"Kaleidoscopic India" au 68 – Guerlain mini movie

November 23, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 2 Comments

Hey Hey APJ,

I wish I could have been in Paris to see this exhibition. Guerlain and India, two of my most treasured passions.

Did any of you get to see the exhibition? I’d love to read your impressions.

Portia xx

“Kaleidoscopic India” au 68 – GUERLAIN

Vernissage de l’exposition proposée au 68, Champs-Elysées dans le cadre du parcours privé de la FIAC, du 17 octobre au 14 novembre 2014. (Second video is in untranslated French, it’s pretty though I can’t understand it)

“Kaleidoscopic India” au 68 – GUERLAIN

Honey & Almond by Wavertree & London

November 23, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 2 Comments

Hi there APJ Crew,

I have found myself a brand new Australian company doing gorgeously packaged and outrageously fabulous smelling soaps. Who doesn’t love a scented soap as a pick me up at bath time? Maybe, like me, you have cakes of soap in your drawers so that when you open them they are softly scented, your clothes too have a lovely soft teint of fragrance that is not as strong as fabric softener (which I don’t use but have a 1 part disinfectant and 3 parts white vinegar mixture that softens scentlessly) and really just adds the tiniest bit of character.

Honey & Almond by Wavertree & London

Photo Stolen AustralianSoap

Size: 7oz, wrapped with embossed paper
French-milled (triple-milled) bar that is long lasting, non-drying and has a creamy lather
100% plant oils – sustainable palm oil, palm kernel oil, organic shea butter and vegetable glycerin. PH Balanced
Made in Australia
Bar is mild and PH balanced which is ideal for sensitive skin and those with skin conditions

Where did we grab ours? In Sydney’s Chinatown at SWS Spring. If you are in the area it is definitely worth a look. It’s one of the best stocked stores of niche personal and ambient fragrances. Also a great selection of make up and accessories too. Two floors of scented wandering frag-gasm. The two guys who own the shop are beautiful too, I just love them to bits. If you buy 3 things they give you a 20% discount at the moment too. WOW!

SWS Spring Site<<<JUMP

Address:
SWS SPRING
48 Dixon St,
Haymarket Chinatown
Sydney NSW 2000

Telephone:
+61 2 9212 7356

Amazon has $6.95/7oz
Australian Soap has $6.95/7o

The soap is worth a try.

Portia xx

Kelly Calèche by Jean-Claude Ellena for Hermès 2007

November 22, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 15 Comments

Hey Perfume Junkies,

Do you remember when Kelly Calèche was released in 2007? It was a huge kerfuffle, and it seems both a million years ago and yesterday. There was a while that it was the fragrance de jour in the clubs and I think about one in five young women of a certain cadre were sporting it day and night and smelling so young, hip and fresh, even (dare I say it?) GROOVY! I think that many Sydney girls will have fond memories of fun times in Kelly Calèche,

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Grapefruit, narcissus, lily of the valley
Heart: Mimosa, rose, tuberose
Base: Leather, iris

The opening of Kelly Calèche is a dry, green, astringent burst that shocks you awake and into the here and now. This fun high octane fizz only lasts a few moments but it is an excellent mind refresher. Then the whole fragrance changes into a surprising leather that smells on my skin like the leather, glue, colours and stitchery inside the back of brand new high heels, never worn, straight from box and tissue paper. The flowers and fruits big moment are all over for me so quickly, around 15 minutes, and then play a light backing track to this almost patent leather smell. (From Hermès, Hermès, Hermès in 2012)

Photo Stolen DeviantART

So fun, light and yet very present, that oh so soft suede-ish iris dry down is my favourite part, though other reviewers find it not so good. A whisper of fragrance that huffs out at you every so often to remind you that you’re fragrant. It’s just for you and your nearest and dearest friends. It’s no wonder that Kelly Calèche was such a hit at the time, I wonder if those pretty young things still wander round in a soft fog of sweet iris leather or if they’ve moved on?

I grabbed my 15ml mini bottle from Birgit of Olfactoria’s Travels wardrobe clean-out back in 2012. To be honest it doesn’t see a LOT of wear but I have made decent inroads into it, there is some good air in the bottle. I like to wear it when I need a pick me up, have to be somewhere that a loud or hefty frag would be inappropriate or to remember the lovely girls who wore Kelly Calèche when it was released.

Further reading: Bois de Jasmin and Now Smell This
Beauty Encounter has $52/50ml EdT
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $3/ml

Are you a fan? Has Kelly Calèche ever been your go to or does its quiet, refined leather waft leave you bored and stone cold?
Portia xx

Beyond Paradise by Calice Becker for Estée Lauder 2003

November 21, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 13 Comments

Hello Hello Hello,

While moving I have rediscovered an old favourite bottle.

Way back in the early years of this century I had a beautiful partner called Varun, we traveled often to his homeland India. On our first journey to India I was taken by the lovely smell of jasmine and marigold that women would wear in ropes in their hair, a thick, rich and intoxicating smell that could become completely overpowering in a small shop with two or three women thus adorned.

Photo Stolen Pixabay

So 2000, 2001 and 2002 visits were filled with this glorious and enchanting waft at unexpected times, not every woman would wear the garlands and I never found out what prompted it though at weddings they were everywhere. Sadly the practice is seen less and less in modern Incredible India.

Beyond Paradise by Calice Becker for Estée Lauder 2003

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Orange blossom, blue hyacinth, Jaboticaba berry, lemon, bergamot, grapefruit
Heart: Laelia orchid, pink honeysuckle, Japanese mahonia, jasmine, gardenia
Base: Natal plum blossom, golden melaleuca, zebrano wood, ambrette seed, amber

Fast forward now to 2003, and I am traveling alone to meet Varun who has had to go home to run the family business. As I’m walking though the Duty Free an Estee Lauder rep hands me a miniature bottle shaped like a teardrop with my gifting purchases. The bottle itself was so beautiful, exquisite, a rainbow teardrop and inside was a fragrance filled with bittersweet heartache. The smell of glamotous Indian women wearing their jasmine and marigold hair garlands, the hot wet heat of southern India’s spring and the cooling breeze blowing over lotus ponds into Kerala wooden pole houses. On my first sniff I was overcome with nostalgia and nervous tummy butterflies of anticipation.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

Ha ha ha! Of course, I arrive in India and Varun is like, “What for are you wearing that nasty cheap roadside stall jasmine oil?” Ha Ha ha! So away my little bottle went for that holiday but on my return Beyond Paradise became the scent of India for me. Even though I have been to the oldest and most reputable scent wallahs in Old and New Delhi, Jaipur and Kerala it is Beyond Paradise that takes me to the first few visits to India every time.

Varun & Portia 2004

Basically Beyond Paradise opens like a vase of flowers, all wet, green leaves, a little crackle of bitterness, crisp white flowers and softly sweet fruits, it goes more white flowers through the heart and then dries down to dry white flowers, a very little bit fleshy and ripe, then fades to nothing musky woods. The story isn’t big and the shifts aren’t monumental, Beyond Paradise is fresh and light but gives you really good sillage and projection for most of the day.

Photo Stolen LuckyScent ($18 at LuckyScent)

Fast forward again to 2011 and I am given a book called The Little Book Of Perfumes by Luca Turin & Tanya Sanchez. Though I had been a mad collector of frags on and off through my life never had I been given such purpose in my collecting as that book gave me. Instantly I wanted to try ALL 100 fragrances in that book, but to find something I have loved so well for so long in that book was a complete surprise.

Further reading: Sweet Diva and Scentualist
Beauty Encounter has $55/50ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $3/ml

Are you a Beyond Paradise fan? What was one of your excited fragrance epiphanies?
Portia xx

Painting The Truth

November 21, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 4 Comments

Hi there APJ!

Here is a very simplistic ideal. We know it but often it gets lost in the “I Want”, “They Have”, “If Only” windmill of our minds.

Photo Stolen NeelaVermeireCreations

While I’m writing to you from my new digs in Redfern, Sydney I am bathed in a gorgeous thick, rich haze of Mohur by Neela Vermeire Creations. Just following the advice in the painting below. BLISS!

Whatever you are doing this is pretty good advice, and so pretty too

Cyber hugging you from here

Portia xxx

Photo Stolen Facebook

Fragrant Gifting

November 20, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 6 Comments

Fragrant Gifting

Hello there my scented friends! The glowing joy of the holiday season is upon us, and what better gift for the one you love most than fragrance? An incredibly personal sentiment, a choice that says “you are one of the people I adore most in this world.” How do I do Fragrant Gifting that feels like it was custom made for that special person?

Well, one obvious tip is to keep the scent amicable and easy to love. Unless you are gifting perfume to a collector or connoisseur, selecting a challenging or overly complex scent is a great way to ensure it gets secretly returned or left lonely and unsprayed in a dark drawer.

Another consideration is budget, because let’s be real – why blow the bank when you can blow their mind (at a modest price)?

The three fragrances below are my picks for charming your loved ones.

Fragrant Gifting

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Green mango, tomato, grapefruit, carrot
Heart: Orange, peony, lotus, hyacinth, bulrush
Base: Labdanum, incense, iris, musk, cinnamon

Un Jardin Sur Le Nil by Hermés: This scent is bright, clean, and has a great reputation for being well-received. Primarily a ginger aroma on me, it sparkles with a green hue that stays true to form throughout the wearlength. A fresh delight for either him or her!

My Perfume Samples has samples starting at $3/ml

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Jasmine, vanilla, pink pepper, tonka bean, cacao, ylang-ylang, ambrette (musk mallow

Sweet Jasmine Brown by Providence Perfume Company: This artisan perfume oil is an exquisite gateway to natural perfumery. The jasmine is simply darling, the perfect balance of sweet and clean, starlit enchantment. The accents include tonka bean and vanilla, warm like honey, adding smoothness and intrigue. Ultra-feminine and impossible to resist!

Providence Perfume Co perfume oil Sample Set $30/6 x .5ml

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
White pepper, musk, jasmine, cloves, vetiver, neroli, cedar, bergamot, cardamom

Vettiveru by Comme des Garçons: Quite simply, this is my favorite scent on a man. It’s astoundingly simple, but so well done, and doesn’t challenge the senses or intimidate. Vettiveru delivers the sunshine side of vetiver, of hay scenting a late summer breeze. Paired with a soft yet citrusy bite and a touch of pale woods, the overall aroma is crisp yet inviting. Buy it for him, and tell him to wear with caution….

Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $2/ml

Have fun sniffing! I wish you and yours a warm, joyful winter solstice.

Hugs,
Erica

What Fragrances Got Packed For USA 2014

November 19, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 17 Comments

Hi there Frag Heads,

It’s the age old question. What do you pack fragrance wise for a holiday? Do you take a set of 5ml decants of your faves, one bottle or a mix of both? Is it go large or go shopping?

What Fragrances Got Packed For USA 2014

Well, as always it has been a hell of a decision making process. I ummed and ahhed about it through the unpacking of the move and have been madly spritzing myself to see what would fit for me on this trip. Knowing that I’ll be stopped in 4 MeetUps in the best that the USA has to offer in Niche Perfumery, as well as the Guerlain store in the Bellagio Las Vegas where we are staying, I am pretty sure I will be heavily scented and shopping up a storm. So I decided that three was the magic number for this trip. I need a cold weather, a cool weather and a temperate weather fragrance that are all not so temp specific that I’ll feel ridiculous wearing them interchangeably. Another criteria is that they not be in regular decant atomiser bottles, I would like them to be a little more sturdy than that.

So here are my USA 2014 three:

Picture Stolen Fragrantica

Epice Marine by Hermès 15ml EdT: After first trying Epice Marine in Selfridge & Co with Tara I became quite obsessed with it. There’s something completely captivating in it’s cool, clear, cut crystal and salty herbal-ness. It starts out fizzy like a cold lemon squash with ice, it has a salt rim and some greenery floating in it that feels minty but is less sweet. Unlike so many of the Hermessance range I get excellent longevity and a very soft but noticeable sillage.

Photo Stolen Dawn Spencer Hurwitz

Ma Folie de Noël by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz 10ml EdP: Ma Folie de Noël was a gift from Natalie who used to run Another Perfume Blog. There is no 10ml option on the DSH site now and I think I will finish this bottle while on holidays, it’s a conundrum. The fragrance? Well it’s everything a cold weather fragrance that you want to make you warm should be. Anise, booze and cream all spiced and gorgeous. Even writing about Ma Folie de Noël makes me smile: happy scent and memories. I think it will be the one I reach for most while away.

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Vanille Galante by Hermès 15ml EdT: Vanille Galante, that cool, dark chocolate and booze infested vanilla that wafts lightly and smoothly from my skin. An oxymoron, sleek and fat, cool and hot, heavy and transparent. Vanilla so completely UN-vanilla-ish that it hardly bears its name. The flowers are awkward and frigid, the spice is so cool it reads like incense and the vanilla like nothing you would ever bake with. Wrap the whole fabulously spare concoction in sugar free chocolate and inhale. This was not love at first sniff for me, in fact it’s taken a while for me to warm to it, now I couldn’t live without Vanille Galante.

Photo Stolen WikiCommons

Here are our MeetUp USA 2014 Dates:

Please come hang with us somewhere

SCENT BAR LA Wednesday NOVEMBER 19 2014 with Killian Hennessy MeetUp 5-7pm

BARNEYS + NEIMAN MARCUS CHICAGO Monday NOVEMBER 24 2014 MeetUp Barneys (Beauty Downstairs) 1.30pm

OSSWALD N.Y.C Saturday NOVEMBER 29 2014 MeetUp 2-4pm

TWISTED LILY BROOKLYN NYC Sunday November 30 2014 MeetUp 11am-1pm

How do you like my choices? What do you wear to travel? Many or few?
Portia xx

Agent Provocateur FATALE / FATALE PINK launch

November 18, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 6 Comments

Post by Ainslie Walker

Hey APJers, remember recently, that night, full of heavy rain, flash floods, sideways downpours, thunder, lightening and hail in Sydney? That night I attended the Agent Provocateur Fatale fragrances launch at Carousel Bar in Kings Cross.

Agent Provocateur FATALE / FATALE PINK launch

Entering the club in my water-filled heels, I was spritzed with FATALE PINK fresh and light it struck me as different to the Agent Provocateur fragrances I already knew.

Gathered were TV personalities from The Bachelor, foodie Rick Stein, beauty editors, PR people and Fragrances of the World lovelies, Anna and Virginia. We had a giggle, ate canapés and “stalked” Rick together – he partook in a 30 minute conversation with us about fragrance, flavors, travel and food – a highlight of the night.

Newly designed bottles were on display, a big change from porcelain curves of past fragrances. Marketing blurb says the facets reflect the many sides of a woman’s personality…not at all original, but pretty. Boxes are indented stylishly, a nod to fishnet stockings and very Agent Provocateur!

In the background, a seductive Agent Provocateur film was projected, staring Monica Cruz. The evening was relaxed, glamorous and cool.

Fatale by Jean-Marc Chaillan for Agent Provocateur

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Pink pepper, black currant, mango
Heart: Patchouli, orris, gardenia
Base: Vanilla orchid, musk, chocolate, labdanum

Mango- juicy and ripe, in a bed of vanilla, and chocolate, hinting at seduction but not as sultry and distinctive as expected. Pink pepper fizzes with the mango. Blackcurrant, tart with a dollop of cream. Patchouli? I’d say a touch of maltol / fairy floss in there too. Musk and orris come out to play after 30 minutes or so. Lasting power of 4 hours. It’s fun, I suppose it’s sexy, but not in the way Agent Provocateur’s first fragrances were- they were naughty and daring. Agent Provocateur has stepped into mainstream terrain. Within an hour I am reminded of Coco Mademoiselle. I have none to hand right now to compare, but somehow it nods in that direction…fresh, fruit, sweet and isoE!

In “the naughties” I was a party girl living in London – out EVERY night- obsessed with Agent Provocateur underwear. Gifted Chanel’s Mademoiselle and I wore it, a touch of fun glamour. Today I am more likely to be wearing Chanel clothing and add this fun Agent Provocateur fragrance on top, nodding back to those fun days!!

Fatale Pink by Jean-Claude Delville for Agent Provocateur

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Tangerine, pear blossom, yuzu, whipped cream
Heart: Datura flower, white camellia, pink lotus
Base: Bamboo, musk, black saffron

This fragrance was released for the Asian market and they’ve nailed it! I would wear this on a hot humid day, it’s watery and light. I love the pear notes. Gritty like tinned pears. The other notes give a pretty, white cream floral and fresh blur. Tangerine gives soft citrus. It’s easy to wear, easy to gift, clean, perfect for summer. Unobtrusive. Hours later there is a surprising sudden floral peak. There is a “thinness”- I think pink lotus has that effect, but with cream, and interesting sounding notes like saffron and datura I would expect a denser scent. Enigmatic and glamorous could describe this, but seductive? Introverted, innocent seduction- a hugely new direction for this usually racy brand. Perhaps we are to experience the many facets of seduction and provocation from this brand? From innocent, pretty and clean, right through to hot, foxy and downright naughty!!

Ainslie Walker x

Tubéreuse by Mona di Orio 2011

November 17, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 22 Comments

Post by TinaG

Whilst first wearing Mona di Orio’s Tubéreuse I must admit I was confused. It really wasn’t the “tuberose” fragrance that I had expected to find….

Tubéreuse by Mona di Orio 2011

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Pink pepper, green notes, bergamot
Heart: Tuberose, benzoin, heliotrope
Base: Musk, amber, coconut, milk, cashmeran

Tubéreuse opens with a flash of floral milkiness. This quickly changes to an enticing sweet pink pepper with a shadowy smoky bergamot lifting and supporting it. The scent shifts and changes rapidly in the first 10 minutes, slowly settling into a light fresh green accord. I can smell a warm and slightly waxy scent, like coconut water, translucent and milky. The greenness draws a linear thread through the life of the scent as a supporting anchor point. There is a gentle powder which joins the flow at about 1 hour and it stays this way during the dry down. So fresh, peppery, floral, clean, milky, waxy – I realised this fragrance is a study of the tuberose flower itself.

Photo Donated TinaG

I found my thoughts being drawn back to evenings where I’ve had bunches of tuberose in the house. Tuberose is “night-blooming”, in that the bloom’s fragrance intensifies during the early evening to night. The time of transition to twilight is a treasure. If I can resist switching a light on, instead maybe lighting a candle, with some quiet background tunes, and may or may not have a glass of chilled white wine – it’s lovely to sit for a while letting my thoughts ramble in whatever direction they take me.

Photo Stolen Pixabay

The scent of real tuberose at this time of day is quite simply stunning. Its fragrance edges into the consciousness, bringing thoughts back to the present and reminding that it is this moment, this time, which is precious. It reminds me of the novel “Island” by Aldous Huxley – in a fictitious country where the inhabitants recognise the importance of the ‘conscious self’, taking a step back from your thoughts to be able to see more clearly. The islanders had trained mynah birds to call out “Attention”, and “Here and Now” at random intervals as a reminder to bring one’s self back to the moment. The growing intensity of tuberose scent at twilight has this same effect – the headiness is all encompassing and so beautiful, why wouldn’t you just want to breathe deeply, silently watching as the day fades to calmness, and colours start to drain away into grey-blues and blacks.

Photo Donated TinaG

It was at this point whilst wearing Tubéreuse that I realised I was experiencing the work of a master artist. Mona di Orio has captured the impression of night-blooming tuberose with a deeply profound and exquisite skill. There is an expression, that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Trying to dissect and analyse Tubéreuse you could definitely identify the parts, but that’s not the story, not the whole picture, and certainly not the limit of its boundaries. The fragrance has a three-tiered connection with me now – the practical identification of notes, a reminiscence of the quiet times, and the deeper meditative space that the ‘present’ can provide. I’m grateful for that journey.

Further reading: What Men Should Smell Like and Perfume Posse
Peony Melbourne has $230/100ml with FREE shipping in Australia
Parfum1 has $230/100ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $7/ml

How many of you have tried the MdO Tubéreuse? Or any of her scents? Did you love them or not?

Tina G

The 2nd Annual Art And Olfaction Awards 2014 – open for entries!!

November 16, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 3 Comments

Post by Ainslie Walker

The 2nd Annual Art And Olfaction Awards 2014 – open for entries!!

It’s year 2 of the inaugural Art and Olfaction Awards. Last year the Jordan told us all about the awards inhis Australian Perfume Junkies post

Submissions have been trickling in since November 3rd 2014 and entries need to be postmarked by the 19th December 2014 to be in with a chance. The winner will be announced in April 2015.

Perfumes must have been released to market between January 1 and Dec 31, 2014 and can be entered into the Independent Award and/or the Artisan Award. For both of these categories, 2 perfumes will be picked from 5 finalists.

Excitingly this year there is a new category: The Sadakichi Award For Experimental Scent – This award aims to reward the work of people who engage with scent outside of commercial perfumery. One award will be presented out of five finalists

The Judges: Independent and Artisan Awards (preliminary)

• Ashley Eden Kessler
• Brent Leonesio
• Daniel Krasofski
• Hank Jenkins
• James McHugh
• Laura Johnson
• Neal Harris
• Persephenie Lea
• Steven Gontarski
• Sherri Sebastian
• Yvettra Grantham

The Judges: Independent and Artisan Awards (finals)

• Christophe Laudamiel
• Luca Turin
• Mandy Aftel
• Miriam Vareldzis
• Sarah Horowitz-Thran

The judges for the independent and artisan categories will review entries completely blind with submissions being tracked only by numbers. Text will be provided by the entrants, which explains their intentions for the scent and for the judges to contextualize what they are smelling.

The Judges: Sadakichi Award For Award For Experimental Scent

The Experimental Category judges will select the five finalists, as well as the winner.
• Allison Agsten
• Bettina Hubby
• Dr. Kóan Jeff Baysa
• Marcos Lutyens
• Mark Allen

The twitter handle for the awards is https://twitter.com/AOAwards
The Facebook is https://www.facebook.com/ArtandOlfactionAwards
General Awards website: artandolfactionawards.com

Info about the submissions process: http://artandolfactionawards.com/submission2015/
Info about 2015 Judges: http://artandolfactionawards.com/submission2015/2015judges/
Info about the categories (we’ve added one– experimental!): http://artandolfactionawards.com/submission2015/submission-categories/

GOOD LUCK!!