Gucci No 3 by Gucci 1985

May 4, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 8 Comments

Post by Willa Zheng

It’s no great secret that I love feminine florals and my fragrance wardrobe at home is lined with them. However, every once in a while, a fragrance comes along that is such a departure from everything you already own and thought you liked, and yet you fall in love with it regardless. A love at first sniff. That’s the case with this dearly discontinued fragrance from the House of Gucci.

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Aldehydes, coriander, green leaves, bergamot
Heart: Tuberose, orris root, jasmine, lily-of-the-valley, rose, narcissus
Base: Leather, amber, patchouli, musk, oakmoss, vetiver

Gucci No 3 opens aldehydic, green and citric. Then, a melange of powder (orris root), white flowers (so heavy, so many that you can’t really tell apart the tuberose, jasmine, lily-of-the-valley, and narcissus) and rose push through; and before you know it, you’re smelling like an expensive piece of soap, the kind you’d buy in department stores to give as gifts in yesteryear. Think vintage Arpege.

But whereas Lavin Arpege has a sweet sandalwood, ambery base thus classifying it as a floriental, there is no denying that Gucci No 3 is of the chypre family. Chypre fragrances are all about the balanced contrast between their fresh, sparkling opening notes and their bitter, dark, woody heart. Gucci No 3 is no exception.

Pixabay

The heart merges about thirty minutes in when the fragrance pivots. It becomes darker, more bitter, as the heavy oakmoss base pushes through. On the skin, it’s warm (amber), deep (patchouli), slightly smoky (leather), dry (vetiver) and woody.

Gucci No 3 is the smell of a modern day Marlene Dietrich. She is a woman who is sure of herself and yet is a little bit mysterious. She is sophisticated, worldly and well-groomed. Who wouldn’t mind being a woman like that?

As mentioned earlier, this fragrance has been discontinued for about 15 years and full bottles, alas, are selling for a small fortune online. My bottle is a bit flat in the drydown due to its age. Depending on the condition of your bottle, you’ll get about 6 hours of strong wear and moderate to heavy sillage from the EDT.

YouTube

Further reading: Post Modern Perfume
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $6/ml

Gucci No 3 is truly the chypre for the woman who doesn’t normally ‘do’ chypre. It’s another reason, really, for us to toss Michael Edwards’ fragrance wheel to the wind and just smell everything.

Have you got a favourite Chypre fragrance?

My Motherland by Dzintars 1981: from Latvia with love

May 3, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 9 Comments

Post by Ainslie Walker

Hello lovelies!

The first time I pondered smells of Latvia, I was in my kitchen in Sydney circa 1995 toasting a slice of “Latvian Sweet and Sour Bread.” The smell was divine – spicy, slightly sweet and tart. The bread was a dark rye/sourdough containing aromatic seeds. On further investigation I established the seeds were caraway, a new and delicious flavor to me. The bread, with new and improved politically correct name, is still available from Coles supermarkets in Australia. Particularly delicious toasted with butter- spread thick and vegemite- spread sparsely.

Was it just an odd Australian-ism naming this bread Latvian or was it traditional to the country? Thanks recently to Google (which was not really around back then) and some further international travels, I learnt caraway is used in a lot of Latvian cooking, including in their traditional cheese. I still always ask about the bread to any Latvians I come across and it usually starts an interesting conversation…or a really odd stare!!

Recently my wonderful Latvian friend was speaking to her mother about Latvian scents when her mum wandered off, coming back with a small collection of old bottles and boxes she called me straight away. The bottles were treasures she had collected and brought over from Latvia when immigrating and also gifts she had received from travelling friends and relatives over the years. In the package was plenty of vintage bottles of Joy by Jean Patou, but the one that caught my attention the most was something I had never seen before. They requested I do some research for them, so here goes:

My Motherland by Dzintars

From Latvia with love

From the site (Thank you Undina)
Top: Lily-of-the-valley, geranium, bergamot
Heart: Rose, jasmine, neroli, iris, hyacinth, ylang-ylang
Base: Musk, amber, black pepper, cinnamon

Dzintars by Dzintars – a product house based in Riga dating back to 1849. With 188 fragrances in their back catalogue, they are deemed the largest manufacturer of cosmetics and perfumery in the Baltics.

You can see in the photos, the beautiful cut glass bottle, silk covered and lined box – complete with hand embroidered ribbon and medallion pinned to it. Just gorgeous! Opening the bottle, which is now empty I can smell traces of patchouli, civet, musky oakmoss and balsamic sweet, sticky notes. Research says the fragrance from 1981 is a chypre containing bergamot, lily-of-the-valley, cyclamen, iris, orange blossom, jasmine, tuberose, patchouli, cloves, musk, sandalwood, oakmoss and civet.

The word Dzintars is Latvian for amber and more than 4000 men in Latvia share the name – it is often also a surname! On eBay I found a CD called Dzintars: Songs of Amber by the Latvian Women’s Choir! Anyone who knows me knows how much I love amber, so this is hugely impressive to me!! Perhaps I have found my calling in the Baltics? Ha ha.

My own mother was a “10 pound Pom” back in the 50’s, emigrating from the UK to Australia with her parents via boat with 1 suitcase between them. Have you ever considered what fragrant treasures people bring from country to country and what their stories are? It is interesting to ponder the trails fragrances take before landing in our possession. It’s fascinating to get people talking about the fragrance bottles they have stashed away when empty, yet not thrown out – there is always a sentimental tale to discover.

What’s your favorite and sentimental fragrance story? Have you any Dzintars fragrances? What can you tell me about them?

Until next time! X

Ed: There are some changes to the original post because Undina has found extra information and can read the language. Thanks Undina. XXX)

2000 Posts

May 3, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 75 Comments

Post by Portia

Hello APJ Crew,

Momentous occasion. Can’t believe we have made this number. From the smallest inkling of an idea to this is quite remarkable for me.

2000 Posts

Thank you. Contributors past and present, Readers, Commenters, the Fragrance Businesses, Perfumers, Perfume Lovers one and all. We have done this together. All of us, a fragrance family that I am so grateful for.

Together we have made a place that I love to come to, a bunch of aficionados that love fragrance. Nothing too heavy, only the sheerest veneer of knowledge but boundless energy, excitement and dedication to all things fragrant. It feels like my living room with a bunch of perfumistas having a chatter and a sniff together, sharing our interest across the oceans and through time. Doing it in lunch hour, on the way to work, after the family is asleep or any time. Sometimes you guys are the one thing that keeps me grounded. Thanks.

Some special Thank Yous go to
Nick & Paige at Libertine Parfumerie who always make sure APJ has samples of the newest and best.
Patty and the crew at Surrender To Chance who make it easy for an Aussie to keep up.
Everyone at My Perfume Samples for support & kickbacks.
Adam, Franco & Steven at LuckyScent for their friendship & support.
George & the First In Fragrance crew who swap samples for cookies
Neela Vermeire of Neela Vermeire Creations who is always great value and a constant source of fun. I love you.

Please go shop with these guys because they are part of what keeps APJ running.

In the blogging community we also have an amazing group of friends, supporters and helpers.
Birgit, Lady Jane Grey and Sandra from Olfactoria’s Travels
Natalie from Another Perfume Blog (defunct)
Clayton from What Men Should Smell Like
Undina from Undina’s Looking Glass
Tara from A Bottled Rose
Denyse from Grain de Musc
Sheila from Alembicated Genie
EVERYONE at Perfume Posse
Thomas, Gaia, Vanessa, Lucy, Carlos, Neil, Pia, Lila, Musette, Magpie, Maxine, Daisy, Lucasz, Mals86, Steve, Freddie, Victoria, Arielle, Nick: There are so many more I’ve missed and you know who you are.

2000 Posts GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 winner who will receive:
1 x 7ml vintage Guerlain Mitsouko umbrella bottle (about 4ml)
1 x vintage Guerlain Mitsouko soap
P&H Worldwide

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

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Please CONGRATULATE US on 2000 POSTS in under 20 words

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Entries Close Thursday 5th May 2016 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winner will be chosen by random.org
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No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit.

Capricci by Francis Fabron for Nina Ricci 1960

May 2, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 25 Comments

Post by Portia

Heya APJ,

Azar is off this month taking some time to get stuff done, she’ll be back in June.

So I thought it might be fun to continue her style of looking at something vintage and little talked about… Some fragrances instantly become hits, some take a little longer and many never ever reach such exalted heights. Then there is another group that become very famous in one continent or country but the rest of the world remains immune to. Today we are looking at such a one.

Capricci by Nina Ricci 1960

Capricci by Francis Fabron

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot
Heart: Rosemary, tuberose, gardenia, orris root, jasmine, hyacinth, ylang-ylang, lily-of-the-valley, geranium, rose, narcissus
Base: Sandalwood, musk, benzoin, oakmoss, vetiver

Capricci was a small hit in Europe and sold there for decades but it was in Asia that it became a bit of a blockbuster apparently. Not in the same way that L’Air du Temps did but considering how much Capricci there is for sale on eBay with three different Asian scripts on their back stickers I hazard the guess that it was quite popular.

Aldehydes, citrus and a floral bouquet open Capricci. Even after all these years my EdT is crisp, fresh and has that sparkling/oily fizz of soda pop and metal cans. A very pretty, youthful fragrance that could easily have been given to a young girl of the 1960s as a less strident, more feminine, early awakening scent. Nowadays it smells slightly dated but still not old, does that make sense? As if a perfumer has tried to recreate the glamour of yesterdays fragrance with a modern palette.

Nina Ricci Perfumes

I can see why Capricci was less popular in America, though it is a lilting and ladylike scent there is the unmistakable Frenchness lurking underneath the sparkling flowers. A lived in feeling that doesn’t point to dirtiness as such but does have a light animals undertone. Less BIG and more animal than L’Air du Temps, a tiger in a clipped hedge next to a cottage garden. Add that to its less in-your-face attack style of scent and you may get an understanding. I am surprised that Capricci became an Asian hit though. It seems a bit too raunchy (not the word I want but the closest in my vocabulary) and intimate in the first hour to fit my profile of what Asia buys.

Capricci wears to a very pretty bouquet with a hint of dried grass and woodsiness. After the first hour it sits very close to the body but still offers a waft in sillage. Imagine a 1980s blockbuster turned down almost to mute, a barely there scent. As if it’s still on your scarf from last week, just perceptible.

So I’ve come back to add that I get a distinctly Arpege vibe from Capricci.

I’m a fan,
Portia xxx

TheTruthAboutMummy