El Poeta GIVEAWAY WINNERS

Woo Hoo Crew,

Thanks to the amazing Azar for another sensational giveaway!
Portia xx

El Poeta GIVEAWAY WINNERS

mario tomas and bottle azarPhoto Donated Mario

WHAT COULD YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 winner who will receive:
1 x
1 ml Mario Tomas Perfumes “Cafe” sample set of El Poeta, Café Noir, Café V and Poppy
P&H Anywhere in the world

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

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Please comment on any of these fragrances or tell us about your favorite coffee drink or coffee-centric perfume. If you can’t drink coffee (or don’t like it) you can tell us about that too!

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Thursday 30th April 2015 10pm Australian EST
Winners will be chosen by random.org

winner-is HighestSelfPhoto Stolen HighestSelf

Lyubev

The winners will have till Monday 3rd May 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.

Singapore 2015 Photo Essay

Woo Hoo APJ,

We are home from our 2 week Asia adventure. Traveling with Jin is so easy and fun, he loves to get amongst it and we fit in an extraordinary amount. He is absolutely fearless in his site and adventure planning and often has me doing things I never dreamed to do. This holiday he even planned in a whole day of lazy as a gift for me, we woke up late, lazed around the pool, brunched and generally hung out together till going off to some fab little street food diner for dinner. Bliss.

Singapore 2015 Photo Essay

First time in Singapore as a tourist rather than a transient, the easiest country in Asia to be a part of for us English speakers because English and Chinese are the two official languages so almost all signs are or have English. WINNING! They also have a fantastic Metro and Bus system that you can access with a card like the British Oyster system. It’s clean and the people are friendly, the food is awesome and the weather warm all year round. Our mate Julie gave us the inside skinny on everything and entertained usa to the whole islands highs & depths. We met up with friends not seen in years and really would have liked another week because we just could not fit everyone in.

To be honest there are hardly any photos with the crew because we were having too much fun while we were with them. Here is a selction of photos that I did remember to take.

Singapore 2015 #26
Singapore Airways very back row

Singapore 2015 #10
Our mate Julie who had us staying with her, excellent tour guide and hostess. (Whitney in the background)

Singapore 2015 #12

Singapore 2015 #13
Drinks at the Fullerton Bay Hotel Rooftop for welcome

Singapore 2015 #9
Portia swimming in the 14th floor pool of Julie’s apartment

Singapore 2015 #1

Singapore 2015 #2

We hired bikes and rode along the seafront, here we are stopped at a picnic point

Singapore 2015 #4

Singapore 2015 #3

Julie had organised a crew to see Bjorn Again (ABBA tribute) in the Marina Sands Complex (VERY Guggenheim)

Singapore 2015 #5

Singapore 2015 #6

Singapore 2015 #25
Spent the morning at the Marina Bay Gardens, even did the Sky Walk (big thing if you are scared of heights)

 

Singapore 2015 #14

Local breakfast

Singapore 2015 #15

Navigating Singapore by Public Transport

Singapore 2015 #16

Portia being an idiot, Jin can’t believe it. I don’t know why, it does seem to be my default setting.

Singapore 2015 #18

Singapore 2015 #19

 

High Tea at The Fullerton Hotel, unbelievably yummy and good value too. They kept filling up out trays till we had to waddle out.

 

Singapore 2015 #20
We did manage to get to some museums and art galleries but this is the only piece that I fell madly in love with, ancient version of Conchita Wurst

Singapore 2015 #8

Singapore 2015 #7
Found a Bangladeshi boy on the street and asked him where in Little India HE ate, took us to a fabulous restaurant 2 people absolutely full of naan and vegetarian food for $4 each, amazing.

Singapore 2015 #21

Singapore 2015 #22

Chinatown and Jin finally gets to use his Selfie Stick (I know, but he loves it and if that’s his worst vice I can cope)

Singapore 2015 #23

Singapore 2015 #24

Final Singaporean dinner, Chili crab, Spicy chicken and Breaded prawns.

 

 

Michael Edwards + Women's Wear Daily Magazine

Hey there APJ,

Just in from Ainslie Walker the latest Michael Edwards from Fragrances Of The World PRESS RELEASE!

weekly-mag-launch08

Michael Edwards + Women’s Wear Daily Magazine

Michael rarely mentions his fragrance projects, but here’s a development that will interest you: yesterday, Women’s Wear Daily, the New York fragrance, beauty and fashion trade bible, was reborn. No longer a daily paper, the new glossy weekly debuts with 246 pages … and the first Smell Test leads the Beauty reports.

Michael was asked by WWD to assemble “a jury of world-class fragrance experts who will judge various scents for their olfactory quality, revealing the nuances of perfumery’s new world order. Panelists are given unmarked vials of fragrance to smell in a blind, impartial test. The fragrance will be scored on a scale of 10 (the ultimate) to 1 (forgettable), with an average score computed.”

MISIA, the newest addition to Chanel’s Les Exclusifs collection, is the first fragrance his jury evaluated. It scored an average of 7.2 points. You’ll find the full article and slide show on WWD

Each week, the WWD jury will evaluate and score a new fragrance in the weekly WWD.

Ambre Vie by Christi Meshell for House of Matriarch 2012

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Post by FeralJasmine

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I love amber and there is probably no note that I wear more regularly. I have different ambers for different seasons, but I adore them all. I am considering adding Ambre Vie to my line-up and am weighing my decision and seeking enablement.

Ambre Vie by Christi Meshell for House of Matriarch 2012

Ambre Vie: Soft Amber Waves

Ambre Vie House of Matriarch FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Ambreine (labdanum), resins, mimosa petals, davana (artemisia), costus, amber, natural musk

Ambre Vie is an all-natural vanillic amber. It’s beautifully smooth and opens with a soft wave of spices and mimosa, but nothing dramatic. From the moment of spraying it smells somehow “settled,” as if it has melded with skin. I find it very hard to differentiate the various spice notes from one another. The labdanum is smooth and supple. The vanilla is there from the beginning, but it is soft and low-key and serves just to round out the amber. There is a dessert-wine, Tokai-like note which is probably the balsamic note referred to on Fragrantica. There are soft sweet powdery undertones, which I love in amber perfumes. On me it’s very soft and work-appropriate. Over the course of an hour the winey and mimosa notes disappear and the powder is a little more pronounced, but other than that it’s pretty linear. The remarks on House of Matriarch’s website refer to the drydown “becoming mysteriously stronger with time,” and all I can say is, not on me. It’s a skin scent within 90 minutes and gone at the two-hour mark.

Ambre Vie House of Matriarch Yellow_dragon jar Wikipedia)Photo Stolen Wikipedia

A commenter on Fragrantica calls it a “reference amber” and I agree with this. It’s like your perfect pound cake recipe that, while not being in any way unusual, is always delicious and never lets you down. Another Fragrantica commenter, Deadidol, says “Like its closest analog, HdP’s Ambre 114, this scent utilizes more than 100 materials to achieve its effect, yet the result is largely free from bombast. There’s musk lurking beneath, but it merges with the buttery tones of the base to keep from announcing itself too loudly. Similarly, soft, smoky notes appear alongside what seems to be clove, but these notes never get close enough the surface for full recognition.”

When I dream of the perfect workhorse amber perfume to suit all occasions and seasons and never call unwanted attention to itself (while inviting the wanted kind!), it’s pretty much like Ambre Vie. I wish it were more intense and lasted longer, and if it did, I wouldn’t be deliberating, I would be buying. I suspect that this is unique to my perfume-eating skin, because commenters have reported that it does last several hours on them. But ultimately I will almost surely buy a bottle because it is so very pretty, so well-made, and so right.

SONY DSCPhoto Stolen SteamRadio

Further reading: hausofwaft
House of Matriarch starts from $24/3.3ml

Speak to me of amber! What are your favorite perfumes based on this lovely note?
FeralJasmine x

Isabey Perle de la Route d`Emeraude by Panouge 2014

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Post by Trésor

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I love beautiful things. As much as I’m fond of saying that material things mean very little to me (and in all honestly they truly don’t in the grand scheme of things), I cannot deny that I have a powerful affection for objects graced with exquisite form and effortless function. The DNA of true luxury in my opinion is not a statement of needless excess nor grandeur but a transcendent elevation of the ordinary into a creation of unmitigated refinement; a symphonious pas de deux of finely calibrated performance and unyielding pulchritude. Perfection captured in kaleidoscopic microcosms, the harmonious tick-tick-tick of a fine timepiece or the gloriously symmetrical saddle stitching on a wallet from the atelier of Hermès. The same can be said for fragrance and I would hazard to say that capturing this particularly elusive je ne sais quoi within an olfactory landscape proves to be an even more arduous task than presented in the physically tactile artforms, though when one manages I can assure you it is truly magnificent. Case in point, the poetic opulence of Perle de la Route d`Emeraude from the Parisian house of Isabey.

Isabey Perle de la Route d`Emeraude by Panouge 2014

Isabey Perle de la Route d`Emeraude by Jean Jacques

Isabey Perle de la Route d`Emeraude Panouge FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Parfumo gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, Rose oil, Cinnamon
Heart: Jasmine sambac, Moroccan jasmine absolute, Orange blossom, Tuberose
Base: Ambergris, Benzoin, Vanilla, Musk

The opening sequence of Perle de la Route d`Emeraude (let’s just call her Perle from now on. A (tube)rose by any other name, and all that.) is an immaculately mellifluous diapason of white florals, as rich and utterly labyrinthine as you could possibly imagine. Operatic jasmine radiates forth in her narcotic light show, flashing lambent bursts of bergamot as if they were jewels decorating her velvet ivory. Tuberose graced with crimson red lips and Monroe curves reveals milky flesh, inch by inch though the ostrich feather plumes of her burlesque fan; innocence maintained only through the wreath of orange blossoms placed within her golden hair.

Isabey Perle de la Route d`Emeraude Panouge MichelleLAmourFan WikipediaPhoto Stolen Wikipedia

The airspace is penetrated by the redolent nectarous density of pure floral essence overflowing from petals releasing their very souls into our welcoming embrace. An icy current of buttery orris root courses through the background, acting as foil to the vivid canary hue of voluptuous ylang yang which serves to further amplify the depth and utter luxuriance which dwells within this unctuous elixir. As the composition begins its descent the inimitable warmth and splendid sweetness of benzoin resin rises from beneath the radiant florals and begins to enrapture everything in its wake. Smooth, smoky vanilla weaves gently through what remains of the the lush flora and leads Perle to her final moments on the skin as a sublimely comforting aureate glow.

Isabey Perle de la Route d`Emeraude Panouge Guhyasamaja WikiCommonsPhoto Stolen WikiCommons

The sillage on Perle is what you would expect of a decadent extrait de parfum, plush to the point of divinity while maintaining a particular geniality that creates a most fascinating harmony, indeed. As for longevity, it is about 8 hours before I finally notice her fading off into the distance leaving but traces of warmth and beautiful memories behind her. I urge you to give Perle a try if you are looking to experience the beauty of tuberose in full, unapologetic glory or if you’re simply in the mood for a truly decadent treat to brighten a rainy day.

Further reading: Scentsory Meltdown
LuckyScent has $355/50ml & Samples

What about you? Do you love a particular tuberose? Have you tried this one?

Until next time, kittens.
Trésor xx

Classic Opoponax by Von Eusersdorff 2015

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Post by Val the Cookie Queen

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An Immaculate Oriental……

You know when I first met Portia and we decided I would sometimes write posts for APJ I had absolutely no idea at all that I would be sat here more than two years later. Not only that but that I would also shoot down to Italy to attend the perfume shows. It is kind of funny really. I absolutely love going to them, and have no intention of stopping. And yet I am so hesitant to try anything new. The older I get the more überfussy I have become. (Don´t believe that. I have always been very selective.)

Classic Opoponax by Von Eusersdorff 2015

Classic Opoponax Von Eusersdorff FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Rose, jasmine
Heart: Opoponax, sandalwood, benzoin
Base: Castoreum, amber, patchouli, vanilla

Classic Opoponax was one of the very few (you could count them on one hand) of the new launches I was absolutely excited to try. I spent an hour searching through the Campomarzio party guests for Camille Henfling Junior, founder of Von Eusersdorff and an absolutely lovely bloke. I say searching because there was about 500 guests in about a 50 square meter area and it was dark – it took a while!

Classic Opoponax Von Eusersdorff Val #2Photo Donated Camille

Opoponax is also known as opobalsam, which explains its resiny feel. It is also known as sweet myrrh, in contrast to the bitter myrrh which is more commonly used in medicines, both Ayurvedic and Western. Sweet myrrh has been used for at least two thousand years in incense and perfumes and comes primarily from Somalia and Ethiopia. Von Eusersdorff’s Classic Opoponax feels slightly sticky when you spray generously, which you need to do to do it justice. Hence the solid comfortable 100 ml bottle.

Classic Opoponax Von Eusersdorff  WikipediaPhoto Stolen Wikipedia

Classic Opoponax is Von Eusersdorff’s sixth fragrance. Each fragrance is concentrated around a single note and all are of a very high standard. Elegant and handsome. Classic Opoponax no exception. It is a flawless oriental. Warm and thick, sweet and resinous, heady and quietly opulent. No spices. Very contemporary. It opens with a wonderfully sweet rose along with jasmine and takes you on a seamless ride into the heart of opoponax and on into the base of amber and patchouli, vanilla and a dab of castoreum. It all seems so effortless, which means it was not.

Classic Opoponax Von Eusersdorff Val #1Photo Donated Val

Classic Opoponax will be a summer perfume for me. I love rich sweet orientals in the heat. I find they stay very flat on the skin in cold weather. And no, 10 mls is definitely not enough.

Further reading: GoodSmellas and Colognoisseur
ParfuMaria has €119/100ml

Dankjewel Meneer Henfling for the wonderful package. It really touched me.

Which of the Von Eusersdorff fragrances have you tried, or do you want to try?

Tot Ziens
CQ

Classic Opoponax Von Eusersdorff Val #3Photo Donated Camille

El Poeta by Mario T. Gomez for Mario Tomas Perfumes

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Post by Azar

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“I have many interests but the art of perfumery is my passion” – Mario T. Gomez

Mario Gomez is well known in US West Coast perfume circles for his writing, lecturing and for his Olfactory Ambassador Service . In 2014 Mario brought his extensive knowledge of and appreciation for scent to the creation of his own line of fragrances – Mario Tomas Perfumes. So far there are three fragrances in the line: Lo Mejor de Mi #1, Corazon Blanco and El Poeta. While I have not had the pleasure of meeting the perfumer in person I feel as though I know him from trying just one of his creations. Late last year a dear friend gifted me a bottle of El Poeta, a fragrance that is a striking testament to Mario Gomez passion for and understanding of the art of perfumery.

El Poeta by Mario T. Gomez for Mario Tomas Perfumes

mario tomas and bottle azarPhoto Donated Mario

Perfumer gives these featured notes in one line:
Vanilla, sandalwood, coriander, anise, fig, bay rum, tobacco, juniper.

“This fragrance conjures up another era: a time and place when debates on beauty, style and technique were hotly discussed over drinks at a crowded and smoky café…It is absinthe inspired; Bohemia in a bottle.”

My perceived notes and description:
Anise, juniper, gin, vanilla, coriander, fig, coffee, cream and smoky sweet tobacco.

Many of you are familiar with DHS Café Noir (1997), Olympic Orchids Café V (2013) and Sweet Anthem Poppy (2014). To me these wonderful semi gourmand “café” perfumes are evocative of historic and contemporary café culture around the world – warm, dark, a little shady, revolutionary and artistic but at the same time comfortable and safe. El Poeta is a “café” fragrance too but with a twist. El Poeta opens for me with a blast of juniper/gin flavored with anise and coriander seed – potent, blue green and translucent. As the perfume develops it becomes warmer in color and more opaque, a delicious concoction of vanilla and fig. I like to spritz El Poeta late at night. When I wake up in the morning I am treated to a dry down of deep golden brown scents, the smells of thick, rich, vanilla spiced coffee, sweet cream and hints of smoky tobacco. Throughout the eight to ten hour life of the fragrance the projection is strong enough to be enticing but never overwhelming.

Mario Tomas AzarPhoto Donated Mario

Read more about Mario T. Gomez and his fragrances at Fragrantica and Ca Fleure Bon
Currently Mario Toms Perfumes are shipping to US addresses only.
El Poeta will be available again soon at Tiger Lily Perfumery

Azar xx

AllSteele giveaway 1Photo Stolen AllSteele

El Poeta GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 winner who will receive:
1 x
1 ml Mario Tomas Perfumes “Cafe” sample set of El Poeta, Café Noir, Café V and Poppy
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 (portia underscore turbo @ yahoo dot com dot au) so I know. Yes, you can start following to enter, in fact it’s encouraged.

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Please comment on any of these fragrances or tell us about your favorite coffee drink or coffee-centric perfume. If you can’t drink coffee (or don’t like it) you can tell us about that too!

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Thursday 30th April 2015 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org
The winners will have till Monday 3rd May 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.

 

Rose de Grasse by Aerin Lauder 2015

Heya All,

I grabbed this in the Surrender To Chance 5ml Fabulous Fragrance Fridays and I think they were trying to empty the bottle because I can’t find it on the site at all now. BUM!

Rose de Grasse by Aerin Lauder 2015

Rose de Grasse Aerin Lauder FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

BaseNotes gives these featured accords:
Top: Watery accord
Heart: Rose Centifolia, Bulgarian rose otto, Rose absolute
Base: Violet wood, Ambrox, Musk

These Aerin bottles look super luxe in the pictures, have any of you held them? Do they measure up in life? It looks like cool white porcelain.

Dewy rose buds at dawn, cool and just beginning to open, high up in the Himalayas because the air is brittle and thin. The rose is lightly fizzy and sweet but not jammy, far too crisp for that. There’s something green and leafy too like crushing aphids against the stem to attract more lady bugs who feed on them, crush a few and the lady bugs will do the rest. I am severely underwhelmed by the projection but think Rose de Grasse would make a perfect office scent. Really, during the first 15 minutes it smells more like a very nice fabric softener or body wash than a fine fragrance. This is on my skin and to my nose your results will vary. Having said that it does warm very nicely through after that point and also has a nice pithy background, it’s all extremely muted. Jin says it smells like Acacia and once he said it I get what he means, there is that slightly waxy green wetness I smell with acacia here in Rose de Grasse. Interesting.

Rose de Grasse Aerin Lauder Pink_roses WikiCommonsPhoto Stolen WikiCommons

The soft muted scent of Rose de Grasse is lovely but far too thin for my liking. I’m going to give my decant to a non perfumista girlfriend who likes fragrance and works corporate to see if she likes it for a work scent. It’s like they’ve added too much perfumers alcohol and not enough perfume, insipid. For $185/50ml I want more, more of everything.

What I have after 4 hours is a very soft geranium and carnation cross waft, very very soft. A bit spicy and floral over a soft musk base. Actually I like this almost scent better than the heart of the fragrance by far, a bit clove-y, stark and frosty. It tingles my tongue as I sniff it. I really cannot tell you enough how quiet it is but it does smell nice.

SONY DSCPhoto Stolen Flickr

Further reading: Now Smell This and Luxury Daily
Aerin is available in the USA at Estee Lauder online $185/50ml

Will I buy a bottle? No. Should you try it? Yes, at least so you feel that you have. You can also come back and tell me if I got it totally wrong, it wouldn’t be the first time I had.
Portia xxx

Salt Caramel by Julie Masse for Shay & Blue London 2014

Hey hey Fragrance Fiends,

Do you ever read and hear about a new brand quite a bit, it piques your interest, you don’t try it immediately and then you completely forget about it because you’re onto the new next best thing? I find it happening more and more often lately. Shay & Blue were the name on everybodies lips last year but until I saw them on Surrender To Chance last month I had let them pass me by.

Salt Caramel by Julie Masse for Shay & Blue London 2014

Salt Caramel Shay & Blue London FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Caramel, sea salt, tonka bean, sandalwood (Vanilla is added on the Shay & Blue site)

My partner Jin makes the most gorgeously delicious salted caramel macaroons. They are breath taking and so perfectly formed. The sweetness is cut through with savoury and when he makes them I know I’ve been an excellent companion. It’s like the ultimate nod.

When I spritz Salted Caramel I get a really big smile across my face. It’s EXACTLY what a Salted Caramel macaroon smells like. I even salivated at the scent as it first went on. Hilarious! That super sweet caramel-ish moment tempered by salt is so realistic and so ridiculously good but as much as I go crazy for it part of my mind is asking me if this is how I want to smell. Like, really? Is this the scent that you think is the best fragrance to offer the world as a scent concept of who you are? My head says, “Super good trick, yes you made a smell that totally replicates food. Astounding but WTF!”

salt-caramel-shay-blue macaroon Coralie Ferreira FlickrPhoto Stolen Flickr

As we move further into the heart of Salted Caramel it does get deeper and the sweetness is knocked out a bit, now I’m getting brulee crust, still sweet but toffee crisp and bitter. Are there musks in here too? Something powdery?  Maybe it’s the sandalwood and my associations are running away with me. It doesn’t smell like sandalwood as I think of it but that doesn’t mean that it’s not sandalwood, know what I mean?

Salted Caramel sticks around, and if you like the way it smells then you’ll be thrilled because once the super sweet opening burns of you’re left with a linear fragrance that I got 3 hours from because it drove me crazy so I waited 3 hours and then had a bath.

salt-caramel-shay-blue Bubble_Bath Jelin DeviantArtPhoto stolen DeviantArt

Further reading: Ca Fleure Bon and Kafkaesque
Shay & Blue are available at department stores, David Jones in Australia
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $4.50/ml

Did you get to try these Shay & Blue fragrances? Which ones tickled your fancy? What have you recently had to scrub?
Portia xx

Jasmine Sambac by Christopher Brosius for CB I Hate Perfume 2013

Hi there Crew,

Writing to you from the past but thinking about how lovely it will be to be hitting Singapore and South Korea in spring and recently I got a Surrender To Chance decant from one of my favourite independent perfumers; Christopher Brosius. It’s about as springlike  as you could ever imagine.

Jasmine Sambac by CB I Hate Perfume 2013

Jasmine Sambac by Christopher Brosius

Jasmine Sambac CB I Hate Perfume FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

It’s nearly night time, you are enjoying the newfound warmth of spring evenings and you’ve decided to take an evening stroll with your true loved one, your dog. In my city Sydney, where I live currently in Redfern just off the center of the central business and shopping district, maybe 3 kilometers easy walk from the Sydney GPO the early spring evenings are chock full of after work drinkers, diners, people coming home and people going out. The cafes and supermarkets are full and loads of cars with their headlights on low are taking their precious cargoes to the next big, last big, will it ever get big thing. The streets, cafes and the parks are also full of other people walking their dogs. Below is a picture in Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens, less than an hours stroll from my home.

Jasmine Sambac CB I Hate Perfume Sydney Botanic_Gardens WikipediaPhoto Stolen Wikipedia

What you can also feel on these evenings is the promise. Spring in Redfern is FULL of the scent of promise. Promise of warmer days, t-shirts, beaches, flirtations, picnics and sunshiny days. There are plenty of jasmine vines climbing up fronts of terrace houses and in pocket handkerchief sized back gardens, even some of the pubs have an old ropey vine that bursts into leaf and flower at the first hint of spring.

If you want to smell something that gives you the same flutterings in your heart, the same joyful spring in your step, the same inner whisper of promise then Jasmine Sambac is something I think you should try.

How does it smell? Stronger than jasmine in most fragrance, healthier. At the start very indolic but within half an hour Jasmine Sambac becomes fresh, lilting and friendly. A zephyr on a late spring afternoon bringing you the fragrance of a fence full of jasmine down the road. Glorious.

Jasmine Sambac CB I Hate Perfume walking-dog Travnell PixabayPhoto Stolen Pixabay

From Christopher Brosius: I find Jasmine Sambac to be the richest and most pervasive of all the Jasmine Absolutes available today. While obviously a Jasmine scent, its perfume contains levels of depth and complexity that other Jasmines cannot match, its scent is serene, euphoric and hypnotic. Jasmine Absolute contains many chemicals that have a powerful effect on the central nervous system. Jasmine is possibly, next to Rose, the most synthesized flower in modern perfume. While there are many exceptionally fine synthetic versions of that flower available, should you ever compare the two – Real and Imagined – side by side, you will see there is absolutely no comparison at all. Real Jasmine is much richer, far more complex and infinitely more beautiful.

 Jasmine Sambac CB I Hate Perfume Jasminum_sambac WikipediaPhoto Stolen Wikipedia

Further reading: Perfume Posse and Colognoisseur
CB I Hate Perfume has $325/100ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $5/.5ml

What scents make you think of spring?
Portia xx