Portia

Passage D’Enfer by L’Artisan Parfumeur; Vegan Curry

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Hey Y’All,

Easter is over, Jesus has risen and I have added kilograms of chocolate to my super sized figure. It was worth it. Yummy, YuMmY, YUMMY! We had a lovely, lazy 4 day break and felt refreshed and ready to return to the world yesterday.

Saw The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel Monday at the cinema with TSO & BFF. Oh my! You must get out to see it. I am a massive Indiaphile but it is a wonderful film; aside from its reminding me of extraordinary years of holidays in India, spent with a hotelier love and his family & friends. Dames Maggie Smith and Judy Dench were the only 2 who could get me back into the cinema, which I abhor. Thanks Kath and Jin for making me go. Cried tears of joyful reminiscence through much of it. Did I mention popcorn?

PASSAGE D’ENFER by L’ARTISAN PARFUMEUR

This 1999 release from L’Artisan Parfumeur begins like a very expensive, freshly opened packet of incense, you can even smell the wood stick that the incense is on. The lily is quietly flowing around but barely there. Passage D’Enfer is very cool and quiet on me. Although it does get louder as it warms up it never really does much more than make me smell better if you are nuzzling me, lots of people like that, I want to be able to smell myself though. Honestly, I wear perfume 100% selfishly. Good for you if you can smell me but I really want to enjoy an olfactoric ride. Passage D’Enfer is gorgeous, I wonder if a second or third try would help me to notice it more? I shall do so at my leisure, if anything changes you guys will be the first to know.

Photo Stolen from L’Artisan Parfumeur

A perfect fragrance phobic work scent. I have to douse myself in Passage D’Enfer by L’Artisan Parfumeur to know that I am perfumed but I do get delicate and wonderful little whiffs on and off.

UPDATE: Funnily, I have read that this fragrance does not last, but on my usually scent-hungry skin I’m getting 3-4 hours and it is MUCH lovelier now than when I first applied. At the 8 hour mark there is the same whisper that it started with. I have underestimated and misread this perfume and will definitely be giving it another go. It’s almost as if my nose had to become accustomed to the quiet dignity and fragility of this sheer but lovely scent.

So that was Monday, on Wednesday morning I have given myself another spray and this perfume seems more robust in the 10 degree celsius that it did in 20 degrees on Monday. Interesting. I am getting a whole panoply of nuances that I just didn’t detect on first application. OMG! This is a gem, so subtle and SEXY. I can now imagine this as a dinner or, um, you-know-what scent. It definitely has a whisper of the temptress or hunter about it. Warm, spicy, woody and deep. I am LOVING Passage D’Enfer on the revisit. As you know i think all perfume is unisex but this one is so wearable by both sexes that if you are in a mixed sex relationship you’ll both be fighting for the bottle.

Photo Stolen from peter-pho2.com

I really enjoyed the review by Now Smell This and Fragrantica has the notes, accords and reviews.

Vegan Curry

This has nothing to do with perfume and I am a total meat eater but this is my go-to curry, it’s also good just in case you are unsure of your guests dietary requirements, and excellent for ready meals that last a week in your fridge. And SO CHEAP!

Ingredients

  • 4 washed small potatoes cut into 1cm cubes
  • 1 large onion cut into wedges
  • 1 cup split peas (any colour but I used yellow last night)
  • 1 cup broccoli florets in 1-2cm pieces
  • 1 cup mushrooms sliced
  • 2 zucchini halved and cut into 1cm pieces
  • 1 teaspoon iodised salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
  • 2 teaspoon cumin seeds
  • 2 large cloves garlic thinly sliced
  • 4 fresh green chillies slice thinly across, keep seeds
  • 1 tablespoon plain flour
  • 1 teaspoon prefab crushed ginger ginger
  • 1 tablespoon prefab lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon rice bran oil
  • 1/2 cup boiling water

Cooking

  1. Prepare all ingredients; leave vegetables in bowls of lightly salted water.
  2. Wash, rub and drain split peas 3 times or till water is clear-ish.  Add 4 cups water to split peas and bring to boil on med heat. Skim foam.
  3. Drain potatoes and add to peas. Return to boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered 5 mins.
  4. Stir in drained broccoli, zucchini and mushrooms with salt. Return to boil, reduce to simmer, cover and cook 10 mins.
  5. Heat oil in pan over med-high heat. Add cumin seeds 20 seconds, stir in garlic, chillies and turmeric 1 minute.
  6. Stir the cooked vegetables into garlic/chilli mix in pan.
  7. Whisk flour in mug with some boiling water until smooth. Stir into vegetables.
  8. Add ginger and lemon juice.
  9. Increase heat to med-high and stir continuously 1 minute.

Serve with Rice and Roti (we buy our Roti frozen and pan fry)

Youth-Dew by Joséphine Catapano for Estée Lauder 1953

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Today was odd because Monday was a public holiday and so things started out with me realising the bins had not been put out (my job) and that we have a very full bin already, how were we going to last the week? Not to mention that it’s already high on the whiffo meter!

On a brighter note Evie C and I got together and discussed strategy, weekends, partners, kids (hers), Trivia Nights (mine), fragrances and best of all all the wonderful interviews we have lined up over the coming Mondays, interspersed with all my palaver on other days. So what was I wearing today?

Youth-Dew by Joséphine Catapano for Estée Lauder 1953

The box. Pale aqua, gold and white, the box is old school of the best and worst kind. 70s-80’s classy. Is it tongue in cheek? Are they messing with me? Should I hate it/love it/loathe it. I can’t tell. I am ambivalent, violently opposed forces within me trying to reconcile this box that would look correct in a thrift store or a penthouse armoire. Who do they think they are selling this juice to? It’s schizophrenic marketing to me.The bottle too, with that dickie little bow. I LOVE IT! Although I know it’s awful. Or is it? Bugger, another 15 minutes wasted as I hold the damn bottle up and try to decide whether I adore or abhor it.

Photo Stolen from BaseNotes

In 1953, Youth Dew was released. That is 60 years ago. It was Estee Lauder’s first attempt at fragrance and came as a bath oil. It is a hot, sexy and spicy Oriental. Unashamed at its stupendous wafts of glamour and alluring mystique. A powerhouse perfume that takes courage, poise and a certain savoir faire to be able to pull it off. At the time it bucked the norm, and anyone who dares to wear it today in the face of a multitude of clean musks and sheer scents says loud and proud that they are a contender. Unafraid of you and your wishy washy nothings, no matter how gorgeously crafted and close to the skin it is (see below). So glamorous, seductive and spirited that it was Joan Crawford’s scent of choice! When I wear Youth Dew I feel as though I can rule the world, and that I am decidedly perfumed.

What is it like, I hear you think?

Well it opens with a big fat aldehydic, fruity, spicy, citrus that runs laps around you and plays the cymbals, drums and trumpet in your nose and brain. This fragrance has balls. Almost obnoxious, it is saved by its own good breeding. as the opening notes soften off we are gifted with a sparkly, spicy, almost spiky, floriental that is both red hot and cool green. An oriental fragrance that smells like no part of Asia that I’ve ever been to or sniffed. The spices and incense we come across here are also nothing like we are offered nowadays, it is viscous and luscious. I can’t get the words on the paper. This is perfume! If you ever wanted to take over a room, banquet, board meeting, or country; if you ever wanted to be remembered for the searing and glorious scent that you, and only you, of your age group wears, then this little Mo Fo is the one for you. Currently the aged are having it all to themselves. Try it, this is living.

Fragrantica gives you the details and NowSmellThis did a review back in 2007 that is still worth a look.

ELLIE Eau De Parfum by ELLIE D

Firstly and amusingly, is this name supposed to remind me of LED Lights? Great drag name.

Ellie D donates a portion of its proceeds to entrepreneurs in developing world through www.kiva.com (100% of every dollar you lend on KIVA goes directly towards funding loans; KIVA does not take a cut. Furthermore, KIVA does not charge interest to our Field Partners, who administer the loans)

Photo Stolen from LuckyScent

Ellie EDP came in my February LuckyScent showbag. If you join the mailing list they send you an invitation to order their new stuff in a sample pack. It’s quite addictive because the give you .7 of a ml of each fragrance (I think they should do a 2ml set for those of us who need a couple of wears to become addicted, I’d be willing to pay the extra for the privilege) to try for a day. It keeps you up to date with the newest trends, is pretty inexpensive and is delivered to your door. Be careful though, you will like a few of them. I’ve been so distracted by other stuff though that I have only just got to the February showbag, sorry folks.

Let’s talk about the product then. It is a sheer floral in the modern style. People who are reviewing it say that it harks back to the old days of perfume, enormous florals, great big burst of….. BULLSHIT!! On me it is a severely cool floral, sheer and fresh. It is a luminous, fairy lit, musky floral with a hint of citrus and twig. It will shimmer around you rather than perfume you, does that make sense? I think this is a perfume for people who either don’t really like perfume, or perhaps young (or young at heart) girls who like to smell fresh and lovely, or even workers who need to not broadcast that they are fragrant. Compared to other sheer scents like SJP Lovely and Royal Apothis, City of Angels this is even quieter, and almost milky, but up close is gorgeous. I have a girlfriend I’ve earmarked this sample for, Alice will smell so pretty in it, I’m sure.

Photo Stolen from LetterShop_NYC

For me this is too refined and soft. I understand that many of you like to be dressed in sheerest of sheer but for me it defeats the purpose of being scented. I think as my nose gets more refined that these scents may become more differentiated but currently they are all much of a muchness and practically interchangeable. As lovely, soft and dewy as Ellie is I can’t see why it needed to be produced at all with such a plethora of similar scent in the marketplace. Sorry. Although they are slightly improved in my eyes through their generous donations to KIVA, there is no percentage given and a one off donation of $25 could facilitate the tag line.

LuckyScent has a great review, notes etc and you can buy from them, PerfumeSmellingThings agrees with me but says it better; AromaScope says something else.

Thanks for sharing what’s in my stinky old mind. Glad to have you along,

Portia xx

 

Cuir Pleine Fleur, Knize Ten; Cher Uninhibited LIVE Video Sniff; Reviews

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 8 Comments

Hey all,

It’s Easter Sunday and I was LAZY, LAZY, LAZY!! Lolled around in bed this morning, had brunch and basically let the world pass me by till it was time to put my Blogging and Trivia hats on.

While I was having my lovely lazy day I thought I’d try a couple of new to me scents from the leather family. Leather is my favourite note in a fragrance, I love the feeling that it gives me.

Photo Stolen from BridlewoodEquestrian

From my childhood horses and tack, leather driving gloves that my Dad had, leather golfing gloves that my Mum had, her new handbags or shoes, the formative years provided that super delicious scent of new leather couches and car interiors, my first ever, and only, leather jacket (in exquisitely soft and subtle, almost rubbery, sheep hide that was stolen from my car and I have not been able to bring myself to replace because I loved it so much and nothing will ever feel the same),

Photo Stolen from BLUFER

getting my groove on with sexy hairy chested muscle men in leather partywear,

Photo Stolen from TheTickleCompany

nowadays the subtle but delicious fragrance of new boots, belts, bags, the list goes on and on.

KNIZE TEN by KNIZE

Released all the way back in 1924 Knize (you pronounce it kah-neesh-ah) Ten’s 90th birthday is around the corner. This is a “Perfumes the A-Z Guide” by Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez 5 star worthy offering. OH YES IT IS! This is exactly how I like to smell from top to bottom. It is a flowery, woody, leather, it has grunt, smells like a very expensive barber shop fragrance and lasts for ages, gradually warming itself on your skin till you wish it was on someone else so you could tell them how frigging delicious they smell and give them a great big snog, before you tear their clothes off and…

Photo Stolen from engrandepompe

Sorry, I had to go and have a cup of tea. Twinings’ Australian Afternoon to calm myself.

I put this on my right arm this morning and have given my neck a crick bending in to whiffle it so often. Cor blimey! I really like this.

Photo Stolen from Fragrantica

Opening with greens, citrus and herbs Knize Ten quickly moves away to the flowers, woods, musk, moss and leather for me, warming up with amber and an almost caramel flavoured vanilla as it progresses over hours and hours. I have reapplied to write to you tonight at 9pm Australian EST but could still have written from my arm because this yummy scent was still extant as a warm and sexy fragrance, not loud but discernibly not me. This could be the bulletproof fragrance for me. The one that helps stiffen your spine on those cowardly lion days.

You want the notes, accords and real people reviews? Fragrantica is your spot. Want to know a lot about how it is? Reviews that I read from YesterdaysPerfume and NowSmellThis filled in what I have left out. If you want to buy it LuckyScent will have it back in mid April.

CUIR PLEINE FLEUR by JAMES HEELEY

When I first sprayed Cuir Pleine Fleur it was musty morning wake up and ooh I smelled a leather and citrus cocktail, spiky and abrasive, yummy. I had enormously high hopes for a scruffy but refined journey through a magical wonderland. But no. I felt that the scent left me in about an hour except for this almost nothing, barely there memory of Muscs Koublai Khan-ishness that I tried the other day. Like scent resonance, as if the ultimate dry down of it had been reached a few days later, to near invisibility in this other fragrance.

Photo Stolen from JamesHeeley

Don’t get me wrong, this scent IS delicious. It is also interesting. Like new expensive leather gloves left overnight in a freshly turned and fertilised garden bed featuring an orange tree and fragrant shrubs in full bloom, maybe down the back near the old incinerator. For an hour. Then it becomes a skin scent. Way too quiet for me and my unresponsive nose.

Photo Stolen from BaseNotes

Something that should be noted though is TSO Jin thought Cuir Pleine Fleur was the winner out of todays 2 scents. Funny isn’t it? Oh well, if he likes it so much, he can buy it.

If he wanted to he could buy it at LuckyScent where there is also a beautiful description of the fragrance, better than I can give you and PerfumeNiche, where I got my samples for today, has a lovely story about first sniffing Cuir Pleine Fleur in James Heeley’s studio and review.

UNINHIBITED by CHER

A couple of weeks ago I got my hands on a very special vintage coffret of Uninhibited by Cher. My friend David/Margeaux (who just happens to be Cher’s greatest ever fan) and I decided to do a video presentation of it, I hope you enjoy watching as much as we enjoyed making it for you. Video shot and edited by my BFF Kath and cyber-tech work done by TSO Jin.

The Cher Uninhibited fragrance was lovely but I think the Body Lotion had turned due to air, or bottle, exposure because it smelled like plastic after 20 min’s and was IMPOSSIBLE to get off my skin.

Thanks for wandering around inside my fragrant thoughts today, see you tomorrow for Evie C’s update!

Portia xx

Bottega Veneta Review, WINNER ANNOUNCED

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 5 Comments

Hey gang,

Well it has been a lovely day here, sunny, warm and delightful. Better than most of our summer here in Sydney. We spent it extremely lazily, couching, Sleeping, a bit of house re arrangement then off to the Greyhound Races. Awesome day. We even had a couple of wins. I even have a lovely greyhound bitch as a pet, Gucci is her name, and also retrain greyhounds for living with families. So, yes, I do know about the awful and tragic way they are treated after their racing career is over, but it is getting better and we are making a difference, dog by dog. If you have any interest in rehoming a lovely greyhound please get in touch with Greyhound Rescue here in Sydney, Australia. Best pets ever.

My greyhounds

Recently I ordered a bunch of sample sized fragrances in sets from The Perfume Niche and in with my lovely samples came a couple of surprises. One of those was a small manufacturers sample of Bottega Veneta EDT and what a surprise. I had been reading gorgeous things about this particular fragrance and was fully prepared to fall in love due to its notes and the favourable stuff being written by all and sundry.

Photo Stolen from Fragrantica

When I first put it on though I was MASSIVELY disappointed because there was no fragrance there at all. I felt like I’d been completely cheated by all these awesome reports and thought that maybe the perfume world was playing an enormous joke on all of us no knowledge dunderheads, like the Emperor’s new clothes. So frankly I was a little bit peeved and went to the bedroom and used Gwen Stefani’s L LAMB body lotion on my arms so at least I could feel like I had something glorious upon my self. I was GRRR McGRRR. Off we trotted to the Greyhounds and I’d been there about half an hour and I started smelling this incredible sweet, floral leather scent and was looking around to see who had such ridiculously good taste in perfume, could it have been TSO Jin, Bestie Alice or one other of the crew? I asked and no luck. There was no one in the vicinity that fit my idea of scent whore, fume head or even perfumista, which made it even more intriguing, was it in fact one of the laddish blokes or swamp donkeyish girlfriends, could it be one of an elderly couple, that super hot drooly drooly poorly dressed handsome clueless guy. Then I leaned over in my chair to look further afield and a great big gust of glorious flew up my polo shirt. OMG! It was me. I smelled gorgeous, leathery and sweet all at once. This fragrance is not big but it is beautiful and persistent. I’ve now been wearing Bottega Vanetta for 6 hours and I smell better than ever. I could wear this baby for anything, this would be office, party, dinner, sex date, kids from school, walk down the back yard or watch TV scent, and it would not be out of place doing any of these. What a fragrance. Nobody is telling fibs when they praise this perfume, it is all that and a bag of chips. Try it only if you have spare money to purchase, you’ll buy it and be glad you did.

Now Smell This does an awesome review with some extra reading tags within, Fragrantica has the accords, notes and people reviews.

This weeks winner of our spectacular Giveaway Competition for

We are giving away approximately

1.5ml JINX by Tommi Sooni decanted spray sample

1.5ml L’Eau D’Ambre by L Artisan Parfumeur decanted spray sample

1.5ml City of Angels by Royal Apothic decanted spray sample

1.5ml Fantasia de Fleurs by Creed decanted spray sample

1ml Fig by Aftelier Perfumes remains of manufacturers sample spray

plus postage and packing to anywhere in the world

is Dionne. YAY!! DIONNE! WHOO WHOO!!

You have till Wednesday night to get in touch with an address so I can send you your prize. CONGRATULATIONS!!

To all our other contestants, Thank you. I love reading your stories and they all would have won in a perfect world. There will be another weekly GIVEAWAY COMPETITION next Thursday.

Aussie Fragrance Day.

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 14 Comments

Hi all,

Well it’s Good Friday and the shops are ALL closed. OMG! Well almost all, we went a nearby Korean grocery store and got everything except bread, which we forgot because we are dumb asses. Happy and safe Easter to all those who care about such things.

Photo Stolen from HomesSchoolsOases

So I’ve taken the chance today to try a couple of recent purchases that arrived on my doorstep from within this glorious country, Australia. We have a burgeoning fragrance industry down here and Evie C and I would like to find as many companies, groups or even solo perfumers in Australia as we can and hopefully help to create more of a community. We’d like also to meet and talk to any that are interested and find out bunches about them all and how they got to be perfumers and where their dreams are taking them. I know our Aussie readers love to hear about our own and I’m pretty sure that all over the world they’ll be inspired.

This dream is not, of course, just for Aussie perfumers. We want to meet and grill them all.

HOPE by ONE SEED

A delicious citrus opening, so sweet, spicy and sparkly it (you know pear, rocket and parmesan salad where the pear has been dipped in lemon to hold its colour and then a sprinkling of balsamic vinegar? That is exactly what I’m smelling, my mouth is watering from this fragrance). They call this a meditative scent on their site but I feel perky and ready for anything. About 40 minutes later while the citrus is still playing descant quietly, the woods and vanilla have moved in, I don’t get lavender but my nose can be unresponsive at times. This is a bright and alluring scent, a constant intriguing dichotomy between the citrus and warm dark sweetness, it’s nearly 2 hours since first spritz and still powering away on my, usually scent hungry, skin. It changes its mood and tone constantly, offering different depths and layers of scent harmonies, now showing lime, now vanilla, now woods. I had no idea of how good this fragrance would be and am madly impressed, this could be the citrus I’ve been looking for to add to my fragrance wardrobe. I will spend a week trying my sample.

One Seed is a super cool crew from Adelaide, Australia that use 100% botanical, nothing synthetic and are organic-focused and GMO-free (genetically modified organisms) headed by Liz Cook (stay tuned for Evie C’s interview coming soon) that gives 10% of all profits to charities close to their hearts. Snaps! Here’s what they have to say about Hope.

Hope EDP

Hope eau de parfumPhoto Stolen from OneSeedCompany.com

Fragrance Family: Soft, mossy & magnetic.

A meditative blend of Australian sandalwood & dewy oakmoss, with a delicate undertone of lavender & cedarwood, and sunny citrus accents.

Top notes: bergamot, lime Heart notes: cedarwood, lavender, vanilla

Base notes: Australian sandalwood, oakmoss, musk ambrette

Hope available at ONE SEED in 50ml and 5ml bottles or you can get the complete 7 x 1ml sample set from ETSY for AUS$28

SANDALWOOD VANILLA by INNER EARTH

GOSH! Sandalwood, Vanilla and Patchouli! So simple, an oil based 10ml roll on but it is so damn gorgeous, and affordable beyond your wildest dreams. Like the sweet, woodsy, dry down of some very expensive big name perfumes (which is often my favourite bit and I wish it was stronger) but all at once and lasts eternally! I have been wafting discretely and delectably through the house and enjoying this big, quiet, cuddly, sweet, furry fragrance. After about 3 hours you are left with a vanilla candy ice cream. it’s now over 5 hours and I am still sweetly delicious, Sandalwood Vanilla has now an amber-ish, musky depth that is so quiet but still discernible. Honestly, I can’t get over how good this smells for so little money. You must try this.

Erin, the brain behind Inner Earth says

The Sandalwood Vanilla perfume oil is a blend of fragrance and essential oils in a light base of fractionated coconut oil. The notes are sandalwood, vanilla and patchouli. That’s it! Over time I have completely gotten rid of my spray perfumes and just use perfume oils … I find them a softer, more understated way of wearing perfume, plus they’re moisturising and easy to pop into your handbag 🙂

Photo Stolen from InnerEarthSoaps.com.au

Inner Earth Soaps are based in Bondi, Sydney, Australia (of Bondi Beach fame) and are famous for interesting and quirky bath soaps handcrafted in the traditional cold process method and use only sustainable palm oil. I came to them because I was looking for a non chocolate Easter present for my BFF Kath who has lost 35kgs (I know, AH MAY ZING!!!) and has to be careful not to fall back into bad habits. Trolling the web I came across the Inner Earth Ducky Soap and thought, ‘It’s almost a chicky” and so that’s what she got. It has already graced her enormous spa bath and passed all tests for cuteness, fragrance and cleanliness.

Photo stolen from InnerEarthSoaps.com.au

Thank you all so much for sharing what’s inside my mind today, don’t forget our GIVEAWAY COMPETITION is drawn tomorrow night, so easy and you could win a swag of perfumes to try.

I was supposed to have a special video tonight of my mate Margeaux and I doing a video review but there has been a technical hiccup, hopefully resolved by tomorrow.

In its place I offer you this extremely gorgeous 2 minute extravaganza featuring our own Nicole Kidman

Eau de Sud / Muscs Koublai Khan Reviews

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 24 Comments

Hey gang,

Today I’m trying 2 new scents

Eau De Sud by Annick Goutal

eau-du-sud-annick-goutal-fragranticaFragrantica

 

Eau de Sud according to the Annick Goutal site, and I think they’re pretty spot on;

A symphony of citrus accords melts into slightly peppery and woody notes. Mandarin orange, bergamot, verbena, mint and basil. An invigorating trail of scent that recalls the creator’s voyages to Provence and Tuscany.

It is a 1996 unisex fragrance and both the mens and womens bottles contain the same stuff, usually you can find the mens at a much better price online. Citrus is not something I wear very much so I am looking to put one in the fragrance wardrobe. It starts out beautifully tart and crisp and whipish, at about the 15 minute mark it starts to warm for me, maybe the sandalwood and vanilla making an early appearance, it has maintained a pretty linear dry down and at 2.5 hours is barely there, almost just smelling a prettier me.

As always Fragrantica is my go to for the basic notes & accords with real people reviews and Now Smell This gives a more in depth and interesting review.

 

Musc Koublai Khan by Serge Lutens,

Sir Edward John Pointer, The visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon photo stolen from AGNSW

Muscs Koublai Khan by Serge Lutens is one of the fragrances often referred to on the scentbloggosphere as a reference fragrance for sexy, dark and dirtiness. There is said to be a great disparity between the bell jar original and the export versions and unfortunately I don’t have 2 for comparison and as I am using a sample from Perfume Niche there is no way of telling which one I have. Honestly though, I don’t smell anything even remotely sexual, dirty or dark. I smell deliciously deep patchouli, amber and musk, I think. It is warm and resinous like wood that’s just been waxed and polished but it does stay that way for hours, gloriously. I like Muscs Koublai Khan a LOT!! I think I will order 10mls and really give it a whirl.

Fragrantica has the important stuff and Confessions Of A Mad Perfumista and BoisDeJasmin offer 2 very different reactions to the whole mystery and mystique of this fragrance

What an awesome and fragrant week I’ve had. Just looking back through the stuff that I’ve sniffed and what you’ve read doesn’t even cover half of it. I think I should have asked Evie C if we could have called the blog ScentWhores or StinkPigs because it’s like having to write a food diary to show you how much you eat. Blogging has woken me to the fact that I am Scent-ual. I hope you are enjoying the ride.

It’s Thursday and that means GIVEAWAY COMPETITION time. you have to tell us the last perfume you tried that was full bottle worthy, why and did you buy it yet. The winner will be judged on Saturday night 7.3.12 around 10pm Sydney EST

We are giving away approximately

1.5ml JINX by Tommi Sooni decanted spray sample

1.5ml L’Eau D’Ambre by L Artisan Parfumeur decanted spray sample

1.5ml City of Angels by Royal Apothic decanted spray sample

1.5ml Fantasia de Fleurs by Creed decanted spray sample

1ml Fig by Aftelier Perfumes remains of manufacturers sample spray

plus postage and packing to anywhere in the world

ALSO you need to go and read TheCandyPerfumeBoy today he has been chhosing scents for that Nicki Minaj songstress that I LOVE!

Just for fun I’ve added this L’Instant Guerlain ad because…..

After Dinner Sniff

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 8 Comments

Hey Hey,

How are you all? All good here. Really, deliciously good and well and happy. I hope you are too, if not, it gets better.

A few mates were around for dinner the other night and I thought we’d try something fun and different. Usually it’s word games but TSO (the significant other) is ESL (English second language) so not really fun or fair for him. This night it was decided that I’d bring five very different fragrances out and we’d all get to chose four each, because that’s all our wrists and elbows covered, yeah? A special thanks to Alice, Jin and Sam for their help. Mwaaa

I have a confession to make, I was boozy. Not drunk but certainly unable to drive, speaking was OK thinking was fuzzy.

Photo stolen from Omag

Trying to be ever so scientific, and making a complete balls of it, I wrote our initials under the 5 scents and was to put the body placement after the initials, so each of us could put three words with each of our choices. To that point we were good. we all sprayed with gay abandon and gave our arms a minute to settle, then I realised I’d put Alice in my spaces and had to rework the whole thing. By the time we’d sorted me out the fragrances had shed their top notes and begun to live. We are none of us trained in perfume nor are we sophisticated when it comes to perfumes yet but this was a lot of fun and we all had a red hot go, and a laugh.

The perfumes

JINX EDP by Tommi Sooni (a pretty new Australian outfit that looks set for the big time)

Photo Stolen from Tommi Sooni

The group was most impressed with this one. It is the most perfumey to my mind. A lovely big floral opening with the aldehydes singing beautifully. All perfumes that open with aldehydes give me a Chanel No. 5 rush at the beginning that I LOVE. Like being strapped into a ride at a fun park, all the expectation of fun and fear but ready for anything. Jinx has a fig standing right in the middle of its high notes too and is a little more spicy in my nose than No 5, maybe its the ginger? This is an extremely wearable fragrance and pretty. After an hour on my hungry skin it is very close to the body, quiet enough that you could wear it to work even in a cramped office, but without being a clean or laundry scent. It has a vintage and rich feel with modern spice. For someone who wants to smell deliciously and nonchalantly gorgeous.

Some of our words were; Floral, Secretive, Lotion, Serenade, Cleaner, Soap, Fleeting, Soft, Moonlight

Photo Stolen from Tommi Sooni

Fragrantica has notes and no one on the first 3 pages of Google have reviewed other than to repeat manufacturers press releases.

FIG EDP by Aftelier Perfumes (Mandy Aftel is a perfumer and perfumery teacher)

Photo Stolen from Aftelier Perfumes

This is a big fat spicy fig with pastry and some booze. Oh my! This is sexy and powerful. The group though was polarised. It was a definate love/hate scent with one person having to wash it off. Honesty compels me to admit to this being my favourite sample of the night. I could not, and can not, get enough of it. Putting it back on to review now I am absolutely and utterly transported. Oh dear, FBW! A little update, after 6 hours I still have Aftelia Fig powering away, very linear, almost the same as when I spritzed but quieter. MMMMM

The group came up with these; (Dry) Sauna, Spicy, Warm, Dirty, 70’s, Heat

Photo Stolen from Aftelier Perfumes

Fragrantica can give you notes and history Olfactory Obsessed Purple Paper Planes both give almost the same polarised views that we had here after dinner, I love that.

MURE & MUSC EXTREME by L’Artisan Parfumeur

Photo Stolen from L’Artisan Perfumeur

This was really popular at our dinner table. I hadn’t tried it till now because it was the fragrance that everyone else wanted to try.To me it smells like expensive room freshener. Sorry. My skin and nose clearly reacts differently to my friends who raved about Mure & Musc Extreme. Interesting that two people at the table wrote vanilla and lemon but there’s no note of either, just Blackcurrant, Blueberry and Musk.

The table wrote: Young, Vanilla, Light, Beautiful, Lemony, Moody, Challenging

Photo Stolen from http://www.achat-grenoble.com

Fragrantica for the background Now Smell This tells about the whole Mure & Musc series, interesting reading.

UNE ROSE by Frederic Malle

Photo Stolen from Mecca Cosmetics

This is a famous, go to Rose scent. Talk about it includes the incorporation of the whole rose, petal, leaf, stem and root. It is deliciously dark to me and packs an enormous punch, I am LOVING how loud this fragrance is today. I remember the other night that this lasted well on my skin and though it changed over time, maintained its uneasy dark/light ambivalence. This is something you should try for your own pure enjoyment. I’m not sure I would purchase a bottle of Une Rose but I think a 5-10ml decant would get used in 12 months.

Some of the tables words: Strong, Bitter, Dark, Rose, Old, Amazing

Photo Stolen from Frederic Malle

Fragrantica for the details and Perfume Smelling Things does an awesome review including interesting perfumer notes

01 LE MAROC POUR ELLE by Tauer Perfumes (Niche perfumeries nice guy, sidelining in genius)

Photo Stolen from NosyGirl

This was Andy Tauer’s first fragrance and it is amazing that he could make this incredible scent. Le Maroc Pour Elle (Morocco for Girls) is a warm, woody and spicy floral, lasts forever on my skin and wanders through its life quite linearly till eventually I get to the base which is deep, dark and sweet. This fragrance is not for the faint-hearted, it is bold.

A very interesting blend from the table: Intriguing, Leather, Pooh, Calming, Wood, Spicy, Incense,  Rubbish, Fetid, Punchy

Photo Stolen from Tauer Perfumes

Fragrantica has this to say and Legerdenez wrote way back in 2006.

Here is a present for reading this far. I love this commercial. J’Adore DIOR

Scents Of Memory, Big Time Floral Self Love!

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 5 Comments

Hey all,

Wasn’t Evie C’s blog awesome yesterday? I am so happy for her. Now that she is enthroned in her new home (read Cape Cod Mansion. Party at Evie C’s!!!) we’ll be seeing an Evie C post every Monday!! YAY!

I have a bunch of fragrances that I wear only for myself, even though I may be wearing them in company. They are either personal memory jogs, scents that are too out there for close contact with other human beings on a number of different levels, fragrances that I feel like certain internally different people when I wear them (a bit like the United Fragrances Of Tara) or maybe just because I don’t want to be interrupted while enjoying the story they tell me in olfactoric terms. I know, I just invented a word, call me William Shakespeare and paint me plum. This is not a complete list but a smattering of ones I’ve put on today and yesterday.

Byzance by Rochas; In 1987 this perfume was released and my parents bought it for my younger sister. It is a dizzying Floral Chypre confection full of spices, woods and flowers. Byzance has such gusto and is quite a force of nature. So 80’s in its size and character that it is almost a parody. When I put it on it fills the room with memories. Mum used to steal it too and when both girls were wearing Byzance the whole house smelled like it had been transported to my idea, at the time, of a night market in India, Saudi Arabia or Persia. With dancing women wearing enormous copper jeweled bracelets and gauzy nothings and the mustachioed men all armed and dangerous. I recently bought a replacement 100ml EDT bottle that is so far inferior to my last Mini EDP that it fair makes me want to weep. I have corrected the error this evening ordering a BIG, FAT 100ml EDP. Budget BLOWN! We are not eating till next Friday, we’ll have to scour the suburbs bins for left overs. Fragrantica and Bonkers About Perfume can give you notes and stories and reviews.

Sung by Alfred Sung; In 1986 the world was first graced with this huge Classic Floral. It is like wearing a jewel bright, shoulder padded jacket with a peplum and gold buttons, spike heels and has a certain breath of air in the hair. Unlike Byzance though, Sung is dreamy and floaty, there is no earth or spice market, just fruit, flowers and sky. Nothing smoky here. It is flowers and the lightest of woods, vanilla and balms. I always feel transported somewhere beautiful when I wear Sung. It has probably been reformulated 100 times but all those past formulations I have no reference for, sorry, this Sung is the one. A bright coruscating trill of warm summer that leaves me dazzled by its effervescent radiance. This is a good Nana nap fragrance for me, I can really lose myself in the scent as I drift off. What’s more, this juice is CHEAP! Fragrantica and Fragrance Bouquet have the nitty gritty and stories, go see them, you’ll learn stuff.

Salvador Dali  by Salvador Dali; We seem to be jumping back in time by a year for each of these scents, and here we are in 1985! Here we have a rerun of a fragrant milestone. Salvador Dali and his perfumista wife Gala had designed this glorious Floral Chypre together before she tragically died in 1983, it was so successful as a limited edition that Dali decided to make it commercially available. I have only heard of the original scent and must content myself with the modern remake until I win the lottery. It is hardly a settle for though. Rose, citrus, musk and jasmine with a breathy vanilla and musk all give a lighter and lovelier tone and is a little more modern than our last 2 offerings, though it does have a slightly grungy undertone if you look for it. There is air between the notes here giving it room to show itself to best advantage. Very linear and it is not a long lasting scent, maximum 2 hours on my skin, which is great because by then I want a change usually. I am sending you to the Fragrantica Dali page, the whole Dali shebang.

Lastly I want to offer you a fragrance that came to me through another love. A few years ago one of the guys I was in ballet school with as a kid made it into the Vienna State Opera Ballet. At the time I was living in the UK so it was the work of a moment to trot over and spend a week with him. Hey David! Of course, he was at rehearsals all day so I was largely left to explore a foreign city alone and without the local language, not even a sprinkling. Fortunately Vienna at that time was a lavish and glorious city with friendly, welcoming people who were used to language dunderheads coming up to them and trying to make themselves understood. It was not a big city then either and mostly you kept within walking distance of the Ringstrasse when doing touristy stuff, so I felt cocooned within a friendly and safe environment. So that is how I met and fell in love with Empress Elisabeth, on my solitary wanders around Vienna. Something she would become famous for as her madness descended into its depths, walking till she dropped of exhaustion. Famed as the most beautiful woman in Europe at the time, the first at the jumps in the hunt (riding side saddle no less), an exercise junkie who had terrible trouble getting to sleep, Creed made a perfume especially for her. It was Fantasia de Fleurs. As soon as I found out the story of this perfume I wanted it in my fragrance wardrobe. It is the most hauntingly beautiful perfume I own, certainly not everyone’s cup of tea. Surprising that the Empress was wearing a bouquet of flowers, rose and iris, rather than a soliflor and it is tooth achingly sweet. As with most Creed perfumes, fleeting, at most I get an hour of scent but the joy of holding this heavy embossed bottle and spritzing with abandon is enormous, so spritz again right. Fragrantica and I Smell Therefore I Am will give you notes, breakdowns and buying ideas, Abigail is also the Posh Peasant where you can get samples and decants of these and a gazillion other things.

I’m thrilled you’ve shared my fragrant thoughts today. Do you have a selfish perfume that you wear only for you but sometimes in company? Please tell us in the comments. We are dying to read your secret loves,

Portia xxx

All photos today are stolen from Fragrantica with these exceptions

Byzance ad stolen from PharmacyAtHand

Sung stolen from stylebugs

Empress Elisabeth stolen from Wikipedia

I am not affiliated with any of the companies I mention in my posts.

City of Angels by Royal Apothic

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 6 Comments

Hiya,

Thanks for dropping by.

Photo stolen from LayoutSparks.com

Recently at the Smell Good, Do Good sale (still going with awesome stuff available at knock down prices, NO POSTAGE COSTS) I purchased for a ridiculous price a nearly full bottle of 2010 release; City of Angels by Royal Apothic. It was the gorgeous Arielle from Scents of Self that I bought it from and she does a great review here. There has been so much sniffing, dabbing, spraying, whiffing, wafting and general stinkery going on here that I’ve not had a chance to really wear, let alone write about this little gem. And then in my head I go, “Is it a little gem?” I am ambivalent, utterly, and most unlike me, things around here are usually love/hate. There is little space in my head for gray areas. I am too busy (read lazy) for reevaluating and re-deciding stuff every time it crosses my path. Unfortunately I don’t have that kind of personality.

Photo stolen from Fragrantica

Having worn this three, maybe four, times now; to work and at home while at the computer I think i have a handle on it. The initial rush of this fragrance is entrancing, like a citrus burst in a fresh juicing shop. Interestingly, there is no citrus in the notes. Fragrantica gives only 3 notes; Sea Water, Eucalyptus, Jasmine. That’s it? I rarely wear a scent so light and floaty, so decidedly feminine, and now that I can read the notes it does make sense, but my nose still believes there’s some citrus there. Perfect for not interfering with restaurant, public transport or cinema patrons. City of Angels will not be remembered for being anything but a good solid go-to fragrance, you know you will smell good, and inoffensive.

Photo stolen from YourCaringAngels.com

After an hour it is all but lost to me but  last night after finishing my gig and saying goodbye to 2 of the girls, they stopped after kissing me because the second had asked what perfume I was wearing and the first chimed in about how lovely I smelled and what was it. One of my favourite bar men had commented earlier but I find an early compliment, though astonishing and delicious in itself, often happens before the sillage has settled to a decent circumference after application. Its the compliments later in the evening that really need to be recorded for posterity.

This is a cheapy, cheap fragrance, just $34 at Royal Apothic. The bottle is so gorgeous with its choice of splash or atomiser in your box. There is quite a fuss about atomisers but because I’m heavy handed with fragrance anyway, and this one is very light and fresh (without feeling like a laundry scent), I can’t imagine the bottle lasting me through Autumn.

Anthropologie says and I think it must have been in the Press Release because Fragrantica is verbatim.

City of Angels: a seaside breeze of eucalyptus and night-blooming jasmine (FRESH)

Photo stolen from LayoutSparks.com

I could totally see this being used by guys and girls as their go to work, dinner or a lazy weekend fragrance. It’s clean and fresh without being the usual bland nothing that that implies. The jasmine is so crisp and eucalyptus so clean that people even in the most stayed and cramped office situations would find little to complain of, yet lovely and lingering enough to keep you feeling that you are fully dressed, including perfume. It does linger, even though I couldn’t smell it at all after 2 hours. Late this morning when we awoke I was told that a trace of some yummy smell, not me, was there but close to the body. So that’s 17 hours. Impressive for something that initially feels so fleeting and wafty.

Thanks for reading what’s in my mind,

What’s in your mind? Do you have a go-to clean scent? Is there a memory or favourite clean scent story you’d like to share? I’d love to read it, so leave me a message.

Portia xx

2 COMPETITION WINNERS!!

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 1 Comment

Hey gang,

We have 2 WINNERS!!! Thanks to everyone who entered. We loved getting your messages but there can only be one winner for both of these competitions sadly.

Photo stolen from WildBunchAdventures.com

The FIRST EXPENSIVE PERFUME SPLURGE COMPETITION winner is Alice!! Please get in touch so I can get this fantastic prize to you ASAP! If I don’t hear from you by Wednesday I’ll put ALL the fragrances on at once. Don’t make me go there.

A 1/4ml sample of La Via del Profumo “Oud Caravan No. 3″

A 1.5ml sample of Tommi Sooni “Tarantella”

A 1.5ml sample of Boucheron “Trouble edt” (now sadly discontinued, panned and greatly reviled. I LOVE IT!)

Photo stolen from SodaHead.com

The CELBUSCENT GIVEAWAY winner is MAUREEN!! Please get in touch Maureen with your address in the USA. You’ll be getting a super gorgeous parcel full of;

Aftelier Perfumes; 1.5ml manufacturers sample spray Haute Claire + Apricot and Lemon Candle in a Tin (one of my Smell Good Do Good buys that Mandy Aftel kindly gave to the cause)

Gucci; 2ml decanted sample spray Gucci by Gucci pour homme

Estee Lauder; 2ml decanted sample spray Brasil Dreams

Jessica Simpson; 2ml decanted sample spray Fancy Nights

LUSH Cosmetics; 1.5ml decanted sample spray Orange Blossom

plus postage and packing to anywhere in the world.

Photo stolen from Walton.org

I LOVE GIVEAWAYS!! There’ll be one next Thursday too.

Much love,

Portia xx