Santal Massoïa by Jean Claude Ellena for Hermès 2011

March 1, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 11 Comments

Hey Hey APJ,

While out in London with the mad London Frag Crew a bunch of us that just couldn’t let the day finish went to Selfridges in the evening and ran amok. It was bittersweet fun because we all knew the day was coming to a close and it felt that we’d made some really great new friends who GOT us. Know what I mean? Anyway, I think it was the beautiful Tara of Olfactoria’s Travels who came to Hermès with me because I wanted to try Epice Marine (FABULOUS BTW) but annoyingly they had no samples left for me to take and review. The SA was so embarrassed at their lack that she gave me two samples of other things and today we’ll look at the first. I have decanted to a spritz so I get the same ride as you would from a bottle. Just for fun today I thought I’d let you travel through my mind on a first wearing of a fragrance…….

Santal Massoïa by Jean Claude Ellena for Hermès 2011

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Massoïa wood resin from New Guinea, coconut, peach, butterscotch, sandalwood, sugar, milk, dried fruits, floral notes

Well, Santal Massoia is a bit of a surprise. Now that I look at the notes it makes sense but I was not expecting a tropical alcoholic drink out of a coconut, with a paper umbrella, in a freshly made wood and thatch bar by the pool. Honestly I am smiling broadly and feel as if the holiday is at day 5 when you just realise you are away and can relax for another 5 glorious days.

Photo Stolen Flickr

Something that I often feel about Jean Claude Ellena’s work and here in Santal Massoia especially is that the notes are part of a chorus, though there is a buttery, waxy, fatty wood at the centre it is not really about that so much as it’s about a feeling of quietly luxuriating in the sun, having a silly drink for the hell of it and either reading a trashy novel or playing meaningless games on your phone. It has been a long time since I’ve had a holiday like that, I don’t think in the last 25 years, but my childhood and early adulthood was full of exactly those kind of holidays, it was ONLY trashy novels then as the internet was still being used only for governmental/war games. We did used to get those great puzzle books though like find trhe word, crosswords or other game type books. There were also cards, canasta was the family game of choice and it was used as a tool to show good game play behaviours and how life was often ready to throw a curve ball. OH MY GOD! I am lost in a complete memory cycle and all through two spritzes of a fragrance.

Photo Stolen Flickr

Yes, I can pick the woods, fruits, coconut, mmmm sort of get the butterscotch but in a Schnappsy kind of way and if you asked me to pick some flowers I would say a fruity/boozy rose and the buttery fat of ylang, is there fig? Maybe the milk and fruit are giving me a fig reference? I could understand if you were to complain that Santal Massoia is linear, the story is more a rotating of notes that become more pronounced than a change in fragrance per se. After the first hour to two hours Santal Massoia softens to a nimbus of soft focus fragrance, very close to the skin and you really need to be hugging someone for them to notice how lovely you smell, that is no bad thing especially at work or in confined spaces. By the 3 hour mark I’m finding it difficult to smell anything but I think anosmia has set in because Jin still smells something nutty.

Photo Stolen Hermès

Further reading: Olfactoria’s Travels and Perfume Shrine
Hermessence are only available at Hermès stores or very rarely they come up at auction sites
You can buy in Australia from the Hermès site $665/100ml with leather cover
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $4/.5ml

Which of the Hermessence range have you tried? Do you like Jean Claude Ellena’s style?

Portia xx

Wonder Woman

March 1, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 13 Comments

Dear APJ,

Sometimes something found on facebook resonates so completely and utterly that I feel I have to share. This made me snort my coffee because it felt like it was speaking to me so loudly. Please take this gem out in the world with you today with my love.

Portia xx

Anyway by Romano Ricci for Juliette Has A Gun 2013

February 28, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 28 Comments

Woo Hoo!

I am back on board and in the swing of things again. Life has been quite hectic playing catch up after nearly 4 weeks away. Today I payed as many bills as I could and am left with a much diminished pile of outstandings and none of them are overdue!! It feels really good, though I won’t be buying any fragrance bottles in the next couple of months

Often I write of my mate Nick from Libertine Parfumerie, he is regularly in touch with new stuff and sometimes sends APJ product for giveaways. He doesn’t have to do it and it always brightens my day to get a package from him. Please, even if you don’t enter today’s competition, go and have a look at the amazing fragrant beauties that Libertine Parfumerie has for sale, you will be astounded. Lately Nick’s buying power has become so good that some of his products are the same numerical value as you would buy them for in the USA, that means with the current Aussie dollar that they are in fact 10-15% cheaper!!! AMAZING!

Anyway by Romano Ricci for Juliette Has A Gun 2013

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Neroli, lime
Heart: Jasmine
Base: Musk, hedione, woody notes, ambrox

What was I expecting here? I’m not sure but reading some reviews I was ready to instantly hate Anyway, let’s face it the name is appalling. A throwaway name for what I expected to be a throwaway fragrance. And yes, I get that “Anyway, Juliette Has A Gun” is supposed to be amusing but if less people had guns, and they were harder to get, there would be a far less mass murders done by mad (in both senses of the word) people. I wasn’t even going to try it until Anyway turned up in my postbox and then I thought “What the hell? If I’m going to give some away then I better have a wear of it and see what it’s like.”

Weirdest thing, it starts out SO FREAKING FRUITY. I know I’m supposed to be smelling citrus but I get pineapple, melon, strawberries and it’s jammy too. WOO HOO! It’s like Carmen Miranda’s hat, a Peter Allen showtune and RuPaul all rolled into one. Wildly fruity and feminine. ARARARARrRrRriiiIBAA! Cha cha cha! Normally I hate this kind of thing but for some reason Anyway strikes me as super fun. The opening is almost as outrageous as Bombay Bling on my skin but feels more sticky sweet, less grounded, younger. I like it. It stays around for quite a while in this weird, outrageous, camp, fruity melange. Anyway is completely Drag Queen fragrance and wearing it both last night and tonight at work it garnered some compliments from the crowd, through the whole evening.

Photo Stolen Flickr

As the fruit burns low after about an hour to two hours there is a very interesting woodsy/oudh-ish waft that becomes slowly more apparent, like there are two fragrances on me. A celebuscent and a Middle Eastern rose/oudh oil. I get to smell this for a short while and then it disappears completely from my ability to smell it until I am smelling something else like the hotel’s kitchen, bathroom or even sitting next to someone whose fragrance is quite different, then all of a sudden I notice the whole Anyway fragrance again. Other people can still smell it though because the compliments continue, and it must have an excellent sillage because it’s usually as I’m wandering through the crowd at Trivia that I get three or four people past them and then they’ll compliment. Interesting.

I get occasional wafts of it when I’ve come home after work too, that’s around 6 hours, and beyond but I cannot tell you what it smells like exactly except kind of woodsy? Anyway, you should try it. I like it so much that I’m going to keep the bottle but we do have an amazing giveaway for you all below. Good Luck.

Portia xx

Further reading: The Candy Perfume Boy and Katie Chutzpah
Libertine Parfumerie has $186/100ml (with Australian delivery included)
Surrender To Chance has $23/4 x 2ml JHaG manufacturer carded samples (Anyway, Calamity J, Miss Charming, Romantina)

Photo Stolen kbaird

Anyway GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 5 winners who will each receive:

1 x 10ml decant of Anyway by Juliette Has A Gun
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

Go to Libertine Perfumes<<<JUMP and find me a fragrance and one of its notes. NO DOUBLE UPS!!

Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie @JulietteHasaGun ANYWAY GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p3PURw-2wf #Perfume #Giveaway @LibertineParfum

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Sunday 2nd March 2014 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org
The winners will have till Thursday 6th March 2014 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.

Special THANKS to LibertineParfumerie for these amazing giveaways. Please visit their site because they are so generous and helpful. If you wonder why they are sometimes more expensive than the discounters or OS retailers it’s because they are the only licensed company selling their fragrances in Australia; where you know you are buying new, fresh and genuine product. The cost of importing, and buying the right to import, alcohol based fragrances (and having the right to send alcohol based fragrances throughout Australia, which are illegal to send in the Australia Post air system) is expensive and they must cover their costs to bring you these luxury goods.

Peety! by Angelo Orazio Pregoni for O'Driu 2013

February 27, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 15 Comments

Post by Feral Jasmine

So here’s the deal: I am not going to shut up about O’Driu Peety until I see more reviews that skip the whole bit about adding your own pee to it. It’s not that adding 10 drops of your own urine is wrong. It’s cleaner and less harmful than sniffing many aromachemicals, in my opinion, and also cleaner than many of the old naturals that we cherish when we can get them. The reason that the concept annoys me is that people tend to get caught up in the “ewwww!” factor and never quite get around to trying the perfume.

Peety! by Angelo Orazio Pregoni for O’Driu 2013

Peety: Forget the Hype, Just Smell the Perfume!

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Tobacco, jasmine, rose, sandalwood, tonka bean, pink pepper

That’s a pity, because Peety is lovely if you like animalics. The notes sound ordinary enough and do not really do justice to the composition. Fragrantica‘s brief description of it as a “woody floral musk” also sounds pedestrian and like something you’ve smelled a thousand times before. The single most discerning comment that I’ve read about it was by a Fragrantica commenter who called it “bearish.” This pretty much sums up Peety, except for the choice of wild animal. Personally, I think of it as “wolfish.” As in a clean and warm wolf who might sit next to you at your hearth for a while but would remain, forever and always, a wild animal and would come and go on his own terms, and just might come to your hearth with the scent of smaller prey on him. Peety is a warm, beasty smell. If you are a fan of vintage perfumes that contain some real musk, you know the warm furry scent that I refer to. Fortunately anti-cruelty laws make it impossible to use real musks these days, and Peety is tangible proof that we don’t need them. This scent also contains the single most interesting and un-kitcheny use of cinnamon that I have come across. Here’s what the maker has to say: “Rose and jasmine tingle the nose, muffled by vague suspicions of tobacco and lichens. Then, mandarin and bitter orange hurl us in a liberty world, made of fine ambers, cinnamon and pink pepper. Rounded as the brown patchouli, elegant as sandalwood and Tonka bean are. A masterpiece of technique and suggestions, Peety™ gains its strength from sub-cultural taboos, to come out of the mass-market perfumery stereotypes and to become a pure emotional footprint of the one who has it on, unique!” I guess that’s more poetic than saying “hmm, smells like a subtle use of cinnamon.”

Photo Stolen WikiMedia

Peety is perfect for evenings by the fire. I also enjoy it for evenings out, and have worn it to work, dabbed rather than sprayed and applied well before leaving the house, to acclaim from a generally perfume-hating coworker. I suspect that it may be a cold-weather scent for me, but we have enough cool spring evenings that I expect to drain my little decant well before summer comes. When I have the money I will definitely get a bottle.

Further reading: Azar hosts a wonderful interview with Peety Perfumer Angelo Orazio Pregon
O’Driu has €150/50ml and samples
Surrender to Chance has samples starting at $6/.5ml

Nonetheless, get a sample somewhere and try it. I spent a recent weekend at a wolf sanctuary, and Peety makes me feel like a congenial wolf is walking close beside me.

Feral Jasmine X

Cartier La Panthère Fragrance 2014 Ad Campaign

February 27, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom

Hey hey APJ!

As you know I love some of the images that fragrance has given us over the years. Every now and then another one strikes me as particularly good, interesting, pretty or like today’s offering, in tune with what it’s trying to sell and the company it is being sold by. I like the feline, glamour night feel to this particular ad.

Cartier La Panthère Fragrance 2014 Ad Campaign

Of course I get most of my images from one of the best and most on time blogs there is: By art8amby

Peter Lindbergh photographed the campaign with Erin Wasson. (source)

Enjoy,

Portia xx

Photo art8amby

Boxeuses by Christopher Sheldrake for Serge Lutens 2010

February 26, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 20 Comments

Post by Val the Cookie Queen

I have a very good friend who is a reflexologist. There is a particular point on the bottom of the big toe that, when pressed correctly and very firmly, connects directly to the pituitary gland, which in turn sends a seriously pleasurable electric shock right through the body. It stimulates everything. It´s awesome. It´s short. It cannot be repeated until a period of weeks have gone by.

Boxeuses by Christopher Sheldrake for Serge Lutens 2010

Boxeuses, Sweat and Bromide

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Woody notes, leather, plum, licorice

Which is pretty much what happened when I tried Boxeuses for the first time. The sensual gratification was but for a second or two, but the level of clarity ……… ensnared! It happens all too rarely.

You know Serge – it´s got the plummy note, for which he is so well known, woods, violets, and incense. And suede. A suede note that is wanton. Féminité du Bois with serious balls. It stays around for hours and the leather just improves with every minute. Gasp.

Photo Stolen WikiMedia

Patty at Perfume Posse says, “The open is promising, it’s classic Lutens, violet, spices, cedar, leather. Bundled up like some of his most iconic fragrances – Feminite du Bois and Bois de Violette and Cuir Mauresque/Daim blond – familiar, but not. Scented echoes of what you know so well and love. Like that old lover from your youth who wanders back in your life. The same, but not the same.”

Photo Stolen WikiCommons

Now’s the time to fight.

To get the idea, think of Russian leather tanned on birch bark.
Now add animalic notes, strong enough to suggest a black eye.
In other words, it’s time to see stars! Serge Lutens

This is the gym perfume. Boy or girl. High intensity work-out, sweat and Boxeuses.

Never ending leather. How rock´n´roll is that?
“We´re driving Cadillacs in our dreams …… let me live that fantasy “ (Royals – Lorde)

Further reading: Perfume Shrine and Bois de Jasmin
Serge Lutens has €145/75ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $4/.5ml

Pass the bromide.

Verveine d’Eugene by James Heeley for Heeley

February 25, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 6 Comments

Post by Gabriella

Hello perfumed peeps!

The best experiences on my perfume journey are those times when I have few expectations of a scent and it then totally rocks my world. So it is with Verveine d’Eugene by English perfumer James Heeley. While I adore his Ophelia and have a big soft spot for Sel Marin, Verveine d’Eugene (originally just named Verveine) never really attracted me. I had dismissed it unsniffed as a simple verbena, cologne-like scent. How wrong I was.

Verveine d’Eugene by James Heeley for Heeley

Photo Stolen LuckyScent

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, rhubarb, cardamom
Heart: Blackcurrant, lemon verbena, jasmine
Base: White musk

Verveine does indeed open with the tartness of bergamot and lemon verbena that is instantly refreshing and dazzling in its brightness. One is reminded of drinking cold iced tea or languorously sipping a citron presse in the south of France. However, there is much more than meets the eye (or nose) here and the aromatic, almost herbal quality of the tomato leaf lends a dark, enigmatic vibe to the cheery beginning. It’s akin to entering a secret enclosed garden at the height of a midsummer’s day. There’s welcome relief in the shadows and the earthiness of the place. There’s the scent of the lemon trees dappling the light at the perimeter and the damp pungency of vines and grass, the leaves of many little shrubs fluttering in the breeze.

Photo Stolen WikiMedia

Just when you think you’ve managed to breathe in all this green beauty, you notice something else: is that jasmine you can smell? If you peer carefully, you can see the damp tendrils of the flowered vines peeking over the back wall. The small, white flowers lend a gentle sweetness to the verdant, damp surroundings.

Verveine may appear a simple composition of citrus, green and jasmine, but its story is much richer. There is a sense of elegance among the duality of fresh and dark and an overriding sense of mystery. Whilst it’s perfectly enjoyable and refreshing on a hot summer’s day, it is also a contemplative scent for those days when you just crave solitude.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/httpwwwyoumeflickrcom/8096552203/player/d1fd02a7f7

And despite some issues with longevity, it’s very much full-bottle worthy for me.

LuckyScenthas $180/100ml and samples
Peony Melbourne has $210/100ml

Have you tried Verveine d’Eugene? What scents have you had no expectations for and then fallen in love with?

With much love till next time!

M x

Sweet Anthem Perfumes – Meredith Smith, perfumer

February 24, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 53 Comments

Post by Azar

In the past ten years or so the Pacific Northwest has become a hot spot for niche and indie perfumers. Our unique northwest culture of creativity and innovation, our dreary wet winters (we’ve got to come up with something to do!) and the independent spirit of many of the residents all contribute to an atmosphere that encourages our local “noses” to flourish. Several PNW (Pacific North West) perfumers have developed international followings and have been written up and blogged about extensively throughout perfume-land. If I name a few of these perfumers I will be missing too many. Today’s post is an introduction to a PNW perfumer who is probably not as well known as some others but whose work is very popular nonetheless.

Sweet Anthem Perfumes – Meredith Smith, perfumer

Meredith Smith initially founded Sweet Anthem as a small press / independent publisher in 2001 while at college in Texas and closed the business when she went to study abroad in Eastern Europe. She began studying perfumery in 2005 while working as a graphic designer and web developer in Seattle’s Capital Hill neighborhood. Like many independent perfumers Meredith found composing a fragrance to be a natural extension of her love for creating music, visual art and poetry. Sweet Anthem evolved into an on-line perfume shop in 2007. Three years later she left the mass design industry and began working as a full time perfumer. In October 2011 Meredith and her husband Phil purchased a live/work residence where she opened her brick and mortar Sweet Anthem storefront and workshop at street level.

Photo9 Stolen Sweet Anthem Perfumes

I love visiting Meredith’s tiny shop on California Street in West Seattle. She offers her own perfumes for sale, maintains a small inventory of other niche and indie brands and teaches occasional classes in the basics of perfume composition. For more information about the Sweet Anthem product line and scent related services check out Meredith’s new website Sweet Anthem Perfumes

Recently Meredith added a sample service to her shop. I recently received my first of four installments from Sweet Anthem’s “SA List”. The “Spring Anthology” includes two 2ml samples of soon to be released EDPs – Poppy and Lolita, a 2ml sample of Alice and a perfume solid of an older favorite, Cath. While I have enjoyed a number of the Sweet Anthem perfumes for several years I found that these latest fragrances have taken a slightly more sophisticated turn.

Photo Stolen Sweet Anthem Perfumes

Poppy, a sort of gourmand-oriental, unfolds like a flower bud in time-lapse photography. The pointed clove quickly opens into a dark cocoa tinted with red flowers that I perceive as spicy carnations (Meredith points out that there is a trickle of saffron here as well). After a couple of hours the gourmand heart develops and finishes as a dry, smoky incense/opium fading to musk. While the name “Poppy” references the perfume classic Opium, I find this new scent to be kin to fragrances like DSH Café Noir and Olympic Orchids Café V, but lighter and drier. Poppy is a warm and spicy fragrance with good sillage and great longevity, a perfect scent for holing up in a cozy den, anticipating the arrival of spring.

Photo Stolen Sweet Anthem Perfumes

Lolita, on the other hand, is reminiscent of a warm spring afternoon, but without the muguet – thank you! (Don’t get me wrong, I love Lily of the Valley, but it seems to have become such a seasonal cliché.) Lolita opens with just a touch of black current, evolving to a heart of fragile and delicate cherry blossoms. I can barely detect the rosewood mentioned in the fragrance notes. The cherry blossoms linger for several hours eventually combining with and drying down to a salty sort of tonka bean. Lolita is more intimate than Poppy but seems to last just as long on my skin and, like the movie “Lolita”, the final impression of the salty cherry blossoms evoke a youthfulness far removed from innocence. Lolita will be mine as soon as she is available.

Photo Stolen sassisamblog