Girlfriend by Justin Bieber 2012

August 26, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 20 Comments

Post by Katrina

Hi APJ,

I really like this perfume. I wore it a lot last summer when it seemed like the perfect summer fragrance. But now in winter, wearing it for this review I’ve found that I enjoy wearing it all year round.

Girlfriend by Justin Bieber 2012

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: mandarin, blackberry, pear and strawberry.
Heart: pink freesia, star jasmine, apricot and orange blossom
Base: vanilla orchid, luminous musk and white amber

Justin Bieber won big this year taking out US Fifi Awards in 2 categories. Justin Bieber’s Girlfriend, the second fragrance from the Biebster, won both ‘Fragrance of the Year – Women’s Popular’ and ‘Consumer Choice – Women’s’ categories.

Photo Stolen WikiMedia

The packaging for this perfume is fun and playful. The cross section of the purple bottle is heart shaped and it slots into a colourful canister that reminds me of a slinky. Fun! Taking the bottle out to spray makes me feel just a little happier.

The perfume starts fresh and fruity with citrus and crisp pear. Girlfriend is sweet but not overly. As the perfume evolves the floral notes come out and the fruit changes to what smells like honeydew melon to me, although it should be apricot based on the fragrance notes listed. The base notes of the fragrance are quite soft and the fresh sweetness stays until the end.

Photo Stolen DeviantArt

Further reading: EauDeLucy and AccentGirl100
Fragrance Shop has from $26/30ml
My Perfume Samples starts at $2/ml

Which other celebrity perfumes won awards this year? Check out my Celebrity Perfume Website to find out.

Have any of you APJ readers tried Girlfriend? If not I challenge you to give it a try!

Katrina xx

ED: I added the Beaty & The Beat video because I think it’s SUPER FUN!

200,000 Views SO NUDE GIVEAWAY Winners!

August 26, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 3 Comments

Hey APJ Peeps,

This has been one of our best giveaway responses ever, THANK YOU all for being a part of the fun and magic. We FREAKIN love giveaways, and we love you lot too. A big fat hairy thank you to LibertinePerfumerie for their generous and ongoing support, we love you guys and your incredible range of fragrances.

SO NUDE GIVEAWAY WINNERS!

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

WHAT COULD YOU WIN?

There are 2 prizes this week in our So Nude by Costume National GIVEAWAY. Each winner will receive:

1 x 50ml NIP So Nude EdP by Costume National
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DO YOU WIN?

Open to everyone worldwide who follows AustralianPerfumeJunkies via eMail, WordPress, Bloglovin or RSS who told us how they follow.

You had to go to LibertinePerfumerie and find me a perfume and its manufacturer. NO DOUBLE UPS!!

Extra Chance?
Tweet: Thanks to all the TWEETERS this week, there were more than ever, you guys all got an EXTRA CHANCE!! One of you scored a PRIZE too. See the tweeting pays off folks.

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Sunday 24th August 2013 10pm Australian EST.
Winners were chosen by putting names on same sized papers, folded similarly, put on a tray and Jin picked a winner.

Photo Stolen shannonmayer

Victoria, Nemo

CONGRATULATIONS!! Winners have till Wednesday 28th August 2013 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.

Special THANKS to LibertinePerfumerie for the So Nude Bottles. Please visit their site because they are so generous and helpful. If you wonder why they are more expensive than the discounters or OS retailers it’s because they are the only licensed company selling their fragrances in Australia; where you know you are buying new, fresh and genuine product. The cost of importing, and buying the right to import, alcohol based fragrances (and having the right to send alcohol based fragrances throughout Australia, which are illegal to send in the Australia Post air system) is expensive and they must cover their costs to bring you these luxury goods.

Thanks gang, see you tomorrow,
Portia xx

Womanity by Alexis Dadier and Mane for Thierry Mugler 2010

August 25, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 32 Comments

Hey Hey APJ Friends and Family,

Are you ever too freaked out by a bottle, fragrance name or even advertising to go near it? For years now I have steered clear of today’s fragrance because the name felt like such an obvious Drag Queen thing. It’s like Thierry and his crew were delving for drag expression, rather than feminine power or woman as equals or even the power of woman. Let’s put some ripe fig that when cut looks like a woman’s vagina “Snicker, snicker”, lets put some fishy caviar in “snicker, snicker” and lets call it the most beyond UBER womanly word we can invent “Snicker, snicker” and the Drag Queens will love it. HA HA HA HA!! Back slapping and belly laughs all round.

That was how I had envisaged the creation of

Womanity by Thierry Mugler 2010

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Fig fruit, caviar, fig leaf, fig wood

Why then am I writing about Womanity? What changed? Well mainly I changed. I had had a couple of decants and run through them in no time, ashamedly, then it was there in the store day before yesterday as a tester and I spritzed it like crazy. I thought, “In for a penny, in for a pound!” This is day two surrounded by its rich figgy/saline goodness, its rich sweetness cut through with wood and salt that is so beautiful and dramatic because I went back today and bought a bottle. Womanity is an elegant and fun fragrance that is exactly as two faced as we all are, light/dark, strong/weak, sweet/savoury, good/bad. All the parts that go to make us up seem to be reflected in the very short Womanity story that lasts forever. I can’t remember such staying power in a fragrance and so linear that I woke up this morning, after spritzing in the afternoon and having a bath before bed, still smelling of Womanity. Extraordinary!!

Photo Stolen PaperBlog

How does it make me feel? It feels like a second skin actually. A beautiful, magical, alluring and enchanting second skin. After about 10 hours my own sweaty smell comes through and makes it a thorough skank fest, deliciously and naughtily unkempt. In fact I smell like morning me plus salty fig. Disgusting but oddly compelling, Jin thinks I smell FAN TAS TIC! I smell salty/briny and sweet fig jam with a woodsy whisper and sweaty bloke. I would love to smell how Womanity worked on a male athlete, I would love it even more if it was called something else. Candy Perfume Boy says, “‘Womanity’ is intended to be a portmanteau of the words ‘Woman’ and ‘Community’” which kind of clarifies the thinking and gets me at dead wrong but I still think it’s dumb.

Further reading: The Candy Perfume Boy and Perfume Shrine
FragranceNet starts at around $12/10ml and has $31/50ml before coupon
My Perfume Samples starts at $2/ml

Were you scared off by Womanity or did you love it from day 1?
See you tomorrow,
Portia xx

Back to Vinyl – The Office Turntable 2013

August 25, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 12 Comments

Hey Hey APJ!

I think a fair few of us grew up in times where the Record Player was a major fixture of the house. Our original one had a TV Set, Record Player, Radio and huge Speakers. Dad’s Beethoven could be heard at the top of the street on a calm evening and Mum’s jazz would often be heard over the vacuum cleaner during the day. They were heady days of endless summers, swimming in the pool with my sister and our friends, Bar B Qs on the back verandah, oranges eaten warm off the tree, learning the alphabet and math times tables and music, music, music.

Photo Stolen Stephen Coles Flickr

There were other record players, Dad had a HUGE stack of equipment in later years and everything was powered through the speakers, then I got a 3 in 1 for a birthday and my sister got a cassette player, then it became dueling music in the house. I remember Mum buying us both a CD player when they came out and us laughing at it saying that it would NEVER replace vinyl. My sister kept hers but I got Mum to take mine back, how could anyone take something so small seriously? I even kept my records till I was preparing to move a few years ago back to the family home, there was so much stuff and I needed to let a lot of it go. I’m both sad and glad that I did.

Well, here’s something to make your eyes POP!

Back to Vinyl – The Office Turntable 2013

Sushi Imperiale by Enzo Galardi for Bois 1920 2005

August 24, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 19 Comments

Hello Niche Nerds

Are you ever captivated by a fragrances name? So much so that you jump online and order a sample or decant without even reading about it? That is what happened with today’s fragrance,

Sushi Imperiale by Bois 1920 2005

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, mandarin orange and lemon
Heart: Pepper, nutmeg, jasmine, rose, star anise and cinnamon
Base: Sandalwood, vetiver, patchouli, tonka bean and Madagascar vanilla.

Now that I have my sample I’ve been doing some reading up as I’m wearing it and Sushi Imperiale is quite a divisive fragrance. There are lovers and haters but there is also a section of the fragrance community that calls it an Opium Pour Homme rehash. I have worn it a couple of times now with great enjoyment but I think I’d like to go and educate myself about how Opium Pour Homme smells before I go any further, I only have a flanker here so I will go to the mall and spritz both frags together.

Photo Stolen WikiCommons

(I started writing this post months ago but when I put my decant away it got lost and even now I can’t find it so I waited for a split to come up and it just arrived, so resuming transmission)

It must smell like vintage Opium Pour Homme because this is 100% fuller, richer and sweeter than it’s YSL would be doppelgänger. The pepper/anise/nutmeg/cinnamon are all present right from the sizzling citrus intro on my skin and they are fiery sweet like first sizzle of Cajun French toast in the pan, yes there is even a doughy hint (even a little bit of that gorgeous puppy feet accord). I also detect a greenness that may be the patchouli coming through early or some unnamed interloper, maybe a mint: and a boozy note. There is a lot of “this is so boring” reviews but I find Sushi Imperiale to be warm, fun and interesting. Different enough from its contemporaries and cuddly enough to snuggle into and lose yourself, I haven’t tried it on Jin but something tells me he will smell beyond incredible in it.

Photo Stolen WikiMedia

You’d think there’d be a vinegar/sugar/clean-raw-fish/rice cooking smell here but no, another misnomer victim. I love it when TSO Jin is preparing the rice for sushi or nori rolls because the smell pervades the house from living to sleeping and sometimes even into the garden. It’s a sweet, milky, grainy smell that I have never smelled replicated, even in the fragrances that purport to be like it.

The dry down is such a soft human smell, I think the vanilla, tonka and patchouli are what I’m getting? At about 6 hours the fragrance is really a very dilute wash barely more than making my skin ever so slightly nicer than normal but not really a scent, the thought of a scent, the memory of fragrance.

Photo Stolen Bill Selak Flickr

Further reading EauMG and ChickenfreaksObsessions
Parfums Raffy $180/100ml and they send worldwide for $17
SurrenderToChance starts $3/ml

Did you try it? Love it? Hate it? Did you feel it less than its niche flag would suggest?

Till tomorrow lovelies,
Portia xx

Vetiver Tonka by Jean Claude Ellena for Hermès 2004

August 23, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 26 Comments

Hello Fellow Fumies,

I don’t know what’s going on lately but it looks like vetiver has overtaken my big white flowers as favourite note. This was unintentional, surprising and I hope it doesn’t mean my love for the BWF is dying. Also, I’ve been doing some reading, always a dangerous course for the half educated like myself, and it turns out that vetiver is becoming the plant de jour around the world for a number of things other than perfume. There are 2 types of non invasive, clumping vetiver that are being used world wide for their ability to leech the toxins from soil and water, they are also excellent for stabilising erosion, holding banks/mountains in place and creating sea walls. This is only the tip of the iceberg I feel and will be interested to see it used in the future for self-sufficient-household sanitation and water cleansing.

Hermessence Vetiver Tonka by Hermès 2004

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Vetiver, tonka bean, lily of the valley, tobacco, caramel, praline, sandalwood, hazelnut

The caramel/resinous/LOTV open is joyous all by itself. So full throated and filled with call, like a siren or water bird floating across the brackish water of river and sea land junction. The foody stuff all combines with the tonka to create a wonderful sweet amber or crispy toffee scent that makes me want some salted caramel ice cream and honeycomb. YUMMY stuff indeed.

Photo Stolen vetiver.org

The fragrance then takes a decidedly vetiver turn on my skin, giving me a gorgeous earthy, salty, green smell like sitting on a dock above or the verandah near mudflats at low tide, it must be cooler months because there is a smoky waft carrying across to you from someones fireplace, or maybe it’s a summer Bar B Q and the sweetness still lurking is caramelising onions and sausages.

The feeling I get from Vetiver Tonka is a sense of space and freedom. It’s like a holiday, there is time to smell the unfolding of the story, the sweet warmth and earthy dankness combine to form a welcoming and pretty adventure that is both warm and very, very cool. Though it is not a sillage monster Vetiver Tonka does waft a trail and if you spray a card and leave the room, when you return it has tinted the air with a very slightly foody sweetness underlaid with a wetland breeze.

Heftier than many of the more recent J C E offerings and lasting power is decidedly longer, around 4-5 hours before I lose it, or the ability to notice it. Lately I have been using the Olympic Orchids Patchouli Lovers Soap and it is adding a very green baseline to Vetiver Tonka that darkens it and adds a couple of hours life to the whole also. The tobacco and LOTV seem to completely bypass my skin, with or without the soap, but I probably just miss them in the seamless mix that is a J C Ellena trademark: a scent story that has the most beautifully gradated transitions.

Photo Stolen Hermès

Further reading: What Men Should Smell Like and Bois de Jasmin
Hermès does a great set of 4 x 15ml Hermessence of your choice $180
Surrender To Chance has Vetiver Tonka on sale for $4/.5ml

Are you a J C Ellena fan? Have you tried Hermessence Vetiver Tonka or are there favourite Vetiver or Tonka frags that you’s like to share with us? We’d love to read your thoughts.

See you tomorrow
Portia xx

The Hypnotist (A Tale)

August 23, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 15 Comments

The Hypnotist

It was entertainment night at the senior citizens’ centre.
After the community sing song led by Alice at the piano it was time for the Star of the Show-
Claude the Hypnotist!

Photo Stolen Romer Jed Medina Flickr

Claude explained that he was going to put the whole audience into a trance.
“Yes, each and every one of you and all at the same time.” said Claude.
The excited chatter dropped to silence as Claude carefully withdrew from his waistcoat pocket A beautiful antique gold pocket watch and chain.
“I want you to keep your eyes on this watch” said Claude, holding the watch high for all to see. “It is a very special and valuable watch that has been in my family for six generations”

Photo Stolen Kayla Kandzorra Flickr

He began to swing the watch gently back and forth while quietly chanting
“Watch the Watch — Deeper and Deeper — Watch the Watch —- Deeper and Deeper — Watch the Watch”

The audience became mesmerised as the watch swayed back and forth.
The lights twinkling as they were reflected from it’s gleaming surfaces and the oldies glasses back at it.
A hundred and fifty pairs of eyes followed the movements of the gently swaying watch.

And then, suddenly, the chain broke!!!
The beautiful watch fell to the stage and burst apart on impact. “SHIT” said Claude.

A hundred and fifty senior citizens obeyed

3 Positive Reminders For A Better Day

August 22, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 36 Comments

Hello Australian Perfume Junkies,

Not every day is great. Sometimes we struggle with depression, pain, trouble and lack. I belong to a Facebook Group that is about changing the way you react to external and internal everything. From the nastiness we offer ourselves when we look in the mirror, the way we interpret others behaviors and how we feel the world sees us to taking time, expressing gratitude and understanding how magic and beautiful we all are. And how GOOD LUCKY!

Photo Stolen The Mindset Maven

I know I am lucky, blessed and beautiful (though not conventionally so, my beauty is the extraordinary kind).

Thank you all for being a part of the APJ family. Every view, comment and friend I’ve made from this blog is another amazing thing to be happy about. You lot are a force for joy in my life. THANK YOU!

So please enjoy my 3 Positive Reminders For A Better Day

Someone right here loves you, and you are worthy of it.
Portia xxxox

200,000 VIEWS: So Nude EdP by Costume National: 2 x 50ml GIVEAWAY

August 21, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 89 Comments

You may notice some glitches. We are changing platforms currently. Sorry for any inconveniences caused. Portia xx

Hello Fabulous Fragrance Fiends,

With special thanks to the crew at Libertine Parfumerie who have generously supplied these So Nude bottles for APJ to give away. Thank you Libertine Parfumerie for being on board for this super special milestone. Thank you to all the readers, commenters, contributors, bloggers, perfumers, houses and fragrance shops that have been involved over the last 17 months. It has been a magic fun ride so far, I am so grateful that you’ve all come and hung out with us and it’s hard to believe we’ve been going so long, I’m hoping for more, more, more. Australian Perfume Junkies has hit

So Nude EdP by Costume National: 2 x 50ml GIVEAWAY

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Cumin, cardamom, neroli
Heart: Damascus rose, tuberose, ylang-ylang
Base: Indonesian patchouli, Virginian cedar

Further reading Bois De Jasmin
Libertine Parfumerie has $135/50ml and other sizes with FREE Australian shipping and you get 3 samples of your choice with your order
Neroli Budapest has 88€/50ml

Photo Stolen TheTruthAboutMummy

SO NUDE GIVEAWAY!

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

There are 2 prizes this week in our So Nude by Costume National GIVEAWAY. Each winner will receive:

1 x 50ml NIP So Nude EdP by Costume National
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. Yes, you can start following to enter, in fact it’s encouraged.

Go to Libertine Perfumes and find me a perfume and its manufacturer. NO DOUBLE UPS!!

Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie So Nude GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p2fQBU-1TS #Giveaway @LibertineParfum @CoSTUMENATIONAL

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Sunday 24th August 2013 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post Monday 25th.
Winners will be chosen by putting names on same sized papers, folded similarly, put on a tray and Jin will pick a winner.
The winners will have till Wednesday 28th August 2013 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.

Special THANKS to LibertinePerfumerie for the So Nude Bottles. Please visit their site because they are so generous and helpful. If you wonder why they are more expensive than the discounters or OS retailers it’s because they are the only licensed company selling their fragrances in Australia; where you know you are buying new, fresh and genuine product. The cost of importing, and buying the right to import, alcohol based fragrances (and having the right to send alcohol based fragrances throughout Australia, which are illegal to send in the Australia Post air system) is expensive and they must cover their costs to bring you these luxury goods.

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE,

Portia xx

Rose 31 by Daphne Bugey for Le Labo 2006

August 20, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 13 Comments

Post by Jordan River

In Iran, Iraq, The Middle East, Pakistan and India rose perfumes are an essential part of a man’s fragrance wardrobe.

Rose petals used to be crushed and mixed with oil to obtain a strong perfume which was labour intensive and therefore not easily mass-produced. Harun al-Rashid, of A Thousand and One Nights fame, sent Charlemagne several gifts of non-distilled rose perfumes, along with the white elephant Abul Abbas, to his court in Aachen (modern-day Germany). The gifts of Charlemagne to Harun al-Rashid were woven woolen garments from Flanders and German hunting dogs.

About 200 years later, a Persian man, born in Bukhara (modern-day Uzbekistan near Afghanistan), called Ibn Sina, perfected the steam distillation of essential oils from plants when he distilled rose petals into a wearable fragrance which could be made in great quantities.

A distillation plant in Damascus consisting of multiple units for producing rose water – 13th century manuscript

Ibn Sina
Hakim (Doctor/Chemist/Alchemist) Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sīnā, known as Avicenna in the west, took the most beloved flower of Islam, the rose, and made a fragrance which was eagerly worn by men as Mohammed, the prophet of Islam, encouraged the use of perfume ‘if it is available’ as part of the preparation for Friday prayer.

Rose 31 by Le Labo

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Rose, caraway
Heart: Rose, vetiver, cedar
Base: Musk, guaiac wood, olibanum, labdanum, agarwood (oud)

Le Labo gives these featured accords in one line:
Grasse rose, cumin, pepper, clove, nutmeg, ginger, frankincense, cedar, amber, gaiacwood, oud, cistus, vetiver, animalic notes, ISO e-super and 16 unrevealed notes

Le Labo’s Rose 31, so named because it has 31 ingredients, is a modern rose using cumin to create a human scent among the other ingredients. Cumin in perfumery smells like a hint of fresh healthy sweat and when combined with rose is sensual. The warmth of this fragrance comes from ginger which is spiced up with pepper, clove, nutmeg and caraway. You will not smell like a spice rack or a kitchen as the essentials oils blend into a strong masculine scent-wall which is overgrown with Grasse roses and vetiver grass. Overlooking the wall are strong cedars, frankincense bushes and an agarwood tree which further enhance the masculine appeal of this scent.

Frankincense Tree Photo Stolen WikiMedia

This was my favourite and only rose scent until I discovered Mohur by Neela Vermeire Creations. Rose 31 is a great everyday fragrance for men. Mohur is more a special occasion scent, although I find that spritzing Mohur as a sleep scent brings the sweetest dreams.
Nathan Branch recommends wearing this with jeans and t-shirt, or a black tux
Mary P Brown from Texas thinks that Rose 31 is like a hot rose conservatory full of sweaty men – but in the nicest possible way
Lucky Scent describes a rose for men destined to be stolen by women

Bottles are mixed on the spot if you happen upon a Le Labo store. Online orders are also freshly blended at the time of order. Rose 31 has become so popular that it is also available as a laundry detergent, a great way to wash 32 loads of your keffiyeh, khameez, khurtas or business shirts.

Further Reading
In-depth analysis – Kafka’s review
Le Labo store – includes alcohol-free options
Le Labo – travel spray

Options & Prices
Sample $US6
Travel Spray $US135
Oil Dropper $US120 – no alcohol
Perfuming Balm $US80 – no alcohol
Massage and Bath Perfuming Oil $US65 – no alcohol
Laundry Detergent $US45 – plant based and biodegradable

Edp
15ml $US58
50ml $US145
100ml $US220
500ml $US700

Jordan River