White Spirit by Romano Ricci for Juliette Has A Gun 2016

June 2, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 36 Comments

Post by Portia

Hey Hey All,

Romano Ricci is a dead set spunk, so sexy and suave. We met him last year here in Sydney and I fell head over heels, we all did. He was warm, engaging, funny and composed. He had some great stories and through the whole afternoon his love for fragrance shone through. Coming down from the Nina Ricci line, she is his grandmother, he has a similar vein of conservative and quirky that I am only now discovering as I work my way through the vintage Nina Ricci catalogue.

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?

White Spirit by Juliette Has A Gun 2016

White Spirit by Romano Ricci

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Jasmine sambac, tuberose
Heart: Ambroxan, tuberose
Base: Amber, cedar, musk, sandalwood

This haute line from JHaG is lovely. I really like the bottles, fragrances and the whole idea behind them. Romano made up a crazy expensive fragrance for his girlfriend, everywhere they went people commented on it and wanted in. He then made up a small batch at a more moderate price to test the waters, still expensive but within reach. Sell Out! So the haute line was born.

The first two are big fragrances, head turning, walk in before you, notice me bitches style frags. On the third Romano has pared back the size and added a more industrial vibe. 21st century fragrance couture. Utterly unisex and, on my skin, devastatingly beautiful.

Further reading: Candy Perfume Boy and Now Smell This
Libertine Parfumerie has $390/75ml with FREE Australian Postage
First In Fragrance has €240/75ml + Samples

White Spirit GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 winner who will receive:
1 x White Spirit Manufacturers Sample (my review sample remnants)
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 your addictive scent

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close TOMORROW Friday 3rd 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.

Equinox Bloom GIVEAWAY WINNERS

June 2, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom

Post by Portia

Hey there APJ,

Thanks again to Libertine Parfumerie and Elysee Collective who are always keeping APJ awash in the latest and greatest fragrance.
Portia xx

Equinox Bloom GIVEAWAY WINNERS

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

Libertine Parfumerie has $279/100m

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

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Wednesday 1st June 2016 10pm Australian EST
Winners were chosen by random.org

Lena

DESPINA VENETI

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.

Tauer Perfumes Sample Pack

June 1, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 44 Comments

Post by Portia

Hey APJ,

As you may have read my mate Liam Sardea, who writes for APJ sometimes and has his own blog Olfactics, is now working for Men’s Biz here in Oz curating their fragrance range. One of the big wins he has had is that they now are the Australian retailers of Tauer Perfumes. To celebrate they have sent me a Tauer Sample Pack to give away today.

Tauer Perfumes Sample Pack

I’m giving you the Tauer Perfumes blurb for each fragrance in this Sample Pack.

03 Lonestar Memories: The scent of a lonesome rider, wearing old jeans and leather jacket, after a long day on the horse in the dry woods, preparing his coffee on the open, smoky fire.

05 Incense Extreme: A perfume built around a natural CO2 extract of Boswellia serrata, aka incense; it captures the roughness of the climate of the semi desert where Boswellia trees thrives. It is translucent like the first whiff of incense smoke from Boswellia resin on red gleaming coal. Yet, it is crisp like a night in the desert.

06 Incense Rose: Incense rosé is a mysterious fragrance, like an thick flying oriental carpet with floating rose petals, built around smoking frankincense, with rose and citrus notes, and dark balsamic resins.

09 Orange Star: Discover a rich citrus fragrance with a clean orange flower in its heart, and a soft elegant base that seems to last forever.

Phi Une Rose De Kandahar: Phi is a luxurious scent, inspired by a natural extract of roses produced in Afghanistan’s rose region, Nangarhar. This rose oil is extremely rare and of highest quality. Inspired by these roses, growing in a dry and rough land, Phi is a rare gem, complementing contrasting lines, rich in natural raw materials that add depth and authenticity.

Please go have a look at the Men’s Biz site for your Australian niche fragrance needs.

Tauer Perfumes Sample Pack GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 winner who will receive:
1 x Tauer Perfumes Manufacturers Sample Pack (1.5ml of each fragrance above)
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DO YOU WIN?

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Tell us a your favourite Tauer Perfume

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close TOMORROW Thursday 2nd 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 GIVEAWAY WINNER

June 1, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom

Post by Portia

Belle de Jour GIVEAWAY WINNER

Fragrantica

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?

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.

Replacing Discontinued Beauty #2

May 29, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 5 Comments

Post by AF Beauty

Replacing the discontinued – Body Shop Nutriganics Softening Cleansing Gel – Part 2
Hello loves.

My search for my long lost Body Shop cleansing gel has been long but I hope, fruitful. As well as targeting products texturally similar to the gel, I tried a couple of liquid oil cleansers, hopeful that despite the texture difference at the start, the overall cleansing would still be good.

Replacing Discontinued Beauty #2

Mango Seed, Body Shop + Clinique

The first is a Korean product in a range called Mango Seed product called Oil to Foam. This is a nicely light oil and I anticipated it work by doing the oily thing to clean off the make up and then turn foamy with water. Unfortunately, the oil texture is not long lasting enough for me to properly remove heavier make up. Almost immediately as being dispensed it turns to a foamy soapy texture and then cleans like a regular foam. Positively, it smells lovely, very light and citrusy. I would use this as a second cleanser – I know, extravagant! But sometimes I feel like the first cleanse didn’t capture everything, this would be a good round two.

The second is from Clinique from their Take The Day Off range. I have heard nothing but good things about their Take The Day Off Cleansing Balm – but I had been at Clinique getting the contour stick (that I wrote about a few weeks back) and the SA had used the Take The Day Off Cleansing Oil to clean my face and it felt good, so I thought I’d give the oil a go at home.

So the big negative of this product for me is the smell – of lack of it. As all Clinique products, it is entirely unperfumed. This could be great for anyone sensitive to fragrance – but I’m guessing that’s not this crowd. Unscented in this case means that the product smells of what’s it’s made of – so it smells a bit chemically. Not overpowering but noticeable. But really, that is my only criticism. I really didn’t want to like this product as much as I do but the texture is beautiful – very light and smooth. It dissolves makeup in an instant, turns milky on water and washes away to leave clean skin, lovely. I admit, this one is my favourite and is my default for when I need an easy simple clean.

So, having tested four products as replacements for my Body Shop gel, I think the Clinque has been my favourite in texture, the Korean Mango Seed, my favourite in smell and probably all but the Mango Seed have done excellent work at removing make up. All that said, you could probably try Baby Oil to dissolve makeup, but for me, the milkiness on contact with water ensures I’m not left feeling oily on my skin and potentially clogging pores – and that’s important.

What other products like this have you tried? What oil based cleansers would you recommend?
Ciao ciao, AF x

Muguet Porcelain by Hermès GIVEAWAY WINNER

May 29, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 1 Comment

Post by Portia

Woo Hoo APJ!

Thanks for joining in.

Let’s see who our lucky winner is.
Portia xx

Muguet Porcelain by Hermès GIVEAWAY WINNER

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Lily of the valley, green notes

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

The winner will receive:
1 x 4ml Muguet Porcelain by Hermès
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Saturday 28th May 2016 10pm Australian EST
Winner chosen by random.org

Koyel

The winners will have till Wednesday 1st 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.

Perfumer H – Lyn Harris: TinaG In Europe Photo Essay

May 28, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 5 Comments

Post by TinaG

Hi APJ!

I was treated to a fabulous day out in London during my travels, hosted by Tara from A Bottled Rose. Tara has written up our adventures in more detail on her blog. One of the exciting discoveries of the day was a visit to the Perfumer H lab & shop in Crawford Street, London.

Perfumer H – Lyn Harris

‘Making Air Visible’

Perfumer H was started by Liz Harris (of Miller Harris) roughly 8 months ago. The shop contains an extensive lab out the back which is both Lyn Harris’s workshop, and a ingredient display. We were greeted by Caroline who kindly ran us through the concepts of the fragrance company.

Perfumer H releases new fragrances seasonally – their first being Winter 2015 and the current range for Summer 2016. Past seasonal fragrances are ‘archived’ but not discontinued, which means they continue to be accessible. Two of the Winter 2015 releases were rolled-over to Summer 2016 – Leather and Cologne, which join Atlas, Musk and Rain Cloud for this season’s suite of five. I wish that I wrote down the archived Winter fragrances – I do know one was Velvet. There were three that had been shelved.

There are a selection of five home fragrances which are available as candles – Orange Blossom, Dandelion, Leaf, Ivy and Smoke. The perfume bottles and candle holders are each hand-made, heavy and lush. You can choose to purchase the fragrances in 100ml functional screw-cap bottles, which I did for ease of travelling.

Perfumer H has a range of ‘laboratory editions’ which are a fun way to purchase some of Liz Harris’s creative work. Names like Ink, Vetiver, Rose & Smoke line the shelves. Each fragrance in the whole range is also given a unique identifier, and if you wish, you can purchase that perfume outright – including choosing it’s name, having it registered in Grasse, and it is then taken out of general circulation – so it is yours and yours alone. You can buy single bottles without claiming rights though – just careful if you fall in love, it may just disappear one day!

I tried four fragrances on skin – Velvet, Musk, Atlas and Leather as I was keen to pick up a bottle, but wow…. What a difficult decision! I would have been happy to walk away with any of them, but I decided on Musk.

Musk – no. g116 3995
Notes: Bergamot (Italy), Mandarin, Petitgrain (Paraguay), Iris absolute (China), Heliotrope, Cedarwood (Virginia), Benjoin (Siam), Vanilla absolute, White Musk.

On opening I get a floral Iris and fluffy musk along with a subtle plant-stem note in the background. After an hour this changes to an iris/cedar combination. It is sexy, gentle and very wearable. Sticky vanilla notes waft in and out. I find the citruses after 8 hours in a sheer veneer of smoke & juice that makes me wish I sprayed more skin. Interestingly the iris has a great staying power and it remains throughout (+12 hours). It is a gorgeous fragrance and I’m extremely glad I picked it up. I’m half tempted to go back & get the Leather as well, time & funds permitting.

Perfumer H is a great concept which has been actualised with wonderful fragrances and beautiful glass bottles. They do ship to Australia but you will be paying a premium for hazardous goods ~£70.

What do you think, APJ? Sound like a fun venture to you?

Tina G xx

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