Portia

Scent Diary: 6.3 – 12.3.17

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Portia

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Hey Hey APJ,

It’s HOLIDAY week. I will try to get pics and stories onto this Scent Diary but when away it gets hard. Doing my best.

Scent Diary: 6.3 – 12.3.17

Monday 7:

BLOODY HELL. Today was BUSY! Finished work last night then came home to finish all the APJ posts. DONE at some ungodly hour. Spritzed some Niki de Saint Phalle and was asleep before the top notes had gone to heart.

Up early, spritzed Equistrius by Parfum d’Empire, saw Jin’s buddy Matt and then to the dentist for a check and clean. All good.

We were going to get public transport to the airport tomorrow but I rang my mate Lyndall and now we are having a Town Car collect us and drop us at the door. Pickup at 4.45am

Then it was Pedicure time. Red with white sparkles for the holiday. Tres festive. Before you say anything, YES, I know I have hairy Hobbit feet. No, I am not waxing them anymore, I like them. Don’t you think it’s more subversive to have painted nails as a hairy dude?

Home and cleaning the house. Dinner at 7pm. Jin made the makings of Vietnamese Rolls and the crew devoured them. It was a wonderful farewell dinner and we had ice creams and tea for dessert. Our friends are so wonderful and Jin made the most delicious dinner. THANK EVERYTHING for the dishwasher. Two loads and done.

Tuesday 8:

MORNING! Packed our bags, did this bit of blogging, having an Annick Goutal Encens Flamboyant bubble bath & spritzing IUNX Splash Forte and then (hopefully) getting 2 hours shut eye.

OUCH! That 4.20am wake up call was a killer. We are off.

Wednesday 9:

Flying. South Korea

Managed to gran the Guerlain Eau de Cologne Travel Set at Incheon Airport. I saw that it had come out but never in my wildest dreams expected to have it. YAY!!

Arrived in Prague!

The Front Desk women are friendly and helpful, sending us to this restaurant nearby that is so famous and full of locals that we had to go for a walk till our table was ready.

The old Town Square clock tower.

Thursday 10:

Prague.

Jin has picked us a perfect hotel, as usual. It’s an original Prague guest house, very olde worlde, 300m from the Central Rail Station and walking distance to everywhere.

 

Breakfast room in the hotel. Very glam.

Tea at the Opera House Cafe. Booked tickets for a classical mixed bag in the main hall tomorrow night.

Wandering the streets and every turn features beautiful old towers and roofings.

OK, so Jin & I thought we were wandering along the Danube but we were mistaken. Prague sits on the Vltava River. Even though we are dummies the walk was wonderful.

The Charles Bridge with its life sized christian statutory and a greyhound that people touch, so it shines golden against a drab background. People rub the loyal dog hoping to return to Prague one day.

Very interesting statue of fallen angels, screaming people and some pompous, smug, political looking guy seated at the front.

Jin loves to travel local when we are overseas. It’s only about AUD$5 a day for a metro, bus and tram ticket

Goulash for lunch with dumplings. YUM! Came with a beer each. Jin ordered cabbage salad and I grabbed some fries. All for the princely sum of AUD$20 for two.

At 3pm we though we better have a nap. I woke up at 10pm and now it’s 10.30pm. It;’s been great fun blogging but I think I’ll wake Jin and we can have a late night Prague ramble.

We just got home and Jin’s FitBit tells us we walked 19.6km today. BLOODY HELL! No wonder my feet are sore.

Friday 11:

BIGGEST DAY this holiday. Up at sparrows fart. Breakfast, wander the town, Mucha Museum, which was really good. Excellent video that taught us both so much about his life and works.

Then we bused off to Kutna Hora. First stop the creepy Bone church where some crazy bastard exhumed all the excess bones and made them into art. The story is a little more convoluted but sheesh, FREAKY!

Next it was St Barbara’s Cathedral. A very glam Gothic structure with towers and buttresses et al.

Next door is an old Jesuit college turned into a Modern Art Gallery. HIGHLIGHT!!

Jin loves Opera but there was none to be had during our stay. I bought us tickets to hear the Prague opera house String Octet play a mixed bag of classics. There were even a few that Jin knew so it was an excellent choice. Very nice evening and the opera house is lavishly decorated by Mucha. The first pic is a VERY excited Jin before we went in, how freaking cute is he?

Back home to our hotel. We really loved it and recommend it to you should you be staying in Prague. Reasonably priced, comfortable and so clean we thought the bathroom was brand new!

Saturday 12:

We were up bright and early again to get the 7.15am train but the hotel being only a 5 minute walk from the station made life easy. We bought first class tix so the first thing we got was a glass of Czech Bubbly! Posh.

Train travel is so civilised. No waiting in airports, dealing with customs, more roomy and there’s a BUFFET CAR!!

Arriving to see Jin’s brother and his wonderful family was so much fun and they had too much catching up to do. Sorry for the lack of photos but I will tell you that Jin comes alive around these guys. He’s always a great guy but here in the company of his family there is an extra light.

We had a very special dinner at the poshest hotel in town. I even bought a bottle of Moet to make it really special. Then all the adults proceeded to get smashed on wine and soju. I went to bed and they went out and got completely stonkered at the local casino.

Sunday 13:

The upshot of that big night out was this.

The sweetest looking snorchestra ever. Like a steam train running through the bedroom. This Sleeping Beauty is definitely a Beast.

Perfume? I knew you were going to ask. Bought a bottle of Yves richer Rose Oud and have worn it non-stop since. Jin is wearing to too. A really easy high pitched rose and soft focus synth oud. Like a poopy pot pouri. Sounds awful but it is terrific.

So what’s been going on for you this week? Anything fragrant or fabulous you’d like to share?
Portia xx

 

Ultramarine Blue by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz for DSH Perfumes 2015

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Portia

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Hey All,

A while ago when I got the DSH Chroma Sample Set I grabbed every dabber out and had a quick sniff. It is fun finding the instant likes, loves and loathes. I will admit that Ultramarine Blue jumped into the WTF category. It was so interesting, unusual and confronting. No, I’m not sure why because it really smells like the beachside in summer but with an undercurrent of menace. Anyway I filed it away under Must Revisit and thought you might like to come along on the ride with me today to see if it lives up to its

Ultramarine Blue by DSH Perfumes 2015

Ultramarine Blue by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Chamomile, cassis, cumin, ozonic notes, musk, sea notes, orris root, petitgrain, sandalwood, violet woodsorrel

OK, so I decanted the whole vial into a spritz and did the whole 18 blasts on the back of my hand and forearm. WHOA!! No turning back now.

Salty citrus, briny seas, a herbal greenness that feels both freshly chopped and mulched. The cassis is green and biting, like pulling ivy off the wood fence and scrunching it up in the summer after swimming in the pool. There’s nothing easy about Ultramarine Blue. I find it disturbing and challenging. Imagine oversalting cucumber, add a little under the boardwalk bilge-e-ness, tear some rose leaves and dig in a super heated grass mulch pile. Then you can smell exactly what my nose is giving me from Ultramarine Blue.

PDI

Doesn’t sound appealing does it? Well, while it’s not exactly my fragrant cup of tea I do love the way it moves through the pieces of the story. Dawn has a deft way with ingredients that means even though it’s not a spritz & go frag it is compelling and keeps drawing my nose back to my hand.

After an hour or so Ultramarine Blue becomes driftwood. it’s absolutely beautiful. Calm, tranquil and an unruffled seaside escapade in the glorious sunshine.

DSH Perfumes has loads of sizes and variants of Ultramarine Blue starting at $6

Want something unusual, interesting, refreshing and ultimately peaceful? I think you might like to try Ultramarine Blue.
Is there an aquatic that you love?
Portia xx

1000 EdT vintage by Jean Kerleo for Jean Patou 1972

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Portia

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Hey Hey Vintage Fragheads,

1000 was a fragrance I had basically ignored. Joy was my Patou fragrance and at some point I had a Sira des Indes too but though it was lovely it didn’t float my boat at the time and I sold it on. Back in 2014 my mate Michael & I went for a 2 hour private class at the Osmotheque in Versailles, Paris (the suburb, not the palace, walking distance though) and when we got there out tutor was none other than Jean Kerleo himself. It was the most fabulously surreal afternoon and I will never forget it. The photo below is taken when Patricia de Nicolai came in to thank us and very kindly tell us it was time to leave. We’d still be there had she not.

1000 EdT vintage by Jean Patou 1972

1000 EdT vintage by Jean Kerleo

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Osmanthus, violet, apricot
Heart: Jasmine, lily-of-the-valley, rose, geranium
Base: Sandalwood, patchouli, oakmoss

A floral chypre! Yep. My knowledge of chypre (sketchy at best even though I love them) is that they have no flowers because Cyprus (or Chypre as it’s also known) is all about citrus, foliage, conifers and herbs. Anyway, so many of my chypre loves have flowers who am I to bitch?

This bottle was a recent eBay purchase and I already have some pristine vintage parfum so I have a pretty good base line to mark it from.

The osmanthus, violet and apricot in the opening are there if I look for them, particularly the violet and I would have picked fruit but not that it was apricot and would add there also seems to be a low-key slug of citrus. Aldehydes too, giving a softly oily radiance to everything.

Wikipedia

The hearts bouquet is basically overrun by the base with only a passing reference to roses that I can pick and without notes I probably would have missed them too. Not incredibly creamy sandalwood and furry oakmoss seem the stars of the show for me and I am 100% OK with that. After reading NST review I realised that there are also animalics that I was totally nose deaf to, having smelled Jean Kerleo’s remaining musk tincture the memory jumped out at me again. Heavenly.

1000 is dressed up and ready to rumble, what I really want to do is triple spritz my chest and go grocery shopping or clean the car. The sheer weight of its glamour would be excellent as a backdrop to the turbines of tedium.

PDI

Further reading: Now Smell This and Non Blonde
The current 1000 is available in department stores and on the discount sites.
Surrender To Chance has EdP & Parfum samples starting at $6/ml

How about you? Ever wear the really flashy good frags to light up the everyday?
Portia xx

Europe 2017: Jin & Portia’s Big Adventure

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Portia

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Hey there APJ,

Jin and I leave for our holidays on Tuesday, yes tomorrow. Bags are packed. Friends over for dinner tonight and Jin has done a huge plate of meat & veg that we all make our own Vietnamese Rice Paper Rolls from. He is an artist at it and it’s one of my favourite things he does. So fresh, healthy and delicious.

europe_topography_map_en Europe 2017

Europe 2017: Jin & Portia’s Big Adventure

So where are we off to? Here’s a run down of our dates & cities. It’s mainly a driving holiday with a couple of short flights added in for ease and comfort. So the dates are the nights we spend in each city. All dates are in March. Everything in bold is a city we have never been to before, exciting.

8/9/10: Prague, Czech

11/12: Zilina, Slovakia

13/14: Berlin, Germany

15/16: Hamburg, Germany

17: Hanover, Germany

18: Rotterdam, Netherlands

19/20: Luxembourg

21/22/23: Paris

24/25/26: Milan, Italy

27/28/29: London, UK

So that’s where we’ll be. Should you be in any of this cities or nearby and like a catch up, food, sight seeing or a sniff then please tell us where you are in the comments below and we’ll try and organise something.

What frags am I taking? I’m not sure but I’m very tempted to take only Parfum d’Empire Equistrius and Patou 1000.

Here we come Europe, can’t wait to see you.
Portia xxx

Scent Diary: 27.2 – 5.3.17

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Portia

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Hiya Scenters,

This week on Aussie Fragrance Network we are having a Use Your Samples & Decants week so hopefully I’ll be spritzing a bunch of them empty. It has become quite ridiculous around here.

Scent Diary: 27.2 – 5.3.17

Monday 27:

Jin’s buddy Yu Gil arrived from South Korea at sparrows fart this morning. We collected him from the airport and took him across the Sydney Harbour Bridge to Parramatta Lake Cafe for breakfast. I needed something to give me attitude and focus my brain so Rose Anonym by Atelier Cologne. It’s bold, brassy rose seems drizzled in oudh and honey. Great for a cool Sydney summer morning.

While the boys have gone out to see Parramatta I’m home writing blog articles. I love this house when it’s just me & the dogs hanging out. Currently in a cloud of vintage 1000 EdT by Jean Patou. THIS is the good stuff.

We had a streak at the pub and now I’m home to write trivia Q&A. My 10ml IUNX Eau Argentina will be my Q&A frag. Cool, smoky incense & stuff. After dinner I did some Q&A writing but my head wasn’t in it so I thought I’d lie down for half an hour then get up and finish.

Tuesday 28:

Well, that didn’t work out. Woke up this morning at 7am. AAAARRGGHH! Wrote the rest of this weeks trivia and some of next. It is coming together but slower this time. Dunno why.

Jin and Yu Gil ran around Sydney in the grey drizzle and had a ball.

After the bath today I was looking through my boxes of stuff and found about 4ml of a 10ml decant of Mona di Orio Oud, now known as Oud Osmanthus. This is one of Jin’s bottles and he wears it beautifully but before it was his I used about 6ml of the decant and freaking loved it. It wears creamier and prettier on my skin, much more barnyard and medicinal on him. So good I wore it to work too.

SOTB was vintage Miss Dior EdT & parfum. It raining in Parramatta, alternating drizzle and drenching, and still a little bit warm. I really like this weather. It’s fun being caught outside with the dogs when it decides to really let loose, we run home together with me laughing and them excited to run.

Wednesday 1:

Today was set aside for the three of us, Yu Gil, Jin & I, to go on a bus tour to Port Stephens. I woke up this morning and was like, nope. Poor Jin, he was most upset. So they went on the tour and I went back to bed. Feeling guilty but rested.

Post man came this morning. Suddenly I feel that I need all the Opus series, couldn’t I have fallen in love with them as they were released? Don’t know why it’s taken me so long. So Amouage Opus I is now in my collection, joining III, VIII, IX & X. After wearing my Burberry Brit woman parfum recently and noticing that they have changed the bottle for the EdT & EdP I panicked and grabbed a Burberry Brit woman EdP. Serge Lutens Bas de Soie has been on my list for a while and I suddenly felt the need to own a bottle, gone through almost my whole 5ml decant. It has been a slow but stately fall in love with Bas de Soie, or Silk stockings in English.

While writing Trivia Q&A I wore Mademoiselle Guerlain. It’s a pretty confection of a thing, no eye rolling fabulousness but very nice. All sugared marshmallow and sparkly citrus but underneath I swear there is a fishy vibe. Seriously, I would have bet money on ambergris. Not in the notes though.

Bloody hell. I’m going for a bath. Trivia Q&A has me cross eyed.

Today we celebrate 5 years of APJ. That’s a lot of blogging 2,498 posts. Thanks for being part of the magic.

Thursday 2:

TRIVIA It’s driving me bat shit crazy. Nearly there.

Still haven’t started putting APJ posts together. Leave Tuesday. FREAKING OUT! But not really. just feeling a bit overwhelmed.

Fragrantica

Wearing Tabac Rouge by Phaedon from a 10ml decant I bought when it came out. Why is there so much left? It’s bloody good, so sweet and honeyed, syrupy, berry juicy and animalic. TBH it could very easily sit in the Serge Lutens phalanx of frags. What a lovely fragrance, Pierre Guillaume is an excellent perfumer.

We are eating the fridge down because of the holiday so I had a childhood favourite meal. Vita Weets with butter, cheese slices and Vegemite. Bloody yummy! Ate it while thinking about my beautiful Mum, she was a good one.

Tonight for work I grabbed a big decant of Fig by Marc Jacobs. I think it’s an EdC so I spritzed about 20 times and it smelled fabulous for about 2 hours, then I lost it. TBH I think it softened off to a soft skin scent that is still smellable to others but not me. Very nice, pulp & milky fig.

The bloody microphone didn’t work tonight so I had to yell over 60+ people. My voice is now ratshit and I’m grumpy.

SOTBed: Mon Precioux Nectar Parfum by Guerlain. I have a 10ml sample of the parfum but my bottle’s EdP

Friday 3:

OK so today was all about getting stuff organised. There are only 80 more Q&A to write and only 5 more APJ posts to organise of my own plus a couple for others.

Jin & I took a moment from our day to go get our hair cuts and visit my BFFs Mum who was rushed to hospital yesterday with blood clots in her legs. She is up in a hospital that I spent some time in as a kid for all the ridiculous scrapes we used to get into. It was nice to walk around it as an adult and see that though it’s grown the old sandstone structures are still there.

Jin also surprised me with a new pair of pixelated glasses. So silly but totally fabulous.

Writing posts so drenched in a bunch of things Ultramarine Blue by DSH Perfumes, Halfati by Penhaligon’s and a sample grabbed from the box and didn’t read the label, threw it back in and now its LOST. GRRR! It’s fricken gorgeous.

Saturday 4:

Jin took his mate to Sydney City. There they went to St Mary’s cathedral, lit some candles and prayed for the continued improved health of BFFs Mum Marie. He’s a good egg.

Spent the day writing and editing APJ blog posts. Starting to really freak out because it’s Saturday now, Sydney LGBTQI Mardi Gras tonight, working tomorrow, cleaning, packing and farewell dinner on Monday. SHIT! Still a few Q&A left to do for Trivia too. It will happen, I’m good in a sink or swim situation. Coming to tell you about it has cleared my head. Ready for action. By the time I’m done 208 Q&A and 24 games.

In the bath today I used Olympic Orchids Amber Labdanum Bath Oil, my skin feels soft and has a lovely scent. Thinking Fancy nights by Jessica simpson for tonight but also wondering if L’Occitane Fabulous Shea Oil in the most outrageous BWF would be more appropriate? So excited! MARDI GRAS tonight. This is an old pic and the level has dropped in the bottle considerable since then.

Wore the L’Occitane Fabulous Shea Oil and vintage Miss Dior EdT spritzed liberally over all. It was so beautiful.

Sunday 5:

My head is still spinning. Writing APJ blog posts. FINALLY got all the Trivia Q&A sent out.

Fragile EdT by Jean Paul Gaultier when I woke up, because that’s exactly how I felt. How did I ever become such a lightweight party person? Metal by Paco Rabanne through lunch and for work Un Jour d’Ete by Keiko Mecheri, which I bloody love.

How about your week? Anything interesting or fragrant happen?
Portia xx

HAPPY MARDI GRAS 2017

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Portia

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Hiya APJ,

Tonight is Sydney’s Mardi Gras. I’ll be hosting the Sideshow Glam Stands again with my mate Andrew Mercado. We basically do a running commentary for the event to about 2000 people who have bought seats in grandstands lining the route. they get food, toilets and commentators and all the money goes towards producing Mardi Gras. Most people know the parade but Sydney has a 2 week LGBTQI festival that includes theatre, events, art, picnics, tourist welcome parties, a parade and a parade after party. It is wonderful and I extend the welcome to you all next year for the 2018 40th Anniversary. It is going to be the biggest, brightest and best yet.

HAPPY MARDI GRAS 2017

Here I am arriving last year on the back of a Dyke’s On Bikes motor bike. One of my life highlights.

I know, you only care what fragrance I’ll be wearing tonight. I need it to last 10+ hours, smell great from beginning to end and be a comfortable ride. Though I may change my mind I’m thinking a bit fat overspritz of Jessica Simpson’s Fancy Nights.

So wherever you are, whatever sex you feel happiest with or being I want to wish you all a Happy Mardi Gras 2017.
Portia

Metal by Robert Gonnon for Paco Rabanne 1979

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Portia

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Hello vintage lovers,

Arriving in the post yesterday from eBay and on my skin ever since is a 30ml old, old bottle of Metal. As I opened it I thought I’d give myself a spritz and sadly the sprayer sends most of the juice down the bottle and what little comes out smells broken and nasty aldehyde turn, GRRRR. I’m going to give it a soak in white vinegar & disinfectant.

Metal by Paco Rabanne 1979

Metal by Robert Gonnon

Fragrantica

Parfumo gives these featured accords:
Top: Aldehydes, Basil, Green notes, Hyacinth, Lemon
Heart: Cyclamen, Iris, Jasmine, Lily-of-the-valley, Rose, Tuberose, Ylang-ylang
Base: Ambergris, Oakmoss, Musk, Sandalwood, Vetiver

Chypre! Metal is a chypre. The opening is all about galbanum and some citrus fizzed up by aldehydes. I thought my bottle had turned but a few spritzes without the dodgy atomiser and the scent smells pure, clean and fresh, while also not smelling of any of that because chypre. I am thoroughly surprised at how gorgeously it’s kept.

After only a few moments I can already smell the oakmoss furriness that chypres give me. It’s a cool comfort and it makes me feel safe and invincible. If CHANEL No 19 gives you backbone then Metal will give you armour and weaponry.

Wikipedia

Funnily I don’t really smell metal, no, that’s not exactly true….. maybe the smell of sharpening a Wiltshire knife in it’s plastic casing. The floral bouquet is a beautiful whole and I can’t pick any of the notes because underpinning the heart is this luscious oakmoss with hints of oily vetiver and a touch of salty brine that I’m attributing to the ambergris and vetiver.

Longevity is good and the baseline lasts hours. It hums away quietly in the background but if I change rooms suddenly I can smell it all over again. Fabulous.

Further reading: I Smell Therefore I Am and Black Narcissus

Do you love the chypre genre?
Portia xx

 

Fragrance Bottle? What Scent?

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Portia

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Hey there APJ,

I think I have told you before about my friends Mum & Grandma who is losing the battle with dementia and Alzheimers. When they had to take all the glass, including fragrances, from her reach I was given a box full of treasures.

Fragrance Bottle? What Scent?

One treasure was this bottle. There’s a little bit left in the bottle and it smells ridiculously gorgeous. like an animalic version of Youth Dew. It has no label or identifying marks. It doesn’t feel like an expensive bottle because there are some quite sharp edges and points. I didn’t want to google it though, not when I have all of you out there who may have seen or remember someone wearing fragrance from this bottle. So I’m handing it over to you all today.

What is this bottle from? The house, the scent name, anything you can remember.

Go for it.

Portia xxx

 

 

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week there will be 1 winner who will receive:
1 x Bottle and contents
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DO YOU WIN?

Open to everyone worldwide who follows AustralianPerfumeJunkies via eMail, WordPress, Bloglovin or RSS. Please leave how you follow in the comments to be eligible. I must be able to check that you follow so if you have an email address on your gravatar that’s different to your follow address then please email me so I know. Yes, you can start following to enter, in fact it’s encouraged.

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Please leave your guesses or a story about lost vintage scent, or even a mini story about who might have used this perfume. 

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Friday 3rd March 2017 10pm Australian EdsT and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org
The winners will have till Monday 6th March 2017 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or the prize will go to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit

Essences Insensees Rose De Mai by Fabrice Pellegrin for Diptyque 2016

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Portia

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Hey there Rose lovers,

There’s been a LOT of rose chatter on the blogs for February is now the month of roses. Chemist In A Bottle, Undina’s Looking Glass and others are doing roses, roses, roses. The guys at LuckyScent do samples and this rose fragrance arrived recently so I thought I could do a one wear share of how it was. That’s right, the whole 0.7ml decanted and spritzed in one go.

Essences Insensees Rose De Mai by Diptyque 2016

Essences Insensees Rose De Mai by Fabrice Pellegrin

Parfumo

Parfumo gives these featured accords:
Rose essence, Rosa centifolia absolute, Rose oil, Red fruits, Honey

HA! Roses. Burying your head in a sweet, fruity garden rose. If roses straight up are your thing then this would be a great addition to your collection.

You know the feeling in the back of your throat when you have been sucking honey straight off your spoon? Add that to a slightly dry, tea-ish, sweet rose. The berries aren’t fresh, they’re glacé and sticky. The honey comes front and centre through the heart and it creates an animalic overlay that is quite wild. Happily ferocious honey drizzled roses. Bloody good stuff. The price is super good too.

I can imagine this glorious rose/honey combo becoming a signature scent and for those that have one display bottle at a time this is so fabulous. I bet it feels amazing in your hand too.

Wikipedia

From LuckyScent: For 2016, Fabrice Pellegrin chose perhaps Grasse’s most iconic flower, the soft, sensual and spirited Rose de Mai. And what an interpretation it is: Essences Insensees seems to positively sweep us into the springtime meadows of southeastern France, to sunstruck bucolic countrysides where men and women in straw hats weave through fields awash in stunning pink flowers, selecting the lushest and freshest among them for the honor of undergoing the intricate steam distillation that will help them live forever.

Essences Insensees Rose De Mai by Diptyque Pierre-Auguste_Renoir WikiCommonsWikiCommons

Further reading: Colognoisseur
LuckyScent has $180/120ml & Samples

I know some of you love your roses. Are you wearing them for rose month? Which ones?
Portia xx

Scent Diary: 20.2 – 26.2.17

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Portia

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Heya APJ,

This week has gone by in a blur. In between all the fun times I’m currently trying to get all the Trivia Q&A done for the 4 weeks we’re away and APJ posts up and ready too. Things might vibe a bit light on for this holiday, I seem to be running out of time and Jin’s buddy, all the way from South Korea, comes to stay with us on Monday morning for the week before we fly out.

Yes, busy, busy, busy. Happily so though.

Scent Diary: 20.2 – 26.2.17

Monday 20:

Wearing my Nina by Nina Ricci. Sparkling sweetly like our cool summer morning. Did a whole bunch of reorganising and engaging with my Turbo Trivia crew today. We are going to try a few new things in 2017. Fingers crossed for happy outcomes. As the business expands we want to keep it fun and flexible. A few big ticket bills paid today too.

I also went on a perfume spending spree. Bloody hell, sometimes the devil takes control and I go crazy. Bought Amouage Opus I, Burberry Brit woman parfum & EdP, a couple of vintage Miss Dior parfum atomisers and a Serge Lutens Bas de Soie that’s been on my list for ages.

We had dinner with a girlfriend, Korean BarBQ, came home and watched the second Divergent film, Insurgent. The casting for these films is wonderful: Kate Winslet, Ashley Judd, Jai Courtney, Miles Teller. Jin finds Theo james unwatchable but I really believed him in the part. My problem is with the lead, Shailene Woodley, she is supposed to be playing this waifish, shapeless, conflicted, young girl and she acts and looks like your favourite wealthy, private school bred aunty at a wedding. The film is gorgeous though and has some excellent Sci-Fi tricks and ideas.

Tuesday 21:

Woke up early and took the dogs for a wee, then went back to bed till 10.30am. Jin & I did some grocery shopping in the morning, came home and Jin cooked French Toast and Bacon. O M G he is the best. It was delicious, I’m spoiled.

We watched the third Divergent film Allegiant. Jeff Daniels, Octavia Spencer and Naomi Watts join the cast, it’s bloody ripper.

Bath time and I used up the last of my Korres Christmas Set from Vera. The Korres Basil & Lemon Shower Gel has left my skin feeling soft and smelling fresh. I’m going to wear Niki de Saint Phalle to follow the green scent trail and also because she is a designer. Perfect choice.

Basil Lemon korres Feb 2017

Tonight I came home from work and decanted my .7ml Bass Solo by The Vagabond Prince vial into a spritz and spritzed the whole lot on at once. If incense and woods are your thing then this is a Must-Try. Review coming.

Wednesday 22:

Morning. Beautiful sleep in this morning. HOT day. Lolita Lempicka original EdP. So sweet and fizzy. Love it.

Today in the mail I received vintage Metal EdT by Paco Rabanne and a Guerlain Samsara PdT in Meteorites bottle. Also the Australian Agency de Parfum new releases for Winter 2017 with some new Penhaligon’s, Floris, Atelier Cologne and Lalique, EXCELLENT! Also a bunch of splits that I’ve bought. Good day in the mailbox.

Jin & I had to return the Divergent DVDs so we popped over to West Ryde and there is a stellar Korean restaurant that feels like you’re in a small town South Korean shop. So real. Jin adores it. He’s a really simple guy, it’s easy to make him happy.

Jin went to work this afternoon and I lay down for a snooze. When I woke it was 8.30pm and the room was dark. So basically I wasted a whole day that should have been spent getting posts ready for APJ so there’s some content while I’m away in March. GRRRRR. I’ll walk and feed the dogs then get some action stations ready and work through the night.

Tonight I tried the Metal by Paco Rabanne. The spray mechanism is dodgy but I got some on my skin and it is amazing. A fabulous green chypre. Review coming.

Thursday 23:

Nothing this morning. Hardly slept last night, little bit zombie.

Ballets Rouges by Olympic Orchids to fit with Lucasz at Chemist In A Bottle‘s rose month. Deep, dark, swampy roses with a sunrise in the heart that shimmers and sparkles before dark descends again. Gothic roses.

Olympic Orchids

Went to work and it was a little quiet at KPT. We still had a great time. Here’s one of my fave teams, the Mulligans.

Not quite sure what’s wrong with me but I’m trying to work tonight and my head is not co-operating. Chucking it in tonight and going to get some shut eye. Spritzing Equistrius by Parfum d’Empire before bed.

Friday 24:

Jin & I took a mate, that I’ve had since around 19 years old, and his partner to brunch. He’s turning 50 while we are away so we did a Yum Cha in a restaurant that Jin has long wanted to try. Best fun. They are interesting, well travelled, fun guys who are great conversationalists. So much to talk about because we hardly see each other anymore. Busy lives. It’s nice to relax into the ease of long friendships. Can’t help thinking how lucky my life has been friendwise, and so grateful that I still see most of the dear ones.

I have continued with Equistrius by Parfum d’Empire all day and night. It’s bloody fabulous in the Sydney heat. The violet and iris are cool and very classy on open.

Tonight Jin & I are trying a pub down the road that I’ve been interested in going to for years. Well, we were going to that pub but the bistro is under construction. We went around the corner to another pub and had the most delicious and melt in your mouth steaks ever. MMMMM. We walked down and back, then walked the dogs when we got home. I feel ultra healthy.

Over the last couple of weeks jin & I have been watching a show called Please Like Me. It’s an Aussie series about a gay guy and his outrageously dysfunctional family. It’s REALLY GOOD. Just finished watching the last of the third season and I’m going to miss the characters, they’ve become my friends.

Fragrantica

Bedtime has me spritzing Maison Francis Kurkdjian Cologne Pour Le Soir. Feral and sweet, like an outdoor urinal in India coming to you on the breeze from about 100m away. The sweet rancid smell of decomposing urine, dusty roads, transportation, humanity and livestock. Why does this smell so good?

Saturday 25:

We had some rain overnight and the world is slightly cooler. I love to walk the dogs through cool drizzle and we came across so many other dogs and their masters out for a stroll. Grabbed a coffee at the local cafe. Sadly the murray is fading al around the suburb so I’m not getting the outrageous wafts of skanky orange blossoms but wet earth and concrete aplenty, the eucalyptus fragrance now subtly overtaking everything. Monsieur Li by Hermès, excellent walking companion and designer to go with my weeks challenge.

Had a bath in Madonna Truth or Dare bubbles, went out to see the Greyhound races but they were rained out. It was cool fun though, we met Alice & Sam and had some dinner in the bistro. Jin shouted us a super cheap bottle of pink bubbles and Alice bought us soft serve ice creams for dessert. Sounds like a shit night but it was great fun. Jin was in vintage CHANEL Antaeus (a present from me) and smelled absolutely freaking gorgeous. I wore original Agent Provocateur EdP, roses and stuff, with a little hint of my baths white flowers playing sotto voice.

For bed I wore vintage 1000 EdT by Jean Patou. Over the top of the Agent Provocateur remnants it lifted the roses and created a shimmering field of gorgeousness.

Sunday 26:

I think I’m a bit tired. Woke up this morning a bit Jin’s head off, then continued to chew him out most of the morning. He did get huffy and we had a soft core fight. I feel infinitely better for it, like the air is clear. We didn’t yell or scream, just bitched at each other.

So this week on Aussie Fragrance Network is Use Your Samples Week. I’ve started by wearing some old formula, whoa nelly, in your face Sables by Annick Goutal. This is so freaking gorgeous.

Righto! Off to work in Fleur Narcotique by Ex Nihilo. Very Fleur, not so narcotic. I like it though. Pretty lilies, bit swampy and green. Very wearable.

How about your week? Anything interesting or fragrant happen?
Portia xx