Portia

Chergui by Christopher Sheldrake for Serge Lutens 2001

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

Scarlet by Cacharel

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 4 Comments

Hello my lovelies,

I’ve had this video knocking around and kept forgetting to share it.

IndianWedding angpal.blogspot

Arrived safely in India, Stayed a couple of days in Delhi to do some shopping and organising for my mate Varun’s hotels and a new property the family is developing. Yesterday the main thing we did was buy lights for 2 floors of hotels and 3 residences. BEDLAM!!! Then to cap it all I drove the car about 20kms in peak hour traffic! I know, I am amazing. It was not without incident though, plenty of good natured swearing and screaming, a near car crash and a couple of whisper touches by other cars and some bikes. Hair raising but fun

Enjoy the video.

Portia xxx

Scarlett by Cacharel

Tea for Two by L’artisan: A Beauty Habit Love Story

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 24 Comments

Heya Ladies and Gents,

Long before I tried this little pretty I was reading about it, Tania Sanchez gives it three grudging stars and writes, “Probably a better room fragrance than a personal perfume and, judged as an attempt at modernising the Oriental genre, completely trounced by Fendi’s … Theorema. Still, not bad.” in Perfumes, The Guide: so clearly she missed something that so many others love, and for a while I also missed its beauty. I had a couple of samples that got used but I wasn’t madly crazy for it. Then Undina from Undina’sLookingGlass sent me a generous decant in a spritz bottle and everybody’s love for it suddenly became clear. It is fresh and deep and nuanced, mysterious, glamorous and very beautiful. WOW!! What? DISCONTINUED!!!!

Isn’t it the same dreadful story we read, hear, find out at the counter. Here is my APJ post on Tea for Two written last year. Clearly, in my mind anyway, Tea for Two was either unable to be produced due to new IFRA regs or it was a crap seller, either way I was saddened and have been seriously eeking out my decant ever since. In truth trying not to bemoan its lack, or even think about having a bottle. Some things aren’t meant to be, right?

Tea for Two by Olivia Giacobetti for L’artisan Parfumeur: A Love Story

Tea for Two L'Artisan FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives the featured accords as:
Top: Bergamot, star anise, tea
Heart: Cinnamon, ginger, spices, gingerbread
Base: Honey, vanilla, leather, tobacco

Then something extraordinary happened while in LA at Scentsation. It was lunch time at BeautyHabit and most of the crew were off having the fabulous tacos and chips and OMG SO YUMMY!! Then someone mentioned that there was a Tea for Two Tester still in the tester section, off like a brides nighty was I. Spritz, Spritz AAAAAHHHH. This stuff is magic! Smoky, rich, resinous and milky spiced tea wafting gloriously, so I did the unthinkable.

Approaching one of the lovely sisters who run BeautyHabit, “Hi, you know this is discontinued, don’t you?”….. “Even if they bring it back they will definitely have to reformulate it to be industry approved now.”…. “Would you consider SELLING me this tester please?”….. “I understand that you don’t sell testers but this is a special case, discontinued, unrereleasable as is and one of my FAVOURITES!!”….. “No, you’re right. I understand. I know, sure. No worries, if you EVER decide to sell it please keep me in mind. You know I want to buy it, yes?”……. “Ok, thanks” Well, I tried, unsuccessfully but at least I could not worry that I hadn’t tried.

So we shopped, I purchased a Sarah Horowitz Parfum and an i Profumi di Firenze that I will write about later. Everyone had lunch and we got on the bus, laughing and talking about what a super day it was. Everyone received a gift from BeautyHabit and mine was the Pineider (one of my new fave brands) Estratto di Colonia. They even gave away a Serge Lutens BELL JAR!! These were serious prizes for amazed perfumistas! As the bus pulled out there was a bustle, rush and knocking on the door from outside.

The BeautyHabit girls had decided to GIFT me the Tea for Two!!!!!

Though I made light of it at the time I was and am deeply touched by their gift. I have worn Tea for Two quite a lot since acquiring it from BeautyHabit and it has not disappointed. It is the most worn so far since I got it and not just because it is a super killer scent but every time I spritz I think of the amazing time we all had a the Perfume Posse Scentsation.

So please, do me a favour. Next time you are thinking of an online shopping spree for anything fragrance or beauty related, try BeautyHabit(<<<JUMP) because they have an excellent selection, are fun, sexy, generous and ship to the world: and they went out of their way to put a super duper smile on my already smiling face.

See you tomorrow,
Portia xx