Portia

Amaranthine by Bertrand Duchaufour for Penhaligon’s 2009

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Post by Portia

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Hi there Crew,

Way back in 2009/10 when Amaranthine was first released it caused uproar. Nobody could quite believe that very British house Penhaligon’s would bring out such a naughty little firecracker of a frag. I have a bottle from Birgit at OT but while going through my decants I refound Amaranthine and decided to give myself a big fat spritz.

Amaranthine by Penhaligon’s 2009

Amaranthine by Bertrand Duchaufour

Amaranthine Penhaligon`s FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Parfumo gives these featured accords:
Top: Banana leaf, Green tea, Cardamom absolute, Coriander seed, White freesia
Heart: Rose, Carnation, Clove bud oil, Orange blossom, Ylang-ylang-oil, Egyptian jasmine absolute
Base: Musk, Vanilla, Sandalwood, Evaporated milk, Tonka bean absolute

Yes, it opens green and fresh yet curiously tropical and already you can tell there will be white flowers in abundance. Amaranthine is large and forthright, filled chock full of creamy flowers, their stems and a little of their vase water that has perhaps been left a day too long before changing.

As we leave the opening extravaganza behind Amaranthine becomes totally tropical. A warm rich and radiant white/yellow floral with a healthy green punch and fruity byplay. Creamy seems to fall short of how smooth and glutinous Amaranthine becomes, not sticky or lumpy but perfectly, silkily, gloriously thick and luscious. With my nose up close I feel that it’s so thick and viscous that perhaps I will drown in its vegetal embrace. Once I put my arm back by my side it softens to a gently and warm vanilla and floral bouquet, Amaranthine become charming and harmless again. Beautiful, alluring and enchanting but in a safe way, then I bring my arm back to my nose and I’m lost. It’s a heavy scent, a brocade bouquet.

Amaranthine Penhaligon`s Patrick McNally White Ginger FlickrPhoto Stolen Flickr

March on Perfume Posse uses the word refulgent and when I looked it up it means shining brightly. It’s as accurate a word as I can find to explain how dazzling Amaranthine is. Strange that we read or hear so little about it nowadays because it was a game changing fragrance at the time and now I can only think of Amoureuse by Parfums DelRae being anywhere near as outrageous.

For some reason today my skin skips the sexy boudoir completely and goes directly to plush, sweet vanilla/sandalwood and a hefty dollop of clean skin musks. This lovely comfortable dry down can last for a full day & night and is basically indelible on fabric.

Amaranthine Penhaligon`s Jesus del Toro Garcia Bridal Boudoir FlickrPhoto Stolen Flickr

Further reading: Olfactoria’s Travels and Perfume Shrine
Libertine Parfumerie has $239/100ml with FREE Australian delivery
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $4/ml

How was Amaranthine for you? Is it something you’ve loved, hated, never tried?
Portia xx

Turtle Vetiver Front by Isabelle Doyen for Les Nez 2012

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Post by Portia

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Hiya Fume Family,

Do you have a few scents that got away. You tried it when it was released, loved it but couldn’t afford it at the time? Or you were going to buy it but something else caught your eye? Or the craving didn’t start till well after your first sniff?

Turtle Vetiver Front by Les Nez 2012

Turtle Vetiver Front by Isabelle Doyen

Turtle Vetiver Front Les Nez FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Vetiver, coconut milk, moss, ambergris

I don’t remember when or how I got this decant. Turtle Vetiver Front was never on my radar and though I’ve loved vetiver as a note and also for its innumerable uses in modern society it’s not a note I pursue. My skin throws much different fragrance to me than what I read about in others reviews too so maybe I was let down in my expectations on first sniffing. Anyway, I dismissed Turtle Vetiver Front on my first round with it.

Turtle Vetiver Front Les Nez Vetiver WikiMediaPhoto Stolen WikiMedia

Fast forward a ways to quite recently and I was writing about Vetiver Dance 07 by Tauer Perfumes and trying to see if anything in my history would correlate. Anyway, I came across this decant again and had a little sniff and though it wasn’t what I was looking for at the time the soft focus sweet swamp and light, lilting greenness of Turtle Vetiver Front made me want to come back and wear it again. I wanted to get my thoughts down because this is the last dregs of my decant and there are no bottles to be found. Maybe I’ll buy a decant from Surrender To Chance and get to live it some more.

Imagine vetiver. All the ink, swamp, smoke, dry rasp, oily, grassy, twiggy, metallic and salty aspects. Now take all of these amazing facets and remove the spikes and rough edges, shake to blend and give the wearer little or no hint of notes, create a new scent of them all like looking at the world through a lightly frosty green tinted pair of glasses. The edges are blurred and vegetally sweetened, one spritz and the whole world seems a little cooler and a lot smoother and there is air between the notes, sheer yet fragrant.

As the heart burns away my skin chemistry leaves me with a dry vetiver and a lightly salted breeze over sun warmed skin which dwindles and dwindles without collapsing to fade.

DAMN, I wish I had more of this….

Turtle Vetiver Front Les Nez Green World Alosh Bennett FlickrPhoto Stolen Flickr

Further reading: Grain de Musc and Non Blonde
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $7/ml

What is one of your lost scents? Which one got away for you?
Portia xxx

 

 

Eau de Cédrat by L’Occitane 2015

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Post by Portia

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When Eau de Cedrat (I call it Cedrat in my head, so we’ll use that for this post). When Cedrat was first released by L’Occitane I was given some of the range to try. I kept the Shower Gel and Soap for myself and gave the rest to friends or in giveaways so other people could try the products and give me feedback. One person said they are so impressed that they already went to a L’Occitane store and purchased more of the range, another friend loves the fragrance and has used quite a bit of his bottle and I went and repurchased at full retail a new shower gel.

Eau de Cedrat by L’Occitane 2015

Eau de Cedrat L`Occitane FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Cedrat bark, bergamot
Heart: Blue ginger, nutmeg
Base: Cedar, cashmere wood

Currently I have drenched myself in Cedrat to combat the humid night heat we are having in Sydney at the moment. Don’t misunderstand me, I love the heat and relish the Sydney summer. Night time though I find it hard to sleep in muggy heat, it’s 1am and still 21C (70F) with 86% humidity so I’ve slipped into my office and spritzed liberally. A cool, sharp, sweet citrus opening that is bold and energising, clear bergamot with almost no breath or pith that runs headlong into zinging, singing ginger. They are quite the pair, fizzing merrily away like a lemon squash and yet managing to be refreshing.

L'Occitane Cedrat Collection 1

Cedrat is not nearly as nuanced or storied as a cologne, it’s a bright and forthright citrus fortified by a few bit players that help it maintain buoyancy. I’m fragrantly wafting off to bed now, Jin has installed new ceiling fans and it would be rude not to go lie under one with him. I know that there will be a very slight waft of amorphous woods and a hint of citrus left tomorrow morning.

This is a perfect gift for anyone who is aware of their appearance but not deeply into the whole vanity trip. A casual, easy care set that means you or your partner can have a single scent right through the bathing and living process. Easy peasy, looks and smells great and it won’t break the bank.

L'Occitane Cedrat Collection

Further reading: Mr Neo Luxe and Red Lips Blue Eyes
L’Occitane Australia has the range from $8.50 up

Do you love a fully integrated regime?
Portia xx

 

Vanille Tonka by Parfums de Nicolai: LIVE Video Sniff

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Post by Portia

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Hey Hey Crew,

I’m about to jump on a plane with Jin for our 2016 European Adventure. 10 cities in 5 weeks! It’s come around so freaking quickly and now it’s really happening!
WOO HOO!

Vanille Tonka by Parfums de Nicolai

Vanille Tonka: LIVE Video Sniff

Vanille Tonka Nicolai Parfumeur Createur FragranticaFragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Basil, lemon, mandarin oils
Heart: Carnation, orange blossom absolute, pepper oil, cinnamon oil
Base: Incense, vanilla absolutes, Tonka bean

Scotty and I on the back verandah being fools with a super great fragrance. So good, one of the yummy ones.

Mata Hari by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz for DSH Perfumes 2010

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Post by Portia

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Hi there Independent Fragrance Lovers,

It’s no secret that I’m a Dawn Spencer Hurwitz fan boy. I love her aesthetic, the fragrances are mostly a perfect fit for me and I also love that being an independent perfumer the fragrances are more alive and interesting than a lot of the modern, ultra smooth, panel tested to mediocrity fragrances available in both the mainstream and niche lines. Dawn is free to use ratios that would be unheard of in the mainstream and is allowed to let her own charisma show through in the fragrances. Add to that how lovely she is to deal with and the obvious delight she gets from creating fabulous scents and I am lost. I bought a dram of Mata Hari after a sample I had positively sent me gaga.

Mata Hari by DSH Perfumes 2010

Mata Hari by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz

Mata Hari DSH PerfumesPhoto Stolen DSH Perfumes

DSH Perfumes gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, coriander, fruity notes No.1 (botanical accord), green mandarin, neroli, orange blossom, sweet orange, blood orange, tarragon
Heart: Blackcurrant, champaca, cinnamon, cloves, lilac cocktail (botanical accord), Moroccan rose, orris root, marigold, davana, may rose, otto rose, osmanthus, nutmeg, angelica root, honey, Sambac jasmine, tuberose, vintage orchid ( botanical accord)
Base: Sandalwood, ambrette seed, peru balm, cumin, cedar, myrrh, tobacco, benzoin, Buddah wood, cassis bud, labdanum, patchouli, green oak moss, vetiver, leather (botanical accord), musk, tonka, cade, vanilla

If you have read anything about Mata Hari by DSH Perfumes you’ll know that the scent is Dawn’s recreation of Greta Garbo as Mata Hari in the 1931 film. Mata Hari (1876 – 1917), an artistic name taken in 1897 is Malay for “sun” (literally, “eye of the day”, was a Dutch born erotic dancer who was accused of being a German spy in France in WWI and was executed by French firing squad.

Mata Hari DSH Perfumes Mata-Hari Garbo 1931 WikiMediaPhoto Stolen WikiMedia

Mata Hari has a really old school, vintage fragrance feel and is a second cousin to things like Rochas Femme and Guerlain Mitsouko. It’s a parfum concentration so you get a thick, rich and syrupy opening full of fruit and herbs but already backed by balms, resins, woods and leather. It’s hard to believe that there is no animal product because Mata Hari is as feral as you can imagine, maybe the honey.

As the initial blast calms to a dull roar the bittersweet heart comes through and the spicy notes, rose, honey and white flowers are only noticable when I put my mind to finding them, really Mata Hari is a spicy, floral bouquet with dark green broken leaves and some snapped twig. Then Mata Hari becomes softest moss, leather and amber, it hovers lightly on my skin for a couple of hours before I lose all traces of it.

Mata Hari DSH Perfumes Mata-Hari_1910 WikiMediaPhoto Stolen WikiMedia

Further reading: Olfactoria’s Travels and Perfume Posse
DSH Perfumes has $75/1 dram and samples

Who is your favourite independent perfumer? Have you tried Dawn’s work?
Portia xx

Welcome To 2016: Some Helpful Insights

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Post by Portia

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Hey Hey Crew,

This is the other side! You’ve made it through the western festive season and new year. OK, you now have had a little time to reflect on 2015 and what it taught you. I learned some valuable things in 2015 and I’d like to share some of them with you. Yes, most of you have already learned these but maybe having them reiterated will give you a great 2016.

Welcome To 2016: Some Helpful Insights

Jin & I often talk about how lucky we are. Not just in the Health, Wealth and Happiness sectors but in our friends. You may know I sometimes suffer black dog days, they are rare but intense. Jin is pretty good most of the time only experiencing anything nearing depression when his work life is toxic or unsteady. We do have friends though that battle depression on a daily basis and though we can’t help them with their demons we do provide a good distraction and try and give people new focus. Sometimes after a completely random day a friend will thank us for lifting their blues, even though we were completely unaware they were in a hole….

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One of the pieces of advice we live by, and offer our friends as an antidote, is to step outside of our comfort zone. Even just for a short time and with a get out of jail plan if things turn out less fabulous than expected. Often depression is fed by fear, knowing you have the ability not only to make a decision but that you have the where-with-all to note drama or disaster and deal with it is an effective way of lifting depression or habitual poor choices. Also, knowing beforehand that not everything will work out perfectly and that it will be alright can be helpful.

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Next we have something that took me 47 years to learn. I can’t believe that I am so freaking dense sometimes and am thinking about many instances in my life where I have behaved poorly because someone did not share my headspace. An opinion or a lifestyle is not an attack. GAWD! So simple. You don’t have to bring someone around to your point of view, it’s not a challenge or a threat. Conversation is full of disagreements, it’s good to know people who will challenge your thought processes, you may not change your minds but it’s excellent to hear and understand the other side of a point of view. Just because we don’t agree doesn’t mean the people you are interacting with are less of an anything than you, be nice to them. They are doing their best to live in this crazy, fucked up world too.

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And lastly for today. Cut yourself some slack. The world will not end if your bathroom isn’t spotless for guests, in 100 years nobody will care that you were outrageous at the Christmas party and life will go on if you didn’t get your list finished and finalised today. Not everything we do in 2016 will be successful, you may not get the new set of information into your brain on the first go, any change takes time so be prepared to help yourself along. We are all a work in progress, no one was born the dream they have for themselves.

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YOU are special to us at APJ. Thank you for being here, reading, commenting and being a part of the APJ family.

WE LOVE YOU and wish you a wonderful 2016.
Portia xxx

Pink Marshmallows in the Morning by Banks Botanicals 2014

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Post by Portia

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Hey there crew,

More than anything I get asked about the Hand Wash in my bathroom. Every time we have visitors at least one of them question the provenance of what I consoder to be the best smelling and most effective Hand Wash in the history of the universe. I love it so much that this December I bought ten of them, two for my home and eight to give as gifts over the festive season.

Pink Marshmallows in the Morning by Banks Botanicals 2014

Pink Marshmallows in the Morning by Suzanne R Banks

Pink Marshmallows in the Morning by Banks Botanicals bathroom

Based on coconut oil and glycerine, 100% natural and as eco-friendly as possible to find, Suzanne adds a dazzling fragrance that is marshmallows and Australian bushlands all rolled into one. The bite & twang of boronia and eucalyptus set in a sweet base that is so unusual that I find it doesn’t really compare with anything concrete but may bear some links with pink marshmallows. Naah, it doesn’t really but when you smell it you’ll understand why it is so named.

One of things I really like about Pink Marshmallows in the Morning is the enormous burst of fragrance as you wash your hands that goes a long way towards masking any unsavoury human de-catering smells. Yet once you leave the bathroom it disappears in a couple of minutes, meaning you won’t compromise your fragrance choice for the day.

Pink Marshmallows in the Morning by Banks Botanicals hand wash

Something else I love is the simple, no nonsense packaging. No boxes, just the recyclable plastic bottle and a pump that screws up. Plastic is so much better in the bathroom where I am often barefoot and the tiles are unforgiving of dropped glass. Also, ALL the ingredients are listed on the side of the container and Suzanne makes sure everything she puts into her products are the most harm free she can find and fair trade.

The price is particularly reasonable too. Normally $25, I got a great discount because I bought 10 bottles at only $20/bottle and I went and picked them up. Because Pink Marshmallows in the Morning is a Hand Wash and not alcohol based fragrance Suzanne can send to the world, but postage from Australia is a bit pricey.

Pink Marshmallows in the Morning from Suzanne R Banks FaceBook. Send Suzanne a message if you’d like to purchase. You won’t regret it.

What is your favourite handwash? Would you try a 100% natural and as eco-friendly as possible hand wash if it smelled amazing and cleaned your hands?
Portia xxx

Guerlain x JonOne – The Dark and Wild Becoming: Video

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Post by Portia

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Hi there Guerlainophiles,

You’ve probably seen the newest way to wear your bee bottle. Custom painted by artist JonOne. They are priced far out of reach of the normal mortals pocket but they are beautiful and utterly desirable. I find myself torn. Should I eat this year and keep my lovely home, or should I buy a JonOne Bee Bottle?

Le flacon aux Abeilles Par JonOne GuerlainGuerlain

It’s a trifle at €9000 and this startling orange one is filed chock full of Rose Barbare, there is blue for Shalimar and pink for La Petite Robe Noire.

Maybe not, for me. Still the video is sensational. So full of existential artist angst.
Enjoy.
Portia xx

Guerlain x JonOne – The Dark and Wild Becoming

RIP Gucci Marie Turbo 200? – 13.1.2016

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Post by Portia

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Hi APJ,

Gucci is gone. She looked me straight in the eyes when the vet gave her the injection and then she laid her head down and died. It was peaceful and dignified. I am sad but curiously happy for her too.

Thank you all for your messages of support, your love and for sharing your stories of your beautiful pets.

Perfume people are the best. I floated on the wings of your love and Gucci left this world in as perfect a way as could be arranged.

What fragrance did I wear? For the night before I drenched myself in Gucci Envy Me and then for the day I wore Gucci Eau de Parfum, tonight I will wear Gucci No 3, tomorrow I will wear Gucci Envy Men.

RIP Gucci Marie Turbo

Here are some shots of our last days together.

Gucci Marie Jan 2016 #1

Gucci Marie Jan 2016 #2Final family photo, it was a sad moment but thank goodness for Kath & Jin. No one could ask for better people in  their lives.

Gucci Marie Jan 2016 #3Gucci’s last morning, she is telling me it can’t be time to wake up yet.

Gucci Marie Jan 2016 #4Jin says his final goodbye before going to work.

Gucci Marie Jan 2016 #5Once Jin has left Gucci & I scurry onto the main bed. He He he. Don’t tell Jin.

Gucci Marie Jan 2016 #6Here is Gucci’s last photo. I walked her the two short blocks to the vet so I wouldn’t have to drive afterwards. We took 20 minutes to get there because Gucci needed to stop and rest and also to give her one last sniff of this world. It looks like she is smiling but in reality she cannot breathe and is desperately trying to get some air.

The vet was so sweet. Every time she sees Gucci she asks what we did to keep her in such good condition, even though she can’t breathe and she has lost a lot of weight she still has silky soft fur, is alert and looks old but healthy.

Gucci had the needle, looked me straight in my eyes and was desperately trying to communicate something (I’m so stupid I couldn’t tell if it was Thank you or Why?) and with the vet repeating “Good Girl” and me repeating “Thank You” and “Good Luck Gucci” she went on to the next big adventure.

Farewell my beautiful skinny blonde bitch, there is now a Gucci shaped hole in my world.

Thank you all for your messages. Be well.
Portia xx

Lunch + Sniff: Great Afternoon Fun

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Post by Portia

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One of the things that we really like to do here in Sydney is organise to meet up with mates and share some happy sniffing times. Over lunch, a cuppa or even an alcoholic beverage should the atmosphere be conducive we sniff and chatter, gossip and parse. No one else ever quite gets the excitement of a vintage find or an extravagant splurge. It’s really nice to be able to use the vocabulary of scent with people who speak it.

Lunch + Sniff: Great Afternoon Fun

Something else super fun about having a lunch + Sniff is that you get to try things previously off your radar, out of your price range or so far out of your personal comfort zone and all at no cost other than a spot of lunch. There’s also the fun of meeting someone else who adores that thing your other friends would prefer you not wear, a scent twin, a J.F. Schwarzlose Berlin, Knize, DIOR, Humiecki & Graef or vintage Rochas Femme aficionado. The thrill of hanging out with someone else who even knows what you mean when you say these things is undeniable. Lately I have been quite lucky and over the holiday period have had two chances to Sniff + Lunch.

Both days were spent in the Art Gallery of NSW Members Lounge. I love it there, food is cheap, comfortable seating and they let us spray (Except one day when we fumigated the place with vintage Ungaro Diva) to our hearts content. Currently the walls are hung with about 12 Lloyd Rees paintings that would usually be kept in the vaults, they change the Members Lounge exhibition regularly and it’s always interesting pieces unseen in the main gallery areas.

Sonya Scott Portia Art Gellery NSW Dec 2015
Scott, Sonya and I are catching up pre-Christmas and smelling vintage CHANEL, Nina Ricci, Guy Laroche and a few others. Sonya & I are so busy it’s rare that we get a chance to chat properly and it was terrific fun. We all discussed fragrance and our addiction to both the scents and the shopping for them, kids, jobs, family, home and the upcoming Christmas festivities. Besides the catch up stuff it was also really good to listen to Scott & Sonya chat fragrance, their noses and ability to parse are well above mine and it’s always instructional to listen to them when they strike fragrant gold.

Tim Portia Art Gellery NSW Dec 2015
Here Tim and I smelling the newest Dawn Spencer Hurwitz fragrances, vintage DIOR & CHANEL and some of the early Oliver & Co fragrances. Tim is an avid enthusiast and his fragrance sniffing history is more the menswear reals so I like to bring him some unusual, interesting and vintage stuff. We spend most of the time laughing. It was really fun getting our first sniff of the new DSH lines together, his assistance invaluable in helping me understand the different levels of fragrance held within their gorgeous folds. Yes, there will be a couple of reviews in the near future.

Do you ever get to spend Sniff + Lunch time? It’s so worth it and you learn a LOT more in company.
Can’t find any perfumistas in your area? Try the facebook fragrance boards, here are three of my favourites: Australian Fragrance Network, Facebook Fragrance Friends or Peace, Love & Perfume. You could also start a Meet-Up group in your area, you’ll be surprised how many people nearby are into fragrance.

Who has too many friends? Nobody. Imagine spending some time once a month, or every couple of months, with people who get you…… Be the change you want to see in the new year. Make 2016 the year you connect with some fumies in real life.
Portia xx