Hello,
Apologies for no formal content today. I hope you enjoy this mini movie.
Back on board tomorrow, see you then,
Portia xxx
Avignon: Comme des Garcons Series 3 Incense by Bertrand Duchaufour 2002
Hey Fellow Fumies,
My mate Jordan has often talked to me about todays fragrance and when I saw it for a reasonable price on a friends sell list I jumped at the chance. As you may know I was taught by Nuns and then Jesuits and there was an enormous amount of RC Church going involved in my formative years, not to mention my choir years.
Comme des Garcons Series 3 Incense: Avignon 2002
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
French labdanum, spices, incense, chamomile, vanilla, patchouli, ambrette, oakmoss, musk, olibdanum, myrrh, Brazillian rosewood, Virginia cedar, elemi
If you want to know what church smelled like, it may still, then you need to get your hands on Avignon. It opens like the refectory where we would get ready for the processional entrance and the priest would have his censer in readiness: incense, frankincense, myrrh, wood, men and boys, excitement. At once spicy, woody, aromatic and smoky Avignon becomes woodier and darker as it wears on the skin, but there is also a sweetness that emerges from time to time and becomes more prominent towards the dry down. A circular and circuitous fragrance, it feels linear because you keep coming back to the same pieces but in different arrangements, so similar but not the same. One moment you think the woods have moved into stay, next it’s all about the smoking incense, then vanilla-esque warmth and resins. There even seems to be a wood wax bit like they shone the pews and wooden kneeling pads, and also a candle wax accord. Am I imagining things? Also the scent of a blown out match and something quite alcoholic. Towards the end it fades slowly, never losing its integrity, just intensity, and remains beautiful and haunting to the end.
Unusually for an incense fragrance I get quite a long wear 5+ hours and counting on this occasion, but I spritzed in the cool of evening, in the day with more heat and movement the lifespan is a good deal shorter. This is a wear it for myself fragrance, though I imagine you could wear it almost anywhere except close working/fragrance phobic workplaces. It would be especially fun to wear to church, dinner with clergy or anyone, shopping, picnicking, movies etc.
Photo Stolen ryanphunter
Further reading Birgit from Olfactoria’sTravels writes at PerfumeSmellin’Things
LuckyScent has 50ml/$80 and .7ml/$3
Have you been to Catholic rites? How does the incense in Avignon effect you? What if you aren’t from a Catholic background, does incense still effect you?
So many new questions every time I find some kind of answer for another one. It is kind of exciting to be questing though,
See you tomorrow.
Portia xx
Holiday Photo Essay Paris, France, Soju & Seoul, Korea
Hey gang,
What can I say but Paris is FREAKING AH MAY ZING! A perfumistas dream.
The amazing Denyse Beaulieu, author of The Perfume Lover, Bertrand Duchaufour’s scent muse for L’Artisan’s Seville au l’Aube, Grain de Musc blog hostess, English -French translator and glam girl around town and I had an appointment to interview her and it was great fun. Look out for those interviews here, Perfume Posse and Express Magazine NZ.
Neela Vermeire and her gorgeous husband Tony were excellent hosts. We were lucky enough to spend a couple of great nights with them. Don’t forget to follow Neela Vermeire Creations on FB and Twitter because there will be some incredible news soon. I can’t tell you anything yet because I can’t remember but as soon as Neela reminds me I will give you an exposé and an interview. Neela, Jin and I all went to the auctions and grabbed some bargains including CHANEL handbag and 2 vintage Hermes scarves for songs.
Aaron, a mate of mine from Sydney, was our tour guide. He has made an excellent match with a Paris local and now lives there in bliss. He was our tour guide, friend, eating companion and shopping expedition master. Aaron introduced us to the auction house. We wer also feted at his home on our last night and ate snails, my first time. Thanks to the crew that night, Gerard and the wonderful ladies.
We did Versailles, the Louvre, the Orangerie, many churches and cathedrals including Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower at night and much more in the way of culture. Walked along the very full a fast flowing Seine, had hot waffles, croissants, onion soup, and many other French delights.
What shopping did I do? I bought two Serge Lutens bell jars for friends, Shalimar and Vol de Nuit Parfums from Guerlain, 200ml of discontinued next month Mitzah from DIOR (they have no 125ml left) and would have bought Jin Cartier VI but one of the Cartier ladies was a liar and a bitch in Galleries Lafayette and I called her HIDEOUS instead, which was perfectly truthful though not perhaps nice. Jin was determined to buy me the Bottega Veneta Parfum in the Morano glass bottle but I persuaded him not to because we have the EdP and till he is a big property developer that stuff can wait.
Since then we’ve been in Korea doing the big meet the parents thing. Korea is beautiful, we have travelled it from top to bottom by train, bullet train 2.5 hours, and it’s so pretty. Jin’s family is warm and wonderful and they welcomed me with open arms. The food was a challenge but I survived and tasted a bunch of new things. We all had a laugh and Mum and Dad even had very heartfelt (translated by Jin) conversations about integrity, trust and love. They’ve been together for nearly 40 years so they’re advice is solid.
Anyway, the holiday is over on Tuesday and we’ll be back to normal.
Loads of love,
Portia xx
Extraordinary COKE – Share A Coke
Hey gang,
No shopping photo today. Last days of holiday and time ran out.
Portia xx
I’d like to share a coke with you.
Coke ad – Three minutes of pure entertainment!!! It’s cool…… You’ll love this … created by some Engineering students.
Something Blue by Frank Voelkl and Ann Gottlieb for Oscar de la Renta 2013
Something new kids!!
When I was a squirt bitch back in the late 80’s and early 90’s I was on the counter that housed Guerlain, Worth, Nina Ricci and Oscar de la Renta. His fragrances sold equally to Guerlain and the women that bought them were more often than not very well put together. They looked professional, tailored, hair neat and a lot of chignons and they were busy. Oscar de la Renta must have been doing some great aspirational marketing at the time because they’d come in and buy big bottles, often a soap and body moisturiser and not even look at their receipts as they swished out with their purchases. They were the easiest customers ever and my figures looked excellent because of them. I have ever since had a fondness for Oscar de la Renta and his fragrances.
Photon Stolen FragranticaFragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Linden blossom (lime blossom), mandarin
Heart: Stephanotis
Base: Musk, vanilla
Top: Linden blossom (lime blossom), mandarin
Heart: Stephanotis
Base: Musk, vanilla
Have you tried Something Blue yet? What did you think? I can’t wait.
Till tomorrow big kisses and a smooch.
Portia xx
Oscar De La Renta Something Blue Fragrance 2013 Ad Campaign
Stolen from the blog art8amby
Craig McDean photographed the latest campaign from Oscar De La Renta‘s Something Blue fragrance line featuring model Iris Van Berne.
Image via TFS.
Coromandel by Jacques Polge + Christopher Sheldrake for CHANEL 2007
Hey Hey APJ!
I was recently lunching with Clayton from WhatMenShouldSmellLike and he brought me some amazing gifts from his OS travels. The loveliest of which, so far, is the 4ml gorgeously boxed CHANEL Les Exclusives Coromandel EdT that I am rocking today. It is my first wear of it and I’m dabbing, so do come on a journey with me.
Coromandel EdT by CHANEL 2007
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Neroli, bitter orange, citruses
Heart: Rose, jasmine, patchouli, orris
Base: Tahitian vanilla, benzoin, white chocolate, incense, woodsy notes, musk, olibanum
Can I tell you before we start that this packaging has me excited already, the card, beautifully presented bottle and the whole feel is incredibly luxe for a 4ml tester. Also, different sites and reviewers attribute Coromandel to both of these magnificent perfumers Jacques Polge + Christopher Sheldrake but only BaseNotes , that I read, attributed it to both. Interesting huh?
Oh MY! The first rush I get is all the base notes springing up my nose and creating a warm, woodsy and sweet amber-ish waft that was so unexpected from the notes that I gasped audibly. They don’t really leave either as the citruses begin to show their bright and lovely acidic colours. They don’t stay long because patchouli has wandered in shrouded in a lovely powdery floral veil and it seems like I’m sitting in a cafe, there is a breezy cafe au lait waft that is surprising. Maybe it’s the chocolate and vanilla together with the patchouli, ahh, who knows or cares how they’ve created this wonder?The patchouli is like the undercurrent of Coromandel, it comes and goes over time again and again, but I never even get a hint of the flowers.
I am happily and dizzily transported somewhere other. Closing my eyes and breathing deeply it’s as if Coromandel is zen perfume I feel so relaxed and comfortable in it like this is the fragrance I’ve been waiting for. Do you ever feel like you’ve come home? Amazing!!
Photo Stolen WallPaperHere
Coromandel is all about the base for me, and on my skin, it has sped there is under an hour and maintains itself there indefinitely with only a modicum of change as it progresses deeper into itself, warming and becoming more foodish as it fades till all I’m left with is a mildly resinous vanilla around 6 hours later that hums ever so softly above my skin for a while longer before disappearing. I am ordering a large decant to stop myself immediately buying an FB. I am moved.
Further reading NowSmellThis and BoisDeJasmin
I think Coromandel is only available at CHANEL Boutiques
SurrenderToChance starts at $3/ml
Have you fallen for something unattainable lately? Are you going the sample route or another way?
Wishing you all good luck in your searches,
Till tomorrow be well,
Portia xx
I LOVE CHANEL
Si Lolita by Christine Nagel and Benoit Lapouza for Lolita Lempicka 2009
Hiya APJ Family,
I love to troll sample sites and discount stores. Often I will be so taken with a bottle design that I just want to own it and screw the juice, unfortunately there is only so much cupboard space so I am now making sure I love the juice before I buy FB even if it’s ridiculously cheap on the discount sites. Depending on what the product is I will stop by all the usual decant/sample stores looking for the best deal and that’s how I grabbed 5ml of
Si Lolita by Lolita Lempicka 2009
Photo stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, mandarin
Heart: Pink pepper, sweet peas, wallflower, heliotrope, elemi resin
Base: Elemi, patchouli, tonka, amber
Opening symphony featuring tonka front and centre before fresh cold slices of citrus that warm quickly when the pink pepper and flowers come riding in. The first 5 minutes off Si Lolita is fraught with excitement. A big gushing WOW!! Once the hoopla is over Si Lolita warms beautifully with tonka, clean patchouli and the resins there right through the heart making the bouquet play second fiddle. A background hum of spicy warmth that sits close to the skin if you try to smell it, leave the room though and come back 5 minutes later and Si Lolita has left a gauzy ghost of itself that is translucent but discernible. I am guessing then that the sillage will be fabulous, a scent trail that will turn heads. This is also the sort of “perfumey” perfume that boys know to compliment, and often quite like.
After all that Si Lolita goes a bit every frag and the dry down is a nice amber-ish something but not impressive. Si Lolita is no big statement frag that will give you backbone, sear the eyeballs of your enemies and dry clean the curtains while you sit and read below them. You will smell pretty, sometimes that is all you want, right? And the bottle is a modern marvel, and the price! Si Lolita feels like a scent that almost anyone could rock, won’t offend at work or play and is interesting enough that should you want to focus on it the story will grab you for a while. Otherwise you can spritz and forget it and know that you smell good for about 4 hours, sometimes longer.
Photo Stolen tesmina
Further reading NowSmellThis and PerfumePosse
FragranceNet starts at $22/30ml before discount
MyPerfumeSamples start at $2/ml but I bought 5ml/$7
Have you tried Si Lolita? Don’t you love the bottle?
Please remember how excellent you are and be grateful for the good stuff, try and think of 3 good things in your life, no matter how small, and give thanks.
Till tomorrow.
Portia xx
Here is the making of the ad, there is a small amount of speaking in French, which I don’t understand, but the rest is extremely interesting.
Here is the finished commercial
Black Orchid by Tom Ford 2006
.
Gabriella
.
Hello fellow perfume heads!
Well, sometimes my perfume discoveries really make me feel like I have been living under a rock. This is slightly due to the fact that my sampling and testing methods are never methodical or take a logical course. I always just sniff what intrigues me at the time, rarely just concentrate on testing an entire line, and sometimes I’ll get round to testing a new release maybe months after it has been out. In the case of Black Orchid it’s been years. The oriental chypre was released way back in 2006 and when I finally got round to sniffing it, I was smacking my head with the combined annoyance and disbelief that I hadn’t stumbled on this magnificent beauty much, much sooner.
Photo stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: French jasmine, black truffle, ylang-ylang, black currant, Amalfi lemon, mandarine, bergamot
Heart: Orchid, lotus, fruity notes, spices
Base: Patchouli, sandalwood, dark chocolate, incense, amber, vetiver, vanilla, balsam
According to the PR, with Black Orchid Ford wanted to create a perfume that was ‘old fashioned but in a new sense’ and in my opinion, he has succeeded. Love it or hate it, this is eons away from the masses of sweet, fruity patchoulis out there and brings classical retro glamour back on to the department store shelf front and centre. It’s safe to say it’s impossible not to have an immediate reaction to this scent. It is so huge, so va-va-voom, so sultry, it like a diva on steroids.
It opens with a dark earthy and woody truffle accord that is so lush and thick, it almost feels like a perfume in reverse, as if the basenotes have been swapped with the top but still have the latter’s volume. It is the smell of a rainforest in bloom, with boggy, peaty soil the colour of midnight ink, tinged with fruity spices. There is also something there, perhaps some of the white flowers and vanilla, that lends a burnt caramel quality to the earthiness of the mix. As the scent develops, the darkness of the opening persists and I get a flash of green grass which heightens the accord’s mineral quality. The composition becomes more tropical in effect and the truffle accord is enhanced by a strong melon note, mostly reminiscent of honeydew, with lush, dense creamy white florals darkened by a resinous mix of patchouli and amber. Black Orchid is sumptuous, narcotic and wanton. It is the olfactory equivalent of a spiced dark chocolate pudding and a snifter of brandy.
Photo Stolen ImagesDeParfumsI wasn’t surprised to find the ad for the scent was a very retro and glamorous looking shot of a red-lipped brunette because Black Orchid for me would suit the likes of femme fatales such as Gina Lollobrigida or Ava Gardner. A sexy, intelligent woman that is confident in her sexuality. She doesn’t wink and say ‘come hither’, but looks you straight in the eye and says ’take me on.’
When I smell it, I imagine the following scene: an actress is on a film set in a tropical forest locale. Having just filmed a scene at the local colonial manor, she’s hung her scarlet chiffon ballgown on the back of her hut door. Resting on the balcony, she’s changed into a silk slip but is still in full makeup and jewels: flicked inky eyeliner and red lips; ears and throat emblazoned with chunky diamonds. She’s drinking brandy out of a heavy crystal highball looking out into the starry night.
Photo Stolen ImagesDeParfums
If you’re someone that view today’s modern department store fragrances with a sense of disillusionment and haven’t tried Black Orchid yet, you must at least give it a try. It is just that different. Having said this, according to the sales assistant who sold me my bottle, Black Orchid is the line’s bestseller. If that’s the case, it makes me feel just that bit more confident about the future of mainstream scents.
Further reading NowSmellThis and PerfumePosse
TradeServices has 100ml EdP for $92
SurrenderToChance starts at $4/ml
Have you tried Black Orchid? What is your darkest and sultriest scent?
Until next time!
M x
Exploring Orchidée Impériale by Michelle Yeoh
.
Guest Post by EmmaKate
.
EmmaKate with something different. Michelle Yeoh has become the new Guerlain Ambassador and takes us to see the way one of their skincare lines has come about. They show some of Guerlain’s help in China too. There are six short pieces, all linked.
It’s hectic here. I will post next month.
EmmaKate
Holiday Photo Essay: Budapest, Hungary, Venice, Italy, Paris, France
Hi Crew,
It has been a busy week, three countries and fragrance shopping in all of them.
We did our final Budapest purchasing last Sunday starting at the unfortunately closed Madison, then we trotted down very scared to Neroli because we were worried they too would be shut. Thank goodness the gorgeous Ursula, that thin and sparkling SA who seems to know everything about the products in her care, was at the shop and ready for action. I had decided to buy Naomi Goodsir’s Cuir Velours because they were out of stock of Sandflowers by Montale. What a super surprise that Ursula ha found somewhere a bottle of said Sandflowers, so I bought both damn it all. Super excellent purchases BTW. Urslula was also lavish with the free bees after we sealed the deal including fragrance samples and a couple of lovely extras that have already come in useful, I recommend a visit. Next it was to Le Parfums Croisette and the lovely and enterprising Zsolt Zolyomi who owns and runs it, he is also a perfumer and will create a bespoke fragrance for you if you have the time for such lavish extravagance. Here we picked up a great favourite of mine that I have emptied a good decant of and was missing L’Artisan Parfumeur Premier Figuier Extreme, that lovely milky fig that lasts and lasts on my skin and two of The Different Company 10ml travel refills Sel de Vetiver and Oriental Lounge, excellent size and the fabulous aluminium casing is such a fun thing too.
Then we rocked on over to Venice in a dual sleeper that was small but efficient. Next time we will book the Deluxe room, it and we are worth it. PS train travel is awesome for short or middle distance, no waiting at the airport or worries. We wandered Venice like mad things, day and night. We were luck enough to stumble on a couple of perfumeries that stocked niche products. The first was run by two sisters Perfumeria Muschieri at Frezzeria San Marco 1178 which was stocked with an astounding array of fabulous and obscure niche products. Some of their lines are so small that they are held in under ten doors, amazing. And the ladies are so knowledgeable I let myself be guided by their good taste and am extremely glad that they steered me towards Sigilli’s PYRGOS and Maria Candida Gentile’s Exultat. Then on to the Pont de Rialto where we came across another fragrance shop that had a niche and designer range of perfumes, most of which I’d seen already in our travels. They did have their own fragrance range though curated by the very urbane gentleman who owns the store, his name eludes me, but we were given an extremely warm welcome and he and his assistants were ready to help and knew a lot about their products including the history. They also have their own Pont de Rialto range of fragrances of which I bought L’Eau, their unisex fragrance. I also discovered and grabbed one of the Pineider fragrances, Cuoio Nobile, which has the best packaging I’ve seen on a fragrance in a long while. Also while trolling a mall in Venice we found a frag fakes stand and I bought a “Like CHANEL No 5” that wears well for an hour before it veers from its namesake, still wearable and nice but not No 5 . What did I expect for 6 euro?
Now we are in Paris and we’ve wandered through Galleries Lafayette, finding the best Guerlain SA ever Cyril. He’s a hoot, go see him when you are in Paris. Cyril showed us the L’Heure Blue 100-years anniversary case, WOW! Have had an excellent dinner with the amazing Neela Vermeire and her husband Tony, I can’t tell you anything but make sure you like her FaceBook page for NEWS. The handsome man with Jin and I is a great mate Aaran who hails from Sydney but has landed happily in gay Paree. Also was lucky enough to catch Denyse Beauleiu for a coffee, interview and troll through Jovoy. Though she is most unwell, there she was looking a billion dollars and so welcoming and ready to share herself, her knowledge and her story. What a champ, I am a little crushy. Denyse also wandered me into a shop randomly and said, they have the Knize Ten here. SCORE! Grabbed the Limited Edition they were out of in Vienna. Woo Hoo.
I know, I have rambled too long but yesterday was a write off so today you get story and shots.
Love you all,
Portia xxx
Australian Perfume Junkies 