Last Sydney Sniffy Get Together 2016

January 2, 2017 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 1 Comment

Portia

Hi there crew.

On the 30th December 2016 a small crew of fragrance/fragrant enthusiasts got together to troll the Sydney City department store David Jones. Then we headed down the road to extremely Ra Cha Cha hotel and watering hole QT Sydney at 49 Market St for nibbles and beverages. It was a fun, frolicsome crew with loads of smiles and laughs, spritzing, bitching and fabulous repartee. I thoroughly enjoyed every moment and got to spend some quality time with people I’d only ever spent skim time with.

Last Sydney Sniffy Get Together 2016

Normally we would fit in more than one fragrant store but on this particular day David Jones had enough to keep our noses and credit cards working hard for about 2 hours before we all catwalk down to drinks.

Here is a small snapshot of our afternoon.

Here are TinaG, Jocelyn Fullerton of Cult Of Scent and Angela.

With the handsome Simon

Kerri & Gina

Angela, Gina & Chairman Meow

Angela, Gina, TinaG, Chairman Meow, Kerri

At QT Sydney

Maybe you should get together with some like minded frag heads in 2017. It’s amazing how much fun we all have together.
Portia xx

Amora EdP GIVEAWAY WINNER

January 2, 2017 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 1 Comment

SHIT!! Totally forgot this APJ,

Let’s see who won,
Portia xxx

Amora EdP GIVEAWAY WINNER

Fragrantica

Hensley Perfumes gives these featured accords:
Stone fruit, mixed berries, rose absolute, blonde tobacco, sweet resins, musk complex, ambergris

Hendley Perfumes has $18/9ml + Samples

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 winner who will receive:
1 x 9ml Amora EdP Travel Spray
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Thursday 29th December 2016 10pm Australian EdsT
Winners was chosen by random.org

BBMc

The winners will have till Wednesday 4th January 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

Apollo Hyacinth by Alberto Morillas for Eric Buterbaugh Florals 2015

January 1, 2017 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 2 Comments

Portia

Hey fumes,

I wrote about Apollo Hyacinth back in 2015. It has remained in my head and on my To Buy List since, so recently I bought another 3ml decant to see if I’ll go through it. My major concern, and why I haven’t gone FB on this green beauty is the bottle. I really love how it looks and think it’s perfectly gorgeous but if I had to decant it out to wear I think it would just not ever get used. Yes, I know how petty that sounds but let’s be honest here. If I have 17 green fragrances to choose from and 3 of them need to be decanted out to be worn then you can be bloody certain that those three will end up being totally ignored while I spritz some CHANEL No 19, Giverny In Bloom, Silences or Niki de Saint Phalle.

Apollo Hyacinth by Eric Buterbaugh Florals 2015

Apollo Hyacinth by Alberto Morillas

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Neroli, pear, galbanum
Heart: Hyacinth, lily of the valley, angelica
Base: Haitian vetiver, oakmoss, cedar

Candied pear, or pear with sugar on top, galbanum and greenery. Imagine a stinking hot day and you’re walking through the shaded bushland eating a pear and drinking pear fizzy soda. That’s how Apollo Hyacinth opens for me. Elegant, spacious and yet friendly. This is no austere No 19 or arctic Giverny in Bloom, no, this is welcoming green. Even the angelica has a sweetness to it and I’m not sure how it has happened but it’s so different that I am surprised every wear. About an hour or so in I smell the soft, drippy, green stalk of cutting flowers from bulbs as plain as day. Also the LotV makes an appearance around this time but not as a lead player.

Because I’m wearing Apollo Hyacinth today in 35C heat my own sweat has added an extraordinary saltiness that I have never noticed before that skews the whole fragrance a little towards the salty white floral. Very interesting.

Lasting power is excellent, though after 4 hours you have to be very close to notice.

I’m thinking I will buy the Discovery Kit at $315 with 8 x 10ml of the whole range except the new one. They are all spritzers and come with a Travel Case.

Further reading: Perfume Posse and Australian Perfume Junkies
Eric Buterbaugh Florals has EdP $295/100ml
Surrender To Chance has samples from $5/.5ml

Would you be bothered decanting?
Portia xx

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2017

December 31, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 16 Comments

Portia

Hey All,

Thank You for another year of amazing fragrance chatter and beyond. Last year I wrote that the world was in trouble. SHIT! Seems the world took that as a challenge. Brexit, Putin, Trump, the Middle East, Europe, Africa, almost everywhere there is backlash against saving our planet, it’s flora and fauna and people. Big business has us all hoodwinked and most governments are in the pockets of Pharmaceuticals (drugs), War (guns) and Oil. The big picture is bleak.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2017

Around me though I see regular bright sparks of creative giving and helping that gives me hope for the small picture. Jin cut his beautiful hair for leukaemia fundraising this year and raised thousands. He did it on my Mum’s The gang at Hair by Phd Parramatta Store cut it for free so we could send it off to become a wig for children with leukaemia. Jin is a dead set hero in my eyes.

My friends Rita and Cathy (and a GF of theirs whose name I can’t bloody remember) are fundraising and cooking with the One Meal crew here in Sydney to provide one decent meal a week to families who are right on the edge of the poverty line and street people. We did a Turbo Trivia Fundraiser for them and raised nearly $22,000. In a year filled with fundraising this was a major highlight.

Another mate Matt Moore and his buddies Matt White and Ben Dunley have started the idea of using the Aussie men’s mates’ mantra ‘Grab a pie, Grab a mate, Have a chat’ helping men to talk about their feelings. From Matt’s own depression problems sprung this idea of doing something so regular, so common amongst Aussie mates and making it a moment to discuss life issues. In 2015, preliminary data showed a total of 3,027 deaths by suicide (12.7 per 100,000), 2,292 males (19.4 per 100,000) and 735 females (6.2 per 100,000). Aussie guys are 3x more likely suicide and at a rate of over 6 per day, from a population of just over 23 million. That’s bad, anything that can help is good. Go visit Guys & Pies and donate.

What do I do? Well, I give myself at a heavily discounted rate for fundraisers, help a few people who I know are struggling sometimes with food, time or cash, give regularly to charities that I feel the money is being spent on helping not admin and we rescue dogs. While none of these things are earth shattering they are game changing for the people that are helped. That’s all I can do.

So Happy New Year Australian Perfume Junkies. To everyone that’s contributed, commented, lurked and followed I wish you a peaceful & prosperous 2017. Fill it with fun & laughter, fragrance and stuff you enjoy. Make time to care for yourself, push yourself to be the best you can be and treat everyone you come in contact with as you’d hope to be treated.

We love you all,
Portia xx

Stash SJP by Laurent Le Gurney + Clement Gavarry for Sarah Jessica Parker 2016

December 30, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 8 Comments

Post by Portia

Hey there Fragrance Family,

There is usually a buzz around any Sarah Jessica Parker release. Her story told by Chandler Burr in his Frag-Umentary caused me to fall even more in love with the actress and now 4 of her fragrances are in my collection. Now if you’ve read the story you’ll know that SJP had a 3 fragrance layering daily routine that she really wanted to emulate in her first fragrance but Coty wouldn’t let her so they made Lovely.

Book Depository $13

To be perfectly honest I was not expecting much from this new release because over the last few scents I have noticed a definite diminution in the SJP brands artistic merit and presentation. This though is her first departure from the Coty brand and moving across to Ulta in the USA (info from Colgnoisseur). So it was with mildly nervous steps, even though it had been getting raves all round, I made my way to Chemist Warehouse in Parramatta to check it out.

Stash SJP by Sarah Jessica Parker 2016

Stash SJP by Laurent Le Gurney + Clement Gavarry

Fragrantica

Parfumo gives these featured accords:
Top: Grapefruit zest, Black pepper, Sage
Heart: Atlas cedar, Patchouli, Ginger lily, Pistachio
Base: Frankincense, Massoia wood, Vetiver, Musk

Straight into black pepper that has it’s dryness cut through with some sweetness that I place as mildly citrus and does not feel as outrageous as grapefruit, maybe the green sage and spicy ginger are giving it a broader appeal. Woods, yes plenty. Pistachio? Um nope, not yet. I have respritzed after 5 minutes and interestingly the sage is the most prominent top not before the pepper comes through and then we go smooth. The whole fragrance smooths out beautifully. Still very noticeable but calmer and a sweet, non hippy patchouli tangos with the ginger and the herbs.

WikiCommons

Then I become anosmic to Stash, it disappears for me. I know I’m still fragrant because Jin says I still have a heavy perfume but I can smell almost nothing. A ghost of Stash, a faint woody nothing that lingers softly. BUM. OK, so that’s not 100% accurate, if I go do something like make a coffee or take the dogs for a walk I do get flashes of fragrance. Little huffs of something very nice, dry, a little bit like a dry sauna but not.

Stash smells like the woodsy, scratchy, peppered “niche” that annoys Val but softer and more lighthearted. It’s easier, quite masculine but will be gorgeous on the girls who are unafraid of scentorially standing out.

Interestingly, when I put my top back on to walk the dogs first thing in the morning all I can smell is an oily vetiver and incense. Really good.

Further reading: Now Smell This and Colgnoisseur
Chemist Warehouse has $29/30ml

PERFECT fragrant gift for either sex, wearable, comfortable and really, really good.
Will you be wearing STASH?
Portia xxx

Eau de Sud by Annick Goutal 1996

December 29, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 4 Comments

Post by Portia

Hello Fragrance Family,

Few niche houses have the success or longevity of Annick Goutal. Writing about Nuit Etoilee and wearing it over the Christmas season reminded me to grab out the rest of my Annick Goutal collection. I’ve whittled it down to the favourite few, maybe 6 FBs and some large decants. Here’s one of my oft worn faves.

Eau de Sud by Annick Goutal 1996

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Mandarin orange, basil, grapefruit, bergamot
Heart: Mint, lime, lemon verbena, jasmine
Base: Vetiver, patchouli, oakmoss

Even though the citrus in Eau de Sud is a little sticky it still feels cooling in the heat of Sydney summer. I love it too as a summer reminder in the dead of winter so even if you Northern Hemisphere peeps feel like a spritz it will be perfect. So much citrus in the opening and there is a soft minty pop to keep it refreshing. Add to that a salty zing like eating oranges after swimming in salt water or a Margarita. My nose smells creaminess and I am unsure of the origin, maybe the jasmine adds a creamy note? Anyway, I get a balmy smoothness that equates to creamy in my brain, it’s really galbanum-esque. If I give myself a second spritz after about 20 minutes the basil is quite noticeable compared to the original application.

Cavendish & Harvey

Eau de Sud reminds me of this hard lollies that used to come in a tin with loads of super fine white sugar powder around them, do you remember? They were deliciously sweet with recreations of fruits but had only the merest tenuous connection to fruit, more of a fruit allusion. Here the fruits are more nameable but still that sweetness and mild sharpness is completely here. We used to suck them on planes to stop our ears popping and Mum would use them to give us a sugar hit if we looked like we were flagging and needed to be alert. Especially useful before exams or after a footy game.

The body and dry down of Eau de Sud are still salty/creamy all the way through but the whole fragrance dries out considerably and leaves a dustiness over the citrus and adds a walking over summers-browned-grass brittleness. So easy to wear and longevity of around 4 hours maximum, the first hour sillage is moderate before dropping back to soft.

My bottle is old, apparently Annick Goutal have remade Eau de Sud in 2016 and its note list is bergamot, mandarin orange, grapefruit and resins.

PDI

Further reading: EauMG and APJ
FragranceShop have the old men’s packaging Testers $44/100ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $3/ml

Are you an Eau de Sud fan?
Portia xx

Island Gardenia by Jovan 1982

December 28, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 18 Comments

Anne-Marie

Hi everyone, and Happy New Year to all!

Big White Florals. Not my usual line of country, but with jasmine and gardenia blooming on my patio, I’m tempted to try them in perfumery. My latest exploration is Jovan’s Island Gardenia.

Island Gardenia by Jovan 1982

Fragrantica

Fragrantica only gives gardenia as a note, and the perfumer is unstated, but a Basenotes reviewer offers:
Top: coconut, peach
Heart: gardenia, tuberose, jasmine, neroli, cyclamen
Base: vanilla, civet, Siamese benzoin

I find mixed white florals heavily dominated by tuberose. That is what I get straight out of the bottle: a rich, buttery tuberose, luscious and unmistakeable. I agree on the peach but if you live in terror of the peach-tuberose combo in Givenchy Amarige, relax. The peach fades quickly.

The coconutty facet of many white florals is present, though not to my nose a major player. I don’t notice any of those listed base notes, certainly not civet.
The thing I really don’t get is gardenia. The gardenia I grow is a miniature and I think it is sweeter and less green and earthy than the classic, Billie Holiday-style gardenia. Still, I feel I know how they smell and I get very little gardenia in Island Gardenia. That’s a disappointment.

And then, I had been expecting monstrous flesh eating sillage so I was very surprised when IG shrank to my skin in less than half an hour. After a shower this afternoon I gave myself about five big spritzes (yes, I stayed home, just in case!). The sillage is moderate, but I don’t somehow expect it to last the whole evening.
The opening is my favourite part. Then, on some wearings the dry down seems a little harsh and chemically, but on others I found it pleasantly creamy and slightly salty. I prefer the sillage, especially as it wafts up from my shirt, to the scent on skin.

PDI

For all that, Island Gardenia is relaxing to wear. It is warm but only slightly sweet; maternal I would say, rather than sultry. Which brings us to – you know it’s coming – Piguet’s Fracas. Island Gardenia is sometimes likened to Fracas: lighter, more timid and much less complex. Well, I have never comprehended Fracas. I like the orange blossom in the opening, but as the tuberose emerges it turns weird and unpleasant on my skin. I do have a sample and I will keep comparing them, but if you know both fragrances well, do comment. And please, if you have compared it to Jungle Gardenia by Tuvaché, I’d love to hear what you think!

On Fragrantica, you have to squint hard to find any really negative comment about Island Gardenia. I normally find that at least a quarter of the reviews of any given fragrance will condemn it, but ‘love the heck out of this’ is a pretty common reaction to this one.

PDI

FragranceNet has US$14/45ml before coupon

And the price! I gone mine for about AUD $21 on Fragrancex.com. No complaints there.
Ah gardenia! Do you have a favourite?
Bye for now.
Anne-Marie

Amora EdP by Hans Hendley 2016

December 27, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 41 Comments

Val the Cookie Queen

Good Day APJ, Wake up, Christmas is over and we survived!!

It´s impossible to keep up with all the small perfume houses and independent artisanal perfumers. I see names come and go on social media, or on other blogs and pay little attention. However Hans Hendley´s name is popping up a lot and I felt prompted to look a little further. I took the plunge and ordered the 9ml travel size of Amora, his most recent launch. I had to wait a while as the first batch was sold out. I rather like the idea of someone so passionate about perfume that they bother to formulate, blend and bottle the potion themselves. After all, that´s how I run my own business.

BALMY BERRIES ON BONGS – I did Inhale. YUM!!

Amora EdP by Hans Hendley 2016

Fragrantica

Hensley Perfumes gives these featured accords:
Stone fruit, mixed berries, rose absolute, blonde tobacco, sweet resins, musk complex, ambergris

A couple of years ago I I wrote of Sådanne, the astounding strawberries-on-crack scent by Slumberhouse. Hendley´s Amora reminds me of the experience, but here we have balmy berries on bongs. It´s tantalising and impossible to stop inhaling. The sillage will leave noses quivering in your wake. There is something more alternative lying beneath the fruity opening, a kind of salty resinous layer, resting on musk maybe? I understand there is a touch of ambergris in the formula too. Gorgeous on a bloke as well I must say.

Amora stands alone out of the new releases of 2016. The many that have the same dry down with the same woody accords that freak my nose out and have me running? These accords don´t seem to appear in American perfumery, very interesting. Quite daring to launch a fruity scent as an artisanal perfumer don´t you think? This is underground though, don´t confuse it with the mainstream fruit bombs please.

Of course it might not be your thing, but you don´t know until you´ve tried it now do you? Hans Hendley offers affordability, a wonderful sample service, and brilliant customer relations. APJ, I wanted to put Hendley Perfumes onto your radar. That is part of our responsibilty as bloggers I think. You are more than welcome. 🙂

And for those of you who are still too exhausted from your festivities to move much, look no further. With thanks to Hans Hendley, and my love of going to the post office we have one of the 9ml travel sprays to giveaway. Check below.

Hendley Perfumes has $18/9ml + Samples

May we all have strength for 2017 because bloody hell, we sure are gonna need it.
Lots of love to all of you who so faithfully stand by APJ, it is not taken for granted.
Bussis
CQ

Amora EdP GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 winner who will receive:
1 x 9ml Amora EdP Travel Spray
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 what interests you about such an unusual fragrance and I won´t accept how much you have always loved berries. Hahahaha!!

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Thursday 29th December 2016 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 4th January 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

Volume II: Precision and Grace by Geza Schoen for The Beautiful Mind Series 2015

December 26, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 3 Comments

TinaG

Hi APJ, hope you have all had a lovely start to the festive season.

I wrote briefly about one of my go-to perfumes in an article on Adelaide a few weeks back. This is Precision and Grace, Volume II of the Beautiful Mind Series. It is a great warm weather fragrance and a good all round travel pick-me-up. I’ve always finished decants when I’ve taken it away with me. “Finished” is not a word many perfume hobbyists use too often…..

I thought I’d revisit Precision and Grace with a bit more detail on the development of the scent on skin and why I enjoy wearing it so much.

Volume II: Precision and Grace by The Beautiful Mind Series 2015

Volume II: Precision and Grace by Geza Schoen

Fragrantica

LuckyScent gives these featured accords:
Williams pear, bergamot, mandarin, lemon, Egyptian jasmine, plum, osmanthus, rose, mimosa, pink pepper, freesia, violet, sandalwood, myrrh, moss, amber

Precision and Grace is described as a Fruity Floral. That, in itself, is enough to send many a perfumista screaming and ducking for cover. But with descriptions, you have to start somewhere, right? It puts us in the ball park of maybe what to expect – it’s the quality that then defines the fragrance experience itself.

I always give this a few generous sprays, and it opens a slightly metallic lemon. Over the next 15 minutes or so, from this centre point softly emerges a beautifully balanced sphere of co-habiting notes – mandarin, pear, osmanthus and freesia primarily. The osmanthus and pear are really the stars on my skin. The pear is amazingly juicy and fresh, never wandering in to room-deodorant territory. And osmanthus…. Wow…. It is present with a glowing soft yellow radiance, calming and uplifting.

PDI

After about 1.5 hours, a jasmine comes through – nothing indolic, this is fresh as it would be still on the vine. The freshness is tempered with a plum note which drawn the scent down into slightly heavier olfactive territory.

There is something really special about the way this fragrance is balanced, each note is clear and real, but no divas, nothing pushing front and centre. I think that’s why I visualise a sphere, with the lemon surrounded by three main auras at first – floral, citrus, and fruit. You’ve got the precision in the photorealism, and grace in the balance, everything has a purpose and a place, working in harmony.

The fragrance changes ever so slowly, and at about 4 hours I find that a woody notes and dry sandalwood have appeared but I really didn’t have any hint of them coming. The dry down is subtle, and fragrance long-lasting at 8+ hours.

WikiCommons

Further reading: Megan In St Maxime
LuckyScent has $165/100ml and samples

I enjoy wearing Precision and Grace very much. I find it is one of those which grounds and centres me – I suspect that is why I wear it travelling, when I’m working in unfamiliar territory and need to move through my day with a sense of happiness, kindness and purpose. And, of course, the grace to work around those unforeseen hiccups that you always come across on the move.

What is your go-to scent when you need to get things done?

Best wishes to all of you for a wonderful start to 2017! Lots of Love.

Tina G xx

Merry Christmas APJ 2016

December 25, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 22 Comments

Portia

Hey there APJ Fragrance Family,

I know heaps of you don’t celebrate Christmas, loads of you will be solo or in an unhappy grouping. Some will be fighting so hard to keep afloat that Christmas will pass us by. This time of year can be a freaking bitch. So much expectation, from outside and in, relentless media hype and you can’t go to a mall without being bombarded. For any of our readers that are in any of these boats my heart goes out to you.

My only advice to you is Do Something Special For Yourself. Make sure you take a moment to treat yourself, doesn’t have to cost money, could just be one minute alone in thew bathroom to spritz a fragrance and enjoy its top notes. Whatever, take a little moment for you.

PDI

Merry Christmas APJ

What scent was I going to wear? Nuit de Noel by Caron. It was TOOO HOT for that so I chose Geranium Pour Monsieur by Malle. PERFECT!

What are we be doing?

Lunch with my BFFs family at our place. Here are some pics of the fun.

Lunch was an informal buffet with loads of fabulous food and booze. We all just sat around and laughed and chatted. Those bloody jokes in the crackers were really funny this year, we were all groaning and laughing in unison, so silly but fun.

Present opening time. We were all spoiled rotten and loved it. Really fun and thoughtful presents, very happy here.

My surrogate Mum, Kath’s mum has become mine. We have a wonderful time and I love her so much. Isn’t she beautiful.

This guy. He’s a really good egg. He also does the BEST pork and crackling, BLOODY DELICIOUS!!

How was your Christmas? Yes, if it was shit feel free to vent. We love that too.

Portia xxx