Portia

Karl Lagerfeld Interview

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Hey All,

One of the men I most revere in fashion for his work and what seems, in a world where it’s so rare to find it nowadays, to be a delightful reticence to bare all every day for publicity. He is always friendly and charming in his interviews but restrained and totally about his craft and art.

Here he introduces his Fall-Winter 2013/14 Ready-to-Wear CHANEL show

CHANEL SeedOfHappinessPhoto stolen SeedOfHappiness

I do hope you enjoy it, the glimpses of the line we see look beautiful, wearable and saleable. BRAVO!

See you tomorrow,
Portia xx

Cuoio Nobile by Atelier Design Fragrance for Pineider 2012

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Hello you magically scented beauties,

Another fab fragrance I was introduced to, and ultimately grabbed a bottle of, while on the Pont de Rialto bridge in Venice by the wonderful crew there. When they brought the testers out for me to try they even handled them reverently, as if carrying something extraordinary.

PonteDiRialto ItalyTravelsPhoto Stolen ItalyTravels

Cuoio Nobile by Pineider 2012

CuoioNobile FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, mandarin orange, galbanum and lavender
Heart: Cypress and suede
Base: Tobacco, patchouli, musk and tonka bean

The first thing you notice about Cuoio Nobile (Noble Leathers) is the packaging, a fabulous wooden box with intricate detailing that is rustic but finished. The when you open the lever and the lid the bottle has a very streamlined look and the lid has hand stitched softest leather wrapping: GORGEOUS!! Already in the shop it had exceeded expectations and my pulse was racing because this kind of attention to detail bodes well in my mind for the juice.

So the first spritz is leather, new leather, slightly coarse freshly back from the tanners and ready to be cut. The smell of a leather wholesalers or tack makers with wood in abundance. Maybe even in a woodland setting down wind from the woodcutters of old. It’s not till this initial deep, dark fragrance wafts away that the citrus even get a look in, and when it does it is muted, even the lavender is muted and merely in a back up role.

This is a fragrance about leather and woods, a beautiful, indecently sensual leather that you want to wrap yourself in. Like a new leather jacket that your partner has purchased and it already has whispers of his cologne on it. The lavender, patchouli and tonka are all murmering together in the background even through to the dry down. Cuoio Nobile is a fragrance to feel safe and warm in. Like you’ve stolen that jacket and thrown it on in a log cabin, even in an unused, unwarmed, wood sauna. Hard to explain and give you a real idea of how this smells except it is amazing.

I get extremely different wear life with Cuoio Nobile each time I have worn it. 4-8 hours. No, I don’t know why.

The team that created this line of 6 fragrances is ADF, Atelier Design Fragrance who give their address as Florence, Italy, and they are currently looking for worldwide distributorship.

PineiderlogoPhoto stolen Pineider

Pinieder history: In 1774 Francesco Pineider opened his first stationery shop in the heart of Florence, in Piazzdella Signoria, opposite Michelangelo’s David. In the early nineteenth century, at the request of privileged customers, Pineider created a series of extremely elegant writing desk objects such as pens, inks, folders and accessories. Later on Pineider introduced leather objects made in Florence by master craftsmen. The paper today is still worked by hand and is still coloured with natural pigments, the sheets are still water cut, and the watermark is present even in the heavy papers.

AtelierDesignFragrances site has 30ml/€95 which is what I paid in Venice (pricey I know but such a limited distribution and craftsmanship)

Unfortunately none of the sample houses have it to buy yet.

Have you tried Cuoio Nobile? Any of the Pineider scents? Are you as WOWed as I am?

Till Tomorrow,

Portia xx

12 Month Anniversary GIVEAWAY WINNERS

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Hey Hey Gang,

As you may know we had our One Year Birthday Celebrations this week and to celebrate we did a special GIVEAWAY. Thank you to everyone who entered and wished us well at the one year mark. It has been a fun and wondrous journey. I’ve made cyber and flesh friends from all over the world and this is just the beginning!

Birthday Cake weddingnotPhoto Stolen WeddingNot

12 MONTH ANNIVERSARY GIVEAWAY!!

winners propercoursePhoto Stolen propercourse

Guerlain Soaps – SaffyIsHere

Kerosene Soap – Arielle

Kerosene Soap – KillerRabbit

The winners will have till Sunday 23rd March 2013 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or I will give the prize to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit.

THE PRIZES

A four pack of beautifully boxed Eau Imperial 40g soaps in a very desirable presentation case from Guerlain on the first floor of the Galleries Lafayette.

2 x Kerosen X Pegasus Perfumed Soaps made especially for RELIEF Fundraiser out of Coconut, Palm and Castor oils from sexy John at Kerosene Fragrances

HOW DID YOU WIN?

You had to leave a comment wishing us congratulations. That’s IT!

For Extra Chances you had to Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie 12 MONTH ANNIVERSARY GIVEAWAY!! http://wp.me/p2fQBU-1pL @Guerlain

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Tuesday March 19th 2013 10pm AEDST.
Winners will be chosen by putting names on same sized papers, folded similarly, put on a tray and TSO Jin will pick them. He doesn’t even stop watching TV to do it usually. This one was important so he paid attention and was laughing at me because I’m so serious.

The winners will have till Sunday 23rd March 2013 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or I will give the prize to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit.

Thank You All.
No matter what happens anywhere else in your life at APJ you are a cherished member of our family.

Portia xx

ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!! Statistics and First Post Reprise!!

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ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!

Tomorrow, the 18th March marks 365 days of continuous posts on AustralianPerfumeJunkies. What started out as two besties having a bash has turned into quite a going concern and I cannot believe I have stuck to it with such tenacity. Many of you have been with us from the earliest posts and I thank you for your support and sometimes forebearance. Also welcome to our newest followers, I hope you enjoy being a part of our APJ family. Your readership and comments keep us coming back to the computer every day, week and month.

A big THANK YOU goes out to all our Guest Post providers. Without you all and your amazing contributions I worry that APJ would be nothing. All of you, past and present, are amazing and I am inspired by you all every week. EvieC, Madeleine, EmmaKate, Katrina, Dionne, Suzanne R Banks, Val the Cookie Queen, Robert “Radium” Maxwell, Tim, Margeaux, Jordan River, Michael: Each of you has brought something new and amazing to APJ and I am proud and honoured that you give up precious spare time to write, sniff and sniff some more. Many of you we have welcomed into our home for wonderful meals and fragrant conversations. YOU ARE AMAZING!!

Another THANK YOU to my bestie and partner Kath and Jin, how blessed am I? Life just got a whole lot rosier now that we are all on site. Nothing I could ever write here would come close to how much I love, revere, adore you both and am grateful for your continued inclusion in my life. You are my family.

OneYear southernshopaholicPhoto Stolen SouthernShopaholic

Some stats

379 Posts
5,594 Comments
129,870 Visitors
Best Month was November 2012 – 22,525
Best Day was November 13 2012 – 1,165
Most Click Throughs from Perfume Posse, Olfactoria’s Travels, Google
Most Click Throughs to Perfume Posse, Posh Peasant, Surrender To Chance

Now I am looking forward to the next 12 months. We have some wonderful things in the pipeline and are prepped and ready to go for some others. Looking into the future is hard because it’s looking so BRIGHT!!

I wish you all Health, Wealth and Happiness on our journey together for the next twelve months.
LOVE LOVE LOVE
Portia xxxx

As a reminiscence, here is our first post on fragrance

Tabac Original by Maurer & Wirtz

Cheapy McCheap! and Cheerful.

So yesterday morning we awoke very late, it was almost time to rush out the door for pedicures and then Yum Cha (or YUMMY CHA CHA CHA!). No time to decide on anything really. Raining outside, meeting besties (big HELLO to Kath & Alice & Jin), no pressure. On went super comfy new sloppy joe, jeans, thongs. Perfume, fragrance, something?? Can’t think. Can’t think. Can’t think. Reaching…….

Maurer & Wirtz Tabac Original EDT spray, modern incarnation, comes back towards me in my hand. Really brain? Really hand? Clearly my mind and body have understood what my inner self would never have said. Spray on my thorax twice, one wrist, one elbow, mash. Wait and waft…………..

An Aromatic Fougere (pronounced Foo zair but the z is almost a j like the Chinese say Beijing) and if you want the notes then Fragrantica is your spot. Woody, herbal, floral, tobacco and aldehydic are the given accords there and on my skin I get a rush of citrus and herbs at the opening, it squeals a bit, then as my skin warms the fragrance (and it does, I can feel a warm reaction, a bit like Vicks Vaporub) then the powdery iris and lavender saunter in MMMMM. By the time I am at our destination Tabac is humming along nicely with the flora, woods and herbs all whiffling up my sloppy joe each time I move. This is a perfect warm but rainy day fragrance for the casual event. At lunch I am complimented by a discerning girlfriend who is gobsmacked that something so inexpensive can be this lovely. I concur. Hours later, snuggling with my partner I can still smell a tiny and very sexy hint of musk and vanilla. So good I’ve come in to reapply and go through the story again. Now, going back to see if it works, it would on me.

PS. Worked a treat!Photo Stolen from Fragrantica

Thanks for reading,
Portia xx

Don’t Forget to enter our 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY GIVEAWAY!!(<<JUMP)

12 MONTH ANNIVERSARY GIVEAWAY!!

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one-year thehealthyapronPhoto Stolen thehealthyapron

12 MONTH ANNIVERSARY GIVEAWAY!!

Every Birthday deserves presents so we have an extraordinary prize today.

When I was in Paris in February, shopping at Guerlain on the first floor of the Galleries Lafayette, I was given a special gift with purchase that is so precious to me that it would NEVER get opened. It is a four pack of beautifully boxed Eau Imperial 40g soaps in a very desirable presentation case. This GWP was not even in the regular gift line but an exclusive gift for the people invited to Guerlain’s Christmas Party in 2012 and the last of its kind that the girl had to give away. THIS IS SPECIAL!!!

If we make 100 individuals commenting I will add in one Kerosen X Pegasus Perfumed Soap made especially for RELIEF Fundraiser made of Coconut, Palm and Castor oils from sexy John at Kerosene Fragrances as a second giveaway!!

HOW DO YOU WIN?

Leave a comment below wishing us congratulations. That’s IT!

Extra Chance? Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie 12 MONTH ANNIVERSARY GIVEAWAY!! http://wp.me/p2fQBU-1pL @Guerlain

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Tuesday March 19th 2013 10pm AEDST and winners will be announced in a separate post on Thursday 21st March.
Winners will be chosen by putting names on same sized papers, folded similarly, put on a tray and TSO Jin will pick them. He doesn’t even stop watching TV to do it usually.
The winners will have till Sunday 23rd March 2013 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or I will give the prize to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit.

NEW La Petite Robe Noir “Party In Paris” Movie

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 11 Comments

Heya,

I LOVE the new La Petite Robe Noire movie. In honour of my being in David Jones Guerlain yesterday and how helpful the SA Penny was. She knew her stuff and was so helpful and friendlly, even inviting us to come back and chat whenever we were in town. Jin spritzed Habit Rouge which sang beautiful powdery spice on his skin for hours and I went all out for L’Heure Blue parfum. OMG! I am in love.

Please do enjoy the movie,
See you tomorrow,

Portia x

LaPetiteRobeNoir kingdomofstylePhoto Stolen kingdomofstyle

Eric Bana for Bulgari Man Extreme Fragrance 2013 Ad Campaign

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 27 Comments

Bulgari Man Extreme Fragrance 2013 Ad Campaign

Hey all you lovely fashion forward fragrance hounds,

I love it when new and gorgeous celebs get picked for fragrance commercials.

BvlgariManExtreme FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Pink grapefruit, Calabrian bergamot, cactus zest
Heart: White freesia, Guatemalan cardamom, amber
Base: Haiti vetiver, Laoese benzoin and Balsa wood.
.
The not extreme version os this fragrance was the first perfume I bought for TSO Jin. He still wears it regularly and when we found the Frag, Deodorant, Wet Pack Set on a ridiculous special he bought some and now all his friends wear it too. So I know what the extreme must smell like because when they all get together it is a fabulous scent cloud to be in the midst of. We saw this recently and Jin tried it but the notes list doesn’t do the product justice, there is no mention of the wetness or space between the notes, the soft but insistent weaving of this fragrance through your own body smell so that though all Jin’s mates smell similar they all also make Bulgari Man smell quite different with one note or another taking prominence on their skins.
The Extreme is fuller, heftier and has the half life of plutonium.
.
MyPerfumeSamples has the original Bvlgari Man from $2/ml to $7/5ml
.
Don’t you LOVE Eric Bana. OMG!! I have had a serious crush on him for years.
See you tomorroew.
Portia x.

Peter Lindbergh photographed actor Eric Bana for the latest campaign image of Bulgari Man Extreme fragrance.

Image via Models.com

Stolen from one of my Fashion Go To Blogs art8amby

An Interview with Eric Bana

Here is the ad

Lys Mediterranee by Edouard Flechier for Frederic Malle 2000

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 20 Comments

Hey All,

Back in December EmmaKate did a review of Lys Mediterranee and I was so inspired that when I was in Vienna, shopping with Birgit and Sandra from Olfactoria’sTravels, and one of the shops (Pure Day Spa) were offering mixed 10ml travel sets I jumped on it and grabbed some. En Passant, Carnal Flower & Lys Mediterranee.

LysMedierranee FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Sea water and ginger
Heart: Angelica, orange blossom, lotus and lily
Base: Vanilla and musk

The opening burst is so transportative, not to anywhere particularly, just away. Remember back in the 1980’s when you would walk into a restaurant and at the door they would have this ENORMOUS floral architectural extravaganza? This is one of those restaurants but located on a completely untrammeled beach and the salty air is fresh and cool. There’s a great restaurant down on the uncool side of Ibiza where all the locals gather for paella and nobody speaks English, the food costs nothing and the waters that the restaurant are built over are so clean you can count the sand grains. It smells like that with flowers.

OverWaterRestaurant TravelBlogPhoto Stolen TravelBlog

I can understand why so many people love this beautiful fragrance, and I am quickly becoming a convert. This is day 3 of wear.

After the beautiful, slightly loud opening Lys Mediterranee settles into what will be its most long lived section on my skin, the heart, which is pretty and linear. The flowers all play beautifully together and though each one has moments I think they are hard to read separately and just enjoy the beauty and serenity as it washes over me in waves. I get why EmmaKate thinks this would be perfect Bridal fragrance. It swoops effortlessly and flies behind in breathtaking but tasteful sillage. I would spray this on the petals the flower girls throw before you walk down the aisle and then bathe myself in Lys Mediterranee.

As it dries down the musk remains unsmellable to me but I do get a soft warm vanilla pushing through the flowers that slowly takes over the fragrance while it fades. 5-7 hours of smellable fragrance, less in the heat of the day, more for night wear.

BeachWedding HoustonWeddingPhoto Stolen HoustonWedding

Further reading Olfactoria’sTravels and PerfumeShrine

FredericMalleInternational has 50ml €115 or 3x10ml €75
In Australia MeccaCosmetica has 50ml $218 or 3x10ml $142
SurrenderToChance starts at $6/ml

I know you’ve tried one or more of the Frederic Malle range, what was your favourite? Do you own a bottle? Have you maintained your composure and kept to samples or decants? I love the 10ml trvelers and getting a mixed set made the decision easy, just like buying splits or big decants.

See you tomorrow,

Portia xx

Pure White (Original) Cologne by Olivier Creed VI for Creed 2011

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Hello APJ,

We had a great day here yesterday, a bunch of friends around for a BarBQ enjoying the last warm weeks before we start to head towards the cooler months. Ten great friends all eating Jin’s famous BarBQ Chilli Pork, sausages, salads and bread rolls. We all drank heaps of sweet fruity wines, couchon reisling and moscato and laughed the day away. These are the days I will remember and cherish, like perfect gifts to mull over and reminisce about. We are so blessed.

Pure White (Original) Cologne by Creed 2011

pure-white-colognePhoto Stolen CREED

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: lemon, bergamot and grapefruit.
Heart: galbanum, neroli and pear.
Base: gray amber (ambergris), white musk and rice.

Just a little back story: Pure white Cologne was introduced last year as Original Cologne so that the people who bought it in the first year would have a fabulous collectors item. That is a fun idea but so annoying because now all other reviews are now out of date which strikes me as a bad marketing move.

The citrus opening is sweet and bright and hugely gorgeous, enough to attract orange beetles I reckon. Unleavened citrus beyond anything I’ve ever smelled and fun to boot. It takes a while for the next phase to become noticeable because it creeps up slowly and stealthily through the magnificent wonder that is the opening. What I first get is a softening of the citrus for a soft pear waft, it is both sweeter and dryer that the opening and green rather than sugary. That doesn’t make sense but it is the way I read the progression. It may hark back to fragrance of yesteryear but to me this is fun freshness, a beautiful green smoothy of a fragrance, a sweet and sour bite that says, “Though you are dressed  in a suit and fully, handsomely masculine, you are also edgy, naughty and spontaneous.” I expect a cologne to have little lasting power but Pure White Cologne by CREED outdistances many of its EdT and EdP counterparts and smells like money has been spent on the ingredients. As it should for the asking price. I am getting about 3 hours of fragrance and about the same of warm skin scent, though I get no hint of the rice in the base.

If we had an unlimited budget or were 3 fragrance happy then Pure White Cologne would definitely make the short list for a summer fragrance.

From the CREED site:
New in CREED’s Royal Exclusives Collection, Pure White Cologne evokes men’s styles in Victorian England: clean grooming, tailored white shirts and lives made richer by quality goods of impeccable detail.  Pure White Cologne wraps the client like a garment stitched to his exact proportions, fitting and superb in every respect, a complement to his innate style and a statement of his high standing.  Pure White Cologne has been compared to a burst of English mist, a fine and clean sensation on the skin like when a train blurs past, sending a gust of cooling moisture onto every pore, as in the 1844 J.M.W. Turner painting, “Rain, Steam and Speed.”

J_M_W_Turner_-_RainSteamandSpeedJ M W Turner Rain, Steam and Speed Photo Stolen WikiMedia

The CREED site has 30ml $205
SurrenderToChance starts at .5ml/$3

Do you wear any of the CREED line? Have you tried this one?

Till tomorrow,

Portia xx

Lalique by Sophia Grojsman 1992

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 24 Comments

Hey Stink Junkies,

Someone who has inspired me from the background for many years is Rene Lalique, it’s a name that comes up in art, jewellery and glass collection circles but often is also linked to the rise of Coty as a fragrance brand.

From rlalique.com: Lalique is remembered for his jewelry and his glass. But his greatest accomplishments were born in his recognition of the changing world in which he lived. His life spanned the entire period from the Civil War to World War II and as his world changed, so did Lalique. His amazing turn of careers and fields put him in the forefront of the new mass production. He was a jeweler, he was a glassmaker, he was an artist. But his great accomplishment was to combine those talents with foresight and innovation to not just serve markets, but to create them. In the process, Lalique would become a world class industrialist with an industrial ability on par with any other of his rich talents and achievements.

Lalique 1992

Lalique FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Chinese gardenia, Sicilian mandarin orange, black currant, blackberry
Heart: Peony, Tunisian orange blossom, magnolia, Bulgarian rose, ylang-ylang
Base: Indian sandalwood, vanilla, amber, Yugoslavian oakmoss , cedar, Tibetan musk

I like the warm, spicy fruit and citrus in the Lalique opening, there is a kind of plastic gardenia flowing through the lot that to be honest smells inexpensive. In fact Lalique smells like a mid range to good celebuscent. Wearable and perfumey, quite pretty and I could imagine it being a go to scent for a non perfumista, a respray handbag scent or a gym bag scent for fragrant touch ups after a workout. I know, damning with faint praise.

The heart is a fresh, ultra clean bouquet that is well blended and I do like it, for the price it is a very wearable fragrance. Though you are fragrant with a moderate sillage you will not be skunking anyone in your vicinity because Lalique perfume is not a loud, bombastic fragrance after the initial 15 minutes, it sits quietly near your skin and occasionally wafts out to you. I do not get any one flower but hints of the orange blossom float to the top sometimes, which is very pretty and not salacious at all.

Maybe back in 1992 this was a bigger, broader and more shoulder padded fragrance, it feels like there might have been some massive cost and quality cuts as the product became less in demand. I get very little of the offered notes in the base, rather it seems an attenuated whisper compared to the notes list. It is a soft and warm woody vanilla dry down that is common among many of the less expensive fragrances.

As a perfumista do you need to smell this? No. Would you wear it? Maybe. I have a few fragrances that I wear when the inspiration, situation or my own headspace is unsuitable for the grand story that some perfumes provide. This is exactly that kind of frag, spritz and forget, respritz after it’s disappeared. With my 5ml decant I think that I will be happy and probably never finish it, though if there’s one thing I’ve learned about this addiction it’s never say never.

LaliqueVase huubgeurtsPhoto Stolen huubgeurts

FragranceShop has 50ml around $25
MyPerfumeSamples has $2/ml or $7/5ml

LaliqueBottle ParfumsRaffyPhoto Stolen ParfumsRaffy

Do any of the Laique fragrances play a role in your fragrance library? Maybe Encre Noir or Amythest? Do you have any of the vases etc? I can only dream of owning the fabulous pieces while I wear my Lalique perfumes.

Till tomorrow I wish you health, wealth and happiness,

Portia xx