Whips & Roses by John Pegg for Kerosene 2012

January 1, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 17 Comments

Post by Portia

OK Crew,

Whips and Roses has been discontinued and is SOLD OUT everywhere so while rummaging through my drawers when I found a few ml in a decant I thought it would be nice to share the love.

Whips & Roses by Kerosene 2012

Whips & Roses by John Pegg

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Parfumo gives these featured accords:
Bergamot, Blood orange, Bulgarian rose, Iris, Jasmine, Leather, Musk, Rose stems, Sandalwood

Citrus, rose and a dirty, sweaty, amorphous leather open up Whips and Roses. It’s a freaky first few moments that seem a little directionless but wait, one minute in and suddenly cohesion. A fruity and fresh rose, just plucked from the bush, some cool watery facets like filling the vase and an arresting sweetness like the very sugary tip of a watermelon taken from the fridge in the height of summer and that very first bite. A candied, fruity rose that takes a step back about half an hour in to let the other flowers give some of their fragrance.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

Whips & Roses gets a lovely slug of jasmine and sandalwood at this point, so pretty, and I wonder if the incongruity of the name which is kinda tough and the sheer unbridled prettiness of the fragrance has something to do with its discontinuation. I was expecting it to be the dark heart of rose and the bitter dank of leather, a goth fragrance that speaks of the labyrinths and catacombs, the vampires and werewolves. Whips and Roses is way more Disney’s Sleeping Beauty than Interview With A Vampire or Maleficent.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

Then we are back to rose, petal, branch and root. Beautiful.

Further reading: Australian Perfume Junkies and Memory of Scent
The Perfumed Court has samples starting at $4/ml

Good luck in the giveaway
Portia xx

Photo Stolen AllSteele

Whips and Roses GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 2 winners who will receive:
1 x Sample Whips and Roses
some extras
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.

You must tell us how you follow APJ?

and

Please tell us any story of discontinued gems, independent loves, Whips or Roses…..

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Sunday 3rd January 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 7th January 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.

HAPPY NEW YEAR APJ! 2016

December 31, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 36 Comments

Post by Portia

Another year APJ!

Well, we have survived another year. The world is uneasy and peace less assured, money markets are unstable and the wealth distribution imbalance becoming more and more obvious, we are being bought and sold by powers that care nothing for us and governments are owned by multinational arms and pharmaceutical producers (that’s guns & drugs). The earth has fewer and fewer trees, fewer animal species, the seas are being fished dry and the ice is melting so fast at our poles that surely the water will be lapping at our front doors in a decade. It all seems so bleak.

What do I wish for 2016?

Peace. Sensible choices for our planet. People who care about the little people in power.

I’m sorry this is not a happier Happy New Year.

Wherever you are I wish you the best year possible in 2016. Let the joy outweigh the tears, the comfort outweigh the lack, the good outweigh the bad. I wish you more than enough money to live your life well, a roof over your head, clothes to wear and food in the pantry and fridge. I also wish you good health, mental and physical, and the good sense to take care of yourself in both ways. I wish you gainful employment. I wish you well, satisfied, comfortable and peaceful.

If you cannot actively do good, please do no harm.

Smile at people in the street, you may be the only smile they see this week.

Do something nice just for you each day.

Do something different each month.

Try to go easier on yourself. You’re not perfect. NO ONE IS.

Be happy with the best you have to offer and know that it is different every day.

Thank You for being part of the APJ International Fragrance Family. You are special to us. We love you.
Portia & the APJ Crew

Vetiverus by Oliver Valverde for Oliver + Co. 2012

December 31, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 2 Comments

Post by Portia

My mate Scott was over the other day and we were going through some new samples, bottles and decants that had arrived in the week since I’d seen him. Basically I grabbed a piece of paper and pen, some touches and we even used some of our precious skin so we could smell how differently they lived on each of us. It was fun and interesting, when you sniff with someone and they find a new love it’s amazing how that then reactivates my focus and energises the whole process of parsing. This is the winner of our sniffathon and it came in a free sample set because I’d bought their Gincense, which we’ll talk about later.

Vetiverus by Oliver & Co. 2012

Vetiverus by Oliver Valverde

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Oliver & Co. give these featured accords in one line:
Labdanum from Spain, styrax, Haitian vetiver, ambergris, coriander from Russia, osmanthus absolute, orange peel, white musks, Madagascar clove

OK so the opening is a totally enjoyable smoky, greasy, green, oily, metallic, salty, grassy BOOM! A vetiver fantasy that grabs you by the scruff of the neck and gives you a gentle shake, till your teeth rattle. Astounding, fun, green cordial, raspy and smooth are all words we used to describe the opening with is vetiver squared.

Photo Stolen Flickr

As we hit the heart Vetiverus opens up into a milky fig heart with a tickle of salt tweaking the sweet greenness. There are very faint reminders of vintage Emeraude‘s opening through the heart too and a metallic vibe that serves to oppose and highlight the creamy green fruit. Once these heart notes recede the smoke comes back and it’s a dry grassy, smoky vetiver and leather(?) drizzled over musks that fades over hours and hours to gone.

From LuckyScent: If you love the pure, smoky sexiness of vetiver the way we do, it can be frustrating to try fragrances that hide it behind other powerful ingredients in the name of “balance.” …In keeping with this philosophy, Vetiverus opens dramatically with an exquisitely deep and mysterious vetiver, at once smoky and velvety rich… Plenty of great fragrances feature vetiver. But for the true vetiver enthusiast searching for an unapologetic, uncompromising showcase of the sublimely smoky, there is perhaps no substitute for Vetiverus.

Photo Stolen WikiMedia

Further reading: Perfumistanns and +Q Perfume
Oliver & Co. has €110/50ml
LuckyScent has $145/50ml + samples

What is your vetiver fragrance? Have you tried the Oliver & Co Vetiverus?
Portia xx

Coco vintage parfum by CHANEL: Live Video Sniff

December 30, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 6 Comments

Post by Portia

Hey there Frag Heads,

Yes, Scott and I at it again. We did a bunch of these over a few weeks. Really there’s not much content but the excitement of documenting our opening ceremonies and the sillines we go on with makes me smile while watching them back. We are idiots but having a good time.

Please enjoy,
Portia xxx

Coco by CHANEL 1984

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Coriander, pomegranate blossom, mandarin orange, peach, jasmine and Bulgarian rose
Heart: Mimose, cloves, orange blossom, clover and rose
Base: Labdanum, amber, sandalwood, tonka bean, opoponax, civet and vanilla

SurrenderToChance has EdT samples starting at $3/ml

Vanilla Smoke by Aftelier Parfums: Live Video Sniff

December 29, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 16 Comments

Post by Portia

Hi there Happy Huffers,

Vanilla Smoke arrived a couple of weeks ago and we decided to do an opening ceremony with film. Scott is way more on the ball that I am with it and we are both frag fools, as always. Congratulations Mandy Aftel on another fabulous fragrance. We can smell that this is going to be a big hit.

Enjoy the video,
Portia xxx

Vanilla Smoke by Aftelier Perfumes 2015

Vanilla Smoke by Mandy Aftel

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Yellow mandarin, Siam wood, saffron absolute, vanilla absolute, lapsang souchong tea essence (tea leaves smoked over pinewood), coumarin, ambergris

Aftelier has $180/30ml EdP
Aftelier has $180/7.5ml Parfum

Heatwave Fragrances for Summer 2015

December 28, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 7 Comments

Post by Greg Young

Hey APJ,

South-east Australia has been sweltering in a heat wave for days on end. Going outside has been like walking into a brickmaker’s kiln, and staying inside hasn’t been much fun either. Conservative businessmen such as myself are dispensing with their ties and looking fondly at the pub over the road from work, dreaming of a cold craft beer.

Choosing the right fragrance for temperatures like this can be tough. I feel the need for something that picks me up in the morning and sends me out feeling at least a little bit chipper. For me, that usually means something with a citrus hit. It also needs to defy the evaporative force of baking Melbourne heat, so classic EdCs are off the list. Here is how I dealt with the heat this week.

Heatwave Fragrances for Summer 2015

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Thursday: the wave begins
The CBD baked in 36 degree heat. Tauer’s Orange Star has a sharp citrus juice opening that is very refreshing on a hot morning. It’s not really my idea of a summer fragrance; the vanilla and tonka bean give it a sweetness that I think is more appropriate for cooler days. The fact that Orange Star lasted the distance in this heat is impressive; I could still smell its amber drydown 12 hours later at home, in the cooling blast of A/C.

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Friday: the swelling wave
When the thermometer climbs to 39 and it’s accompanied by a northerly wind Melbourne becomes positively beastly. I chose Penhaligon’s Blenheim Bouquet for my Friday fragrance. This very traditional fragrance was designed for Winston Churchill’s father – Blenheim Palace is the Churchill family seat. It’s lemon and lime scent was just what I needed, bolstered by a refreshing pine. This was a perfect pick. While not exactly fighting on the beaches, it never surrendered.

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Saturday: the wave crests – and a special occasion.
It was 41C (106F) on Saturday. We planned to travel for a weekend away to celebrate our wedding anniversary. This meant we had to go out in blinding heat, sit in a car where the seats set fire to you when you climbed in, and moan to one another about how hot it was.

We went to dinner at a rural Italian restaurant of considerable note and I chose D.S. & Durga’s Italian Citrus, with its powerful, complex, almost bitter citrus note that really stays with you. It developed a sweeter musk as the night wore on, but the citrus remained until the end rather than giving way to the base notes. It lasted a good four hours.

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Sunday: the wave breaks
Only by comparison to the furnace of Saturday could the 39 degrees we reached on Sunday be considered cooler. We were in the car again travelling home. At the outset we could feel every one of those 39 degrees, cutting short our trip to get into the car and just leave.

I wore Masque Terralba. There is a cedary opening to this, but it’s cut by a little bit of lemon. It has an oceanic note that I can’t quite place, which reduces the woodsiness. Some herbal green notes emerge later as well.

Shortly after arriving home, the heat wave broke. Intermittent showers of rain brought relief from the fearsome dry, and the temperature tumbled ten degrees in just a few hours. The heat wave was over – until the next one.

Surrender To Chance is a great place to sample most of these.

How do you cope with heat?
Greg Young

Miss Dior vintage EdC GIVEAWAY WINNERS

December 28, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom

Post by Portia

Thanks for getting involved gang, let’s see who won.

Portia xxx

Miss Dior vintage EdC GIVEAWAY WINNERS

Parfumo gives these featured accords:
Top: Galbanum, Bergamot
Heart: Jasmine, Rose, Gardenia
Base: Oakmoss, Ambergris, Sandalwood, Patchouli

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 2 winners who will receive:
1 x Miss Dior vintage EdC decant
some extras
P&H Worldwide

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Sunday 27th December 2015 10pm Australian EST
Winners were chosen by random.org

Photo Stolen brooklodge

Hazel

Lindaloo

CONGRATULATIONS! The winners will have till Thursday 31st December 2015 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.

Amarige by Dominique Ropion for Givenchy 1991

December 27, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 12 Comments

Post by Anne-Marie

A little while ago I did a round-up of print and online reviews of one of the most reviled perfumes on the counter: Givenchy’s Amarige. Now I’d like to share my own views. An astute reader will probably have decided that I would not be going to this much trouble if I hated Amarige, and you are right. I do love it. So THERE!

Amarige by Givenchy 1991

Amarige by Dominique Ropion

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Parfumo gives these featured accords:
Top: Mandarin, Neroli, Peach, Plum, Rosewood, Violet Heart
Heart: Gardenia, Carnation, Jasmine, Cassia, Mimosa, Orchid, Black locust, Rose, Red berries, Black currant, Tuberose, Ylang-ylang
Base: Amber, Woody notes, Musk, Sandalwood, Tonka bean, Vanilla, Cedar

Firstly, the notes (deep breath):
Top: orange blossom, plum, mandarin, violet, peach, neroli, Brazilian rosewood.
Heart: red berries, mimosa, carnation, black locust, tuberose, blackcurrant, gardenia, casie, orchids, jasmine, ylang ylang, rose.
Base: sandalwood, tonka, amber, musk, vanilla, woody notes, cedar

How does it smell to me? I don’t much bother trying to separate the notes. To me Amarige smells of peaches, white flowers, and sunshine. Yellow is a dominant colour in the marketing and while I don’t dress in yellow, I get my ‘yellow’ from Amarige. It’s a colour – and a scent – of confidence, happiness and optimism.

Amarige’s bottle was designed by Pierre Dinand and inspired by a blouse Hubert de Givenchy had designed in 1952 for his model, muse and some time press agent, Bettina Graziani. High-collared and narrow at the waist, the sleeves of the ‘Bettina blouse’ were deeply ruffled with broderie anglaise, and those ruffles are referenced in the cap on the bottle.

Photo Stolen Pinterest

Tuberose? I compared Amarige with other ‘scoundrels’ (Luca Turin’s word) of the era: Giorgio of Beverly Hills and Elizabeth Arden’s Red Door. The tuberose in those is indeed very and harsh and synthetic, to my nose, whereas in Amarige the tuberose is balanced and blended with other notes, especially that joyful peach.

Too strong? Oh for goodness sake! Just wear less. Nobody is forcing you to spritz Amarige 16 times, are they? What? Your Auntie Sharon did actually spritz it 16 times, back in the 90s? Well good on her. She smelled better than if she had been wearing any amount of Issey Miyake. Yes she did.

Speaking of Issey Miyake, some perfume critics write of the 90s as a time of freshness and restraint in perfume. In the 80s, perfumes were too strong and we all wore too much. In the 90s we detoxed, apparently, on fragrances like Calvin Klein’s CK One and Clinique’s Happy. But no, that’s not quite true. The divas kept coming. Not just Amarige, but Lancome’s Trésor and Poème, Liz Taylor’s White Diamonds, Gucci’s L’Arte di Gucci and Rush, Thierry Mugler’s Angel, YSL’s Yvresse, Hermès’ 24 Faubourg, Dior’s Docle Vita and J’Adore, and Chanel’s Allure.

And yet the clean watery fragrances did sell like crazy, so perhaps the only explanation is that they were bought by people who would otherwise not wear fragrance at all – memories of Auntie Sharon – meaning that the fragrance market overall must have expanded in the 1990s.

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

FragranceNet has $28/30ml
My Perfume Samples starts at $2/ml

I started out with Amarige and have ended up with 90s fruity florals in general.
What do you think? A good era for perfume, the 90s? Or … not?

Mugler: Interview with David Koma

December 27, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom

Post by Portia

Hey there Fashion/Perfumistas,

David Koma has been fairly circumspect about his Creative Directorship of house Mugler. It’s nice to see him interviewed and find out a little about the boy who has brought the Mugler label into the 21st century. Don’t be expecting the outrageous shock value pieces of Mugler past, this is a sleeker, cooler and richer model. So sharp you could be bored until you notice the detail, the impossible patternmaking he puts his crew through and the ultimate genuflection to the young, lithe, shapely female form.

Photo Stolen Mugler

I hope you enjoy it,
Portia xxx

Mugler: Interview with David Koma

Boxing Day 2015

December 26, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 18 Comments

Post by Portia

Hi All,

You have survived Christmas or you didn’t celebrate. Either way it’s over for another year. Boxing Day is here in Sydney.

So Christmas here was a lovely, laid back affair. We ended up with only ten people at table and it was a perfect size. There was loads of room for everyone and no elbows getting in each others way. Jin & I were up quite late getting the apartment organised and having an event spurred us on to get some things done that had been on the list since we moved in. We both slept like logs and then up bright and early to do finishing touches. Jin also had to get his dessert ready so we could throw them in the oven when we needed to.

Photo Donated Kath Waples

This year we did something new. Every family had to bring a salad, meat and dessert. It was all planned in advance so we had a fabulous selection and everyone had enough. It cut down on prep time for everyone and meant that we all arrived feeling much less stressed than usual. Jin made mango dacquiris to start us off on the right foot and they were particularly potent so by the time we sat to dinner everyone was feeling convivial. There were a selection of sparkling white or moscato with lunch and still or sparkling water, add garlic bread and a serve yourself buffet and you have an idea of how it all went.

Christmas Tree & Presents

In between courses we did presents. My lovely haul included a new wallet, reading light, back armour for my bike jacket, gift cards and LOADS of chocolates!!!

Dessert was extravagant. Jin cooked mini apple pies with cream and Jane, my BFFs sister, created an ice cream cake with 4 layers and that was drizzled with ice magic and sprinkled with berries, we didn’t even bring out the Christmas Cake and there was something else but I didn’t even notice it. With dessert I percolated some coffee and made some Irish breakfrast tea and we sat around chatting and laughing.

Ma & Pa Waples

CHANEL No 5 was the fragrance de jour but to be honest I was so busy organising and eating that it was background hum, it’s completely faded now but I’m thinking that a bath is in order and then I’m craving vintage Mitsouko by Guerlain.

Photo Donated Kath Waples

Boxing Day 2015

Today we are having a sleep in and then going for a swim with the same crew we spent lunch with today. Perfect! It feels like a Liberté by Cacharel kinda day but I’m wavering and think that maybe I’ll wear Skin on Skin by L’Artisan, Teo Cabanel Alahine or V Intense by Piguet.
It’s days like today that remind me how freaking lucky I am in so many ways.

What did you all get up to and what frags did you wear?
Portia xxx