Belle de Jour GIVEAWAY WINNER

June 1, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom

Post by Portia

Belle de Jour GIVEAWAY WINNER

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Coriander, pink pepper, orange blossom
Heart: Labdanum, Egyptian jasmine, allspice
Base: Atlas cedar, musk, seaweed

LuckyScent has $150/50ml and Samples

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 winner who will receive:
1 x Belle de Jour Sample (my review sample remnants)
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Tuesday 31st May 2016 10pm Australian EST
Winner was chosen by random.org

Katherine Mittas

The winner will have till Wednesday 8th June 2016 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.

Equinox Bloom by Olivier Cresp for Penhaligon`s 2016

May 31, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 34 Comments

Post by Portia

Hiya Fragrant Fumies,

You know those days that are so jam packed you couldn’t fit one more thing in without exploding? Well I had one of those recently. It was all planned a ready to go and then an invitation came to the Breakfast launch of Penhaligon’s latest release Equinox Bloom. Sadly it was not possible to get there but the crew at Libertine Parfumerie and Elysee Collective (who are the very boutique Public Relations agency in charge of a range of luxurious offerings in Australia) sent me a pack with samples so I could check out the latest fragrant stuff. Inside were a couple of carded manufacturers samples that I can give to you guys. WOO HOO! Giveaway closes TOMORROW NIGHT!

Equinox Bloom by Penhaligon`s 2016

Equinox Bloom by Olivier Cresp

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Chantilly, hydrangea, neroli, violet leaves
Heart: Frangipani, orange blossom absolute, jasmine sambac
Base: Brown Sugar, Siamese benzoin, ambroxan

Equinox Bloom does open with a creamy feel, then green and sappy but for some reason it’s a dry green, a warm green. The white flowers are soft and subtle, clean and silky. There’s no humanity here but a beautiful vegetatively fleshy fragrance that is quite distinctive, not ringing any scent memories for me, pure and pretty. A lush and lovely spring scent that will take you all the way to midsummer.

Later Equinox Bloom warms through and though it never gets candy sweet it does get less veg and more bakery. Gourmand but not as you know it.

I’m finding the sillage moderate and projection good, not big but so unusual that it constantly captures my attention with its swings between flora and cake. Throughout the life of Equinox Bloom it never really settles on either and even in the deepest dry down still has a wisp of fresh cut foliage. A smooth, lovely and very wearable fragrance that I think will be a winner with both sexes.

This is what I wrote in a Facebook post: Wearing Equinox Bloom by Penhaligon’s? It’s charming but weird. Managing to be sappy cut hydrangea stalks, a white flower bouquet and cookies simultaneously. A whiff of a florists fridge and carbo comfort. It all seems so airy and effortless.

Further reading: I Scent You A Day and Colognoisseur
Libertine Parfumerie has $279/100m

Photo Stolen hemodernhome

Equinox Bloom GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 2 winners who will receive:
1 x Equinox Bloom by Penhaligon’s Manufacturers Sample
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

Tell us a perfume that makes you think of spring.

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close TOMORROW Wednesday 1st June 2016 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org
The winners will have till Wednesday 8th June 2016 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.

Belle de Jour by Antoine Lie for Eris Parfums 2016

May 30, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 26 Comments

Post by Portia

Hello Vintage Frag Freaks,

Barbara Herman is amazing. She has a blog Yesterday’s Perfume that we all read religiously when we need to check our vintage frags out. Wrote a book Scent and Subversion: Decoding a Century of Provocative Perfume, which quite a few of my frag buddies got for Christmas 2014. Now she has started a perfume house, a crowdfunded one no less, which starts its story with three fragrances. Thanks Barbara for sending me samples, so good.

GIVEAWAY WEEK

Writing a blog about fragrance means we get sent LOADS of things. It’s one of the perks. On the flip side is that there just doesn’t seem to be enough days in the month to get this stuff onto the blog and out to you all. This week I am dedicating APJ to a GIVEAWAY WEEK! Yes, every day for six out of seven days there will be a 24 hour GIVEAWAY. That’s right, you’ll have 24 hours to get your comment in and then it will be drawn. Enter every day if you like but only one comment per day. Got it?

Belle de Jour by Eris Parfums 2016

Belle de Jour by Antoine Lie

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Coriander, pink pepper, orange blossom
Heart: Labdanum, Egyptian jasmine, allspice
Base: Atlas cedar, musk, seaweed

Why did I choose Belle de Jour to write about? I think many people have the impression that an animalic perfume needs to be huge, a ball breaking, axe wielding Amazon of a fragrance. Belle de Jour is proof that they need be no such thing. If anything it plays quite the demure wallflower, pretty but you’d hardly notice the raunch it unless you get in really close and suddenly Belle de Jour becomes nuit d’amour.

A lightly sizzling fruit compote opening that has green undertones keeping it grounded. A fresh, blue sky and joyfully summertime fragrance that does clean, sweet and green in a thoroughly modern vintage reincarnation. Dry green wood comes through, like pruning camellia branches or old cold tea leaves, and Belle de Jour is cool. Both the cool of temperature and cool kids. I can imagine it being perfect for both sexes but does skew towards modern feminine, extremely wearable.

The raunch in Belle de Jour is cleverly contained within a jasmine, seaweed, musk pyramid. It smells like sea air meets humanity and floats below soft and pretty fragrance. An interesting dichotomy and only super noticeable in testing conditions. Outside it’s hardly even a hint.

Further reading: Now Smell This and IndiePerfumes
LuckyScent has $150/50ml and Samples

Belle de Jour GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 winner who will receive:
1 x Belle de Jour Sample (my review sample remnants)
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DO YOU WIN?

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Tell us your favourite animal scent

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close TOMORROW Tuesday 31st May 2016 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org
The winners will have till Wednesday 8th June 2016 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.

Rendezvous by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz for DSH Perfumes 2016

May 27, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 22 Comments

Post by Portia

Hi there Frag-O-Philes,

Recently I ordered a new bottle of Giverny In Bloom from DSH Perfumes, with its glorious green self came a sample of her newest fragrance. Realeased in January 2016 and already making waves let’s have a look at Rendezvous. We will be going through the initial experience together today but I will come back in a few days to give some updates if my wearings have shown different or interesting nuance.

Rendezvous by DSH Perfumes 2016

Rendezvous by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Aldehydes, white pepper
Heart: jasmine, orange blossom, gardenia
Base: Oakmoss, castoreum, hyrax, ambergris, labdanum, ambrette (musk mallow), musk, civet

GROWWWWL! Sweet, feral, fecal, dirty, sexy, bakery, alleyway, sunshine on sand, urinous, warm, comfortable, furry, fuzzy, fiery, dry, sizzling, smoky. OMG! All these words running through my head. Rendezvous is extreme. A whiff of coffee, black, intense and Turkish, motor oil gritty, earthy, creation, burnt sticky date pudding, plastics. I am engulfed in a fabulous monster. Part of me is asking “Is this just a circus trick?” other parts are screaming joyfully because this is exactly why indie perfumers are so important, recoiling, mesmerised, disbelieving and floating through someone else’s vision for scent.

Flickr

At about the ten to 15 minute mark the enormity has flagged to merely outrageous. The flowers have arrived but they are growing in the compost heap, a healthy vegetative one with cow, horse and chook poo, well turned and aerated heap that is all the wonderful fragrances of renewal through disintegration. The sweet scent of an Indian street urinal from half a block away, mixed with the dusty road, the mass of humanity and beasts all going about their daily grind: living, loving, praying, feasting and festering.

Past the heart and I’m left, for hours, with a burning, smoky something that is also sweet like a cake batter, lightly salted and gorgeously creamy. It was hard to force myself to write really because I wanted to lose myself in the magnificent folds of Rendezvous. Bravo Dawn for bringing us this freakish, poopy masterpiece. I am enjoying it immensely.

Pixabay

From DSH Perfumes site: A super sexy, “retro nouveau” animalic perfume with the kick of aldehydes and pepper in the top, narcotic, indolic florals in the heart, and a super rich, slightly salty, animalic drydown. Let’s just say that there’s more going on here than a meeting of the minds.

Further reading: Scented Hound and Perfume Polytechnic
DSH Perfumes has a great range of Rendezvous products starting at $6

What is your favourite Independent Perfume House? Have you tried Dawn’s work?
Portia xx

Misia by Olivier Polge for CHANEL 2015

May 23, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 27 Comments

Post by Portia

Hello Happy Huffers,

Scott and I were in town the other day and hit the CHANEL counter. Our mate Esther was in the house and with her was one of the CHANEL Australia trainers (Scott thinks it’s Emma but I am less sure) who was a wealth of information about CHANEL Beauty. It was a wonderful and enlightening hour we spent chatting and it was really fun. We even learned that you can buy a 900ml CHANEL No 5 parfum in a Baccarat bottle: OMG! but we were strong and resisted the temptation.

Misia by Olivier Polge for CHANEL 2015

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Powdery notes, violet, iris, orris root, Turkish rose, Grasse rose, Laos benzoin, tonka bean

We grabbed a sample of Misia and I’ve brought it home to re-run its beauty. The question is though, who or what is Misia (Pronounced Mischa and the Russian shortening of Maria)?

Misia Sert is the muse for this CHANEL creation. One of Coco’s friends: artistic, wealthy, influential and connected. Of course Gabriel “Coco” Chanel courted her. Missy was almost the perfect fit for the CHANEL dream. According to Wikipedia: It was recognized that “you had to be gifted before Misia wanted to know you.” …Sert was attracted to Chanel by “her genius, lethal wit, sarcasm and maniacal destructiveness, which intrigued and appalled everyone.” Both women, convent bred, maintained a friendship of shared interests, confidences and drug use.

WikiCommons

It’s interesting that Scott is an anti iris perfumista, not so much anti but it tends to take on this OTT bread/yeast/doughy nature when it hits his skin. Misia doesn’t though and we were very surprised how gorgeously it smells of cosmetics on him. Violets, roses, iris, powder, slightly dusty and a little bit ripe human. Misia is gorgeous. Wearing it is to feel full of the joys of theatrical life.

Sweet, waxy, floral gouts of fragrance burst out of my top and intoxicate me. Sillage is excellent, people tend to stop and sniff the air after Misia walks by, and projection is moderate, unless you really go crazy Misia is demure.

I’m not sure why I don’t own a BIG bottle of it yet. Soon…..

Further reading: Now Smell This and Perfume Posse
CHANEL Les Exclusives are available at large Department Stores and CHANEL stand alone beauty stores
Unfortunately CHANEL has stopped all sample resellers from sharing their fragrances.

Which is your favourite CHANEL Exclusive? Are you excited for the new era in CHANEL fragrance?
What do YOU think of Misia?
Portia xx

La Colle Noire GIVEAWAY WINNERS

May 23, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 1 Comment

Post by Portia

WOO HOO APJ!
Great response for todays giveaway. It’s exciting when a new DIOR gets released.

Let’s see who won,
Portia xx

La Colle Noire GIVEAWAY WINNERS

Parfumo

Parfumo gives these featured accords:
May rose absolute, Ceylonese sandalwood, White musk, Spices, Amber

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 2 winners who will receive:
1 x sample La Colle Noire (decanted from my sample)
1 x 8ml DIOR Privee manufacturers sample
(Cologne Royal or New Look 1947 – NO you don’t get to choose)
P&H Worldwide

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Sunday 22nd May 2016 10pm Australian EST
Winners were chosen by random.org

markmontanoblogs

Edward

Ellen M.

CONGRATULATIONS! The winners will have till Thursday 26th May 2016 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.

L’Ile au Thé by Camille Goutal and Isabelle Doyen for Annick Goutal 2015

May 21, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 11 Comments

Post by Portia

Hello Fragrant Lovers,

This tea scent is based on Jeju Island, the South Korean honeymoon island. Where newlywed South Korean couples have their 3 day honeymoon and wear completely matching honeymoon outfits. It’s so cute, they dress EXACTLY the same, except for some minor gender differentiation. The island itself is quite large and it has loads of fun stuff to do including gardens, parks, caves and caverns, fishing, there is even a mountain that you must climb (the crew did but I stayed home and read my book).

Above you can see us in one of the fields grown expressly for Jeju honeymooners to have their photos taken in smoochy, loving positions. They have various love seats and love furniture, very twee and old fashioned but surprisingly fun. It was really lovely that we got to do it and as stupid as it seems I felt it was one of those moments of pure happiness that I will often look back at and smile. In fact, the moment I read that L’Ile au Thé was about Jeju my mind went instantly to the tranquil, sunlit moment in a sea of flowers.

L’Ile au Thé by Annick Goutal 2015

L’Ile au Thé by Camille Goutal and Isabelle Doyen

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Mandarin pulp, Citruses
Heart: Osmanthus, apricot, tea, mandarin blossom
Base: Green tea absolut, white musk

Citrus, in a burst so ripe and juicy, lightly sugared and the dry tea is already giving it nuance and body. A wonderful, fun, uplifting open that is so pretty it just screams spring and renewal. After about 5 minutes the pith comes through, a feeling more than a scent, it’s soft and sueded and still a lovely fresh citrus abounds.

A cologne-ish fragrance without the usual herbaceousness. In L’Ile au Thé it’s all about citrus and tea with the slightest hint at salt air. Simple. pretty, pleasurable and extremely wearable. during the heart I get a lovely piquant lime zest smell that is both radiant and fizzy, such a great way to wake up the senses in Sydney’s current Indian Summer (24C today and glorious). It’s put a real spring in my step.

All of these things L’Ile au Thé is, yet sometimes I wear a fragrance for a few days and wonder if the world really needs another citrus cologne, no matter how lovely. Would I put down hard earned cash for it? Maybe, probably not, my collection has ample in this style. If I had none or one cologne, if I was thinking of buying for a friend that likes citrus, tea or white musks then definitely. It’s not a very expensive fragrance in the scheme of current frag prices, though $149 is a lot of money, and it’s 100ml. So I could comfortably spritz lavishly. One thing in L’Ile au Thé’s favour is that it lasts longer than most Annick Goutal’s and most colognes. It also has a dazzling citrussy sillage that I find really appealing.

Annick Goutal

From Annick Goutal site: “Camille Goutal and Isabelle Doyen invite us on a trip to Korea, on the paradise island of Jeju, known for its charm, the beauty of its landscapes and ranked as one of the wonders of nature…..
L’Ile au Thé is an infusion of well-being, an invigorating and soothing perfume to be shared.”

Further reading: Perfume Posse and Candy Perfume Boy
LuckyScent has $149/100ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $4.50/ml

Have you been to Jeju Island or any part of South Korea?
Portia xx

Current Rotation Fragrances May 2016

May 20, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 34 Comments

Post by Portia

Hello Perfume Junkies,

Do you have an area where you put your current high rotation fragrances? Mine is my desk. At any given time there may be 20 odd fragrance bottles scattered about it, a dozen or so samples and general perfume paraphernalia. It can get quite crowded so every couple of weeks I do a stocktake of what’s there and what will stay.

This fortnight I’ve been pretty addicted to a couple of frags and they have seen a LOT of wear, the others are mostly seeing a few spritzes but a bunch will be going back in the cupboard. Some things go back in the cupboard after every use: Guerlain’s Shalimar and Mitsouko, CHANEL No 5 and YSL Opium. I have a few iterations of each and rarely know which one I’m going to feel like so it’s easier to have them all together in their cupboard space. Also, I will happily go looking for them particularly if the mood strikes so it’s good to have them accessible.

Current Rotation Fragrances May 2016

So here’s the whole crew. A couple of them I also thought about selling so they have been on the desk and were saved from the chopper by my wearing and loving them again.

From left there is Gucci Pour Homme 1, Vitriol d’billet by Serge Lutens, Guerlain Mitsouko EdC (arrived this week and is fabulous, really fresh smelling), Eau de DIOR, Dubai Next To Me by Ramon Monegal, Mitzah DIOR (yes, I have bottles but I saw this decant going in someone’s sale and grabbed it), Paw Paw ointment (I’m trying a new brand), Fendi donna (25ml & 50ml I just bought the 50ml and have been assessing it against one of my other bottles. It’s real), Youth Dew vintage

From left Hermès Cuir d’Ange, Calvin Klein Contradiction Woman (Can’t stop spritzing this metallic, cold, wet, tart, aloof rose. Something about it drives me wild), Carillon pour un and by Tauer perfumes, Tubéreuse 3 by Histories de Parfum

From left we start with the newest DSH Perfumes, Rendezvous, that I’m yet to try, the Cult Of Scent sampler, Jasmin Rouge by Tom Ford, Shea Butter Fabulous Oil by L’Occitane, Be Beautiful by Jessica Mauboy (suddenly we are getting a load of melon and lily of the valley fragrances, this is a good $20 dupe for the new Hermès Muguet Porcelaine), Guess by Marciano Woman (when I haven’t been wafting a cloud of Contradiction this fortnight it’s been Guess. This crunchy vanilla amber citrus bomb is disgustingly good), Capricci by Nina Ricci

What is staying till the next cleanup?

Eau de DIOR
Mitzah by DIOR
Cuir d’Ange by Hermès
Contradiction by Calvin Klein
Cult Of Scent Sampler,
Guess by Marciano

The rest are back in their boxes and in the cupboard till I call them out again.

What’s in your high rotation and where do you put them?
Portia xx

La Colle Noire by François Demachy for DIOR 2016

May 19, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 44 Comments

Post by Portia

Hello Fragrant Fumies,

François Demachy has created a new fragrance for the DIOR La Collection Privée line. Cue interest, excitement and some small rejoicing in the perfumista community. Named for Christian Dior’s favourite holiday home in later life: Château de La Colle Noire. So I google translate looked it up and colle can mean mean glue, adhesive or problem. I think something does not add up and if there are any French speakers in the house could they please tell me what it means.

Roses have been back and wearable again in frag circles and the general public since Stella McCartney’s 2003 eponymous radiant rose Stella. Since then we have been bombarded with all the roses that ever and never were. From the darkest, dankest to the shrillingly squeaky clean blow torch editions and yes, I have fallen for a few. Completely and utterly fallen for such luminaries as Mohur by Neela Vermeire, Ballets Rouges by Olympic Orchids, Contradiction by Calvin Klein, Rosa sur Reuse by SOIVOHLE, Midnight Oud by JHaG and in DIOR’s own privet lineup Mitzah and Oud Ispahan (there are more but these without looking).

La Colle Noire by DIOR 2016

La Colle Noire by François Demachy

Parfumo

Parfumo gives these featured accords:
May rose absolute, Ceylonese sandalwood, White musk, Spices, Amber

La Colle Noire opens with a sheer, wet, sharp rose, lightly metallic and already clean musky. My nose gets that soft fluffy feeling of pith and I am surprised theres no citrus, pepper, ivy or blackcurrant mentioned because I get a sharp fruity note in my nose and a dry tickle in my throat that I associate with those four notes. The opening fireworks are over in a couple of minutes and I loose 80% of the heft.

A sweet rose is left behind, sheer, wispy and pretty, bordering on functional or ambient but rising above and floating around me like a rosy zephyr, a dream of roses or of being in the middle of a rose garden in the coolest pale light of morning with only the merest breeze moving the scent to you. Here is a rose like the 2nd run of rose water, lightly warmed and set amongst a harmonious backdrop to murmer quietly around you for hours and hours. Considering how low key La Colle Noire is its longevity is astounding and sillage is very nice too.

Fragrantica

La Colle Noire is so perfectly measured and careful that it could easily belong to the CHANEL Exclusives line. It’s beautiful, fragile and a watercolour wash of fragrance. Elegant, under the radar fragrance for someone who wants to smell like money without having to be so gauche as to make a fragrant statement. Also a perfect background scent for someone who knows they have to smell nice but who don’t really like perfume. An amorphous whisper.

Christian Dior Privee line is available in stand alone DIOR stores and large airports + department stores
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $3.25/ml

TheTruthAboutMummy

La Colle Noire GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

HOW DO YOU WIN?

Yes, you can start following to enter, in fact it’s encouraged. 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 (portia underscore turbo @ yahoo dot com dot au) so I know.

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Please tell us a rose fragrance you love, or even hate and need to bitch about.

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Sunday 22nd May 2016 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winner will be chosen by random.org
The winner will have till Thursday 26th May 2016 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.

Sample GIVEAWAY May 2016 WINNERS

May 16, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom

Post by Portia

Heya APJ Frag Family,

Hotly contested competition today. Thanks for getting involved.
Let’s see who our winner is,
Portia xx

Sample GIVEAWAY May 2016 WINNERS

Photo Stolen hemodernhome

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

The winner will receive one each of these samples:

Eric Butterbaugh Apollo Hyacinth
Tauer Sotto La Luna Tubereuse
Romance by Ralph Lauren
ELdO Remarkable People
Lutens Laine de Verre
YSL Splendid Bouquet
DIOR Ambre Nuit
Stella McCartney Stella In Two Peony
Osmonde Jayne Vanille d’Iris
Amouage Opus IX
Bulgari Jasmine Noir
Diptyque Eau Moheli
No 1 solid perfume
Mark Buxton Wood & Absinth
Tom Ford Noir

P&H Anywhere in the world

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Sunday 15th May 2016 10pm Australian EST
Winner was chosen by random.org

nodepositforum

Caroline

CONGRATULATIONS!! The winner will have till Wednesday 18th May 2016 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.