Hey Y’all,
Just a bit of Louis Vuitton fun with cartoon and games. I like the simplicity and colours. It keeps me interested as I wait for their fragrance. HURRY UP Louis Vuitton!! We are waiting.
Photo Stolen FreeWallpaper4
Portia xx
En Passant by Olivia Giacobetti for Frederic Malle 2000
Hello my lovelies,
While in Vienna recently Birgit and Sandra from Olfactoria’sTravels took me to the only known place on earth where they let you mix & match your Frederic Malle 3 x 10ml set when you grab it!! I think it was called Day Spa? Anyway, tell Birgit you are coming to Vienna and she will give you the address. Here is one of my lovely scores:
En Passant by Frederic Malle 2000
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Lilac, surrounded by watery and green notes, cucumber and wheat
This morning in Sydney the weather is beautiful. Crisp, sunny, warm: it feels more like spring than Autumn 10am and 21 degrees celcius. I am writing a week ahead of today and Kath and I are doing the office work, well Kath is doing the office work and I am writing to you. As I went to spritz myself this morning I also gave Kath a healthy squirt too.
I love the pretty green sappy swoosh directly after the spritz, the cucumber and watery greens, it’s fresh, wet and slightly plastic. I find flowers often give me a plastic vibe, not a wet Tupperware stink but a slightly unreal-ness, lilac has it in spades. I could walk out the back door into a spring garden in my mind. This is crisp and elegant but in a less formal tone, less knowing than Chanel 19. A younger, free-er, lighter and happier version of one of my favourites, without being like it at all.
Photo Stolen DeviantArt
It’s hard to get my head around how beautiful and delicate En Passant is, usually not my style at all but there is something alluring and beguiling about this little Frederic Malle stunner that keeps me coming back to my wrists again and again.. En Passant is seriously selfish, introverted fragrance. You won’t skunk anyone at the office or anywhere, you will give an aura of fresh vitality and exuberance.
Photo Stolen FragranticaFurther reading ISmellThereforeIAm and PerfumePosse
MeccaCosmetica in Australia has $194/50ml (Free shipping within Australia)
BarneysNewYork has $155/50ml
SurrenderToChance starts at $6/ml
There is something magical and whimsical for me even in the name Frederic Malle. His scent curation adds a patina of glory to everything with his name on it. I wonder if I would find En Passant as alluring and interesting if it was by Woolworths Home Brand? Would I sneer at its trite simplicity? What do you think?
Portia xx
ZARA SPORT 421
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Post by Val the Cookie Queen
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Good day all of you APJs!
ZARA – A Spanish success story. A clothing and accessories store. Louis Vuitton fashion director Daniel Piette described Zara as “Possibly the most innovative and devastating retailer in the world.” Possibly. Although I have my doubts.
ZARA SPORT 421 by – who knows?
(So far out of my comfort zone I need oxygen ……. )
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica call it an aromatic spicy fragrance for men. Featuring musk, mandarin orange, thyme and pepper.
A story in three parts.
PART 1
My son invited me to go shopping with him, about a month ago. Never one to turn down a date with him, off I went. All I had to do was buy him lunch. (A Chanel bag would have been cheaper!) Just before heading home he asked me to nip into Zara and grab him a bottle of Zara Sport 421. “You want me to do whaaaat??? Over my dead and mangled body!! I will not. If you want it you will have to get it yourself.” So he did. With much muttering as to what a snob I was ……
PART 2 (next day)
“Mmmmmm, that smells nice son.” Mucho laughter from him. “It´s Zara, Mum.”
“Aaaaaargh!!” I cried in agony. “Maybe you would like to write about it!” he chuckled.
Sweet smelling son.
PART 3 (A few weeks and several random compliments later)
Here I sit. Zara 421 is really quite nice Nice is not a word I like to use, but it is perfect for Zara 421. Soft, musky, slightly orangey and spicy. Warm. I cannot pretend to pick any notes out, because I can´t. Maybe there aren´t any that are readily identifiable. But I like it. It´s staying power is about three hours. Would I recommend it? Well, if it was a choice of Axe, Lynx or Zara? Then yes, definitely the Zara 421. There are three in the Sport Range. Zara Sport 421, Zara Sport 675, and Zara Sport 615. Am I going to try the other two? Am I hell. My son says the 421 is the only good one. That is enough for me.
Photo Stolen dorechina2009
It is only available in certain Zara stores, and it is NOT available online. I guess that makes it pretty exclusive huh? ;))) The fragrances run at about 12 to 20 Euros. Totally affordable.
See James? You owe me lunch.
Bussis until the next time.
CQ
Aurore Nomade by Bertrand Duchaufour for The Different Company 2012
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Gabriella
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Hello fragrance friends. I hope you are all well and enjoy today’s post.
I’d like to think that it wasn’t just by chance that my sample of today’s fragrance happened to arrive the day after daylight savings ended here in Sydney. After a mercifully brief period of hot weather during our so-called summer, suddenly not only was it dark very early in the evening but cold temperatures had already decided to set in. I was miserable and I felt cheated. I wanted the precious little heat and light that we’d had thus far back again. I wanted to be sweating in a t-shirt, not staving off chills with a cashmere cardigan. I wanted to crawl into a time travel machine and go back to just some days before when the air had still been balmy at 6pm and the sky still blue.
Aurore Nomade by The Different Company 2012
Aurore Nomade was just the olfactory tonic to do it. And it did so with a bang.
Photo stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Banana, carambola (star fruit), cinnamon, sea notes, nutmeg, rum and artemisia
Heart: Ylang-ylang, geranium, cloves, frangipani
Base: Immortelle, sandalwood, amber, vanilla and musk.
Reading that list, it would be all too easy to dismiss Aurore Nomade as a hot mess but it’s a multi-faceted perfume where a seeming cacophony of notes weaves a complex but cohesive pattern that takes you on a strange and delightful journey.
The perfume’s central note is starfruit and it’s the main reason that it inspired my much needed ‘summer-esque’ excitement. The fruit’s tart, pulpy tang speaks of exotic locales and brought back memories of childhood trips to Asia. I’m once again wandering around hidden markets in Thailand; I’m back in the dazzle and hum of a Hong Kong Street at night; again gazing at the thatched roof of a resort in Malaysia where the ceiling fans gently cool the air with their sonorous thrum.
Aurore Nomade is all salty-sweet with a definite palatable quality as if one’s margarita has been made with lemons and passionfruit instead of lime. There’s that wonderful sensation of licking the salt rim after you’ve gulped the syrupy liquor.
Photo Stolen DudeFoodNYC
Underlying this contrasting vibe is also a verdant quality. In this phase, Aurora Nomade feels like a brighter, more delicate version of the now sadly discontinued L’Artisan Fleur de Liane. There’s the same impression of dense green vines and stems tangling around trees in a rainforest all thick with humid heat. Ozonic notes join the fray, amplifying the sense of high temperature and giving it a metallic zing. It’s the crackle of lightning foreboding the onset of a summer storm; the salty smell of water on asphalt after the storm has passed.
The base is all about soft spices creating a comfort skin scent. The cinnamon, sandalwood and vanilla are gentle and cozy on the skin. It’s a rather quiet denouement after all Aurore’s drama, but satisfyingly so.
Photo stolen FaeriesFinest
Further reading Grain de Musc and Fragrantica
Available online at Luckyscent, $210/50ml
Have you tried Aurore Nomade? What’s your favourite “snap me out of the doldrums” scent?
With much love until next time!
M x
Bang! by Ann Gottleib for Marc Jacobs 2010
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Post by EmmaKate
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Bang! by Marc Jacobs 2010
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Black, white and pink pepper
Heart: Woody notes
Base: Elemi resin, aromatic benzoin, vetiver, white moss and patchouli
I am a massive fan of wearing men’s cologne, this is a different smell than I would normally wear but I really enjoyed wearing this.
It opens with an almost sparkling green note which is the vetiver already going strong. There is this warming sensation where the black, white and pink pepper comes through, the spice from the pepper combined with benzoin and vetiver makes this fragrance effervescent yet warm.
Photo stolen PerezHilton
I am a very visual person and when I smell this I see a young well dressed guy. He has a good job, very caring and sweet, pretending to be a player. This is a sexy though somewhat comforting fragrance. Very easy to wear, über masculine to boot. Bang guys are date-able, maybe even marriage material.
Further reading NowSmellThis
FragranceNet has $37/50ml before discount
MyPerfumeSamples starts at $2/ml
See you next month
EK xx
Marc Jacobs Bang! Interview
Bang! Ad.
Very Irresistable Givenchy 2013 Ad Campaign
Very Irresistable Givenchy Fragrance 2013 Ad Campaign
Stolen and plagiarised with many thanks from art8amby
27 year old American actress, Amanda Seyfried, is replacing fellow actor Liv Tyler as the new campaign girl of the iconic Very Irresistable Givenchy. The campaign was photographed by Glen Luchford and styled by Riccardo Tisci himself.
Image via Harper’s Bazaar UK.
Bull’s Blood by Josh Meyer for Imaginary Authors 2012
Hello Everyone,
These Imaginary Authors have been on so many blogs in the last year, I have been totally intrigued to try their stuff. To be honest, the sample set arrived months ago and has been sitting in my To Do list ever since. While we were doing the sample cataloguing they floated to the top of the pile again. My first is the one that has garnered the most praise and hoopla, start at the top I say.
Bull’s Blood by Imaginary Authors 2012
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured notes in one line:
Patchouli, Rose, Costus Root, Tobacco, Black Musk & Bull’s Blood
WOW! This is an experience. Maybe it’s the hype but I really smell that tinny taste you get when you bite your lip or if you have gingevitis from lack of oral hygiene during my 20s then when flossing you will get blood too. It is a very specialised taste and Bull’s Blood definitely has a smell of that taste. It’s interesting and confronting but not disgusting like Secretions Magnifiques can be. I feel like I am wearing the olfactory correlation to art, it makes me think and I am seriously moved by the strangeness.
Notes swirl here like a merry-go-round or a school of fish, turning beautifully and precisely and I am not going to ruin my trip by trying to parse the magic, though I do get wafts of patchouli, rose, sweet tobacco and musk throughout the frag life, it’s more about the kaleidoscopic pictures than each singular piece. Waves and waves of beauty, with an edge, a touch of something slightly off kilter that keeps it interesting, a fine line between absolute beauty and terrible disgust. I AM HOOKED!! Bravo Imaginary Authors, this is drama in a bottle.
Photo Stolen pbs
It’s now tomorrow morning and there is still a sweet, bloody musk, quite strong lingering around my body. It is now very much like the opening of MKK. The staying power on this baby is extraordinary, I think it may be the costus that has stayed so beautifully. Maybe I am plagiarising but THIS is what Lady Gaga’s fragrance could have smelled like, did anyone else write this. Beautiful and weird. I am definitely in the market for an FB. I can’t believe how reasonably priced this wonder is.
Further reading SmellyThoughts and CaFleurBon looks at the whole range.
ImaginaryAuthors has $85/60ml (which is a bargain for niche so beautifully constructed)
You can also grab the 7 x 2ml sampler at Imaginary Authors Site (<<<JUMP)
It’s a great name isn’t it? Do you have a favourite freakily named frag?
Portia x
Sorry, I couldn’t bring myself to add a photo of a bullfight, they make me want to cry. I don’t judge or want to change the Spanish tradition but I can not look at them without stupid sad tears of shame and anger pouring down my face.
Fleur De Rocaille by for Caron 1993
Hello GORGEOUS!!
I have quite a lot of the Caron fragrances. I like the way they smell, that they seem to be joined, the bottles and the packaging. There is something glamorous about the whole Caron thing that lures me in. I think it is a neglected icon that needs a Tom Ford to sweep in and resurrect their staus.
Fleur De Rocaille by for Caron 1993
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Aldehydes, gardenia, violet
Heart: Carnation, iris, rose, ylang ylang, lilac, jasmine, lily of the valley, mimosa
Base: Oakmoss, musk, cedar, amber, sandalwood
Fleur De Rocaille means flowering rock garden or flower of rubble. So, of course, I expected to be floated away on a hefty sparkling floral with stark and challenging depths that floated high and above a labdanum (rock rose) base. I expected goat, grass, greenery and twisted & tortured woods.
What did I get, the air at high altitude, it opens fizzy like a life saver mint which fits with how I expect the air to smell in a rock garden and then becomes the softest, sweetest and most fleeting fragrance I have in my memory. The note list reads like a 1980’s blockbuster and I am sadly deflated. Having said that there is a lovely section from about 30mins to 1.5 hours that to me is a soft lily, not the very fragrant ones, and some mimosa, after that I get sugar, something quietly green and amber but so sparse as to almost not be there. I wonder if this was made with the Chinese and Japanese markets in mind?
If you hate perfume but feel the need to have something on your dresser and that you must spritz before you leave the house then this is for you. You will not be overwhelmed, nobody will complain of you skunking even an elevator after a double quadruple spritz. I use the last 3 ml of my 5ml decant today in one wearing and only noticed that I was wearing fragrance intermittently, and no one else commented at all.
Photo Stolen AmazingHomeDesign
Further reading UnseenCenser
FragranceNet has 100ml around $45
MyPerfumeSamples has $2/ml or $7/5ml which is what I bought
I love the Caron vibe but feel it’s fading, with the new regulations I wonder how these houses will survive. What do you think? Will we miss the old ways in 20 years or will the people then be immune to it?
See you tomorrow,
Portia xx
Dsquared2 Fall Winter 2013/2014 Full Fashion Show
Hiya Huffers,
While the Dsquared fragrances don’t give me a huge wear life they are interesting and usually boundary pushers. This F/W 13/14 show is so classically beautiful but with wonderful and outrageous features that make it modern, so bang up to date. And so much of it elegant, beaded evening wear. Bravo! Sequins and glitter are back.
Photo Stolen MFVMag
I like that they have followed the LV 12/13 over-large hat look. It’s fun, silly and sometimes fabulous. The jewellery is astounding BTW. Enjoy.
Photo Stolen GloveLoveBlog
Portia xx
Dsquared2 Fall Winter 2013/2014 Full Fashion Show (Feb’13)
Gothic I by Loree Rodkin 2013
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Post by Kymme CV
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Hello readers!!
NYMag: Jewelry designer Loree Rodkin has built her empire on the corner of Goth Street and Glam Boulevard: medieval crosses, bejeweled skulls, delicate tracery earrings (Michelle Obama wore a pair on inauguration night)
Have you ever fantasized of being in a bohemian Kasbah, the air thick with incense, dancing around with careless abandon to the heavy beat of a drum…the silks tied to your wrists flow through the air with ease as you shake and bump your junk at men toking on hookah pipes. The humidity in the air adheres your sheer clothing to your moist skin as the sound of the drums intensify. No? Well neither had I until I smelled Loree Rodkin’s Gothic I Eau de Parfum! But there you are…
Anyway…I digress. So how does this EDP break down?
Gothic I by Loree Rodkin 2013
Photo Stolen LuckyScent
LuckyScent gives these featured accords in one line:
Vanilla pod, Madagascar vanilla, spice accord, Tunisian patchouli, Indian patchouli
Gothic I opens with an enormous sweet vanilla slap in the face, just like a vanilla custard-pie but more! This ‘vanilla’ is an exotic, deep, rich and velvety vanilla. But it’s really not that simple a fragrance. There’s a real depth to the Madagascan vanilla that comes alive once the spice starts to come through. Now we’ve got nutmeg on our vanilla pudding! The spice accords mixed with the vanilla give the fragrance a dramatic nuance.
When I first wore Gothic I hours passed before I started sensing the patchouli notes coming through. However, each time my body temperature rose a little the patchouli blend came storming through. At first I didn’t even realise it was me that I could smell! As soon as my body cooled again, back came the vanillas. I kept doing chores that kept me HOT because patchouli is my favourite scent. I’ve been wearing Gothic I all day – I’ve even been sweating it up on the veranda doing some plant repotting, and even after all the sweating I’ve been doing, there’s the patchouli. Ah!
Photo Stolen FanPop
This is sold as more of a night time feminine scent than unisex, but it hasn’t stopped me wearing it during the day to the office. This is a fragrance that makes me feel great, relaxed and at ease. This certainly isn’t a perfume for those that enjoy florals, because Gothic I makes a statement, a big bold statement at that. If you walked into a crowded room wearing Gothic I, heads would turn and you’d be noticed because everyone would know that ‘drama’ had just arrived at the party.
Gothic I came in LuckyScents April Sample Pack. (These sample packs are great value. The 15 samples arrived nicely packaged, and at US$35 it’s a steal.) Oddly enough, Gothic I was the first fragrance out of the bag and has turned out to be my favourite of the entire sample pack. Was this a sign of the impending fantasy? Who knows, but this fragrance struck an ‘accord’ with me. Boom-tish!
Gothic I EDP appears to have had a bit of a hard time convincing the fragrance community that this is ‘nothing more than another run-of-the-mill vanilla oil with a ridiculous price tag’ ThePerfumeCritic, ‘…Gothic fragrance line is missing the gothic,’ nymag but I disagree. There’s much more to this fragrance than one might be lead to believe. I’ve not seen many online sellers of perfume carrying the Gothic range, with the exception of LuckyScent and Loree Rodkin’s own website, so maybe Gothic I has fallen foul of the critics. I hope not, but if it has, it deserves another chance. After all, tastes are constantly changing right?
LuckyScent has $140/50ml and $4/.7ml
Happy smelling!
Kymme
Australian Perfume Junkies 