Bois d’Oud GIVEAWAY WINNERS

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 1 Comment

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Portia

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Hey crew,

Thanks so much to Louis from Detail for his generosity. Very excited to be doing a giveaway of this lovely juice.
Portia xxx

Bois d’Oud GIVEAWAY WINNERS

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Agarwood (oud), bergamot, labdanum
Heart: Saffron, cedar
Base: Tobacco, agarwood (oud), cedar, patchouli

Detaille has €90/50ml

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week there will be 2 winners who will receive:
1 x 10ml decant of Bois d’Oud by Detaille
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Wednesday 19th April 2017 10pm Australian EdsT
Winners were chosen by random.org

JackieB

Fanny

The winners will have till Wednesday 26th April 2017 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

Blossom Love by Nathalie Lorson + Elise Bénat for Amouage 2017

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 14 Comments

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Erica Golding

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Hello everyone!

Have you ever been graced with a sample that you may never have had the chance nor motivation to try otherwise? Tonight, I am sampling a gorgeous decant of a brand new release, thanks to a dear friend’s incredible generosity and boundless kindness!!

Blossom Love by Amouage 2017

Blossom Love by Nathalie Lorson + Elise Bénat

Fragrantica

Parfumo gives these featured accords:
Top: Cherry nectar, Rose liqueur
Heart: Ylang-ylang, Amaretto accord, Vanilla
Base: Tonka bean, Sandalwood, Cashmeran

Amouage Blossom Love definitely goes beyond the boundaries you may expect a pink floral to reside within. I can honestly say that I do sense every note disclosed, and they harmonize as beautifully as you may expect – but don’t be fooled, Blossom Love is not innocent nor simple! There is a twist!

WikiCommons

The opening shimmers with the fresh, sweetly clean cherry blossom, while the luscious juicy-bright glow of the rose liquor hints at depths to come. On my skin, the note that makes this composition truly worthy of the name Amouage is the almond liqueur (amaretto accord). This amaretto features a strange bitterness that collides violently with the tropical ylang ylang, creating a storm front crackling with electric charge. The sonorous distant thunder that follows stays smooth and mellow, as the base notes vibrate a bit higher and feel more like middle notes. Velvety musk and honeyed tonka bean soften the edges, while the vanilla takes time to come forward.

Overall, on me, the amaretto note dominates even the blinding light of the jubilant, vibrant cherry blossoms. The effect is so weird and unexpected and fascinating, I just can’t stop inhaling this incredible creation!

WikiCommons

Further reading: Perfume Posse
Libertine Parfumerie has the Amouage range
Amouage has £260/100ml

What is the latest sample you’ve come across that completely took you off guard and blew your expectations into the water?

Until next time, be well and stay scented!

-Erica

Fat Electrician by Antoine Maisondieu for Etat Libre d’Orange 2009

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 16 Comments

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TinaG

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Hi APJ!

Fat Electrician has been such a fun fragrance to try! A friend kindly gave me a sample which was used up oh-too quickly, and to be honest the name of it always reminds me of Portia and Jin – I keep thinking back to Portia’s article a few years ago which made me laugh. Love those guys. So, I’d heard good things about it but hadn’t expected that WOW factor to hit immediately and it was fabulous!

Fragrantica

Parfumo gives these featured accords:
Myrrh, Chestnut cream, Olive leaf, Opoponax, Vanilla, Vetiver

Fat Electrician opens dry and woody with a blast of sweetness at the same time, just so weird. I really wasn’t expecting a ‘vetiver’ fragrance to have a gourmand aspect to it but a sticky vanilla definitely shines through. It is horizontally layered and airy, the dryness of the vetiver is all in the sillage but close to my skin the vanilla softly oozes.

After a while the vanilla is joined by a creaminess that I guess is the marron or chestnut, which pushes the vetiver out of the way for prominence. A metallic green note starts to sparkle on my skin. It’s oily and slightly mentholated. I really like the way that this fragrance shifts. It manages to be comforting and quirky at the same time – exactly my kind of thing.

And this is only just in the first half hour. Something funny happens then, in that the metallic note went into blood territory like the smell of mince meat. Metallic and meaty but only in undertones with the vetiver going a bit more feral and funky. It might sound off-putting but it joins the scent bubble as an enhancement not an outlier.

PDI

Did you notice that there are some ambers in the notes? Well they come out around the 3 hour mark bringing with them a dry but cool incense. Myrrh is a favourite of mine, no so much opoponax but they are both in trace but distinct amounts. Even after 6 hours, Fat Electrician has slightly split personality spots on my skin. One place smells woody, another sticky & sweet. It is this variation that keeps me interested.

The three main notes in Fat Electrician are: vetiver, vanilla, myrrh. Interesting features, the oily green + bloody metallics, the way the vetiver goes from dry to dirty, and the juxtaposition between the chewy gourmand notes and bone dry ambers. It’s got a great longevity of 8+ hours but most of the interesting stuff happens in the first hour.

PDI

Further reading: Australian Perfume Junkies and EauMG
LuckyScent has $90/50ml and Samples

What a great perfume!

Have you tried Fat Electrician before? What do you think?

Till next time,

Tina G

Bois d’Oud by Detaille 2014 + GIVEAWAY

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 16 Comments

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Portia

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Hey APJers,

You may remember that I met the owner of Detail and his wife at the Milan hotel we stayed in for Esxence? Louis and his wife Christine. He was so sweet and passionate about their fragrances. Even made one of the newest range especially for Christine, with her involvement. She was wearing it to breakfast so proudly.

As we chattered over breakfast about his company Louis told me that they’d released some new fragrances recently. I tried a couple but the one I liked for me was Bois d’Oud. He gave me a bottle right there on the spot and Jin & I have both enjoyed wearing it since then.

Bois d’Oud by Detaille 2014

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Agarwood (oud), bergamot, labdanum
Heart: Saffron, cedar
Base: Tobacco, agarwood (oud), cedar, patchouli

As I was wearing Bois d’Oud I was telling him what I thought I smelled. Synth oud, loads of pencil shaving cedar, honey & patchouli. Well, I was almost all correct and Louis was thrilled that I had been able to place some notes. Really he was a complete gent.

Bois d’Oud opens with a lightly fecal synth oudh that quickly calms into a animalic, creamy, resinous labdanumwith only hints of the oudishness. Very nice, comfortable, easy. Then the cedar mines in underneath and you can smell it almost rising through thew scent to become front & centre. It’s beautifully played and smells good to me.

 

As the hours pass the tobacco, which smells delightfully honeyed and browned, and patchouli float through. Patchouli is pretty clean, no headshop shenanigans going on here and all backed by a soft blur of creamy oud. Smooth, the whole fragrance is very smooth.

It’s a nice, wearable, synth oud. Not too skanky, won’t scare the Grandmas or the teens away, and has a very comfortable wear. Bois d’Oud is not a groundbreaking perfume, won’t challenge the wearer and is at the cleaner end of the oud spectrum. It is a very nice version of what it does though.

Detaille has €90/50ml

 

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week there will be 2 winners who will receive:
1 x 10ml decant of Bois d’Oud by Detaille
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DO YOU WIN?

Open to everyone worldwide who follows AustralianPerfumeJunkies via eMail, WordPress, Bloglovin or RSS. Please leave how you follow in the comments to be eligible. I must be able to check that you follow so if you have an email address on your gravatar that’s different to your follow address then please email me 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 us your current favourite woods or oud fragrance? 

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Wednesday 19th April 2017 10pm Australian EdsT and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org
The winners will have till Wednesday 26th April 2017 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

You Or Someone Like You GIVEAWAY WINNERS

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 1 Comment

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Portia

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Hey Hey Crew,

Thanks to ELdO and Chandler Burr for their incredible generosity. Good luck in the giveaway.

Portia xx

You Or Someone Like You GIVEAWAY WINNERS

LuckyScent has it from $52/30ml + Samples

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week there will be 10 winners who will receive:
1 x 2ml decant of You Or Someone Like You by Etat Libre d’Orange
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Sunday 16th April 2017 10pm Australian EdsT
Winners will be chosen by random.org

Jane

JackieB

Susan Farber

Nilam5688

Neva

Koyel

Kate Apted

Jaybee

Fazal

Gina

The winners will have till Sunday 23rd April 2017 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

Scent Diary 10.4 – 16.4.17

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 24 Comments

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Portia

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Hi There APJ,

Scent Diary 10.4 – 16.4.17

Monday 10:

It’s 3am and I just got a call from Jin who has travelled with the family to Vienna to board a flight to South Korea with our sister in law’s ashes. Korean Air was able to find seats for them all on a flight today at extremely short notice. From Incheon Airport they will take two trains to get to Jin’s hometown near Busan in the south. The rest of his family and hers will all meet at the station and tomorrow there will be a service.

Below is a photo of us all together a month ago in Zilina, Slovakia. Our sister in law making the peace sign. How can this smart, funny, beautiful and sweet woman be gone? We are the wreckage left behind. So sad.

So now I’m wide awake and I have a LOT of Lolita Lempicka EdP on. I reek of it because when I got home and got out of drag I resprayed myself heavily. I’m not bored but I think I’d like to add some extra nuance so I’m going with Mon Guerlain. I think it’s basic lavender/toffee/cake batter will play nicely beside the LLs Fizzy Drink. Yeah, I bought it. No, I don’t hate it but I do feel it’s a pretty close fit to Oriental Brulant if you trade out citrus for lavender. The bottle is wonderful though, perfect packaging. I’m expecting Mon Guerlain Noir in a black version next.

Today was a complete write off. Slept. Spoke to Jin and a couple of mates.

Tonight I got up and did some blogging, about to write Trivia Q&A. My mind is mush, doing the best I can. Ate the last of my Curried Sweet Potato & Carrot Soup. Suddenly I am alive.

Tuesday 11:

4.30am and I’ve just finished this weeks Trivia Q&A. I know it sounds late but I particularly like to work at this time in the night. My brain gets this weird late night focus and things that would take forever in the day time take half the time and I do a better job of it too. My Trivia Q&A scent tonight was Amoureuse by Parfums DelRae, freakiest damn lily I ever smelled. So good and beautiful, it’s thick and ropey with this amazingly dense floatiness. This is my second bottle, if anyone has one they’re not loving let me know, I’ll buy it.

Spent today doing office work with Scott before getting ready for work. Wore Palissander d’Or by Aedes de Venustus woodsy deliciousness through the day.

Then for work I wore vintage Nina EdT by Nina Ricci. Smelled unbelievably fabulous through work and kept getting lavish huffs of myself. Weirdly, no one noticed it at all.

Wednesday 12:

Today was the birthday of one of my most loved, enduring friendships. We lived together in the late 80s- early 90s and have remained constant buddies through continental changes, marriages, divorces, kids and all sorts of excitement. I made her wedding dress, TinaG and I are godparents to her beautiful son and fortuitously she happened to be in Sydney for her birthday this year so a small core of her family and close buddies congregated at our place in Parramatta for lunch. Loads of laughs, champagne, food, tea, baklava and the warmth of hanging with wonderful people were the order of the day. TinaG & I went shopping together for the party.

Jin is coming home today from South Korea. Getting on the plane. Will be home by midday tomorrow. I’m so happy that I’m getting a bit emotional.

Thursday 13:

Jin arrived home. He is tired and wretched. He basically lay on the lounge like Camille all day snoozing on & off. He gets a couple of days of this before he goes back to work. He is so worn out that he has refused to meet friends or go anywhere.

Wearing Umbra by Ramon Monegal during the day.

Got ALL the bought and gifted bottles from the Europe 2017 holiday out and took a pic today, did a post about it. Kind of made myself sick at my own gluttony.

For work I wore Burberry Brit Woman EdP & Extrait. I smelled bloody gorgeous. So good I then respritzed before bed.

Friday 14:

Woke up with a stinking sinus headache. OMG! I feel like my heads left hand side is about to explode. So instead of perfume I decided to scent the house with Sweet Potato & Cauliflower Soup. Smells really good. Hope it tastes so yummy when cooked.

OK so my headache persisted till 4pm when I could take it no more and took some pain relief tablets. It’s so rare for me to get such a monumental ouch headache that I usually can ride them out but not today. Blessed relief.

Wearing Etat Libre d’Orange: You Or Someone Like You made with Chandler Burr. Yeah, kooky and fun, very ELdO. Review to come.

Saturday 15:

Bloody Hell! It’s 4.30am, I’m for bed. A quadruple chest spritz of Jacomo Silences PdT and I’m off. NIGHT!

Today we are off to get our dogs back home from the kennels. Jin and I didn’t wan’t to collect them because they really do have a master each and we were worried that Jinx would be upset without Jin home. I’m pretty excited to have them home. I wore my vintage Miss Dior EdT today, perfect warm autumn day fragrance.

Went over to my BFF Kath’s house. She was minding a beautiful ginger cat called Mango for a friend of a friend while he moved to Melbourne from Sydney. Anyway, this asshole gets to Melbourne and tells Kath she should keep him or send him to the pound. So now she is looking for a new home for Mango, sadly she is highly allergic to cats or she’d keep him. What is it with some people, imagine leaving your fur baby like that?

Anyone in Sydney want a gorgeous, people and other pet friendly, house trained, healthy, inside cat. Not to be let outside. He had a car accident a while back so his face is a little lopsided but otherwise heaven. Softest little purr I ever heard.

Perfect Easter Saturday night. Sushi Train dinner with Jin who is still way too tired to be photographed, walked the dogs, hit the blogs and now a sky high bubble bath in the Bath and Body Works Anti-Stress bubbles and a cuppa in my Free Parking mug that I got for Christmas. This is about as comfortably happy as I get, blissful evening.

After the bath and in honour of meeting Mango today I wore my super spectacular pussy cat socks. Fragrance provided by my sample of Rose Omeyyade by Atelier des Ors. A very interesting gourmand, fruity rose backed by a deep and mysterious creamy oriental oud base. Clever and beautiful.

Sunday 16:

Happy Easter to those who celebrate.

Jin & I only slept till about 7.30am. For a treat I went and brought the dogs in and we all slotted around the bed for another hour. Jin manages to snore like a steam train even with the dogs on board. I love the sound, it soothes me and I feel so relaxed with it.

L’Eau d’Ambre by L’Artisan Perfumeur today. Smells great! Mine is the older bottle but the new one smells good too.

Today is also Jin’s first time seeing our mates since his return. We are having Yum-Cha and then seeing BFF Kath’s parents. I’ve made them some of my Sweet Potato & Cauliflower Soup.

Done. Now I’m going to be a lazy sloth.

So what did you all get up to this week? Smell anything new or go back to an old favourite? What about Easter? Do anything for that?
Portia xxx

You Or Someone Like You by Etat Libre d’Orange

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 26 Comments

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Portia

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Hi Lovers of NEW!

Yesterday we chatted about You Or Someone Like You by Chandler Burr + Etat Libre d’Orange 2017. It’s brand new, only just appeared at LuckyScent and Chandler sent me a bottle. Suddenly last night after the review went live I thought, how churlish I am not offering a GIVEAWAY! So though we don’t post here at APJ on Saturdays anymore I thought maybe I could make an exception so some of you could get to try it too.

Further reading: Colognoisseur and Scents Memory
LuckyScent has it from $52/30ml + Samples

You Or Someone Like You GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week there will be 10 winners who will receive:
1 x 2ml decant of You Or Someone Like You by Etat Libre d’Orange
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DO YOU WIN?

Open to everyone worldwide who follows AustralianPerfumeJunkies via eMail, WordPress, Bloglovin or RSS. Please leave how you follow in the comments to be eligible. I must be able to check that you follow so if you have an email address on your gravatar that’s different to your follow address then please email me 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 us any of the Etat Libre d’Orange scents you like or if you’ve read any of Chandler’s books and enjoyed them? 

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Sunday 16th April 2017 10pm Australian EdsT and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org
The winners will have till Sunday 23rd April 2017 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

You Or Someone Like You by Chandler Burr + Etat Libre d’Orange 2017

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 25 Comments

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Portia

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Hey Crew,

I got home from my holiday to find a box awaiting pick up. I had no idea who the sender was but guessed it was fragrant in nature. There were also a couple of messages in my email inbox from Chandler Burr. That’s kind of unusual because he has been holding radio silence lately. So when I opened them and saw that he has creative directed a fragrance with the kooky crew from ELdO I was immediately on high alert.

Based on the heroine of his book You Or Someone Like You, a rollicking read that I found provocative, informative and unpretentious. The ad copy is just as provocative but lacks information thus presenting itself as audaciously pretentious. From the Press release: I find that the smells mesmerize. Astringent mint/green of eucalyptus, wild jasmine from vines climbing the stop signs, catalyzed car exhaust, hot California sunlight on ocean water (although “You” contains no jasmine, eucalyptus, car exhaust; if you need to know what it’s made of, “You” is not for you).
When Etat Libre d’Orange approached me about creative directing, my perfumer Caroline Sabas and I created not a “perfume” — people in Los Angeles don’t wear perfume – but a specific scent, the scent someone like Anne would wear, this woman high in the Hollywood hills, imported like the palms into this blue air.

Nevertheless, if head-up-your-ass ad-copy was a problem for me I’d definitely not be loving the perfume industry as much as I do. So I took all of that with a grain of salt and went to the box.

You Or Someone Like You by Etat Libre d’Orange 2017

You Or Someone Like You by Caroline Sabas

So, though the idea is to wear this scent experientially, I know you want to know what it smells like. Sharp herbaceous green opens. Like a tart unripe orange and grapefruit with the green of basil, cardamom and grass. Mint! There is a minty note running through too. There is no note list so I’m guessing here, we’ll all have a good laugh at my guesses when the note list is revealed. There is an awkward creamy note that is disturbing and alluring, like matcha tea.

Not long in and a spiky green that really does seem like eucalyptus comes through and suddenly I’m transported to bush walks through the Australian Mallee Scrub with the Cadets as a boy. Also we had a Wildflower Park and National Park not too far from where we grew up and we would picnic in them as a family.

I like that ELdO have allowed this slightly freaky niche fragrance to be born. The first couple of hours You Or Someone Like You doesn’t sit quietly and comfortably but there is always a lightly curdled feeling running through. Later in the development there feels like definite references to the LA air seen and smelled from the pinnacle of the Hollywood Hills. There is also the warmth and cool of lying in the sun with a foot or hand draped into the pool.

Dry down is a soft focus creamy-mint with a shitload of white musks, nothing particularly distinctive but it smells nice enough and hums away in the background for hours.

Further reading: Colognoisseur and Scents Memory
LuckyScent has it from $52/30ml + Samples

Then there is the final question. “Is it art Chandler?”

Does this read like something you’d try?
Portia xx

 

 

 

Holiday Bought & Gifted Full Bottles Europe 2017

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 49 Comments

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Portia

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Dear Fragrance Lovers,

By now you all know the extent of my sickness. well, it’s all brought home here in this series of photos. This is the combined collection of full bottles, some new and some bought second hand, that I acquired through our months adventures. Yes, I am appalled, no I’m not sorry.

Holiday Bought & Gifted Full Bottles Europe 2017

Here they all are lined up.

TOP: Nivea EdP, Ramon Monegal Umbra
BASE: Rose Oud by Yves Rocher, Aether Methaldone, Parfum d’Empire Equistrius, DIOR Mitzah, Mon Guerlain, Ulrich Lang Lightscape

TOP: Terre D’Hermès Parfum, Annick Goutal Ambre Fétiche, Hermès Cologne collection, Guerlain Cologne Travel Set, Hermès Eau de Marveilles Blue
BASE: Atelier Cologne Trefle Pur, Aedes de Venustas Palissander d’Or, A*Men, Guerlain Santal Royal, e_o Bogue, Miller Harris Geranium Bourbon,

TOP: Parfum d’Empire Tabac Tabou (2016), Le Galion Travel Set
BASE: Bois d’Oud by Detail, Vero Profumo Kiki extrait, LM Aldheyx

Yes, I’m a disgusting glutton. Yes, my credit cards are groaning under the weight. Yes, it will be Ramen noodles for a while. Yes, I’m glad I did it. Yes, there are reviews coming.

Did you shop in March? What lovelies did you get?
Portia xx

 

 

 

Methaldone GIVEAWAY WINNERS

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 3 Comments

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Portia

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Hey Crew,

So glad to be home and have giveaways again. Thanks for getting involved.
Portia xx

Methaldone GIVEAWAY WINNERS

 

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Metallic notes, incense, amber, woody notes, resins, musk

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week there will be 3 winners who will receive:
1 x 10ml decant of Methaldone by Aether Parfums
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Wednesday 12th April 2017 10pm Australian EdsT
Winners were chosen by random.org

Lillibet

BBMc

Alice

The winners will have till Wednesday 19th April 2017 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