Amouage

In The Mail: New Arrivals

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 23 Comments

Hey Gang,

It’s all been mad CER AY ZEE around here lately. I’ve been getting some great new gigs, TSO Jin has been studying for his final electrical exams and our lovely homestay boy has been off working on movie sets as well as attending to his studies. Spring has sprung and as the weather warms and the liquidamber in the front yard puts forth lovely green leaves we should be in the pool in a couple of weeks. YAY!!! We have seen a couple of 28oC/82oF days and life looks good.

One of the amazing things about being in the perfumista world is the swapping that goes on. Say I have a bottle of something and a few samples that I think will suit one of my buddies; decant, wrap & into a post pack and away. It’s so great getting a little fragrant package from someone who knows your scent preferences, wants to help educate you or simply wants to share the love. I’ve had a few of these super packs lately and would like to share a few of my new discoveries. To understand the ratings please jump across to the APJ Ratings System Page.

At The Beach 1966 by CB I Hate Perfume (Thanks Sonya) Has a lovely fresh citrus-like opening that quickly gives a salty blast and something vaguely white floral. I don’t get the Coppertone analogy, or, um, maybe, OK I get it! Ha Ha Ha The whole white sauce sun protection we used to be covered in by our Mum’s, the sand everywhere, seashells, surf, sun, the big fluffy striped towels with fringing. It’s all here. MEMORIES! And after 5 hours wear it smells like the bug spray we wore too. Still pumping soft white flowers and seawater 9 hours later. CB I Hate Perfume 100ml/$80. S=**** L=***** D=****

Interlude Man by Amouage (Thanks Ruth) OH BOY!! The opening of Interlude Man featuring Oudh from the outset melded beautifully with the oregano and spicy pepper. Get your money and buy this fragrance now, man, woman or child. My tummy has got butterflies and I am having a Stendahl Syndrome moment (Thank you Denyse Beaulieu for the SS reference). Full report soon. Amouage 100ml/215 Euro.  S=***** L=**** D=*****

LouLou by Cacharel 1987 (Thanks Amanda) What a fragrance. Pow when it opens with what seems like everything ever put into a perfume, in bags. Such an outrageously OTT spicy floral that is a super statement fragrance. I can’t believe the girls we grew up with used to think this was a soft girly fragrance, it’s a powerhouse based on the tiare flower, though not including it. Still available to buy in the shops but mine is a vintage 90’s bottle. Sweetness lingers for hours and hours. FragranceNet has 50ml/under $50 S=**** L=**** D=****

Jezebel by Bud Parfums (Thanks Howard) I normally shy away from a burst of fruit as an opening gambit by a fragrance but Jezebel opens so lushly that it already feels lascivious, but wait, there is something dirty hiding behind the fruit. A very naughty girl who has sprayed herself with fruit to do THE WALK OF SHAME. When people talked about Ho Panties in fragrance I kind of understood but now I know. It hits you sneakily and remains behind the glow and glamour of nearly spoiled fruit. Everything about Jezebel is a little overblown, pardon the pun. Probably wear this at home or on the prowl ONLY!! After the initial rush and gush I end up with an enjoyable sweet musky dry down that sticks around for a few hours and then disappears. BudParfums 100ml/$100 S=**** L=*** D=****

What has been on your fragrant agenda, anything new? Have you received a scented care package? What was in it? What do you wish had been in it? Leave us a message because the conversation is often more interesting than the post,
Take care till tomorrow,
Portia xx

PS All Photos Stolen Fragrantica

Wild Ginger Chai by SOIVOHLE Winner Announced

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 13 Comments

Hey All,

I have a full day of Liz Zorn and SOIVOHLE coming up soon but I received an order from them and can’t stop spraying myself with Wild Ginger Chai, then I come to review it and its been finished. No mention on the website, and I only bought 11ml thinking I would be sensible for a change.

STOP PRESS, false alarm!!! No not gone but that part of the site is currently down. Liz just return emailed about my query and said it will be back up July 24, with the release of some new stuff. Yippeee! If you want to be kept in the SOIVOHLE loop here is a JUMP to their Facebook Page. Which will also give you links to their blog updates.

I love the queer start, like it’s going to be a hot stinking mess. As it opens on my skin the ginger and vanilla seem to grind against each other for the first 5 or so minutes like rubbing corduroy the wrong way, not a bad feeling, just unexpected. When the honey floats through the shape of this masterpiece begins show itself. Really masterpiece you ask? I have had this on me at some point during the last 4 days, 2 of those days I wore nothing else. OMG!! So I don’t get a tea like the Bvlgari’s, but there is a jasmine/orange blossom like lactonic note here and the spicy milk accord does nod vigorously towards the smell of chai being cooked out of the milk in India, which is a totally different smell to ours, there is also still a quiet kick of ginger right through but like a gingerbread man, slightly doughy. Wild Ginger Chai continues to grow and change, but not distinctly, as it fades away to a soft and wearable sweetish vanilla This all takes around 4-5 hours till I completely lose the ability to smell it. Cor! It is soooo good. Excuse me while I respritz.

Wild Ginger Chai Soivohle for women and menPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica said,
Wild Ginger Chai by Soivohle is an Aromatic Spicy fragrance for women and men…launched in 2012….and features vanilla, tea, honey and spices.

MAKING TRUE CHAI
Indians bring the water to the boil in a saucepan on the stove, throw in their tea leaves, sugar/honey and special tea spice mix (called Chai Masala) to taste, every home is different. As the water changes colour they add milk, I prefer quite a bit, then let the mix almost boil again and it’s ready. Strain into cups and serve with warm biscuits, yummy. Surprisingly, Indians drink this in all seasons, even the hottest part of summer.

THURSDAY GIVEAWAY WINNERS

Our giveaway was open to blog followers only this week, we are now well over the 100 followers mark so I decided to add an extra little prize for our 100th follower, COOL huh? Thank you to all our contestants, so glad you all jumped on board for this one.

You were all put on a paper, folded, put on a plate and picked by Jin (repeating; this was not a game of chance, you had to be a blog follower and tell us your fave post this week). Here’s what was on offer for the major prize

5ml decant spray Flowerbomb by Viktor & Rolf
3ml decant spray Beloved by Amouage
2ml manufacturers sample Ambre Sultan by Serge Lutens
1ml sample vial Fleur de Glace by Olympic Orchids
1ml manufacturers sample Outspoken by Fergie for Avon
P&H anywhere in the world

All measurements are approximate

For our 100th follower we have 2 things I love and 2 that were meh! I hope you like them all.

2ml decant spray Gujarat by Olympic Orchids
2ml decant spray Commes Des Garcons EdP
1ml manufacturers sample Honey Blossom by The Beehive
1ml manufacturers sample In Bloom by Reese Witherspoon for AVON
P&H anywhere in the world

All measurements are approximate

Photo Stolen propercourse

THURSDAY GIVEAWAY- Laniersmith

100th FOLLOWER- anutu13

You have till Wednesday July 18 9pm Australian EST to get in touch with your addresses so I can send these off. PM me on Twitter @OzPerfumeJunkie or Facebook Portia Turbo-Gear If you don’t I’ll give your prize to someone else.

Photo Stolen bitrebels

Thank all for coming around, I have a special thank you video. It’s just a bunch of Brazilian male models saying Hola. Do please enjoy,
Much love and highest hopes for your health, wealth and happiness,
Portia xx

THURSDAY GIVEAWAY

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 36 Comments

Hi gang,

We’ve had a couple of weeks off the Thursday Giveaway because I was over it. Now it’s back. This giveaway is open to anyone who follows the AustralianPerfumeJunkies blog.

What do you have to do to win? Easy! Just tell us which of the posts this week was your favourite. We’ll go through and randomly pick one. This is not a game of chance, you must answer the question to fulfill the criteria, but it’s not a writing contest either. Got it?

You have till around 10pm Saturday July 14 Australian EST. Should we not hear from the winner in a week we will give the prize to someone else. Fair enough? You bet!

Here’s what’s on offer:

5ml decant spray Flowerbomb by Viktor & Rolf
3ml decant spray Beloved by Amouage
2ml manufacturers sample Ambre Sultan by Serge Lutens
1ml sample vial Fleur de Glace by Olympic Orchids
1ml manufacturers sample Outspoken by Fergie for Avon
P&H anywhere in the world

All measurements are approximate because they’ve been used as review samples

I love to do giveaways. It’s the only way I have of saying Thank You physically. We are so glad that you come back so often and read our mad passion for fragrance. When you like, follow or comment we do little air pumps and there are high 5s all round. Every time we reach a goal it is BIG news here.

Our next goal is to have 100 people following the blog. We aren’t far off but would love your help. How can you help? Well, you can follow us yourself, tell your friends about us and ask them to follow if they’re interested, facebook, tweet or retweet our updates and posts. That would be AWESOME!

Much love and wishing you only the good stuff you wish yourselves,
Portia XOX

PS Pictures Stolen lavanyasrecipes and kbaird

AMOUAGE Awesome Foursome

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 18 Comments

.

Gabriella

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Hello Everyone,
This is my first Guest Post for AustralianPerfumeJunkies and I will be back regularly.

AWESOME FOURSOME: A QUARTET OF AMOUAGE

For many years, the beauty of this wondrous Amouage line eluded me, not through a deliberate choice mind you, but because I initially dismissed it as more about marketing than lovely juice (how wrong I was!) and because I was having other adventures in perfume land, it never really registered on my radar. Even an eager SA at Selfridges when I was living in London last year couldn’t tempt me by waving a scented card of Ciel – one of the line’s white florals –under my nose. I was determined to discover things that weren’t available to sniff in Sydney – Balmains, Dior’s La Collection Privée etc – that it barely registered. Thankfully, things didn’t remain the same, Amouage finally came to my nose by virtue of a happy accident. In order to round out a sample order some months ago, at the last minute, I added one of their samples. I haven’t looked back since.

Created in 1983 by the Sultan of Oman, Amouage was to revive the ancient art of Omani perfumery. The house uses the traditional materials of Middle Eastern perfumery, such as frankincense and myrrh, to create traditional Middle Eastern- style scents but with a decidedly French vibe and very luxurious feel.

But what about the reviews?

DIA POUR FEMME

Photo stolen from Fragrantica

Dia was created to be the daytime companion to one of Amouage’s most revered and popular scents, the aldehyde-laden white floral, Gold. While certainly a lot softer and gentler than her bigger sister, Dia is no less sophisticated or elegant. If Gold is all silk ball gowns, diamonds and killer heels, then Dia is all about a refined wool sheath dress, pearls and leather ballet flats.

Dia includes notes of fig, cyclamen, bergamot, tarragon, sage, violet leaves, bush peach blossoms, rose oil, orange flower, peony, orris, white musk, incense, vanilla, heliotrope, cedarwood, sandalwood and gaiac wood.
It opens with a rush of warm fig and herbs before quickly developing into a luscious heady floral bouquet of peony and orange and then settles into soft gauzy woods. Dia’s great beauty is its duality: it manages to be both cool and warm, both chic and comforting at the same time. My only complaint is that it lasts barely two hours on me. Longer lasting and a full bottle would indeed grace my perfume collection.
For more reviews of Dia Pour Femme please see I Smell Therefore I Am and Suzanne’s Perfume Journal

MEMOIR WOMAN

Photo stolen from Fragrantica

The lovechild of YSL Opium and Serge Lutens Arabie is what I first thought upon sniffing Memoir Woman. The perfume is rich and heavy in feel with such a cacophony of notes that it took me a few subsequent wearings to get my head around it.

Memoir Woman features notes of absinth, cardamom, mandarin orange, pink pepper, wormwood, clove, incense, pepper, jasmine, rose, white flowers, musk, french labdanum, oak moss, styrax and leather.
Memoir is classified as chypre but has a decidedly oriental feel due to its heady mix of spices. It opens with a medicinal blast of absinth and pink pepper before the other spices slowly come to the fore, folding over and over in a billowing wave. The richness of spices segues into a warm panorama of rose, frankincense and white flowers.
For me, Memoir Woman is the epitome of Amouage’s heritage and markedly opulent vibe. Wearing this takes me one on of the strongest olfactory journeys ever: I’m wandering round a Middle-Eastern market at twilight all swathed in rich fabrics, kohl rimmed and mysterious.
For more reviews of Memoir Woman please see Now Smell This and Olfactoria’s Travels

HONOUR WOMAN

Photo stolen from Fragrantica

Being a white floral lover, I was pretty sure I’d love Honour Woman and be whacking down the credit card to buy one of those pretty white bottles quick smart.

 It features notes of pepper, rhubarb, coriander, jasmine, tuberose, gardenia, lily of the valley, carnation, vetiver, frankincense, amber, opoponax and leather.
On first whiff, I was a little worried this was going to be an upscale version of a department store fruity floral. Honour Woman opens with a tart rhubarb note but thankfully the presence of pepper and coriander prevent it from becoming too mainstream in vibe. As the fragrance develops, the rhubarb is joined by a creamy soft gardenia note to create a very warm composition before soft incense and amber join the fray. Don’t get me wrong, Honour Woman is well executed and sophisticated like the other Amouages, but I’ve yet to fall completely under its spell.
 For more reviews of Honour Woman please see Olfactoria’s Travels and The Candy Perfume Boy

JUBILATION XXV WOMAN

Photo stolen from Fragrantica

That lucky sample I acquired all those months ago and my overall love of the line is the divine Jubilation 25, created in 2007 to celebrate Amouage’s 25thanniversary. Not only is it aptly named for that occasion, but because it literally had me jumping for joy at first sniff.

 Jubilation 25 features notes of tarragon, lemon, ylang ylang, rock rose, frankincense, davana, labdanum ciste, patchouli, amber, vetiver, musk and, myrrh.
It is such an impressive chypre produced at a time when pretty much everything in this genre is dead and buried. The beauty of the scent is that it manages to combine all the classic elements of chypres past, paying homage to their memories in a thoroughly modern way. It opens with a beautiful rich accord of tarragon, lemon and ylang ylang before segueing to a symphonic rose note that’s achingly bright. The herbal rose goodness wafts and whispers before the composition moves seamlessly to a classic woody and herbal chypre drydown.
Like all good chypres, Jubilation 25 made me sit a little straighter, pull my shoulders back and hold my head higher. Even when sampling in my PJs over a coffee or after a long day’s work over a glass of wine, I am suddenly terribly chic and sophisticated. Jubilation 25 makes me feel like the woman I aspire to be.
For more reviews of Jubilation 25 please see Now Smell This and Perfume Shrine

Thank you so much for reading, I hope you’ve enjoyed my thoughts on four of the Amouage line.

What Amouage scents have you tried? Have your experiences been similar or different to mine? I’d love to read what your thoughts are.
M XOX

SUNDAY QUICKSNIFF REVIEW #7

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 4 Comments

Hey Hey Scent Hogs,

These are quick looks at a few of the fragrances I wore this week for my own fragrance pleasure. The Sunday QuickSniff Review page is opened on Monday morning and every time I spritz and am near the computer I’ll give a 3 sentence review with a rating out of 5 each for, well, see the key after the reviews. Often these are samples I’ve bought or had sent to me by friends, or a FB that I may fully review later, or have done before and want to remind you of its existence.

BELOVED by AMOUAGE 2012. This opens sensationally on me. A big fat old fashioned sparkling spicy floral with depth and character, you can smell the deep drumming of the animalic, vanilla and amberish undercurrents. It’s so sexy as it starts pounding out its syncopated ululation, flowers, animals, herbs, wood, flowers, balsam, spices, cat. Unfortunately after less than an hour it becomes the merest whisper of a skin scent on me (this is my 4th spritz in a day) but everyone else that I’ve read reviews from gets hours and hours, GRRRRR.  S=***** L=** D=****

KENZO FLOWER EdT by KENZO 2000. I received this bottle from Annie, THANKS!! Usually fresh, aqueous fragrances aren’t my thing, but maybe my nose is evolving because this is dynamite!! On my skin the hawthorn is cool GREEN and the resin, vanilla and musk ironically completely overtake any flowers that might have been there making me think of torn leaves and broken branches. A thoroughly delicious, light, bright, sparkling fragrance that has deceptive sillage and longevity too. FragranceShop has 50ml Tester for $38 S=**** L=**** D=****

BADGLEY MISCHKA Parfum 2006. OMFG!! On my skin this opens so SWEET, AARRGH. The peach and red berries are gut wrenchingly, tooth achingly, pant for oxygen sweet and almost had me running to the shower but I pushed through and WOW am I glad I did. This is a serenade, a love song and a poem; it calms down after 5 minutes into an amazing warm and delicious, slightly foody floral chypre that dies down to hours and hours of almost masculine, sexy woods, resins and musky caramel YUM. FragranceNet has 15ml for under $20 S=**** L=***** D=****

SUNFLOWERS by ELIZABETH ARDEN 1993. Years ago I used to wear this all the time, I was going through a phase where I decided one perfume in my cupboard was enough. I loved it so much and thought I smelled delicious until someone had a word, I was devastated and stopped wearing it, throwing the bottle in the bin. Tonight I was working with a girlfriend and the most glorious fruit juicy white floral and warm spicy perfume was wafting around, it was so divine I thought it must be an expensive niche tuberose but it was Sunflowers and she smelled awesome. FragranceX has 100ml under $20  S=***** L=**** D=*****


Photo Stolen from shirtsays

Scent, Obviously the number 1 priority here is how does it smell. My reviews are completely subjective and will differ widely from your own experience with the scent but it’s a good starting point. As yet I am not a trained perfumer so any and all descriptions are merely that, descriptions. There are plenty of blogs that offer technical details and chemistry, in 3 sentences I’ll pass.
Longevity, This is a biggie for me because like enfleurage where flower petals are left in fats to steal the scent, my fatty body works the same and eats it up, yum. So for a scent to last well on me, it will probably last a whole day on you and need a radioactive decontamination shower to defuse it from your skin.
Desirabilty, Wrapped up in this is scent, price, house, history, longevity, packaging, availability and a billion other things.

Photo Stolen from bittbox

* in any of these being the, “You couldn’t pay enough to spray this God awful stink on me again, it smells like public toilets in India, long time fridge malfunction while on Summer holiday and the vile stench of poverty all rolled into one.” You are putting innocent people in danger if you wear this.
** means it’s a nothing, wearable, boring, maybe the price is prohibitive for what you get or it’s ubiquitous. You should definitely get a sample of this to stop a buying boo boo.
*** is a perfectly good product that smells good and lasts a while at a decent price. You should definitely think about trying a sample or squirt but should you miss out your life will continue. Sample size worthy.
**** is the one you try, want a lot but can wait for a birthday/Christmas. It’s better than most of the stuff you’ve sniffed and may fill a void in your library. This is also an excellent decant product 5ml will get you through the season and maybe buy it next year.
***** meaning, stop reading this, grab your cash, credit card (or partners), roll the elderly or rob a petrol station and purchase this product. NOW! If you don’t have this fragrance you could die.

Hopefully this has given you a little inside track on fragrances to might buy, want, avoid, sample. What delicious bits and pieces did you try this week?

Portia xx