Balenciaga Fall Winter 2014 Ad Campaign

June 29, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom

Good Morning Frag Heads,

Here is one of the most beautiful and inspiring images of fashion this season. Gisele Bündchen looking like a rocker cross pixie plotting her next move in a crystal cave of reflection. Hair shorn and very androgynous looking, it could be a poster for a modern take on Peter Pan.

Balenciaga Fall Winter 2014 Ad Campaign

As so often is the case I found this at my go to fashion image news page art8amby

Balenciaga’s dark ad campaign for fall features Gisele Bündchen, who in February walked the brand’s runway show in a rare catwalk appearance.

In one image from the campaign, shot by Steven Klein, a moody-looking Bündchen, her typically long locks apparently shorn and slicked, sports thigh-high patent boots against an infinitely reflecting backdrop of cracked mirrored surfaces.

“This is how I see Gisele for Balenciaga; strong, powerful, mysterious and uncompromising,” Balenciaga artistic director Alexander Wang said of the campaign.

Behind the makeup look is Diane Kendal, while Anthony Turner styled the hair for the shoot. (source)

AROMANTIK: Natural Perfume Oil Sampler

June 28, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 15 Comments

Hey Hey APJ,

Here I have a sampler of an Australian Natural Perfumery AROMANTIK. It was sent to me by the company to try and if I liked the work then to talk about. Well, the jury is back and like? No way, I am loving AROMANTIK oils. They are earthy, deep, interesting and beautiful and I am incredibly impressed wit their smooth rounded fullness. After 5 minutes on your skin they could be from the very best niche house, here is an Australian small batch independent perfumer to be proud of.

AROMANTIK: Natural Perfume Oil Sampler

From the AROMANTIK site: AROMANTIK is a natural perfume studio started in 2010 by independent natural perfumer & designer Sally Woodward-Hawes. All of our products are hand-blended in small batches using only the finest natural essential oils, resins & absolutes sourced from all over the world. Sally is a professional perfumer with the Natural Perfumers Guild – the world’s largest trade association dedicated to natural fragrance.

There are 8 fragrances in the sampler and today I am testing two, one on each hand: The Blossom Thief and Love & Strife. You lucky ducks are getting a first hand run through of the thrill of wearing a fragrance for the first time. Come along, I hope you enjoy meandering through my fragrant thoughts.

AROMANTIK: The Blossom Thief

AROMANTIK gives these featured accords:
Jasmine Grandiflorum Absolute, Natural Gardenia Accord, Tuberose Absolute, Natural Musk Accord, Ambrette (musk) Seed, Amber

From the AROMANTIK site: NEW! An ethereal & sensual fragrance built around jasmine & musk, with hints of gardenia, tuberose & white creamy blossoms in full bloom. Auspiciously finished on 1/3/13 this lush & intoxicating fragrance exudes an undercurrent of carnal sensuality.

OK, so imagine it’s early summer. You walk into a florist, the air is cool compared to the outside and there is only the light from the front window. In the couple of moments that it takes for your eyes and head to adjust: this is the smell. The smell of the death of flowers, the last fragrant gasp they give screaming their murder to the world. Jasmine, green, sappy, breathy backed by a chorus of white flowers, interestingly there is no mention of lily because I get a lovely big whack of it. I also smell peony, but a bunch of them not a perfumers reminder. The Blossom Thief smells expensive, luxurious and elegant and though it opens quite like many natural fragrances, after 10 minutes you feel swept up in a beautiful high end niche fragrance that is more nuanced and interesting than more than half of the stuff released last year that I got to smell. WOW! I was completely unprepared for something so devastatingly beautiful.

AROMANTIK: Love & Strife

AROMANTIK gives these featured accords:
French pink grapefruit, Bulgarian rose absolute, night blooming jasmine sambac blossoms, certified organic Madagascan ylang ylang, amber, orris root, ambrette ‘musk’ seed

From the AROMANTIK site: Traditional rose, the flower of eternal love, VS. narcotic night blooming Jasmine, the flower of lust & desire… Inspires love & intimacy and if you’re lucky, a bit of strife!

Gosh! Straight out of the gate I get spicy clove and citrus, not definitely grapefruit but it does have a wonderful sweet/sour quality and then through it weaves a beautiful jasmine and ylang duet that is outrageously breathy and full of naughty and sexy mischief. I also get a whiff of sweet biscuit dough with grainy sugar. The rose on my skin is completely submerged in the other notes for nearly the first 20 minutes, everything else seems to need its moment before giving the rose centre stage. When the rose moves in she is a sweet, musky, vegetative creature that sweeps and glides around the white flowers, in and out of hiding, shy and yet commanding. Interestingly for a natural perfume oil nearly 11 hours on I am still fragrant with a very pretty wash of something indefinable that even in the cool stink of waking up manages to smell quite alluring, I thought it must have been Jin, but no it was the hand I was sleeping on. Excellent.

AROMANTIK has both these lovely natural perfume oils $50/5ml roller ball
AROMANTIK also has a Sample Pack $49/7 x 1ml samples

Please go and have a look at the AROMANTIK site, they are a very small business trying to make it in a tough world and would certainly appreciate your business.
Portia xx

THAI Airways: Royal First Class

June 27, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 6 Comments

Hey APJ,

Here’s something fun that I hope you Aussies will all get into. Sorry it’s taken so long to do this giveaway but there has been too much going on. FINALLY, here it is…..

THAI Airways: Royal First Class

Gawd! It seems like a million years since Michael & I took our European vacation in Jan/Feb 2014. It was an incredible experience, made even more so by the fact that we flew First Class to and from Europe. Though Thai was not 100% amazing in everything (we had our share of issues but as my mate Alice says, “Eeeew, my diamond shoes are too tight” moment) it was nice to have that much extra space, excellent food and service (in the air and the lounges) and to be collected at the gate by a buggy to whisk you to the First Class Lounge in each port. Really, incredible.

Would I travel First Class again? Probably not. There were things I liked but for the money I think it should be PERFECT!! There should be no complaint, trouble, drama or fiasco of any kind. Sadly Thai did not deliver this. To be completely honest I can sleep through an economy flight and still arrive in pretty good shape. That frees up thousands of dollars for enjoyment on my holiday.

I am sorry to our world readers but I can only send these within Australia. Postage has become too expensive to send these to the world. SORRY!!

Michael waking up in Thai Royal First Class

On every flight we were given a Thai Royal First Cabin Set. In each Thai Royal First Cabin Set there is:
1. L’Occitanne Eau de Cologne
2. L’Occitanne Body Lotion
3. L’Occitanne Lip Balm
4. Comb & Brush
5. Comfort Socks
6. Earplugs
7. Eyeshade
8. Toothbrush
9. Tooth Paste
10. Mouthwash

It all comes in a terrific wet pack that I will keep and use as my on-board cabin wet pack for years to come. Simple, stylish and really well designed. The one I opened and used is purple but the other three perfectly new in their plastic are white.

I know this is only very slightly in an olfactory vein but while we were flying I was so excited to be able to bring these back for some of you to try.
Portia xx

Thai Royal First Cabin Set with some stuff missing

Photo Stolen manoneileen

Royal First Class Cabin Set GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 3 winners who will each get:
1 x Thai Royal First Class Cabin Set
P&H Anywhere in AUSTRALIA

HOW DO YOU WIN?

Open to everyone in AUSTRALIA who follows Australian Perfume Junkies 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

Please tell me your favourite holiday destination. It could be one you have been to or one you dream of. There are no time or financial constraints, just a dream, where would you go, for how long and who with?

Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie Thai Royal First Class Cabin Set GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p3PURw-2Vg #Perfume #Giveaway

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Sunday 29th June 2014 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org
The winners will have till Thursday 3rd July 2014 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.

Givenchy: Dahlia Divin Fragrance 2014 Ad Campaign

June 27, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 6 Comments

Hello Frag & Music Lovers,

Here is a pretty sensational pairing. Givenchy, once the home base of Audrey Hepburn, has taken a new and modern beauty as its face. Although I have loved Alicia Keys voice since “Fallin'” when she was a meer slip of a girl now having seen some recent interviews I am completely smitten. Alicia offers smart, sassy, soulful and a whole truckload of other positive things. I think her a role model for generations to come. Fingers crossed.

Portia xx

Givenchy Dahlia Divin Fragrance 2014 Ad Campaign

I grabbed this tasty piece from my Go-To fashion blog that keeps me way ahead: art8amby

Grammy-winning singer Alicia Keys is sitting pretty is a Riccardo Tisci-designed embellished champagne-hued gown for the new fragrance campaign of Givenchy Dahlia Divin. The prices range from $65 to $110 a bottle, with a Skin Dew option for $53. (source)

Black Cashmere by Rodrigo Flores-Roux for Donna Karan 2002

June 26, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 11 Comments

Post by FeralJasmine

Here in the southwestern USA it’s hot as hell and my winter scents are taking a break at the back of the cabinet, but it’s the perfect season to inflict my highly personal opinions about cool-weather scents upon the unsuspecting Aussies. So here is my first opinion: mass-market fragrances used to be a lot better than they are now. Part of it is that this is a tough decade for someone who despises most fruit notes, but also it used to be that, when companies went to the trouble and expense of launching a new perfume, they actually wanted you to be able to tell it from other perfumes. Now, I would swear that they’re all jostling for the rail in the Just-Like-Everybody-Else Sweepstakes. The wise and lovely Portia once reminded me in a comment that it’s all cyclical, and that in a few decades today’s mass-market consumers will be 2044’s aging perfumistas, grumpily complaining that you just can’t find good fruity florals anymore. Probably true. But Black Cashmere, with its hefty dose of wenge, has always smelled unlike anything else on the market.

Black Cashmere by Rodrigo Flores-Roux for Donna Karan 2002

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Saffron, nutmeg
Heart: Red pepper, white pepper, carnation, rose
Base: Woody notes, patchouli, African woods, vanilla, amber

Here’s my second strongly help opinion: reformulation is not a bad thing if it keeps a distinctive perfume on the post-IFRA market in a recognizable form. Case in point: my winter favorite, Donna Karan Black Cashmere. The first really distinctive perfume that I fell for, the one that tripped me so badly that I fell right down the rabbit hole, was the original DK Black Cashmere. I bought a dab sample and was lost in the wonder of something unlike anything else that I had ever smelled. Rich, plush, highly distinctive, and beautiful. What an evening that was.

Then I went on EBay to look for a vintage bottle, and it occurred to me that I had acquired a very expensive obsession indeed. Finally I did find a bottle of the vintage that I could afford, more or less, but I also swallowed hard and bought a decant of the reissue.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

Was it a shocking disappointment? Not really. Certainly the vintage has more depth and more oomph. But unlike the current Opium, which is a sick travesty, the current Black Cashmere makes a real effort to transmit the scent and spirit of the original. It’s a little lighter and extends itself a little further into warm weather. Overall, I dare you to find something more distinctive at that price point, which is a little over a dollar a milliliter if bought off the DK website. I have since bought a full bottle of the reissue, and often I wear the current one on one arm and the vintage on the other, to make my precious vintage last.

So why don’t more firms make an actual effort with their reissues? Beats me. But I also have both vintage and reissued Chaos from DK, and the reissue is a bit lacking compared to the vintage but is a genuine attempt to reproduce the very distinctive vintage recognizably in an IFRA-friendly form. DK Inc. seems to make real efforts to meet their fans halfway.

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Further reading: Bois de Jasmin and Now Smell This
Donna Karan has $120/100ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $4/ml

I hate to rub salt into my readers’ wounds, but what’s your most distressing reissue story?
FeralJasmine xx

Anais Anais L’Original by Cacharel 2014

June 25, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 17 Comments

Post by Gabriella

Anais Anais was my foundation perfume. As I have explained previously, it was my very first signature scent and thus accompanied me on many rites of passage throughout the 1980s and 1990s. It was the scent of my high school travails, my first love, my 21st birthday and countless Christmases. I was lucky in that it was not ubiquitous amongst my coterie of friends and so it was truly my scent, inextricably linked with my character and the foundation for my subsequent perfume journey.

The perfume has not been left unscathed by the passing of time. Over the years, the lovely soap, body lotion and deodorant slowly disappeared from shelves. The EDP also went, only to be relaunched in a new guise some years ago with new Kate Moss ads and then became difficult to find. The current EDT, while still lovely, is but a whisper of its former glory: subtle refomulations have rendered it sunbleached and ghostlike as if someone has taken the pastel-hued maidens of the ad campaigns and watered them down: they have become fuzzy and indistinct.

Anais Anais L’Original by Cacharel 2014

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Hyacinth, galbanum, orange blossom
Heart: Jasmine, rose, lily
Base: Sandalwood, cedar, incense, amber

So when I heard that Cacharel was relaunching the 1978 classic under the name Anais Anais L’Original, I was excited but also somewhat worried and perplexed. Here was the chance to go back to a great love. But what if it didn’t match my olfactory memories? Furthermore, if Cacharel had this formulation at hand, then why had it persisted in keeping the current EDT on shelves?

All my worries vanished upon first sniff. Memories flooded back and I felt like I had come home. Here it was again, my scent, my bastion of a perfume.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

The only difference I could detect between what I was smelling and my olfactory memory is that L’Original appears a to have a stronger hyacinth top note, rendering the composition brighter and rounder. Comparing it to the current EDT, I was struck by the difference between the two: the Anais Anais EDT is harsher upon first spray, the hyacinth is more astringent and the whole composition a little bit more powdery and dry. The sillage and longevity is also markedly different: L’Original sings on my skin as it did all those years ago and lasts and lasts whereas the current EDT is but a mere shadow after a couple of hours.

Photo Stolen Flickr

I’m very thankful to have an old love back. And I’m comforted by the fact that in these days of IFRA restrictions and reformulations that an old classic has been given a new lease of life.

Further reading: Bois de Jasmin and The Non Blonde
Anais Anais L’Original (available in both EDP and EDT) and Anais Anais EDT are widely available at department stores and online sellers.
FragranceNet has the current EDT starting at $31.19/30ml before discount
Surrender To Chance starts at $3/ml

Do you like Anais Anais? Have you tried L’Original? What was your foundation perfume?
With much love till next time!
M x

Roja Dove: Amber Oud 2012 + Lily Extrait 2014

June 24, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 46 Comments

Post by Val the Cookie Queen

Roja Dove

THE EMPEROR´S NEW PERFUME OR IS MY NOSE KNACKERED?

Roja Dove Amber Oud 2012 and Lily Extrait 2014

The nose behind these two fragrances is Roja Dove “Master Perfumer”. Fragrances rumoured to be made by Roberetet, a company that works with an international team of 32 perfumers. The whole line of Roja Dove´s work interests me not. On saying that I have had a secret desire to try at least a couple of them to see what, if anything might actually warrant the price.

Hans Christian Andersen’s The Emperor´s New Clothes was published in 1837 in Denmark. The phrase “The Emperor´s New Clothes” has become a standard metaphor for just about anything that smacks of showy pretentiousness, social hypocrisy, hollow ostentatiousness, pomposity and so on. The more something is praised the more it can become a thing of great, but perhaps imagined, beauty ……….

Photo Stolen BookDepository ($6.75 including postage)

I swapped cookies for generous samples of Amber Oud and Lily Extrait.

Roja Dove: Amber Oud 2012

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, lemon, lime
Heart: Jasmine, rose, yang-ylang, fig
Base: Agarwood, birch, cinnamon, oakmoss, patchouli, saffron, sandalwood, ambergris, civet, musk, orris root

Amber Oud falls into the oriental spicy fragrance group for men and women. It costs around 655 Euros for 100 mls.

Wow.

Sound fabulous? It is nice, harmonious and safe. Read – boring. For a perfume that uses Oud in it´s name, I would expect to see a more dominant use of it. There is nothing unique about this.. Call me snotty if you will but I would desire something that cries out “fabulousness and originality” if I was paying that price for it. It is quite smooth, but is smooth enough? I read that it´s a beast, luxurious, undeniably exquisite, opulent. Hmmmmm. Emperor´s New Perfume? Or is my nose is knackered?

Roja Dove: Lily Extrait 2014

Photo Stolen First In Fragrance

First In Fragrance gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, lemon
Heart: Jasmine, lily, rose, tiare blossom, lily of the valley, carnation, ylang-ylang
Base: Clove, woods, vanilla, musk.

About 365 Euros for 50 mls. “I have always loved the exotic, enveloping, carnal, sensual warmth of this majestic flower.” Roja Dove. Oh.

It starts off a lot like Serge Luten´s Un Lys, which I love. It grooves along with the similarity for about an hour or so. Then the Lily Extrait takes a sharp turn into sweetness, where the Un Lys
gets musky and dirty. Lily Extrait stays sweet and pretty and linear. It does remind me of an übersweet bubble gum that I used to chew as a kid and I cannot get that out of my mind. The longevity of it is epic. I got at least 14 hours out of it. I could still smell it in the morning. I am singing the great Lonnie Donegan´s hit “Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour on the Bedpost Overnight?” as I write this.

First In Fragrance has both to sample

So for a good 1000 Euros, that is about $1350 I could have both of these, including the nice bottles? Astonishing.

Meanwhile, back to the football.

Bussis
CQ

Sweet Anthem Perfumes and perfumer Meredith Smith

June 23, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 11 Comments

Post by Azar

Sweet Anthem Perfumes and perfumer Meredith Smith

Indie Fragrance Criterion – Discover Pacific Northwest Perfumes

An Interview, Review and Giveaway

On February 24th of this year APJ posted an introduction to Sweet Anthem Perfumes and perfumer Meredith Smith. Today I have a few questions for Meredith about the business of perfume in the PNW. My next post will be a review (and a give-away) of the six fragrances in the Indie Fragrance Criterion – Discover Pacific Northwest Perfume sample set.

Something extraordinary is going on in the Pacific Northwest perfume scene. In the February 24th post I referred to the PNW as a “hot spot” for Indie perfumers and attributed this phenomenon to our dreary winters and to the local creative climate but didn’t even consider that perhaps the business environment might be what is really driving the astounding growth of great noses in the PNW and all along the west coast; see Ca Fleure Bon

Instead of operating via the old industrial economic model of “survival of the fittest” through negative competition for limited resources (creating perceived value through perceived scarcity), what seems to be happening here is more of a collaboration. This collaborative model succeeds by taking steps to grow the customer base for everyone while encouraging new talent and supporting existing businesses. The perfumers are independent but recognize and foster their interdependence, creating mutually beneficial events and opportunities as well as sharing information and resources. This kind of information based, collaborative economic model works on the principle that sharing creates interest and value, supporting not only the perfumers themselves but the suppliers and related businesses as well.

Photo Stolen Sweet Anthem Perfumes

Meredith, you have been one of several PNW perfumers encouraging, as you say, the “Seattle Sisterhood” of perfumers for several years now. Would you describe what you perceive to be the reasons for this local explosion of interest in perfume?

Honestly, I have no idea how it happened! For me, though, I can say that I probably would not be a perfumer if I didn’t live in the PNW. That’s not to say that I wasn’t into perfume before moving here, but the pioneer spirit and the way we interact with nature – from the mountains to the sea – helps fuel the olfactory palette. We have such intense connections to the earthly plane that it’s difficult not to be inspired on a daily basis when living here, and that helps fuel many industries of pioneers. Plus, having spirited colleagues in many kinds of industries helps keep me going – from my fellow perfumers to other Etsy-style brand owners, the PNW is really a community of talented makers in many stripes. I know my perfume sisters agree!

Can you give us some examples of how and why whatever it is that you do works so well in the PNW?

This is the crux of the reason I moved to the PNW. Everything here seems to be done in the DIY spirit. We love to branch out and get our hands dirty. We love to learn (it’s one of the smartest places in the country to live). We love to do things no one has ever done before (the $4 coffee being a prime example). PNWers are not afraid – pioneers that we are – of going upstream, avoiding the mainstream, and eschewing the man at pretty much any and all costs. I think that’s a part of why collaboration is so vital to the NW. If going upstream is the norm, there’s no point in going it alone.

Photo Stolen Sweet Anthem Perfumes

I understand that the curated collection I will be reviewing is part of a collaborative exchange between San Francisco and Seattle area perfumers. Could you give us a little of the back-story?

This is actually a curated collaboration between myself and Antonia from Tigerlily Perfumery, a little perfume shop in the Valencia neighborhood of San Francisco that features mostly indie and niche lines. Initially, Karyn, Nikki, and I were trying to do this sort of thing with a shop in New York (who shall remain nameless) but that fell through, much to our dismay. I had a chance to meet Antonia before the perfumer’s salon last March and we really clicked, both owning perfume shops that carry a lot of the same inventory and really loving indie perfume lines. I pitched this idea to her about the PNW gift set, and she loved it! It was actually her idea to do a Bay Area box in tandem, with launch events in both cities. (It worked out nicely that several of us Seattleites were already going back to San Francisco for the summer Renegade Craft Fair, so the launch event got neatly wrapped into our existing event schedule.) But really, Antonia’s the big idea gal here, so I’m excited she’s on board!

Can you explain why/how these specific perfumes were chosen for this first Indie Fragrance Criterion?

By and large, the perfumers were asked to submit their best works! In the Seattle set, we all submitted things with a bit of a Northwest-y vibe, and I consulted with many of the perfumers what I thought would be the best fit (I’m thankful that they trust my judgment and happy that they’re all brands I’ve come to know and love). In the San Francisco set, you’ve got some IAO award nominees and winners, and some noses new to me but not to Antonia. Antonia and I talked a lot about themes, but in the end we decided that for a showcase of raw talent, generally the talent knows their works best, and so we left it up to each of them.

Photo Donated Azar

Meredith, thank you so much for taking the time to share your perspective on indie perfumery in the PNW. Stay tuned, everyone, for the upcoming review and give-away!

Azar xx

Amber by Essentially Me GIVEAWAY WINNERS

June 23, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 2 Comments

Hello there my lovelies,

This has been a wonderful giveaway. A very special perfumer lost too soon. A fragrance that can never be repeated. 2 winners. I am so happy to be sharing this marvelous fragrance with you guys too.

Amber by Essentially Me GIVEAWAY WINNERS

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Spice, mint, caraway, thyme
Heart: Jasmine, lavender, rose, clary sage
Base: Labdanum, frankincense, sandalwood, myrrh, vanilla, patchouli

WHAT COULD YOU WIN?

This week we will have 2 winners who will each get:
1 x 5ml decant of Amber by Essentially Me
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 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 tell me your favourite Amber fragrance, or why you would like to try this one.

Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie Amber by Essentially Me GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p3PURw-2Jr #Perfume #Giveaway

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Sunday 22nd June 2014 10pm
Winners were chosen by random.org

Photo Stolen markmontanoblogs

ThinkingMagpie

Poodle

The winners will have till Thursday 26th June 2014 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.

Noble Leather by Julie Massé of Mane for Yves Saint Laurent 2013

June 22, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 2 Comments

Hey hey APJ,

Loving the house; YSL has been a fave of mine since before fashion school and during became a hero for both his fashion and foresight but also because he lived this incredibly flamboyant life in a time when the world seemed to be quite conservative. He showed me, through his own actions that you could be whoever you choose to be if you have a talent, a little luck, work really hard and choose your friends wisely. That the people in charge of Yves Saint Laurent have taken the name Yves from his fashion house is a complete travesty and I hope never to own anything from the house without all three names on them, so anything pre 2013 and I can still grab YSL fragrances and makeup. I have received this decant in an order from Surrender To Chance, they have a special area where you can find the brand newest things from a year or a month, as you can see I have a backlog….

Noble Leather by Julie Massé of Mane for Yves Saint Laurent 2013

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Leather, amber, wood, vanilla, patchouli, saffron, dried fruit

The first time I wore Noble Leather it was late and I was trying to think of what I should write, take some notes etc but my mind was completely blank. Not processing anything. So I decided to do some reading about it on the blogs. There isn’t much around and most of it hates Noble Leather. It was no help because I don’t hate it. In my mind the best leather of them all is the Pineider: Cuoio Nobile, followed closely by Bottega Veneta. Noble Leather is more like Cuoio Nobile with a hefty dash of Lonestar Memories thrown in. Dark, erotic leather, like a whisper of the feeling of the scent of the inside leg of a party monster’s chaps or the saddle that’s been ridden in all day and is still warm.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

Vanilla leather, amber leather, saffron leather an amalgam to begin with, dark, sweet and waxy. It smells birch-ish once the fireworks die down, darker and more tannins, with avery interesting super sweet overlay that must be the dried fruits but is really just an amorphous sweetness to my nose, not the same as the vanilla sweetness though which also play around the edges. There are momentary Cuir Ottoman memories but nowhere near as challenging or evocative. What whistles through my mind are images of cowboys and their saddles, drovers and their sheep, the labdanum having some similarities to the Lanolin we get from wool. I think it’s very aromachemical based because the scent goes in and out of my ability to smell if I am paying it close attention for more than a couple of minutes, when on a hand and it comes and goes from my olfactory vision then it comes back again whenever I put my hand to my chin or face area.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

There are some spices that tickle my nose and the patchouli makes a lovely dusty cameo for a while, so reminiscent of working the Australian outback, but this is a leather/amber/vanilla for most of its journey and in dry down Noble Leather maintains much the same story to fade.

Further reading: Katie Puckrik and Kafkaesque
House of Fraser has £195/80ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $5/.5ml

Sillage is excellent and longevity quite good, I think I might like it much more if it wasn’t priced so outrageously. £195 that’s 3 – 4 Serge Lutens (Tubereuse Criminelle, Bas de Soie, Muscs Koublai Khan, Un Bois Vanille or Noble Leather’s sweeter and lovelier brother Chergui) or 2 Neela Vermeire Creations Discovery Packs. Sorry I don’t see the value YSL and I think you, as a consumer, can spend your dollars better elsewhere.

Did you get your sniff on the Oriental Collection from YSL yet? Thoughts?
Portia xx