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Portia
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Hey there APJ Crew,
All the festivities, fragrances, families, food, fun and fabulousness. Excellent week at and around Chez Turbo.
AEDES DE VENUSTAS
New Sniffs: 27.12.2018
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Portia
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Hey Hey Perfume Junkies,
The idea is that anything worthy of comment, either good or bad, that’s passed under my nose through the week will get a short write up. Up till now I have kept APJ positive comments only, those days are gone. If I think something is terrible, shamefully lazy, greedy or stupid and you should know about it, it will be said. Not everything works for everyone and it would be pretty boring if it did >>> YMMV. I’d love it if you all agree, respectfully disagree, have any thought-out opinion and want to share, do so in the comments below. The point is starting a conversation.
Scent Diary: 29.10 – 4.11.2018
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Portia
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Hey there APJ Crew,
Full week again. We are warming up here in Sydney. Friday hit 38C (100.4f) which is quite hot for spring. Wore some awesome fumes and hung out with some of the crew. Quite a bit of my time was spent being a homebody though. BLISS.
Scent Diary: 10.9 – 16.9.2018
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Portia
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Hey there APJ Crew,
For a week that very little happened I seem to have been quite busy. Loads of fragrance and fragrant moments. A few friends mainly around our place and some very low key fun.
Saturday Question: What Scented Gift Are You Hoping For Under The Tree
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Portia
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Hello Fellow Fumies,
Every Saturday we have a Question, an idea purloined from Olfactoria’s Travels. Everyone gets to chime in with an answer, chat with other responders and it is a fun event each week. Taking sides never means taking offence and everyone keeps it respectful and light, even though we can sometimes trawl the depths.
The idea is you’ll see it on the weekend or chime in through the week. Hopefully you will come back and see if anyone has responded to your comment and you can reply to them.
Over 100 responses I will draw a $10 Surrender To Chance Gift Card.
Over 200 responses I will draw a $20 Surrender To Chance Gift Card.
Comment purposefully on yours or anothers comment & you’ll have a chance, random.org will draw on Friday.
Last Weeks Winner: Didn’t make 100
eMail me at (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with the eMail you’d like me to send your Gift Card to.
Saturday Question:
What Scented Gift Are You Hoping For Under The Tree
It’s Christmas (and many other giving times) right now. Aside from our religious or secular beliefs we can all pretend that these times are about giving but seriously, it’s all about what you get to open. Come ON! Admit it. Even if only to us. We won’t judge. We are all greedy AF too. Well maybe not that extreme but wouldn’t it be nice to get exactly what you dream of for once?
So here’s your chance at a fantasy gift receiving. What do you get? Imagine yourself unwrapping it, the sheer incredulity that your crew got it SO right.
So let’s all give our one true hearts wish for fragrant gifts. Who knows, maybe they’re reading…..
My Answer:
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Rhubarb, vetiver, red berries, tomato leaf, incense, green apple, hazelnut, honeysuckle
The original Aedes de Venustas fragrance. In the purple bottle. I’ve wanted it since it was first talked about on the blogs and for some reason I never bought it. It was a glorious revelation when released, we all swooned. The bottle, the scent, everything was just right. To have this under the tree would be un-freaking-believable.
My Saturday Question to you is:
What Scented Gift Are You Hoping For Under The Tree
Scent Diary: 4.12 – 10.12.2017
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Portia
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Hello Australian Perfume Junkies,
SO MUCH PERFUME this week. It seems I have spritzed every two hours.
Also loads of fun and excitement in the rest of my life. BIG week.
Scent Diary: 4.12 – 10.12.2017
Monday 4:
MONDAY morning! It started out sunny and warm while walking the dogs but just as we came home soft persistent rain appeared. It’s misty and warm rain, very nice.
Lunch with Jin at a Vietnamese place up the road.
Working tonight, filling in for one of my girls because tonight is Sydney’s gala Night of Nights; the DIVAs. Drag Industry Variety Awards. Every queen and her hairdo will be out to see who won and who lost. It used to be my favourite night of the year, something changed and now I don’t think I’ve been for a decade.
Annick Goutal Musc Nomade bubble bath, Keihl’s Original Musk lotion and Frederic Malle Musc Ravageur fragrance. It’s a musky moment here at Chez Turbo.
Great fun tonight at Stonewall filling in. It was nice to catch up with all the girls and have hellos. I didn’t stay to party but came home, had dinner, watched a movie and cleaned the kitchen.
Now I’m sitting down to finish and send the Trivia Q&A. Just spritzed Parfumerie General Suede Osmanthe. I sit swathed in beauty.
Busy boy, busy life.
Tuesday 5:
I was up at sparrows fart to clean the apartment. Just the regular weekly vacuuming, bathroom (Jin cleans his own bathroom), kitchen and bin emptying. I had it all done by 9am, sat down and had a cuppa then got the dogs fed and out walking.
Wearing Goldfield & Banks Wood Infusion and loving myself sick.
Scotty is here. We got so much done today. Emails, Post Office, Bank, APJ Mailouts, Lunch and general chatter.
Bathed in Bath & Body Works Rainkissed Leaves, wearing Aedes de Venustas Palissandre d’Or. So pretty, a woodsy fragrance but the woods are tempered by a zing of pink pepper and the earthy smoothness of modern patchouli. Aides de Venustas are clever, they do fragrances that are interesting and extremely wearable, this is no exception. Not a big scent but quietly confident.
Wednesday 6:
Up early, well early for me. Dogs fed and walked, had a cuppa and off for a perfume adventure with my mate Tim. A couple of chest spritzes of Guerlain Meteorites from a decant to keep me fragrant till the real sniffing starts.
So first stop was the Annual CosMax SALE. It was quite fabulous. We were like kids in a candy store. I bought Guerlain Angelique Noire and Oriental Brulant, 2 x Burberry wet packs and a 30ml each JPG Classique and Le Male. There was SO MUCH great stuff I could have spent $2000 but only spent $360! YAY!
Then we went to the Estee Lauder Staff Shop where we bumped into Willa Zheng, ex APJ writer and all round good time girl. I bought 2 x Clinique Aromatics Elixir Shower Gels and Scott’s Xmas present, sorry can’t tell you in case he reads it.
Then home for a nap on the couch, then off to work tonight again.
I’m home now but tomorrow is a very early start. Good night.
Thursday 7:
3am bedtime. Original Lolita Lempicka EdP. Sweet liquorice cotton candy. Perfect to float off to la la land.
Woke up in a sweet violet liquorice fog, beautiful scent. Straight in the bath, even before feeding and walking the dogs, because I have a daytime Christmas party gig today.
What to wear for a daytime Christmas Party? Mugler Womanity! What else?
Came home and got undressed, had a little lie down. Got back up, fixed my makeup and went out to do tonights gig. This time I was wearing CHANEL Boy. It fit in perfectly over the Womanity and I got three lovely compliments on how good I smelled. YAY!
Now I’m home and completely stuffed.
A sneaky spritz of Tom Ford Ombre de Hyacinth before bed. NIGHT!
Friday 8:
Neela Vermeire Creations Pichola for a warm morning, full sunshine and not very humid. Perfect dog walking morning. The grevillias are blooming.
Jin and I were approved to buy a new townhouse nearby. This is a big deal. Having sold the Tasmanian properties we now have an excellent deposit for it. With it being so close it means there will be no travel to fix problems. It’s already tenanted with a family that loves it and doesn’t expect us to do a thousand improvements. Borrowing this kind of money makes me very jumpy and nervous and I relied on my Pichola to act as a calming agent, it did.
Parfum d’Empire Equistrius for a shot of gorgeous after lunch.
I can say honestly that my afternoon/evening was spent sleeping and watching TV. Nothing got done, no Trivia work, no house work, almost no blog work. It was blissful. I ate junk food, drank coffee, juice, water and was generally a slob. Currently re-watching The Crown on Netflix. Wonderful time, by myself with the dogs.
Saturday 9:
Arrivals Guerlain Lui & Insolence parfum
For the afternoon/evening I was wearing vintage Miss Dior parfum. Took Kath out for her birthday to our fave steak joint, Alice came too. It was bloody delicious. Afterwards we had ice-cream in cones YUMMMMM.
Bed Guerlain Floral Romantique from a decant.
Sunday 10:
Annick Goutal Songes inspired by a SOTD post this week. Great choice for this warm humid weather.
Jin and I grabbed charcoal chickens for Kath’s Birthday Lunch. It was a very nice morning hanging with the family.
O M G !! Walked into the house after work tonight and Jin had been cooking stuff. It stank. On top of that he had candles of all different scents burning to muffle it. My head exploded in a headache immediately. It was like being in a scent nightmare. I grabbed the dogs and fed and walked them as soon as I could to get some fresh air. Came back and it is much better, not perfect but bearable. PHEW!
It’s YOUR turn. What’s happening in your world?
Did you do anything Fun or Fragrant, with Friends and Family or maybe even had some less than Fabulous news you want to share? Now’s the time, in the comments below.
We love to read what’s happening to YOU.
Portia xx
Pelargonium by Nathalie Feisthauer for Aedes de Venustas 2017
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Portia
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Hey Crew,
Well clearly a new package of splits has arrived because this week we are talking NEW STUFF on APJ. It’s not regular here for us to get hyper excited about new releases but there seems to be a plethora of really good and interesting stuff for all taste ranges lately. I’m not saying that hard core perfumistas will like it all but there does seem to be something quite lively about the newest batch.
Pelargonium by Aedes de Venustas 2017
Pelargonium by Nathalie Feisthauer
Parfumo gives these featured accords:
Bergamot, Mandarin, Clary sage, Black pepper, Sichuan pepper absolute, Cardamom, Egyptian geranium, Hedione, Iris, Carrot seed, Elemi resin, Cedarwood, Vetiver, Gaiac wood, Moss, Musk, Ambermax®
I have a little story for you. Maybe you remember that Jin and I bought some property in Tasmania? Well, we bought two houses for unbelievably low prices and they have been tenanted. One of the houses has just changed tenants but we were lucky enough to meet the last couple the weekend before they left. They had spent a year beautifying the gardens and had added about 15 pelargonium plants in pinks, purples and dark reds. When I mentioned how much I loved her pelargoniums we instantly bonded because she’d never met anyone who knew the difference. The whole house was at least in 20% better shape than we’d first rented it. Sadly I only got one photo of the magnificent flowers but you can see how dramatic and glamorous they are.
A sharp geranium smell, soapy, clean, strong and poised. Cool and dry, the peppers give a snap and sizzle to cardboard iris and lightly salted driftwood shavings. There is a lot of light and shade and the whole scent is so well blended that very few pieces stand out enough for met nose to capture them.
Very unexpected treatment of pelargoniums, as the heart develops I am smelling warmth. It’s like the sunrise warming the fragrance through that has been waiting in the cool dark for it. The whole personality of Pelargonium becomes that warm, woody, synth smell that I really like in so much niche but has little or nothing to do with the flowers as I know them. In fact the perfume is now a very masculine leaning thing.
PDI
Hints of the opening float to the surface unexpectedly throughout the heart and dry down. It gives a lift and swish, keeping the wood and dry resins interesting.
Longevity is really good and I stay quite noticeably fragrant throughout.
Further reading: Now Smell This and I Scent You A Day
Peony Melbourne has the Aedes de Venustas range
Are you a fan of the Aedes de Venustas line? Is Pelargonium on your To-Try radar?
Portia xxx
Scent Diary 10.4 – 16.4.17
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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
Scent Diary: 27.3 – 2.4.17
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Portia
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Scent Diary: 27.3 – 2.4.17
Monday 27:
Breakfast! Jin is sound asleep. Last night he was feeling a bit poorly so I filled him with a bottle of wine and gave him a sleeping tablet. Breakfast became a chatter with a couple of Scottish girls who work at the Royal Botanic Gardens there, on the way to a convention. Then one of the couple asked if we were perfume….. YIPPEEEE!
Instantly we started talking about frags and I had bought a bottle of their Lily of the Valley fragrance. The group is called Detaille and they have a new bunch of frags out this season, 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.
So, obviously I wore Detaille Bois d’Oud. It’s a nice, wearable, synth oud. Not too swanky, won’t scare the Grandmas or the teens away, and has a very comfortable wear. No boundary pusher but done nicely. Review to come.
Jin & I then flew to London and met up with Tara from A Bottled rose and my Aussie mate Andrew and his partner Renato. We all went and had a fantastic Italian dinner and spent the evening laughing, reminiscing and trying to talk Jin into seeing Dreamgirls the musical. sadly it’s booked out the time we had free.
Tuesday 28:
OMG! Today was huge. Last night Jin decided that our bed was unsleepable, it had prolapsed in the middle and he was having none of it. Realising that my sleep depended on his I went down to do battle. We were upgraded to a suite for our stay! So late night move. Woo Hoo! Don’t stay here though, it’s shit.
Early we were up to have the crap breakfast included. Seriously! No fucking milk?
Spritzed liberally in Rose Oud by Yves Rocher.
Off to get a rental car. Jin just smiles at people and they fall under his spell so instead of a FIAT 500 (which I adore) we end up in a brand new JEEP Cherokee (Tank). Super comfortable though and it was heaven on our adventures.
We set off for Windsor Castle in the dreamy spring sunshine and really enjoyed our castle tour with Audio Guides. We saw the Dolls house, the Royal Apartments and some of the outside. It was really lovely, interesting, historic and a few of the rooms were so ornate they could have been French or Austro-Hungarian.
Then we drove up to Bath. I don’t know why I’ve never been before. It was the site of so many historic societal comedy/drama novels that I read. Anyway, we got there and it’s as gorgeous as they say. PERFECT! Saw the watergate, cathedral and Roman baths. It was an excellent stop and I would love to spend a few days there one day.
Lastly we drove over to Stonehenge. All the advice we’d researched was that it closed at 5pm. That much is true BUT the entrance is closed at 3pm. So at 4pm when we arrived we were unable to enter. Both Jin and I were gutted. It was to be the highlight of a long fabulous day and ……..
The second shot is a weird one, no filters or anything. It was taken a second after the first with the same camera and this is the shot. No alteration of the image has taken place at all. Spooky, huh?
So, off to a Paddington Fish & Chip store we went for delicious dinner and a wander around till we got home. Bed. Bliss.
Had a late shower and wore a big fat spritz of Miss Dior vintage parfum.
Wednesday 29:
So Jin and I both woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning and we had a contretemps. This was not helped one bit by the fact that our shit hotel had no hot water for showers in the morning and we both showered cold. What a fucking shit hole. All was fortunately resolved as we left for breakfast though.
My morning spritz was Bois d’Oud by Detaille again. It’s really nice.
First stop was the National Portrait Gallery near Trafalgar Square where we shared a croissant and pot of tea for 4 quid. I loved wandering around but Jin was bored to death. He sat down and played with his phone while I wandered the halls.
Then off to Liberty London.I had to meet Lila’s son for a fragrant pick up. OMG! He’s so bloody gorgeous that I couldn’t focus on the job at hand and stumbled over my words. Adorable. No I didn’t take a photo.
Jin went to the basement for a haircut and beard trim while an old mate of mine, rock photographer, James Sharrock and his beautiful daughter Eva joined us for lunch at the LibertyCafe on the 2nd floor. Jin came, said his hellos and then went off for an adventure while James and I wandered Liberty for an hour or so before Eva made it clear she was over it.
When I got home I spritzed Palissandre d`Or by Aedes de Venustas. Oh the heavenly woodsy woods.
In the evening we met up with Tara again and her delightful sister Lisa. OMG! We had a ball. Italian food, loads of laughs and then a wander around Paddington. Perfect last night in London.
Shower and a hefty spritz of Mitzah by DIOR before bed.
Thursday 30:
Final morning together in Europe on our 2017 adventure. Jin and I love each other but being in each others company non-stop for a month was starting to wear thin. We had a really nice wander through Hyde Park, grabbed a typical UK pub breakfast, wandered up to Selfridge & Co and Primark and then grabbed an Uber to Heathrow. It was a perfect, low key, holding hands kinda ending to a spectacular holiday.
At the Korean Air Check In Desk we scored the beautiful, smiley and super helpful Kristine. We kept coming back to her because of silly dramas and she never once rolled her eyes or gave a hint that we were the asshole passengers we knew ourselves to be.
Upshot of all that was EMERGENCY ROW! Yay! More room but near the babies, comfortable but loud. Still it was a win.
Friday 31:
Arriving in Incheon Airport was bittersweet. On the Upside it’s my favourite airport and there’s so much to see & do. On the Downside Jin went off to catch a train to see his Mum & Dad for a few days. To make myself feel better I spritzed heavily with Parfum d’Empire Equistrius.
I grabbed 2 hours real sleep in the By The Hour hotel, only $21/hour. Clean, comfortable and you can see me in my undies in the mirror, sorry about that.
Korean Air is excellent and cheap. The bathrooms onboard are kept spotless, food is good and even in the economy rows it’s quite roomy.
Saturday 1:
HOME! In the arrivals hall I triple spritzed myself with the new Guerlain Shalimar EdP which is very nice. Exactly the right amount of growl and purr for a returning traveller.
Sydney put on a beautiful blue morning, my BFF Kath picked me up at the airport and drove me home where Scott, who had been house minding, waited. Perfect lazy day lying on the couch reading, doing laundry and then paying some bills and blogging. Sweet.
Sunday 2:
There’s too much fragrant choice here. HA HA HA! After living with a mini collection for a month it’s all a bit overwhelming to come back to this room bursting at the seams with scent so for something easy, smooth and comfy it was CHANEL Boy. Perfect cool autumn wear. Then one of my BFFs Alice dropped over and we spritzed a bunch of stuff.
I grabbed an old favourite for work today too, 1000 EdT by Jean Patou. Not a new pic but this bottle.
Now you’ve read through my adventures, how was your week? Do anything interesting or wear something fragrant? Share please. I love to read your stories too.
Portia xxx
Copal Azur by Bertrand Duchafour for Aedes de Venustas 2014
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Post by Poodle
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I was pretty excited to receive a sample of the Aedes de Venustas perfume Copal Azur in the mail. When I read the promotional material I was a bit skeptical. Oceans and incense? Could they really pull it off? Honestly, I had my doubts. I’m an incense freak but can’t say that fresh, oceanic scents are something I’m drawn to.
Copal Azur by Aedes de Venustas 2014
Copal Azur by Bertrand Duchafour
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Ozone, salty notes, frankincense
Heart: Incense, cardamom, patchouli
Base: Incense, myrrh, Tonka bean, amber
I’ve been to Tulum, which is the locale that inspired this perfume, and I don’t remember it smelling anything like this. I’ve also never smelled actual copal so I have no point of reference for it. Copal Azur is a mix of salt air and plumes of incense rising to the heavens. There’s a freshness that brings to mind blue skies and lush green foliage. It smells like the sea without smelling like an air freshener. The incense in it is a bit woody, not too smokey, and meditative without being churchy.
Photo Stolen Wikipedia
The other bright incense perfume that I love is Heeley’s Cardinal. In comparison, that one is more like sunlight streaming through the stained glass windows of a church. Copal Azur is like sitting at a seaside temple at the point where the sand meets the jungle. It opens like a powerful gust of wind over the waves. You can imagine the sea spray hitting your face. The incense is there in every phase of the perfume’s development yet it never overpowers or gets very smokey to me but bear in mind I have a high tolerance for incense.
The salty mist gives way to warmer and greener notes almost like you have stepped away from the water to the shelter and shade of the trees. There’s a sweet, almost earthy quality that begins to emerge. As you’re walking towards the temple you can smell the branches breaking underfoot. The perfume takes a journey from coolness in the top notes to a definite warmth in the base. It is here where the Tonka bean and patchouli blend with the incense and woods and linger a bit until finally fading away like smoke on the breeze.
Photo Stolen DeviantArt
I thought this leaned masculine but hubby disagreed and said he liked it on me and I didn’t smell like a guy to him. That being said I still think I’d rather smell it on him. He likes fresh, clean scents that don’t thrill me in the least. It came close to being too chemical and clean in the opening but very briefly. Copal Azur blends the stuff he likes with the incense notes I love. There may be a bottle in his future.
Further reading: The Non Blonde and Goodsmellas (Vlog)
First In Fragrance have €210/100ml
Surrender To Chance have samples starting at $7/ml
So, do you like ocean or marine scents or do you avoid them at all cost for fear of smelling like an air freshener?
Hugs
Poodle
Australian Perfume Junkies 