bought very soon.

Jitterbug by Kedra Hart for Opus Oils 2008

Jitterbug Opus Oils FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Jasmine, lemon essence, honeysuckle, orange blossom, “beach found” ambergris, blond tobacco and sandalwood

Jitterbug opens with a burst of boozy, almost narcotic, flowers and tobacco. It’s warm and rich and decadent like plum pudding and cream, there is something so food-ish here and I can’t work out what it is. The initial rush leads you to believe that Jitterbug is going to be E NOR MOUS!! but after the opening burns of it settles quickly into a mid range fragrant waft, very pretty and decidedly wearable with a very definite nod to fragrance of the past, there is a depth and seduction at work here that feels like the nuanced magic of naturals and the ambergris is giving it a chiaroscuro effect, dappling the prettiness with a darker denseness that is both salty and vanilla sweet. Helooooo! Did I say sexy? This is sexy, Sexy, SEXY!! I feel like the most beautiful, sensual, siren wearing Jitterbug. This is the good stuff. Thank you Kendra, next year I will be in to buy a shit load of this.

Jitterbug Opus Oils Kim Sharma siliconeerPhoto Stolen siliconeer

Jitterbug is a beautifully blended Princess of a perfume, elegant and graceful yet still fun and a little naughty especially towards dry down. You will be fragrant and the sillage is excellent but you won’t be skunking people unless you apply massive amounts. Most workplaces friendly and an enthusiastic 2 thumbs up for dates!

Opus Oils Jitterbug Perfume Parlour opened August 2008 in Hollywood, CA, USA after Kendra Hart being a successful underground and above ground perfumer. Here’s a little (edited version) of what the site says:
Kedra Hart was one of the developers of The Apothecary at Barneys New York in Beverly Hils and founder of the natural perfume and aromatherapy line Precious Petals. She designs custom scents, teaches perfumery in LA and Paris and is blender and co-founder with Joshua Hart of Opus Oils Jitterbug Perfume Parlour.
“It’s hard to describe our Jitterbug Perfume Parlour when people ask,” says Joshua Hart, “I usually say it’s a cross between the movie “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls” and the book “Jitterbug Perfume”. Mix that with the TV show “Hart to Hart”, sprinkle it with “Moulin Rouge” and then add a dash of Flapper Speakeasy Culture. Yeah, I think that about says it all.”

jitterbug Opus Oils VickieLesterPhoto Stolen VickieLester

Do go and check the Opus Oils site, here a few of the ways you can buy Jitterbug and the prices. Had I done my homework I would now own a 100ml Body & Bath Oil of Jitterbug. DAMN!!! Oh well, there’s always next year
1 Dram Parfum (Airport travel size) Roll-on $40.00
1oz Eau de Parfum Oil Spray $65.00
3.3oz Bath & Body Oil $50.00

Have you tried any of the Opus Oils? How do you rate them?
Portia xx

Coco (Modern) by Jacques Polge for CHANEL 1984

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 26 Comments

Hello Fragrant Fumies,

This is one of my girlfriends, hello Alice I’m looking at you, favourite fragrances. While in LA last week my mate Thomas Pease from PerfumePosse and Perfume Smellin’ Things and I were trolling the malls of LA together. It was super fun and I was looking for a few things including the large 35ml spritz of CHANEL No 5 Parfum which I am finding impossible to get my hands on, anyone know where I can grab it? Anyway, during our travels we spritzed the modern incarnation of

Coco by CHANEL 1984

Coco FragranticaPhoto 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

I am usually of the mind that all change is good, progressive, necessary unless it’s an obvious exception like finding ways to log virgin rainforest faster or better and quicker ways to torture people for information, now I’ve added a new one: REFORMULATION!! Yes, I understand that the fragrance community is self regulating and these changes are important but OMfreakingG! If this was not called Coco I would have thought it a summer flanker of Coco. This is what a softened, prettied, lighter and less ambitious Coco should feel like for summer wearings. If it was that I would say, “BRILLIANT! CHANEL have thought this out and done a superb job of bringing the fragrance up to date without losing its original idea completely, as a fun and frivolous, sunny reference point. A Coco water-colour if you like.” But to sell this non-Coco and claim it as the truth, NO! Like claiming the first and second paintings below are as filled with warmth, depth and colour, though both are beautiful they are not the same.

CHANEL Coco florinda watercolourPhoto Stolen FranzXaverWinterhalter

CHANEL Coco Lányok bál után HungArtHungaryPhoto Stolen HungArtHungary

Is there anything left to love about Coco Modern? Sure. If you had never worn it before and were just discovering perfume you would think it beyond beautiful. Still with that perfect CHANEL blending, still a Fl-Oriental and still quite a bit more exotic that most of the range. What it lacks is the dirty bitch grind and sexy, sensual, animalic undertones that were a warning as much as a signal for seduction. Coco Modern is almost office wearable and its predecessor is most definitely not in the current frag climate. They have castrated our Coco and I for one am sad.

Coco is available for FREE spritzing at most department stores.
EssentalMall starts at 50ml EdT/$109
SurrenderToChance starts at $3/ml

See you tomorrow,
Portia xx

La Isla Del Sol by Jane Cate for A Wing n A Prayer Perfumes 2013

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 13 Comments

Hello Happy Huffers,

There is a lovely lady, Jane Cate, tucked away in Menlo Park of the San Francisco Bay area in California. Her work is wondrous and I have written of it before for you all. Today I opened a package from Jane Cate to find samples of her three new fragrances for 2013, the first you can see reviewed on the Perfume Posse, but I saved this one for APJ because I’m, a selfish bitch and it’s my favourite. He He HE!

La Isla Del Sol by A Wing & A Prayer Perfumes 2013

A Wing & A PrayerPhoto Stolen Etsy

Jane Cate gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot
Heart: Orange blossom, honey absolute and sweet orange
Base: Amber and tonka tincture

La Isla Del Sol means Island of the Sun and the bergamot opening is sweet, tangy and already slightly resinous, very much like sitting in cool, sunny parkland in the morning near a citrus orchard. It’s lovely, lively and invigorating: a soft and sexy cologne-esque opening that hints at warmth beneath. As the sun warms up the day and thebodies there is a very animalic orange blossom/honey accord that feels slightly feral as if it’s going to turn fecal but never crosses the beauty line into disgusting. There is a definite hark back to old fashioned perfumery in La Isla Del Sol, I really feel that it has depths that are lacking in much of the market today, even some of the niche lines are becoming castrated by their success, not so here.

The amber and tonka move in slowly and take over the whole beautiful production leaving only the smallest trace memories of citrus till about 4-5 hours later I am ready to respritz.

I cannot believe that the A Wing & A Prayer crew can make such fabulous scents at these amazingly good prices, do go check them out. You’ll thank me for introducing you.

A Wing & A Prayer Mini SamplerPhoto Stolen Etsy

A Wing & A Prayer have an Etsy Shop (<<JUMP) where you can grab their fragrances. A great was to get to know them is to buy the Mini Sampler Set with 3 x 4ml spray or roll on in your choice from the whole range for only $10!! What a BARGAIN!

Kisses, hugs and love till tiomorrow,
Portia xx

Truth or Dare NAKED by Stephen Nilson for Madonna 2013

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 30 Comments

Hey Hey Scenters!!

As you know I was recently in LA and one of the MUST FIND things on my list was something I thought would be super easy to get my hands on. Not so! Tom and I wandered around LA looking for this elusive jewel for two days until a Bloomingdales SA, who said they’d had it but were sold out, looked up every Bloomingdales in the LA area and found us some at Bloomingdales Century City (Century City BTW is owned now by Australian multinational mall conglomerate Westfields) and so off we trotted to find the last 10 bottles in LA, of which I purchased three. A solo in box, a golden unboxed wetpack with a body lotion and another unboxed with body lotion and tote bag. The boxed is for our very own Celebuscent reviewer Katrina the others for myself..

Truth or Dare NAKED by Madonna 2013

Truth or Dare NAKEDS Madonna FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Honeysuckle, peach blossom and neroli
Heart: Vanilla orchid, cocoa flower and lily of the valley
Base: Texas cedar wood, benzoin from Laos, oud accord and Australian sandalwood

What do I smell? It smells so good. A rich, creamy amber with inedible vanilla and bitter chocolate with a delicate wash of flowers over the top that ends in a woodsy vanillic dry down. So good. OH SO GOOD!! A warm fragrance that will be stunning in the cooler months but works beautifully in the heat also. Over the last few weeks I’ve worn it in 35C in LA, 12C in Sydney and 45C in Delhi. At no time have I felt it out of place, in fact Truth or Dare Naked is one of the easiest and prettiest, most wearable fragrances I’ve ever worn.

I love the bottle, it’s cool, hefty and the see through glass version is very pretty and feels great in my hand for spritzing. Though you start out very fragrant Truth or Dare Naked quickly softens down to a pretty, better than your skin smelling wash that has moderate projection but excellent sillage. The wear life is average at around 4-5 hours, longer in the cool, and dry down is soft and woodsy/suede-ish.

If you found Madonna’s first offering too close to Fracas or many of the hefty tuberoses this is a complete turn around and a completely stylish, soft and warm fragrance. Bravo Madonna

Truth or Dare Naked Madonna NewsPinnaclePhoto Stolen NewsPinnacle

I could only find the NowSmellThis introduction of Truth or Dare Naked by Madonna
I can not find a sample or full bottle to buy ANYWHERE on the internet!!!

Loads of love till tomorrow.
Portia xx

Fat Electrician by Antoine Maisondieu for Etat Libre d’Orange 2009

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 19 Comments

Hello Fragrance Friends,

You may or may not know that my partner is an electrician, or sparky as we call them in Australia. I had longed for today’s fragrance for ages, just because I thought it would be funny to have in my collection. I grabbed a decant and drained it in record time so then I decided it was absolutely and utterly FB worthy. Every now and then Parfum1 has a 20% off sale and when they had one recently I was all over it like a rash, and here is one of my purchases. Sadly they no longer have stock of

Fat Electrician by Etat Libre d’Orange 2009

Fat Electrician FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Vetiver, olive leaves, marron glaces, vanilla, opoponax and myrrh

From the ELdO site: His beauty would have been his greatest asset. A midnight cowboy, his splendor was consumed in the service for others. Now, a fat electrician in New Jersey, he is cursed with the memory of his glory days. Because all beauty carries within itself the knowle­dge that it cannot last…

Well, there is a LOT of online discourse about the names and backstories of the ELdO range. My opinion is that it’s fun and harmless story creation at its best. I don’t know the people involved but they seem silly and naughty, not afraid to push a boundary and are creating engaging perfumes that are essentially wearable, with a couple of notable exceptions. Here are my imaginary before & after Electricians, he he he!

Fat Electrician 24SevenElectricsBefore Photo Stolen 24SevenElectrics

Fat Electrician Him.UKAfter Photo Stolen Him.UK

How does Fat Electrician smell? On my skin it opens all diesel and woods, which they say is the vetiver, dirty and dark with a greenness and balsamic sweetness all smooshed in together. There is also a metallic tang that reminds me of the years we used to take LSD, that initial metallic almost blood-ish taste as you chew your cardboard. OMG! I just physically shuddered at the memory. Imagine wearing Tam Dao in a mechanics garage, yes? That’s Fat Electrician.

Fat electrician has quite a bit of space between the notes, interestingly it feels both dense and light and bears absolutely no resemblance to my electrician or his ass crack. I get earthy, dirty vetiver and some slight softening and sweetening as the fragrance lives. The resins are not really getting much of a workout today though. Perhaps the cool air does Fat Electrician no favours, I get less growth and the story is far less interesting that in the 20+ celcius weather where it blossoms beautifully. Looks like I’m going to have to put this baby into the return to wear at Spring box and relegate it to the back of the cupboard. DamnIt! I was hoping for a fabulous winter extravaganza with Fat Electrician.

Fat Electrician SUCCUBUS COFFIN LaurieFlowerPhoto Stolen LaurieFlower

Later the same day: WOW! There is a definitely fresh hewn wood with beeswax polished, finished products and some smoky charred wood nearby. I’m about 3 hours in and suddenly Fat Electrician has started to give me its beauty. In the cool air the life is extended by HOURS! and the release is slower and way more interesting. BRAVO ELdO.

Further reading: PerfumeSmellin’Things and I really like the ambivelence of EauMG’s review too
EtatLibreD’Orange currently has 69€/50ml with FREE WORLD SHIPPING!!
SurrenderToChance starts at $4.75/ml

Where do you stand on the ELdO range? Are you outraged or amused by their names and stories?

We hope to see you tomorrow,
Portia xx