Perfuming A Video and GIVEAWAY

Hey Hey Stink Junkies,

I have this great blog girlfriend in the USA who writes a blog called Sweet Mother about her amusing and often amazing life as a lesbian comedienne in love. She offers a raw and funny, sometimes inspirational and usually thought provoking blog almost every day. The other day she added this video that you may have seen; OK Go- Here It Goes Again. A rocking little tune that will definitely make your feet tap, head nod etc but the guys in the video and the video itself are hilarious and I thought we could fragrance them for fun.

Photo Stolen visualise

Pink Pants Guy: To my mind this guy is fearless and unrestrained (come on, Pink Skinny Jeans) and I think he’s probably pretty boundary pushing so I am giving him a choice between Annick Goutal Sables and Opium by YSL, both loud and fearless, and LOUD.
Purple Vest Guy: Looks a little more restrained and maybe even a bit old fashioned so I am giving him Christian Dior’s Eau Sauvage but he’s a musician so the Fraicher Cuir flanker that I think is endearing because it is a soft, leathery and sexy masculine frag but so old fashioned.
Black Blazer Guy: This guy is the most regularly dressed, like he put his foot down saying, “No stupid, weirdo, freaky crap clothes for me thanks.” I’m thinking conservative but a rare memory find like Caron’s Royal Bain de Caron.
Pink Shirt, Check Vest Guy: This guy is a sex mad lothario, I don’t know why I think it but there you have it. He is probably sporting Kouros by YSL or Givenchy Gentlemen or maybe Rocobar by Hermes. Maybe this is the perfumista of the crew and he is wearing an Olympic Orchid or Aftelier?

Photo stolen LucyDavey

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to give these guys fragrances that you think would suit them. Do so in the comments below. If one of you tickles me enough I may just have to send you a present. What about a 15ml mixed set of Australian artisan perfumers, uber niche stuff from down under. Do yourselves a favour and go check their sites by clicking on their names below.

Bud Parfums– 2ml Jezabel and 2ml Gamekeeper (Read APJ Gamekeeper Review and APJ Jezebel Review)
Emerald Vintners Parfums (EVP)– 2ml Baume (Read APJ Baume Review)
One Seed– 4ml Sweet Water (Read PerfumePosse Sweet Water Review)
Perfume & Skincare Company– 5ml Fig & Olive (Read APJ Fig & Olive Review)
P&H Anywhere In The World

THE RULES: Open to anyone from anywhere in the world but you must be a follower of AustralianPerfumeJunkies and yes you can start following to be included, please tell me how you follow so I can check eMail, RSS, WordPress etc. Tweeting will earn you an extra point (@OaPerfumeJunkie https://australianperfumejunkies.com/ are having a SUPER SIZED GIVEAWAY!!) Entries close Saturday night 17 November 2012 at 10pm EADST. All names that fulfill requirements will be put on papers, folded and TSO Jin will choose one. The winner will be announced Sunday in a special post and will have till Wednesday 21 November 9pm AEDST to get in touch with details or I will give the prize to someone else. All measurements are approximate.

BTW Margeaux and I are LIVE Video Sniffing at the Perfume Posse today so go see the MADNESS!

So GO TO IT. Enjoy the video too.
Till tomorrow we wish you Health, Wealth and Happiness. If things are crazy or crap remember that we’ll all be dead in 100 years and most of this won’t matter,
Portia xxx

Silences by Gerard Goupy and Jean-Claude Niel for Jacomo 1978

Hi Ho Fellow Funies,

My mate Dionne from BOTOblog sent me a frag. care package recently. I have often wondered about a fragrance that many bloggers name as their go to green and when offered a sample I jumped at the chance.

Silences by Jacomo 1978

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Orange blossom, galbanum, bergamot, lemon, green notes, cassia
Heart: Iris, jasmine, narcissus, hyacinth, rose, lily-of-the-valley
Base: Vetiver, musk, sandalwood, oakmoss, cedar, ambrette (musk mallow).

WOW! So this is nothing like the notes had me expecting, I had something deeply seductive in my mind but here I get a bitter sweet greenness, a bell pepper-ish green where I can’t find the berries or orange blossom. Once the flowers float in I find the fragrance loses about 2/3 of its power and sits very prettily, powdery and still a little green. A cool, waxy bouquet that makes CHANEL 19 look like an eager gauche slapper it is so restrained.

The name is completely indicative of the fragrance, it’s like I have been allowed a moment to breathe the cool air of memory, the spaces in between the notes and the heartbeats between coming and gone. I read mainly earthy, slightly salty vetiver towards the 3 hour point, it is soft and the fragrance still scintillates on my skin with florals floating over and woodsy musks just out of smellovision holding the whole fragrance up. For some reason I had in my head a sister to Nikki de Saint Phalle that other green goddess that I love but it is way more CHANEL 19 but softer, easier to wear, more floral and sweet, not nearly as up front about its coolness. Though my Chanel 19 is a vintage parfum and I am presuming the Silences is more modern so apples and oranges.

Photo Stolen guerlain.pl

It’s now the morning after wearing Silences for the 3rd time and I am still fragrant. I think the vetiver, hyacinth and galbanum are still pumping their song, it is an awkward salty green that is a bit naughty but that could just be me. CHANEL 19 has completely left my skin though and it was sprayed nearly an hour after for comparison.

What a marvelous warm rainy weather pick this has been, it fits perfectly with time and place and at these ridiculous prices is going on the must have list. Thanks Dionne for an affordable lemming. XXXOX

Photo Stolen desertsojourn

For more reviews see TheNonBlonde and PerfumeShrine

FragranceShop has 100ml PdT for $25
SurrenderToChance starts at $3/ml

Do you ever crave the clear green spaces of silence, or Silences? Is there another green that floats your boat?

Hope to see you happy and well tomorrow, till then take a moment to be silent.
Portia xx

Silence — Sarah McLachlan

Sunflowers by David Apel for Elizabeth Arden 1993

Hello Happy Huffers,

Sometimes the cheapest fragrances smell amazing, who knows why. I wore Sunflowers for a time when trying to convince myself all I needed in my life was one fragrance that smelled fresh and light and to prove that I didn’t need to spend a fortune. Do you ever go through self denial periods where you want to streamline your existence? Well, Sunflowers was part of my streamlining life till a friend took me aside and had a word. Not just about my tacky choice of fragrance but also about its cheap bottle and what was I thinking wearing such awful dross when there was so much better available.  My pathetic, “I like it” fell on deaf ears and in the end I binned my bottle. Peer pressure!

Imagine my surprise then when I am working with a girlfriend of mine not so long ago and when asked what her fabulous fragrance that is all sexy white flowers and spice, that smells like a very expensive niche offering on her turns out to be

Sunflowers by Elizabeth Arden 1993

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Lemon, rosewood, orange blossom, mandarin, bergamot, melon, peach
Heart: Cyclamen, rose, jasmine, osmanthus, iris root
Base: Musk, cedar, amber, moss, sandalwood

I love the fruity fresh opening that already has the waxy cyclamen floating through it. It’s bright and easy and relaxed in a comfortable and desirable way. Even though I know she wouldn’t wear it I think of my buddy and original APJ partner EvieC when I smell it. She is so devastatingly beautiful even after university, modelling, traveling the world, working for big TV conglomerates, marriage, children, happiness, loss, the works, and still gives the impression of beautiful and unruffled calm. That effortless beauty and poise that many ex models have.

Photo Stolen brisbanephotos

On my skin the flowers meld seamlessly through Sunflowers heart, not the spicy white flower extravaganza that my GF pumped, still it is lovely and wearable. I’m not sure what it is but there is a fatness, like butter, that underlies the whole fragrance giving it heft. The iris root keeps everything cool and the bouquet is quite green, only warming slightly towards dry down with the amber and woods, though on me these are not heavy hitters just a pretty wafting softness that stays around until the 8+ hour mark, barely there but noticeable if I really sniff myself.


Photo Stolen scent-sation

Way too perfumed for officewear but in most other endeavours Sunflowers by Elizabeth Arden should be a perfect fit. Not sexy or alluring in an obvious way but the scent is pretty and inviting, more of a Mary-Ann than a Ginger from Gilligan’s Island.

ISimplyLOveMakeUp and LouLouDiaries are the only 2 non sales motivated reviews I could find on Google for further reading.

CheapSmells has 100ml/$19
MyPerfumeSamples starts at $2/ml or I bought 5ml for $6

Just a reminder that it doesn’t have to cost $400 to be a wonderful, fun and memorable fragrance. Sometimes it really does pay to stop and smell the Sunflowers.
Till tomorrow we at APJ wish you only the good stuff you wish yourselves.
Portia xxx

Lavender Palm by Yann Vasnier for Tom Ford 2011

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Guest Post by EmmaKate

Hello hello Fumies,

It is Emma Kate here again with my monthly review. This month, with thanks to Portia Turbo, I will be reviewing Tom Ford’s Lavender Palm.

Lavender Palm by Tom Ford 2011

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

The notes as listed on Fragrantica
Top notes: lavender, lemon, bergamot and clary sage
Middle notes: lemon blossom, pink nerium oleander
Base notes: vetiver, oak moss and olibanum, also known as frankincense

Barack Obama Photo Stolen Squidoo

This fragrance opens with a soft lavender, and builds quickly to this romantic full bodied floral. There is a citrus burst that pops through and slowly melds with the lavender to make this Lavender Palm sing.
A warm silky, slightly smokey sense makes me think of a cashmere scarf, the perfect weight for that in-between weather.
This fragrance is listed as unisex and I would have to agree, if anything this is more of a masculine scent to me. It reminds me of a freshly shaven man, in his Hugo Boss suit, freshly pressed white cotton shirt and a purple tie about to walk out the door for, or into, a big meeting. He is on top of his game.

Photo Stolen from gardenofeaden

In terms of wearability this fragrance lasted very well on my skin, which says something as I am a scent drinker! Around the eight hour mark, though I have read reviews of others saying it has lasted in excess of 12 hours.

Portia got my sample at David Jones, Market St, Sydney from Joel the world’s most helpful and desirable Tom Ford SA, most of the Tom Ford SA’s will happily make you a 2ml sample vial
SurrenderToChance also has Lavender Palm $6/1ml

Overall this is a stunning fragrance, one that I would give to a man in my life who needed a power boost 🙂 Below is a very interesting look into Tom Ford the creative.
Happy Smelling!
EKxx

Baiser Vole EdP by Mathilde Laurent for Cartier 2011 Perfume Review

Hiya Happy Huffers,

I have often liked or loved the Cartier fragrances. Declaration, Must De Cartier and a couple of the Hours Series have previously captured my attention. Recently I reviewed a lily fragrance and a commenter (maybe Undina or Dionne?) asked if I had tried the Cartier lily. In truth I had not so I went and ordered in my next sample haul from MyPerfumeSamples and it came in last week.

Baiser Vole EdP by Cartier 2011

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Pistils of the lily, citrus
Heart: Lily petals
Base: Green leaves of lily (musk not noted)

Fresh, green, bright, airy floral opening with a citric tang Baiser Vole EdP opens surprisingly powerfully but feminine, there is a waxy cellophane wrapping that is so like a lily that it’s uncanny. Not the huge funereal Casablance lily but maybe the Christmas Trumpet or a smaller Asiatic lily. Even though this is clearly aimed at a feminine market a man could wear Baiser Vole a enjoy the freshness and sparkle, a mans chemistry takes some of the milkiness away and adds something that I can’t put my finger on.

Though light, I am getting good sillage and scent bubble in the first couple of hours. Not a clean scent as such but it does evoke the cleanliness of fresh air and as Mathilde Laurent says in the video below, like smelling a huge vase of lilies; from buying, cutting stems, scorching, arranging and enjoying. It’s all here and lovely without being intrusive, after the initial hour or two wearable in all situations. If you were to spritz at home in the morning by the time you were at work, even in the most fragrance phobic of offices and close quarters, you would be at acceptable levels of fragrant. It’s like having a very good, rich and expensive lotion on that maintains its scent for about 4-5 hours before it becomes a whisper quiet, musky green shadow on top of your own bodies natural fragrance that stays way longer than you’d expect, up to 12 hours if you have originally spritzed with abandon.

This 5ml decant has almost disappeared in the last few days as I’ve written this review so I bought a bottle. What a super great summer, spring and autumn scent and on those cold days in winter it will bring back the soft, warm evenings of other months. Though its advertising has it as a languid evening love story I think Baiser Vole is much less dressed up than that, perfect with weekend casuals, work suit or gown.

Photo stolen Jai’s

For further reading NowSmellThis and GrainDeMusc

FragranceX had the best price I could find $60/100ml Tester
MyPerfumeSamples starts at $2/ml or $7/5ml

Do you have a favourite lily fragrance. I really love them but am only new to the genre, please leave me some that you like in the comments, and why you like them.

Till tomorrow we wish only your good dreams come true.
Loads of love,
Portia xx

Mathilde Laurent explains her vision when creating Baiser Vole

The Baiser Vole Mini Movie

Les Deserts D’Orient by Thierry Wasser for Guerlain 2012 LIVE Video Sniff

YIPEE! Welcome back,

EmmaKate and I are back in front of the camera proving to one and all that we love perfume but know only the outer edges of anything important relating to it. This time we put the Guerlain Les Deserts D’Orient under our microscope.

Photo Stolen aromamore

Yes, we know that bois means wood, now! Ha Ha Ha what a pair of dunderheads. Doesn’t matter. Enjoy this for what it is. Two mates having a sniff after work and a couple of bevvies, you are supposed to feel like you’re sitting at the table with us having a crisp, dry white/scotch/coffee/sparkling mineral water and we are all having a first go together. If it was perfect it wouldn’t be so much fun.

As always special thanks need to go out to Kath for filming and editing, EmmaKate for being a good sport and Jin for making it blog ready. Thanks gang!!

Gerome, The Harem Bath Stolen melbourneblogger

Here is a short featured accords list for each from 1000Flowers:
Rose Nacrée du Désert: Ispahan rose, saffron, patchouli, oudh, benzoin.
Songe d’un Bois d’été: cedar, jasmine, saffron, cardamom, leather, laurel leaf, oudh, myrrh, patchouli, leather.
Encens Mythique d’Orient: frankincense, musk, neroli, moss, saffron, Ispahan rose, amber

For further reading see 1000Flowers and OlfactoriasTravels

SurrenderToChance has a pack of all 3 at $13/.5ml of each

Whatever you do between now and tomorrow when you come back, make sure you take the time to do something YOU love. Even though you may be shit at it, like we are at doing perfume videos sometimes.
Portia xx

Baumé by Emerald Vintners Perfumes (EVP) Adelaide, Australia 2012

Hello all you Niche Nerds!

Today’s post goes especially to the people who love to find something new and exciting, are all about helping budding perfumers get started and also the people who want the so hot it’s sizzling but no one else has it, hard to find, niche-est, “OMG! Haven’t you heard?” snob value fragrances that also are FA>BU>LOUS! I have found a new crew hiding in the Adelaide Hills. They have sensibly begun their journey with only 3 fragrances and I would like to introduce you to my first.

Baumé by Emerald Vintners Perfumes

Edited from their site:
Brendan Carter and Samuel Eads met at University in 2010, studying a Bachelor of Viticulture and Oenology (Winemaking) courseat the University of Adelaide. Sitting in a classroom, receiving a lecture entitled ‘Sensory Studies of Wine’, it suddenly occurred to them that there may be another use for their growing knowledge. Learning more about the mechanisms of smell, how and why it works, they developed an idea. To release a line of fragrances, inspired by their experiences with wine and their true passion, the Adelaide Hills.
EVP hope to challenge an import dominated market by combating a severe lack of Australian brands. They want to tell their story, an Australian story. By espousing the belief of Emerald Vintners Parfums: ‘Crafted by Passion, Liquid Luxury’.

Photo Stolen EVP

Described by EVP as: A brisk morning stroll through the Adelaide Hills cherry farms as the low mist diffuses between the bare trunks. The sweet scent of honeysuckle in the air, an all-encompassing incense of innocence.

OMG! The opening 2 second blast is toilet spray.  Be warned! Give it 20 seconds before you huff. HaHaHa

What I notice here after the initial blast is a crisp honeysuckle, very green and fresh, there are some white flowers behind it giving an oomph but no skank at first. Without being a clean scent I am getting a lovely freshness, not as sharp as Chanel 19 but giving a nod to that restrained green femininity. This is a wilder, more extrovert fragrance and once the white flowers move into the spotlight they are vegetatively sensual, so green yet extremely alluring. You can tell these boys have been working with wines, there is a brisk sweetness that hints at a lovely dry white wine as it starts to warm in the glass at a BarBQ. I also detect a spicy rose note and a boronia hint coming through at the one hour mark over the top of the still very accessible honeysuckle? I don’t think I get any cherry but I will need to go eat some to remind myself of their fragrance.

Photo from the EVP Crew

Baumé by Emerald Vintners Perfumes is interesting and complex. It has a wonderful story, excellent sillage and for the first 3 hours projects very nicely before it softens down to a slightly warmer, soapy green fragrance that only your nearest and dearest will really smell. A little too fragrant for work but in all other situations Baumé would be acceptable. I think congratulations are in order for these 2 fearless and talented young men who are helping put Australia on the world perfume map.

Photo Stolen bridalguide

LaDonnaDelVino looks at the whole range if you’d like to read further

Baumé is available at the EmeraldVintnersPerfumes site $85 for 45ml
They also have an excellent Sample Program $20 for 2ml of all 3 EVP fragrances
From the boys: Currently we have a really good special already! If you purchase the samples set (19.99 + postage), you receive a code to reclaim the 19.99 back (excluding postage) off the price of a full bottle! If one decides to purchase a full bottle, the sample set comes free!

For those living outside Australia EVP has not yet properly organised their international export section yet. Hopefully it will be running before Christmas with enough time to order and receive.

I love finding new and interesting perfumers to bring to you. What is your favourite green fragrance?

These 2 lovely young guys are proving that you can do almost anything you set your mind to, that makes me happy.
Till tomorrow, loads of love,
Portia xx

Jeanne by Anna Flipo for Lanvin 2008

Hey Smelly Addicted,

The House of Lanvin has been in and out and there and back again more than once. We all remember, or still use, Arpege in one of its many forms or flankers, Marry Me or Rumeur. The boys may use Lanvin Homme, Lanvin Homme Sport, Oxygene or maybe even the new one Avante Guard. I think Lanvin is a victim of poor representation and brand management. Their fragrances are often excellent, bottles are interesting and usually have good heft, lovely sillage and scent bubble and stay for a good amount of time on my skin but the only place I seem to see them are in the discounters online where they can be bought for a song.

Jeanne by Lanvin 2008

Sometimes I like to order samples of things I see on the discount sites, just to see what I’ve missed. A great place to get really cheap mainstream samples is MyPerfumeSamples where I picked up this sample of Jeanne By Lanvin.

Photo Stolen from Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Blackberry, lemon, pear
Heart: Peony, freesia, raspberry, rose
Base: Sandalwood, amber and musk

A super sweet fruity floral is rarely my choice of scent unless it’s knock you down gorgeous with something unusual or freaky going on somewhere along the line. Jeanne by Lanvin is no great boundary pusher in my book and opens very sugar sweet modern youth fragrance, not much different to a thousand others. Slightly fruit tingle-esque with a sizzling pear but then something extraordinary happens, in comes a lovely warm hit of amber and completely takes over the perfume for a couple of minutes and it is beautiful, then Jeanne goes back to being a soft fizzy whisper of a scent that is floral/clean more than anything else but with an amber warmth towards the end at about 2-4 hours depending on my movements and the day. I find that the moisturiser creates a perfect stabiliser and gives the fragrance more depth and a longer lifespan and it is dirt cheap.

Photo Stolen polyvore

Jeanne by Lanvin is a perfect first grown up fragrance to take a girl from the celebrity scents to the next level. Enough like them to not cause outrage but with a bit of complexity to keep it interesting. Also a good work scent, you would have to pour the bottle over yourself to get it to skunk levels. Not sexy but a quiet sweet fruity scent; if that floats your boat then this is a great choice. I liked the amber moment and the middle, soft and nearly vanilla sweet accords, enough to buy a small bottle and some moisturiser for those days where I want to be softly fragrant but not challenged in any way.

Photo Stolen makeuptemple

For further reading PerfumePOsse and SkinScrubs
CheapSmells has 30ml EdP/$24 and 150ml Moisturiser/$11
MyPerfumeSamples start at $2/ml and I originally bought 5ml for $7

Don’t forget to trot over to the PerfumePosse today too because I Guest Post there on Thursdays and today we are looking at JEKE by Slumberhouse.

Hope this finds you all happy and well. Thanks for coming and reading my fragrant thoughts today.
Portia xx

PS We reached 70,000 IVs yesterday. That is fricken AH MAY ZING. Thank You. Feel free to drop this into your Facebook or Twitter so even more fabulous people can join the APJ family. (https://australianperfumejunkies.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=3791&action=edit AustralianPerfumeJunkies is my fave frag site)

Magie Noir by Gerard Goupie for Lancome 1978

Hello everyone Fume obsessed or otherwise,

I am a frag whore, slag, slut, it’s true. If you could see the crazy collection of bottles, decants, samples and paraphernalia that i have collected you would be aghast at my disgustingly hoarderish, greedy, spoiled brat ways. Even I suffer the odd pang of WTF sometimes when faced with the ridiculous enormity of my obsession and then something comes along that reminds me why I go to all this trouble and expense.

Magie Noir by Lancome

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bulgarian rose, galbanum (bitter, green, musky), hyacinth, cassia/cassis (blackcurrant buds and leaves), raspberry, bergamot
Heart: Ylang yland, orris, cedar, jasmine, narcissus, lily of the valley, tuberose, honey
Base: Patchouli, incense, musk, myrrh, vetiver, amber, sandalwood, oakmoss, civet, spices

Magie Noir (Mah-Zhee Nou-Ah) means Black Magic which frankly scares me to widdling my pants. I am reviewing the current formulation that I bought as a decant. The opening on my skin and to my nose is all old school perfume with a bitter, sexy, animal rush that is like a prelude, as if Magie noir wants to show you everything it’s capable of in a moment that lasts almost a minute before the leaves, stems and unripe fruit take their places at the head of the parade. I think it is the galbanum that already seems to have its base notes of wood, musk and civet on the sustaining chorus parts.

Photo Stolen lovespells-magicspells

Not too far further in and the flowers, spicy, honeyed rose and sensual white flowers with the siren call of narcissus all combine to explode upon your person and drift into the ether like the cartoon snakes of fragrance that reach out and capture peoples minds and hearts, all the while leading the inexorably to their doom. It’s hard to feel any less that a saucy seductress with a Salome like power when wearing this lovely and alluring wildcat of a fragrance. Magie Noir is only a loud, strong and pervasive scent for about an hour. After that it quiets down to some seriously sexy and lavishly luxurious accords that put me in mind of the way my imagination tells me that Scheherazade’s skin must have smelled, spicy, sensual, cool but inviting and slowly ripening as the night wore on. I can only imagine how outrageously naughty Magie Noir must have smelled originally and in extrait form. The mind sincerely boggles.

Unfortunately at around the 4 hour mark I become anosmic to Magie Noir but I still get compliments on it long after I have lost any sense of being perfumed. Maybe i am a little bit spicier that normal but really it’s the way I would expect me to smell always if I thought about it.
Definitely NSFW, no matter how scent OK your workplace is this will fuddle everyones brain’s, you could wear it to dinner if there was at least an hours window between spritz and sitting down, same with cinema but most other activities you would be good. Especially good for sexy rendevous, if this doesn’t work on them nothing will because Magie Noir could wake the dead and bring them back.

Dali-LaFemmeVisible Photo Stolen centaurgalleries

PerfumeSmellin’Things and PerfumeShrine for further, deeper reading
TradeServices are still offering what looks like an old 50ml EdT $54 (pictured at top)
FragranceX has the current 75ml EdT $63
MyPerfumeSamples start at $2/ml but I bought 5ml for $7 (CRAZY good value)

Hopefully your world’s magic will stay white but if it has to be black make it Lancome or Sarah Vaughan (below).

Have you tried Magie Noir? Do you remember the old formulations and what is different to you?
Till tomorrow, take care of yourselves,
Portia xx